In independent media reports Joe Moore, once a large figure in the community of Santa portrayers, promised to pay back more than $69,000 to the City of Gatlinburg for the events. Estimates of funds collected from attendees at the festivals range upwards of $500,000. Since the scandal was fully disclosed just as the 2010 Celebrate Santa festival kicked-off Moore promised twice to pay back the debt, once in June and again in July. Now he fully blames the City of Gatlinburg for his failure to pay because the city disclosed the default after a number of fellow Santa attendees complained that Moore said the city raised their fees at the last minute to host the event.

The overall community of Santas has been devastated by the ongoing scandal. Rumors have swirled within the community for several years concerning the unethical business practices of Joe and Mary Moore, who also worked for several years as a mall Santa and Mrs. Claus. The scandal reached outside the community of professional Santas as parental groups frequenting Christmas forums expressed outrage at yet another private indvidual sullying the image and memory of St. Nicholas. This event, and others as previously documented, is expected to fuel the storyline for a Hollywood movie about warring Santas.

Now calling himself Bishop Santa Claus, his chosen target this year is Pope Benedict.

Last year Bishop Santa Claus stormed each state capitol sucking up media time as he chided state governors with wagging fingers about the lack of money and legislation devoted to children’s issues. The campaign brought untold amounts of media attention to this man who seems to like the attention he gets by dressing up as Santa Claus and telling people they are on the naughty list.

In a paid press release similar to others he has issued in the past Bishop Santa Claus claims to draw attention to “the Pope’s continued moral failure to address urgent children’s issues within the Roman Catholic Church.” Bishop Santa goes on to say that the Pope’s unwillingness to address this international issue in a meaningful and productive manner demonstrates a long-standing and profound moral failure – one shared by many leaders and clergy of other denominations.

At DefendingSanta.com we have kept a record of this man’s ongoing campaigns over the years. While it is difficult to argue with his message in support of children’s rights we continue to be offended that his use of the name and image of Santa Claus in doing so. His harsh rhetoric and public relations methods are completely out of step with the spirit of Santa Claus and they dishonor the memory of Saint Nicholas of Myra. In fact, we continually hear from concerned parents and children that this man’s portrayal of Santa Claus in the media is frightening.

“If Bishop Santa Claus wants to speak out on social issues that’s fine,” notes Jeff Westover, president of Merry Network, an organization of 35 websites and online Christmas communities, including DefendingSanta.com. “But why can’t he use his own name? Why distort the historic good name of Santa Claus in this fashion? Bishop Santa Claus’ focus on Pope Benedict not only feels a bit un-Christian but it also comes a little late. It is all the rage this year to rail on Pope Benedict. But Bishop Santa Claus knows this issue in the Catholic Church has been around for decades but only now, when it is expedient in the media to do so, does he call out the Pope. As a paid minister in another denomination the whole thing smacks of competitive rivalry more than support of children’s issues.”

Bishop Santa Claus refers to himself as “the man, the legend, the myth.” We oppose any individual expoiting the name of Santa Claus in this fashion. We don’t believe the real Santa Claus would do such a thing. He was known for anonymous service and kindly example. He shunned the spotlight and didn’t draw attention to himself in order to promote his faith. This Lake Tahoe area man continues these campaigns as a measure of ego, not actual activism that affects any kind of positive change for children — and he only gets any kind of attention at all because he uses the image of Santa Claus to promote himself to get on television.

Sitting in an armchair at his Beach Boulevard home, Jimmy Lomax is wearing a red cardigan and absentmindedly jingling bells between sentences.

Hamilton’s Father Christmas has brought gifts to the city’s poor and sick for more than half a century, but yesterday, the 67-year-old hung up his red suit for good.

“Right now, it’s upsetting. It’s going to be an empty feeling,” said Lomax, breathing through an oxygen tube.

Lomax and his wife Susan announced yesterday they were ending a 52-year era and handing over their charity, Operation Santa Claus, to the CHML/Y108 Children’s Fund.

Lomax made the difficult decision last month after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in February.

Seven years ago he started using a scooter to move around hospital wings, and in recent years his health problems made it increasingly difficult to do the work.

Lomax continually fought back tears yesterday as he spoke.

“I’ve gone through three generations of people,” he said, his voice shaking. “I work closely with ex-psychiatric patients. I’ve been their Santa for I don’t know how long. I’m going to miss that. I’m going to miss seniors, too. You’re just going to have to tie us up at Christmas.”

Susan nodded knowingly.

“It’s been his life,” she said.

And that life hasn’t been an easy one.

When Lomax was seven, he had a lung disorder and was told he only had three years to live. His family brought him home for Christmas that year and he received a visit from Santa. That meeting encouraged Lomax to don the Santa suit at the age of 15, bringing $5 worth of candy to sick children in hospitals.

Lomax’s only child, Ryan, died of cancer at 15. If he were still alive, the Santa legacy would’ve been his if he wanted it, Lomax said.

Throughout the years, the Lomaxes have pulled from their own pockets to pay for the operation’s expenses, which included numerous wigs, beards, several Mrs. Claus outfits and 25 Santa suits.

One of his red coats lay on a couch in the living room where the Lomaxes reminisced yesterday.

“I wanted to be a Santa Claus — not a doctor, not a lawyer. I wanted to be like Santa,” Lomax said.

The couple has lived Christmas year-round for decades, with Susan laying out beards and wigs around the living room by October and Lomax growing out his Santa beard from Boxing Day to Christmas Eve in the latter years.

The Lomaxes’ back yard has even been transformed into the North Pole, as a warehouse, storage tent and two sheds have been set up to house the charity’s equipment.

In 2002, Lomax retired after 38 years with Stelco and concentrated on being Santa Claus.

He had never been without a job and people have asked him why he doesn’t live in a big house. He told them: “I invested in people … Heaven pays the highest interest. That’s all I know. It’s everybody’s duty to help one another.”

In 1981, local businesspeople sent the family on an overdue vacation to Orlando, Fla. They were given $6,500 to spend, but Lomax ended up giving it all away to the needy people he saw there.

And his selfless attitude has not gone unnoticed. He has been awarded the Order of Canada, the Ontario Medal for Outstanding Citizenship, Hamilton’s Distinguished Citizen of the Year and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal.

Operation Santa Claus, which was founded in 1958, provides more than $200,000 in gifts and cheer for about 80,000 people annually.

The Lomaxes said they hope their donors continue to support their life cause through CHML’s Christmas Tree of Hope project.

And now, with one era ending, the Lomaxes will finally have time to think about themselves.

They have decades-worth of housecleaning to do, Susan said, adding the kitchen is full of paperwork and she has to “pave a path” in a basement full of supplies.

The couple may finally get a restful, peaceful Christmas season this year.

“We’ve always wanted to stay home, make shortbread cookies, go to church Christmas Eve, put the carols on,” Lomax said. “We’ve never been able to do that.”

In the story, Joe Moore now blames the City of Gatlinburg for the failure of Celebrate Santa to pay for the events claiming that public statements made by the City have resulted in the inability of Celebrate Santa to draw new sponsors.

Celebrate Santa has endured a roller-coaster ride in the world of professional Claus. In 2009 Moore engineered a gathering of nearly 600 Santas in Gatlinburg that was enthusiastically attended but was marked with controversy. The events of 2009 and 2010 generated in excess of $500,000 in revenue for the Moores by some estimates yet vendors beyond the City’s convention services remain unpaid. Since the facts of unpaid bills have surfaced Joe and Mary Moore have fallen out of favor in the Santa community despite their efforts to rally groups to new gatherings they have promised to organize in other locations.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has decided the beer’s label contravenes rules against advertising to children. It features the name of the beer, Samichlaus, a Swiss-German nickname for the saint behind the Santa Claus legend, and a small black-and-white bearded figure.

Vlado Pavicic, co-owner of Burlington-based Roland and Russell Importers, called the decision “insulting to the average Canadian.”

“It’s quite a stretch to assume that the average consumer or child can translate from German to English,” he said. “As for the image, I fail to see how the picture even resembles a children’s character. The man depicted looks like an old fisherman.”

Or a weather-beaten hobo. Either way, he bears little resemblance to the man Canadian children know from movies and Coca-Cola ads.

Greg Clow, a beer writer with the Toronto food and drink website Tasteto.com,said the province’s notoriously strict labelling requirements limit consumer choice and add costs and delays for producers and importers. “It’s a lot red tape, a lot of headaches, and frankly, it’s caused a lot of producers to say they won’t deal with Ontario,” he said.

Mr. Clow blames the sheer size of Ontario’s liquor bureaucracy, in which “the right hand most often doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”

Chris Layton of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario said Samichlaus was indeed de-listed in May, but this was done for “commercial reasons,” not because of the label, adding the LCBO had no knowledge of the commission’s decision and sometimes ignored its rulings.

A spokeswoman for the commission said the ruling dates from 2001, had lain dormant for years after the commission moved to complaints-based enforcement, and was only “reactivated” recently after a “single complaint from a private person.”

But this was all news to Mr. Pavicic, for whom the commission’s letter came out of the blue after he had already sold 1,100 cases of the specialty lager, including 800 to the LCBO chain of liquor stores. He had also already complied with a previous ruling forcing him to remove the translation “Santa Claus beer” from the back of the bottle.

The process has confounded Mr. Pavicic and left him wondering if he is doing something illegal. For now he said he will continue to sell Samichlaus through the LCBO’s private ordering system until someone tells him clearly that he must stop.

“The only way to solve this, in our opinion, is [to] really get to the bottom of who’s behind what,” he said.

The Samichlaus ruling is the latest from a regime that has targeted a beer with Easter bunnies on it, a beer labelled “coffee porter” and most recently, a vodka that comes in a bottle shaped like a human skull– all found to be in breach of section 1(4) of the commission’s advertising guidelines, which prohibits liquor packaging aimed at children.

Butproducts picturing cute giraffes, cartoon trucks, little birds and colourful hobgoblins fill the shelves at the LCBO, obervers have noted. “It’s very strange what you see on the shelf, and then what they don’t allow,” said Renate Cojocaru, another Ontario agent.

“Ask them why a wine called Menage a Trois is OK, but Samichlaus is not,” Mr. Pavicic said, also pointing out that 23 saints are already represented in LCBO stock. “As far as we know, references to saints are not against [commission] rules and regulations.”

Late British beer critic Michael Jackson has called Samichlaus “the most complex and satisfying of the world’s super-strong lagers.” Aged for 10 months before bottling, it contains 14% alcohol by volume and has a distinctive oily, creamy body.

From National Post.com

To all of my friends in Santa,

Several months ago, I wrote a letter to Santa with my Christmas wish in it. Unfortunately not even Santa can make all dreams come true, but I do believe that the entire Santa community can. It can be accomplished by a unity amongst us as has never been seen before.

I have been reflecting and praying a lot asking for God’s guidance in my time of unrest.

I would like to present some of my thoughts and feelings. None of what I am writing is meant to create any more controversy or stir up more debate. What I am really trying to do is find a way for to come to peace within myself and within the Santa community of which I am not ashamed to admit. There have been times that I questioned this and have considered getting out the razor and the clippers. Then I remember the real reason why I do what I do and am very proud to be a part of the fellowship of Santas.

For those who do not know me it would be only right that I give you a little bit of my background in regards to Santa.

I started portraying Santa in 1999, in Montana in the small town that I lived. Everything I did there and in the surrounding area was done gratis. I did this for five years. Then I was given the opportunity to work at a mall in Southern California. I did this for two seasons.

In 2006, I was the co-chair of the workshops committee for Discover Santa in Branson. I was also one of the original board members of AORBS.

I first met Joe and Mary Moore at the convention in Branson. We became close friends, some even started to call Joe and myself brothers. We talked about many things and a rock solid relationship was formed, or so I thought.

Christmas season 2006, I tried some Santa business (with nameless partners) that did not go well at all.

The summer of 2007, I was Santa at Santa’s Candy Castle in Santa Claus, Indiana. When I finished up in Indiana, I met with Joe and Mary to start talking about a new convention in Gatlinburg.

During Christmas 2007, I was at a mall in Florida.

In March of 2008, I was asked to be the Executive Chairman for Celebrate Santa as well as head up the workshops.

The summer of 2008 was spent as Santa at Santa’s workshop North Pole, N.Y. (Wilmington, New York)

At the end of October 2008, Dana and I relocated to Tennessee to work with Joe, Mary, and another Santa for the Christmas season, then to continue work on CS 2009.

The event that March was a magical one as it seemed that all the Santa community was becoming whole again. A few months later, I resigned my position in great sadness with CS for reasons that I shall hold personal.

That is my background. Granted I have not been a Santa as long as some of you. Nevertheless, from my background it should be apparent that I have been seriously involved in the Santa Community.

Now for my statement:

I was absolutely heartbroken by all of the events in the years prior to CS 2009. It was my hopeful prayer that CS 2009 would be the event that would bring unity to the Santa community.

At the opening ceremony, I witnessed what happen as for a brief moment we all connected and became one. The next 3 days of that event changed my life forever. I feel that was due to the people that were there participating, those who volunteered and those that created events. They were much more imperative than the couple who organized it.

For the last year, I have had to watch a new disaster come into the Santa Community. Once again, more heartache, dissention, deception, and untruths have come from within our fellowship. Honesty to some does not seem to be a virtue. It all starts with honesty within yourself and to others.

All of these things have left my heart very heavy and very saddened. I have tried my level best to stay out of the controversy. I have been asked my many to express my opinions but I have refused. What has happened in the past does not need to be brought up anymore; it is all too painful to me.

I am the first one to admit that I have made mistakes and fallen short. As I am sure, we all have. The Santa Claus Oath has the principles we want to live by and it is difficult for us to maintain those principles perfectly in our lives. We are only human. The ideology of the Oath is what we all want to strive for. None of us is perfect, however we can all strive to improve our image, and how others see us by following the Oath’s example. Our fellowship needs each of us to show love, honesty, integrity and respect to each other. We need this or our community or we will surely perish. I pray that our honest fellowship can warm all of our hearts that we may truly heal.

All of these things have happened to all of us. It has been a major tragedy for everyone no matter which side of the fence you have been standing on.

“The true end of tragedy is to purify the passions.” Aristotle.

It is time to leave the ashes behind. For the healing begin it has to start within each of us. It begins with our own personal honesty, integrity and staying above reproach. Each of us needs to take responsibility to make this happen in our community.

I am working with others on a philosophy/ideology that is based off the principles of the Santa Claus Oath. It is core values that are needed to create an honest and trusting Santa community once again.

“We must have the Belief in ourselves when we undertake challenges to our community. We must have Courage to face the difficulties. We must have the Desire, as nothing is impossible to a willing heart. We must strive for Excellence in doing the very best each and every time. We might stumble, but we must accept Failure as the new building blocks to achieve new opportunities. We must set reasonable Goals to accomplish our reality. We must only accept Honesty, as not being honest only hurts all of us. We must use our Imagination to see the possibilities of our dreams. We must Love one another, as even in hardship love and truth shine through. We must seek and look for Opportunity in the Santa world to better ourselves in our communities. We must have Persistence to overcome obstacles and the ability to push forward. We must take and have Responsibility as the fulfillment of integrity, honesty, truth, and fellowship in our community. We must have Accountability to our community. We must find Forgiveness for honest mistakes. We must strive for Loyalty in our community and each other. We must have Understanding when transgressions are asked to be healed.”

We have been given a second chance to bring the Santa community together in harmony. So let us lift our heads and go forward from here rebuilding our community.

I tell children when they come to me with requests that are just not humanly possible. “That is not something Santa can do, however I do know the one who can take care of that and I will pray to him about your request. I also have many friends I will ask to pray for it as well.” So let us pray that we can all practice these core values.

I have no bias towards any one group, I am very much in favor of all groups of Santas that can get together and share in honest fellowship and harmony. The first major event to help rebuild our community coming up is the Jamboree that FORBS is putting together in Southern California. They are being very transparent in all that they are doing in putting together this event. An event that is a not for profit venture and they have many volunteers working on it. I would encourage as many of you to attend this event because of the way they are doing it. These are the types of major events we need to support. I think this can be the first event that will allow the healing to start again.

There have been many lessons learned from all of these things. We have been through the fires and we have been tempered as steel has been tempered. It will be very difficult for anyone to come along and do this again. We have learned from all of this, so let us go on from here, and be supportive of each other fostering unity within our true and honest fellowship.

“The magic of Christmas is seen through your eyes. The memories of Christmas are always in your heart.”

Sincerely,
Tim Mack

Some web sites openly encourage kids to not only email Santa Claus but also to leave their full name, address and phone number. This is completely unnecessary from any web site. The Child Online Privacy Protection Act requires specific parental involvement when it comes to sharing information for online users under the age of 13. Most Santa sites surveyed online do not comply with COPPA.

Many web sites promote “Santa beacons”, a device kids are suppose to hang on their doorknob to ensure Santa will stop at their house. In fact, there are dozens of sites where Santa is for sale. You can get Santa videos, special Santa stockings and hats, Santa-authorized news reports and even special Reindeer food that Santa himself will sell to you. It is all a shameless exploitation of both kids and the legacy of Santa Claus.

Another site entices kids to write to Santa Claus and then directs a child to a website that declares Santa as an anagram for Satan. Yet another site warns children that they are on the naughty list and need to subscribe to a commercial mailing in order to get off of it (the mailing frequently has links to adult sites).

Google lists thousands of Santa-related websites. How can you be sure which ones are safe and which are the ones to avoid?

Begin by searching for Santa yourself. Find three or four links you personally approve and then forward those links to your kids. If you find certain sites offensive, utilize your parental controls to ban access to such a site by anyone using your computer.

When seeking Santa bear in mind a few simple safeguards for allowing kids to have their fun online:

- Decide before you surf just how interactive you want your kids to be with Santa Claus. Many web sites offer a letters to Santa feature but rarely does Santa himself ever write back. And that’s probably for the best.

- Look for the child-safe certification logos. Many organizations work to certify sites that comply with the Child Online Privacy and Protection Act, a law designed to keep kids safe online.

- Keep Santa on message. Santa’s connection to the holiday season has nothing to do with endorsing a product or encouraging greed in children. Avoid sites that exploit Santa in this way.

- Research Santa Claus yourself at Defending Santa.com. This site works to overcome the myths and misconceptions of Santa, to safeguard his honor and to protect his legacy. It is a fun homework assignment for kids to get to know Santa’s origins and a fascinating exercise for parents who want to shape the perception of the holiday season in a more appropriate way for their kids.

Santa Claus permeates the holiday season for children. You can either choose to control the influence he has on your kids – or you can allow the world to control that influence for you.

Many do not.

And on the surface their reasons for disdain of this man and the image of him are sound. He has sadly become a pathetic figurehead in a season now hallmarked by excesses. He is used to sell wares from an endless variety of industries. He seemingly endorses countless services and dubious habits.

Some harbor profound bitterness against him. As adults, they shun him because as children he deceived them. He has become the butt of jokes. Popular culture often depicts him in films and in song as a threatening buffoon incapable of even the most basic courtesies.

He openly espouses poor nutritional habits, he keeps an army of vertically-challenged individuals enslaved at a fictional place at the top of the world and he can be seen on nearly every corner during the holiday season holding his hand out for money.

Everyone recognizes him and knows his image well. But by only the very naïve is he loved or thought of kindly.

The truth is that he is none of these things.

He is, in fact and in reality, a good man. A man devoted to the service of others and once revered by millions as the patron saint of children. In his time more than 2000 churches in the lands of Europe and what was known as Asia Minor bore his name in reverence and appreciation for his life and his deeds. His popularity was so widespread that dozens of cultures still celebrate his exploits for good.

This is the man we defend. This is the man we call Santa Claus.

While researchers report little detail in relation to where he came from or what exactly he did with his life they are secure in their knowledge that he did exist and that he was a powerful influence for good in many lands.

Born as Nicholas nearly 1700 years ago in Turkey he lived an obscure life until he pursued a career in the ministry. Over time, he became the Archbishop of Myra, a town now known as Demre.

And that is about all the real detail of his life that is known for certain.

But there are stories – lots of stories about the good Bishop of Myra. That he was a good man there can be no doubt. In those days the Bishop was a man with profound authority in all aspects of both temporal and spiritual life. That he bore great influence cannot be denied. For those in scattered lands to know and revere him for generations is a testament of his considerable power to touch lives.

The telling of his exploits has transcended time, even if they have been embellished from one culture to another. A trusted man in his day by the nature of his calling, he is even in this day in those ancient lands credited for deeds of goodwill.

One such deed while living became a legend that has survived more than a thousand years after his passing. In his town where he was Bishop, Nicholas once gave an anonymous gift to a man with three daughters. The family was destitute of means and the custom of the time was that each daughter would need to be provided with a dowry in order to marry. Because they were poor, the father of the three daughters was contemplating selling his children into slavery.

Nicholas heard of their plight and on a dark night soon after the eldest daughter came to marrying age, he tossed a small bag of gold through an open window (and some say he tossed it down the chimney), sparing her a life of misery.

As the second daughter came of age he repeated the deed.

As the third daughter came of age the father waited up nights to catch the gift-giver in order to express his gratitude. And catch Nicholas in the act of goodwill the man did. Then it became widely known that the Bishop of Myra was the giver of the gift.

His reputation as Bishop survived his mortal time on earth. In time, thousands of churches across Europe came to be named after him — 45 in the ancient city of Rome alone were dedicated to him. His own name was popular in passing on to rising generations of the faithful. In several languages and in several cultures we find derivatives honoring the memory of the Bishop of Myra in numerous surnames: Nichols, Nicholson, Collins, Colson, Klassen, Claesz, Klasesz, Nielsen, Nijssen and others.

His popularity as a saint during the Middle Ages was only surpassed by the Virgin Mary. Whether the stories about him are true or not can be argued by the historians. Yet they all agree, St. Nicholas, the famed Archbishop of Myra, was a real person and did exist.