Several astute readers of the Voice emailed us this week arguing that we had misspelled ‘Santa Claus’ as ‘Santa Clause’ in our latest issue. As there has been a lot of interest, the Voice would like to explain why we used the latter spelling instead of the former.
In today’s world it is important to be mindful of the feelings of all cultures and peoples, even in a small, relatively homogenous community like ours. The traditional spelling of ‘Santa Claus’ is a phonetic derivative of the Dutch word for Saint Nicholas, ‘Sinterklaas’. While we at the Voice have nothing but respect for the Dutch people, the Editor felt that any spelling directly linked to one specific culture would alienate Pelham children who were not from said culture. It was this progressive thinking that led to the Voice’s spelling choice on the cover of our latest issue. In an effort to create a safe holiday environment for ALL children, regardless of their heritage, the Voice chose to alter the spelling of ‘Claus’ to ‘Clause’ (we considered using ‘Claws’, but were concerned that using that homonym might subject children to undue mental trauma).
Or, possibly, we just screwed up. Do you think this will get us on the naughty list? Sorry, Santa.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Voice Staff
