Parade Bars "Mrs. Claus"

Poor, poor fictitious Mrs. Claus....the moronic marketing geniuses in Raleigh, NC, have barred a certain lady dressed in red from the big Christmas parade today.

Seems they don't want kids to be "confused" with a Santa double.

Gee, have they gone shopping lately, or watched any TV? They think kids are that stupid to think that there is only 1 Santa? Well, heck yeah it confuses young kids. Big time, but poor Mrs. Claus getting the Santa boot is not a great idea. Especially when women do a large percentage of the shopping in the stores that sponsor the parade.

What, besides being a secular, slobulous fraud, is Santa now a "sexist" as well?

A Slew of Santas Descendingon Demre in December

ANTALYA - Demre will welcome 15,000 people dressed as Santa Claus in December with a project titled "Santa Back to His Homeland," a local travel agency has said. According to the project created by Recep Yavuz, the general manager of Öger Tour, 15,000 people will be walking in the Antalya district on Dec. 6, the assumed birth date of Santa Claus. Demre is famous for its St. Nicholas Church, named after the saint who is believed to be Santa Claus. "St. Nicholas spread the feeling of helping people, and the tradition of giving and taking presents," said Yavuz. "He lived for 75 years in Demre and became a symbol of being good to people." Yavuz added that similar projects were held abroad. In 2005, there was a similar parade in Hungary, where 4,300 people participated, while the following year it was held in Las Vegas with 8,000 people. A total of 12,000 people dressed as Santa Claus walked in Ireland in 2007, and 14,000 were present in a similar parade in Portugal last year. If the project comes to life, a predicted 15,000 people will walk for one and a half kilometers in Demre in next December.

Why is Santa a Fraud?

An ASLAN fan asks "Why is Santa a fraud?"

An editorial this week by Bob Beltz briefly surveys the history of St. Nicholas, and ends with this:

In malls and shopping centers across America, this is the caricature imitated by a small army of fat men, wearing fake beards and strange outfits, who in reality are guilty of falsely impersonating a fourth century Turkish Bishop. So, this Christmas, if you have children who ask the question, “Mom/Dad, is there really a Santa Claus?” Maybe you could answer the question by telling them the story of the real St. Nick.

It is not so much economic fraud (gift-giving is a Divine characteristic), but the historical and cultural fraud of the absurd species Santus Americanus. Even though folks who use Santa to promote good things for needy people have righteous intentions, Santa has turned into a charlatan and a deceiver.

Santa Drunk Again: in Prague

ASLaN's friends in the Czech Republic realize the same connection between Santa and drinking that the adverts at White Rock did.


The growing international resistance to "The Claws" can be seen in the unique, controversial, and clever pictures that these Czech admen have assembled.

There is one in there from Sinter Knicker too. Look for Mao....

The BBC on Santa

The BBC has an archive of excellent videos about Santa Claus (Father Xmas).

They also have an extensive archive of news stories and features related to the bearded anti-saint.

ASLan will highlight a few of them in the coming Advent season.

Motorola Spreads the SantamaniaSanta in China #3

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Motorola is selling phones and other gadgets this year with a hearty, Western, big fat red Santa fellow.

You can watch the video of the Motorola sales schpiel online.

Just Say No to the Santa Claus Drug

That is the title which the Times Record (Brunswick Maine) used when they were the first US paper to publish the 2006 ASLaN Christmas Essay on Friday, Dec 22.

Of course they continue to publish the infamous "Virginia" essay, a tradition of US Journalism which is outlined very well in this intersting article:

The grudging emergence of American journalism's classic editorial: New details about “Is There A Santa Claus?” American Journalism, 22, (2) Spring 2005

That article include references (footnote #18) to older newspaper editorials and articles which have taken the road less traveled, and bashed ole Claws. If readers can track down the original of any of these below, please send them to sintnick@aslansoc.org

To be sure, “Is There A Santa Claus?” has attracted criticism and protest. In 1951, for example, participants at an anti-Santa demonstration in Lynden, WA, complained that the editorial encouraged Virginia O’Hanlon to view her skeptical friends as liars. See “Santa Survives Protest,” New York Times (23 December 1951): 24. A columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, in 1997: “Fie on Francis P. Church! Fooey to Virginia O'Hanlon! One hundred years ago, those two got together and cooked up what is America's best-known editorial. … It’s not that I don't hold stock in Church’s sermon. But allow me to add a little known but highly pertinent fact to the story: Francis Pharcellus Church had no children. If he had, he would have written something like, ‘Ginny, talk to your father.’ Then, he would have jotted down a note to the dad: ‘Nice try, pop. But reconciling lies is your job.’” See Andrew Herrmann, “It’s A Wonderful Lie,” Chicago Sun-Times (9 December 1997): 37.

True Dat (from Jerusalem)

One "Ruvy," has got something groovy to say about Santa, from Israel. A writer for desicritics online, he grew up in Brooklyn, so he has first-hand memories of the madness of the Santa Cult as it is in the Apple. He writes, in "Ho, Ho, Ho: The Truth About Santa Claus:"

First I explained as well as I could that a commercial is an attempt to make us spend our money on something. After I thought I got that point across, I had to explain what stores do - that is to say that they sell merchandise - and that they use commercials to get people to buy their merchandise. Finally, I had to point out that if stores could not sell their merchandise, the owners would not be able to pay their bills, and they would lose their homes and have to sleep in the streets. Naturally, I also pointed out that the people who work in the stores would lose their jobs, and then they wouldn't be able to pay their bills and that they would also have to sleep in the streets. But, you know how five year olds are. You can't dwell on details too much.

Then I told my son how big department store owners some hundred and fifty years saw how they could make a fortune of money. They turned the Dutch Sinkt Niklaas - a wisp of a legend with a beard and long pipe who was not averse to dropping coal into someone's stocking - into Santa Claus, the jolly provider of gifts for all children. And why did they do this? So that the parents would have to fulfill their children's' expectations of gifts mysteriously coming into the house by Christmas morning. Santa Claus, I told my boy, was the biggest and best commercial ever invented in the last 150 years.

The astute Jew (Jews are people with a detector for false idols in their blood, mind you) then added:

But, if I were a Christian, I'd be infuriated with what big business in America had done to my religion and concepts of what is right, wrong, just and equitable.

But, my only obligation is to my son - to make sure he understands what is in those sweet commercials with Santa Claus in them, so that he never has to get caught up in Christmas madness himself.