Christmas has collapsed to this—Santa tacked up on a sacrificial cross. The principles of decency, humility, and forgiveness that Jesus stood for are all but forgotten to the thundering of enormous thighs plodding down the endless halls of Wal-mart, family members exchanging envious glances and passing judgment on one another, and fitful jaws chomping while their beady eyes scan a devastated landscape devoid of nature.

Yes, friends, you are as fat as ever with food, house, toy, and spouse. But with the Holiday Tree season a coming, be sure to gorge a little more than usual and then lay your wearied corpulence down in the evening to pass out in delicious slumber.

Above Santa’s head, Wright has inscribed the words ‘Sumptum Fac Donec Consumptus Sis.’ Roughly translated, Wright said, it means ‘Shop till you drop.’

“Santa represents frivolous consumption,” Wright said yesterday, standing at the foot of the cross beneath the outstretched red-suited figure. “That’s all he is. He shot Jesus right out of the saddle. He’s the focus of Christmas.”

The idea for the work started brewing about eight months ago, said the artist. Wright started looking for wood. In early August, he bought a Santa costume. Then he called a friend who works with fabric and traded a painting for her help.

“But the final straw was looking at a report on CNN which said we will have effectively fished out the ocean. And I thought ‘Oh Jesus. We’re suffocating the goose that lays the natural egg. We have to stop the orgy of consumption.”

Natural egg or not — some of Wright’s neighbours are deeply upset.

At the mailbox near his home, Jennifer Blair said she thought the ’statement’ wasn’t fair to children. Some of them catch a school bus on that corner.

“They think Santa’s at the North Pole getting their toys ready, not on a pole in Metchosin,” said Blair…. (canada.com)

For accuracy’s sake, it should be humbly suggested to Mr. Wright that he has constructed Santa Claus wrongly. The crimson clothing should have been stuffed three-fold.