Rattle wrote:

When James Worley paid a visit to Disney World in Florida his portly frame and white beard soon had kids asking: "Are you Santa Claus?"

Not wanting to disappoint, Mr Worley, 60, played along with some "ho-ho-hos".

But Disney officials descended, telling him to stop the impersonation or get out of the park. They said they wanted to preserve the magic of Santa.

Even after bowing to the request to alter his appearance, Mr Worley, from Tampa, said children continued to ask if he was Santa.

"How do you tell a little kid, 'No, go away, little kid'," Mr Worley told local television.

He said Disney had told him "Santa was considered a Disney character".

Well, there you go.. Santa is Disney property...

Actually it's Coca Cola property. It was used by Coke in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in advertising and that's essentially where Santa and Christmas merged in the US. Also about the same time came the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree. These were all very fringey beliefs only observed in Dutch and Eastern European communities beforehand and not exactly rooted in American culture until the early 20's. So y'know... the next time you're standing in line behind some 40-something woman decked out in a Christmas sweater and talking about how Jesus is the Reason for the Season, you can tell her that this is all folklore, paganism, revisionist history, and commercialism and then be on your merry way.