Perhaps a tad young to play a believable Santa Claus, yet 32 year old Andrew Mondia, has been fired by a top London store for offering his lap to children on greeting them at his extensive grotto. Well an elf did warn him....
Mr Mondia had been one of a group of Father Christma's (what ever the collective term for such a group is) who were employed to give out presents at the big Selfridge's store in the city to customers on arrival into the shop.
Along with the Santa's other people dressed as elves etc had also been helping the present giving, yet despite being warned by one of the elves that it was against company policy to for the shop Santa to offer his knee to both children and adults. It is customary for children, particularly in the UK to jump up on to the friendly red knee and tell Santa what they want for Christmas.
However we live in worrying times and it is even frowned upon now to help a child in the street, or at least approach an anxious child even if he or she seems lost.
So this daft "politically correct" society we have created has gone a slight too far yet again, and now even the innocent, friendly knee of Father Christmas - giver of light and love in the darker corners of childhood, is now, in this shop - out of bounds.
In their defence, a
Selfridge's spokesperson told the UK newspaper, The Guardian,
"It's vital that everyone bringing children to see Santa can be absolutely confident that the visit will be a happy one. Unfortunately, this particular Santa didn't behave in line with his training or the standards we've set so we acted swiftly and asked him to leave."
Poor sacked Santa, Mr Mondia claimed that his training had been a bit "rushed."
"I was just being my innocent usual self. I was shocked when they told me – I couldn't believe I've been sacked for being too friendly."
What sort of a world do we live in now - gone are the days of Freedom of Speech, the Tooth Fairy - just in case the child swallows the prize coin in the middle of the night, we can't play in the street anymore for fear of being abducted, children can't be filmed anymore in their Christmas plays at school because of school rules and now the abandonment of Santa's knee!
It makes you look at this world through the 'shades' of concern....
