Santas told not to use 'ho, ho, ho'

SYDNEY, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Santas in Australia have been discouraged from saying their traditional catch phrase, "ho, ho, ho," because some feel it could scare children and offend women.

Instead, hundreds of men hired by the Westaff recruitment firm to play Santa Claus for the holidays have been told to say "ha, ha, ha."

One would-be Santa told The Daily Telegraph he quit after he was told not to use "ho, ho, ho" because it could be mistaken for the U.S. slang for prostitute.

"Gimme a break," Julie Gale, who runs Kids Free 2B Kids, a campaign against sexualizing children, told the newspaper. "We are talking about little kids who do not understand that 'ho, ho, ho' has any other connotation and nor should they."

Several large stores in Australia have said they have no plans to censor their Santas.

Westaff's Santa coordinator wrote in an e-mail to stores: "Part of our advice to our Santas is that they should be mindful of children having their first Santa experience. We ask our Santas to try techniques such as lowering their tone of voice and using 'ha, ha, ha' to encourage the children to come forward and meet Santa."