Don't tell Bill O'Reilly! Little kids have declared war on Santa?

“Sometimes you can hear them winding up as soon as the car doors open,” said Santa during a reindeer break at Westwood Shopping Center. Santa (who goes by the name of Justin Evans when he’s out of uniform) has been there for three years, talking to the naughty, the nice and the not-going-to-sit-in-that-guy’s-lap-for-all-the-toys-in-China.

“Oh, Santa can tell, believe me,” he said. “Sometimes they come running right up to me, then they freeze. And they have this look, a look of fear.”

It hurts Santa’s heart, but not his spirit. “You learn not to take it personally,” he said. “Some kids just have trouble with Santa.”

Parents should try getting on their knees for a child’s perspective. To most parents, Santa is a touchstone, a chuckling link to their own childhood.

A toddler sees something that might as well be a roaring grizzly bear wrapped in red. He’s a huge fuzzy ogre in a red suit, someone very different from the people the child has known.

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