Walmart shopper claims she found religious 'Santa is fake' note inside toy purchase: 'Stop lying to your children'
Is there a war on Santa? According to one Walmart shopper in Alaska, St. Nick is under attack.
Brianna Ridge wrote in a Facebook post last Tuesday that her mom found a note inside a Walmart toy that local reports are calling "anti-Santa."
Ridge’s post claims that her mom found a Christian flier stuck inside a toy box at their local Walmart in Wasilla. The flier she shared photos of features an image of Santa Claus and reads, "HEY KIDS!! Santa is fake. But Jesus is real." The back of the flier includes a typed message urging parents to tell their children the story of Jesus, rather than the tale of Santa. Ridge didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Yahoo Lifestyle.
"It’s super-upsetting, super-worrisome. I already have gifts under the tree wrapped," Ridge told Alaska's KTVA of the prospect of her children discovering the note. "It adds a little bit of anxiety because I know it would be super-disappointing and devastating for my kiddos. It just wouldn’t be fair."
The topic of whether or not to raise children to believe in Santa has long been a point of contention in the Christian community, and it looks like whoever printed off the flier went to great lengths to bring the conversation to the forefront of this year's holiday season.
During Ridge's conversation with KTVA, she explained that she is also Christian, but that her young children do believe in Santa. The mom added that she doesn't believe notes like this one are "the way to go about it."
It's unclear if other shoppers in the Wasilla area found similar notes inside toys from Walmart or other stores. Ridge wrote in her Facebook post that she called Walmart to warn the store about the note.
A Walmart spokesperson told Yahoo Lifestyle that “this incident seems to have been part of a broader, non-Walmart related effort in town.”
“Once they were made aware of the concern here, they took action and did discover and remove fliers from a very small handful of items,” the spokesperson said of employees at the store in question. “They have had no issues since — that they’ve been made aware of — but encourage customers to let management know if there are any future issues.”
Update, Dec. 23 at 11:45 a.m.: This story has been updated to include Walmart’s statement.
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