“Twas the Night Before Christmas” revised to scratch references to Santa smoking pipe. Next: Santa trades in sleigh for a Chevy Volt. #tcot
— Fred Thompson (@fredthompson) October 17, 2012
Here’s the story:
It’s a holiday classic Mayor Bloomberg would love.
A sanitized version of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” edits out all references to Santa Claus’ pipe habit — and critics say it’s yet another example of political correctness run amok.
A one-woman vice squad — self-published Canadian author Pamela McColl — kicked St. Nick’s butt habit in a new version of the beloved poem about “the night before Christmas.”
McColl deleted two verses — “The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth/and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath”— and hired an illustrator to redraw Santa without his pipe and halo of tobacco haze.
