Censoring Santa

With the holidays coming up, it looks like we have yet another thing to worry about besides overcrowded malls and overpriced toys. Santa, it seems, is not politically-correct enough.

According to a recent article in Yahoo! News, Santas in Sydney, Australia have been told to stop using the traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women. One Santa, the article states, was told "it could frighten children and was too close to 'ho', a U.S. slang term for prostitute."

Isn't this a bit too oversensitive? Since when is Santa's jolly old "Ho ho ho" something that would "frighten" a child or "offend" anyone? Only a child familiar with that term would find any other meaning in Santa's greeting. And if your child is familiar with the term "Ho" as meaning a slut or a prostitute, you have more problems than what your local mall Santa is up to.*

I think Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualizing children called Kids Free 2B Kids, put it best. When asked to comment, she said, "We are talking about little kids who do not understand that 'ho, ho, ho' has any other connotation and nor should they. Leave Santa alone!"

*Also see what Sweepea thought of this article.