Ho-Ho-Ho not politically correct?

Santa Claus gets the old heave ho

December 06 2007 at 03:32AM

Sydney - A Santa Claus working in an Australian department store has been sacked for singing Jingle Bells and defying a ban on the traditional ho-ho-ho Christmas greeting.

John Oakes said on Wednesday he was told not to come to work at the Myer store in the Queensland town of Cairns by a manager with agency employer Westaff because he had broken company rules.

"I hadn't done anything wrong so I asked her why, and she said, 'You said ho-ho-ho' and that's not appropriate," Oakes, 70, told the Cairns Post newspaper.

"She also said I wasn't supposed to sing, but I was only singing Jingle Bells to get the kids to laugh for their photo," he added. "It's just ridiculous, and everything's changed because of the new rules."

US-based Westaff rebutted claims it had ordered its 550 Australian Santas to bellow ha-ha-ha rather than ho-ho-ho because women could take offence and children could be frightened.

Ho, ghetto slang for prostitute, is a pejorative term in the United States.

Westaff spokesperson Glen Jansz said Oakes was fired because of his attitude and not his greetings or his singing.

"Westaff made a decision not to utilise the candidate in question for any future Santa assignments because the candidate's attitude was not in line with the requirements and expectations of our client and of their customers," Jansz said.