It's Not Good to Look Like Santa Claus

I expect the annual anti-Christmas madness concerning "holiday" trees and nativity scenes, but this year if you look like Santa Claus, watch out! First we have the school bus driver who just wants to wear his Santa hat:

A Santa hat-wearing school bus driver on Long Island, N.Y., has won the right to keep wearing his festive headgear, Newsday reported.

Kenneth Mott, who keeps a long, white beard, almost lost his job after a parent called the bus management to complain. Mott, who has worn the red and white hat every Christmas since he started with the Bauman & Sons bus company five years ago, was ordered to stop wearing the hat because a child didn't believe in Santa Claus and was bothered by the hat.

Click here to read the full Newsday story.

"I said, 'What, are you kidding me?'" Mott recalled. "I thought it was a big joke," Newsday reported.

However, after Mott told other parents he might be fired for wearing the hat, supervisors changed their stance and said he could continue to wear the hat.

And then, did you know that Santa is a Disney character? Neither did this guy:

When James Worley paid a visit to Disney World in Florida his portly frame and white beard soon had kids asking: "Are you Santa Claus?"
Not wanting to disappoint, Mr Worley, 60, played along with some "ho-ho-hos".

But Disney officials descended, telling him to stop the impersonation or get out of the park. They said they wanted to preserve the magic of Santa.

Mr Worley took off his red hat and red shirt but said: "I look this way 24/7, 365 days a year. This is me."

'Confusing'

Even after bowing to the request to alter his appearance, Mr Worley, from Tampa, said children continued to ask if he was Santa.

"How do you tell a little kid, 'No, go away, little kid'," Mr Worley told local television.

He said Disney had told him "Santa was considered a Disney character".

Officials at Disney World's Epcot park said they had had complaints from "several guests who were very upset".

Disney said it had its own Santa at Epcot and Mr Worley was "confusing" the children.

My kids have several friends who work at Disneyland, some of them as costumed characters. Disney has a pretty strict rule that anyone over the age of 8 cannot wear a costume in the part because of the risk of confusion with an actual character/employee and the chance that some pedophile will use a costume to lure little kids. They've had problems lately with Jack Sparrow-wannabes showing up in their best Johnny Depp pirate get-ups and have had to refuse them entrance.

However, Disney is walking a bit of a dangerous line with their approach to Mr. Worley. Yes, he's a big guy with a white beard, but you can go to Disneyland any time of the year and see that. As long as he's not actively promoting himself as Santa Claus, I don't think they have any right to make him alter his appearance. I've see lots of people at the park who are dressed in ways I could complain about (just go there on Gay Days or Goth Day sometime).

It sounds to me like Mr. Worley's response to kids was appropriate and he should have been left alone. If he'd been sitting on Main Street with kids in his lap I could understand their concern, but this guy sounds pretty innocent.