By ninemsn staff
Sydney Santas have reportedly defied a request from a recruitment firm to replace "ho ho ho" with "ha ha ha".
Two Santa trainees from Westaff, which supplies hundreds of men in red suits to Australian shopping centres, have quit over the politically correct new greeting, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Trainees were told the traditional phrase could scare children and be taken as derogatory to women.
"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," Westaff's national Santa co-ordinator Sari Hegarty told the paper.
But Santas at department stores David Jones, Myers and the Westfield shopping centre chain will still use the customary greeting as part of their customers Christmas experience.
"Senior management (at Westaff) have assured us that Santas provided to David Jones have not been censored in any way," a David Jones spokeswoman told the Telegraph.
Julie Gale from Kids Free to 2B Kids said Santa should be left alone.
"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that 'ho ho ho' has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the paper.
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