Santas of Sydney warned not to say "ho ho ho"

Post Reply New Topic

SYDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.
Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.
One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.
"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.
"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.
"Leave Santa alone."
A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.

My brother made a joke about the saying 'ho ho ho' once. I didn't think anyone besides him or me thought it sounded too close to 'ho'.

Thats stupid, PC is just out of control at this point, we wont have any freedoms worldwide because everyone will get offended by something.

That is sad, and if I was santa I would stick with tradition.

Ayiyiyiyiyiyiyi.....

Thats insane

Geez, just be warned everyone not from Sydney that the Daily Telegraph (the newspaper that first ran this story) is not the most reliable - They like to run with these kind of nuts stories that have been completely taken out of context - Bet the story will also get a special place on Today Tonight (another embarassingly manipulative news program) right next to the story about the dodgy repairman that ripped off the old ladies. Jokes.

Too true. You really don't know what to believe in our news programs. Did you notice that even on Chaser after APEC they were very quiet on politics, despite the election, and then when they did poke fun it was almost always at Rudd. It seems the government involvement that saw The Glasshouse taken off air due to the anti govt. topics may also be influencing Chaser skits.

Reading the Telegraph article it seems to say one thing and then another to disclaim it -

"Recruitment firm Westaff...has told its trainees that the "ho ho ho" phrase could frighten children and could even be derogatory to women.".....

"...the Westfield shopping centre chain moved to reassure children, and their parents, that Santa and his customary greeting was part of Christmas's present as well as Christmas's past. "....

"Part of our advice to our Santas is that they should be mindful of children having their first Santa experience.

"We ask our Santas to try techniques such as lowering their tone of voice and using 'ha, ha, ha' to encourage the children to come forward and meet Santa. We wish you and your family a very merry Christmas."

Westaff national operations manager Greg Jansz said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of Santa himself."

It was about not scaring the kids.

As for the current affairs programs, how many times can viewers forget these shows make up their stories for the ratings - The old lady "chained" to the nursing home bed, the boy being "saved" from cannibals.......

If I heard a Santa say Hahaha I'd think he was laughing at me.

Let's hope this is false, because it's very absurd to be true.

Yo kids, wassup? Ho ho ho, look at that!

HO!

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!!

Many, many years ago, long before "ho" was used as an epithet, I remember reading an article about the training undergone by department-store Santas. They were specifically instructed not to say "ho, ho, ho". This was not due to PC considerations, but because the sound of a basso-profundo male voice speaking the phrase was thought frightening for young children.

I'd immediately think he was doing this at me: