"Santa" news and stories

Santa's Butt Winter Porter is just too naughty for Maine. The state's Bureau of Liquor Enforcement has barred Shelton Brothers from selling the beer, which sports an image of the jolly old elf hoisting a brew as he checks his list. The butt in the name is a reference to both Santa's rear and to the barrel he's perched on. Once upon a time in England brewers used large barrels called butts to store beer.

With the help of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, Shelton has sued the state agency on the grounds that not approving its label application violates the First Amendment by censoring artistic expression. The state, for its part, says that it's in the right because showing Saint Nick on a beer label might encourage the wee ones to take to the bottle.

I'm not sure I buy the state's argument. For one thing, there are many winter beers with labels that show Santa Claus. You'd think there would be legions of preteen dipsomaniacs by now. I wonder if Rogue is allowed to sell its Santa's Private Reserve in Maine.

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Cookies and milk left out for Santa is Christmas Eve tradition that I like to follow in the event that Santa stops by and wants a snack as he travels the world delivering presents. I even set aside a few of the prettier cookies I decorated a day or two before to make sure I have some to leave out. Of course, he doesn't usually seem too interested in the cookies and I end up eating them myself on Christmas morning. Cookies left out overnight can, in my opinion, be deemed "leftovers" and, thus, are appropriate breakfast food.  USA Today says that 48% of people who leave snacks for Santa leave both cookies and milk. I am among the 29% that only leaves cookies, not because I believe Santa is lactose intolerant, as the makers of Lactaid would have me believe, but because milk left out overnight is not very appetising in the morning. If he didn't eat the cookies, Santa probably wasn't very thirsty anyway.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

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