FOR its Christmas carol singing programme, St. Joseph’s Church, Mira Road, Mumbai, seems to be giving too much importance to Santa Claus. This only reflects the present tendency in the West to push Jesus Christ out of Christmas. Actually, our people should know that ‘Santa Claus’ was invented by Coca Cola in the 1930s in the U.S. He has little or nothing in common with St. Nicholas, the original ‘Father Christmas’ or ‘Sinter Klaas’ who was Christlike. ‘Santa Claus’ is a symbol of crass consumerism and can never be a ‘green symbol’. He only encourages people to eat, drink and make merry; to spend and waste more and more; and to destroy nature. The ‘real green symbol’ would be the ‘Babe of Bethlehem’, the ‘Lord Jesus’, who the people of India love and revere. Even Gandhi said that he loved Jesus Christ, but not the christians, because they do not live like Jesus Christ. For a ‘Green Santa Claus’, a Santa dressed in green should be presented driving a humble cart carrying the radiant infant Lord Jesus lying in a manger surrounded by birds, animals and natural beauty. In this way, the common people, especially non-christians, will perceive that Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ (who came to save the earth and all of us) and not of Santa Claus (who will only destroy our human values and our simple God-given environment).