Veteran Santa Claus Fired from Macy's for Cracking Dirty Jokes

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John Toomey has been playing Santa Claus at Macy's in San Francisco for 20 years—until he was unceremoniously canned after an adult couple complained that he was cracking dirty jokes. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

"When I ask the older people who sit on my lap if they've been good and they say, 'Yes,' I say, 'Gee, that's too bad,' " Toomey said Monday.

"Then, if they ask why Santa is so jolly, I joke that it's because I know where all the naughty boys and girls live."

The kids who sit on his lap, he said, get only his trademark laugh and questions about what toys they want.

Co-workers and longtime Toomey-Santa loyalists are said to be devastated by his dismissal. "Everything was going OK until this couple came in," he told the Chronicle. "I don't know why they reported me. I don't think I said anything untoward."
· 'Naughty' joke gets Santa Claus fired from Macy's [SFGate]

Macy's

170 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, CA