Drop that pipe! Santa quits smoking for Christmas

Yes, that’s right. Smoking cessation advocate Pamela McColl decided that the iconic picture of Santa puffing on his pipe in ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas was sending a bad message to kids, so she cut it out along with this verse: “The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath.”

McColl, who also works hard to pressure movies and media to limit depictions of smoking, has a point. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that “Exposure to onscreen smoking causes youth smoking initiation” and has been actively tracking the number of incidents of tobacco use in movies in the U.S. as part of a strategic plan by The Department of Health and Human Services to reduce youth exposure to onscreen smoking.

In addition to cutting out Santa’s pipe, McColl also wants readers to know that her Santa also shows he cares about the arctic polar bears by wearing fake, not real fur. You can read all about it in the “Letter from Santa” that she includes in her books, which are available online from Grafton and Scratch Publishers at Barnes & Noble and Amazon:

“In this updated edition select lines have quietly slipped from the pages. Here at the North Pole we decided to leave all of that old tired business of smoking well behind us and I am pleased to report that we have never been healthier or happier. The reindeer asked that I confirm the fact that I have only ever worn fake fur out of respect for the endangered species that are in need of our protection, including my dear friends those arctic polar bears.”


http://healthblog.dallasnews.com/2012/10/drop-that-pipe-santa-quits-smoking-for-christmas.html/

Yet he is overweight and eats cookies left by all the kids. And he wears red (made from dyes and using materials probably gotten from China). Not to mention he enslaves reindeers and do those elves even get paid a living wage?

I say we turn the whole think over to Jack Skellington