Santa Arrested in Iraq, Engage in Fist Fight in Ukraine

By: Nawal Sayed

CAIRO, Dec. 24 (SEE) - Santa Claus has set off to deliver Christmas presents to children around the world, with his helpers giving him a musical send-off at his Lapland home as he embarks on the mammoth trip.

Families gathered in temperatures of -22 degrees Celsius in Rovaniemi, Finland, which calls itself Santa's official hometown, near the Arctic Circle.

Santa briefly spoke to the crowd, wishing

them a peaceful and happy Christmas before leaving on a sleigh to stock it up

with presents for his Christmas Eve journey.

"Hope you all have had a great year.

Of course, there have been many things in the world that should have been

different," he said in English.

In another part of the world, Santa Claus himself supposedly experienced big problems in Iraq and Syria, where he either did or did not get arrested in the run-up to his big night this year.

Various accounts widely shared in local

social media during the weekend before Christmas had Papa Noel, as Christians

in Iraq and Syria call him, being arrested by the Iraqi police, drafted into

the Syrian army or going off to fight the Islamic State, according to a report

published by the New York Times on Monday.

 “A

group of sarcastic posts spread talk of the arrest of Papa Noel with a picture

written on it, ‘Karbala police arrest Papa Noel,’ and this picture spread on

social network sites,” said Col. Alaa Al-Ghanimi, the spokesman for the police

in Karbala.

“The police command absolutely denies this

news and there is no such arrest," Al-Ghanimi added.

The colonel said the photo had actually

been taken not in Iraq but in Syria, and the police in the picture with the

Santa were actually helping him distribute presents to children, using a police

Toyota pickup truck instead of the customary reindeer-powered vehicle.

In 2010, attacks on Iraqi Christian

churches were so serious that many canceled the traditional Christmas Eve services

for fear of bombing, but recently those fears have eased.

In Odessa, Ukraine, two bad Santas got into

a furious fist fight in front of children at a shopping area; apparently it was

over a turf dispute.