Does Santa Claus really exist? I have to say I have become very sceptical in recent years. There is something about this character which simply does not ring true, not to mention his rather sinister retinue of airborne reindeer. I am not saying that he definitely does not exist, simply that we should not be too credulous, too ready to believe what the authorities tell us.
A junior school teacher in Dorset is in trouble for having allowed into the minds of his eight- and nine-year-old charges a similar element of doubt. According to news reports, when asked by some children if Santa really existed, the educator reportedly ‘raised his eyebrows’ in a slightly sardonic manner — and now the parents are outraged and the school has had to issue an apology and, indeed, a correction. As an investigative journalist, I am naturally suspicious of this rather Orwellian reaction: it makes me think there is something going on, that they are trying to keep something from us.
Then again, even if he did exist, would we really want him grooming our kiddies with promises of reward from behind that strange white beard? A few years ago a man purporting to be Santa in a Melbourne department store had to be reprimanded for repeatedly saying ‘ho ho ho’ — because the authorities rightly calculated that this ejaculation could prove offensive to any black women in the vicinity.
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