Santa as a god-figure

To the editor: I have been reading this brouhaha over the Santa Breakfast with some amusement. I say amusement because I’m boggled by something. Can someone please explain to me which religion includes “Santa” in its pantheon? It’s certainly not Christianity (who it should be pointed out explicitly would forbid such a character under that whole forbidding of images, other gods, etc.) Judaism doesn’t recognize Santa. Santa isn’t mentioned in the Bible, the Torah, or the Koran. In fact, for someone who is being kicked to the curb as a religious figure, he gets pretty short shrift and not a lot of recognition as the deity that he is being made out to be. “Santa,” ladies and gentlemen, is a fictitious character. Any logic you want to use for removing “Santa” from school premises applies equally to removing “Tom Sawyer” or “Clifford the Big Red Dog”. He’s a fictional character whom children enjoy. If you want to ban Santa, come up with a better excuse than the “church and state argument,” because Santa simply doesn’t apply there. Derek Balling Hurley