School officials say a substitute teacher who told first-grade students in New Jersey that Santa Claus isn’t real will not be returning to the school.

NJ.com reports Montville Schools Superintendent Rene Rovtar confirmed the teacher will no longer work in the district after the incident one Thursday at Cedar Hill School.

Rovtar declined further comment, saying the issue is a personnel matter.

Officials say the teacher debunked other holiday characters as nonsense, including the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Elf on a Shelf.

Rovtar previously said she was disheartened by the incident and that “childhood wonder associated with all holidays and traditions” is special to her.

The substitute teacher’s identity has not been released. But Santa knows who she is.




It wasn’t the Grinch who stole Christmas. It was a man who screamed “there’s no Santa Claus” over and over during a recent holiday festival in Florida.

A southwest Florida woman shared cellphone footage with Fort Myers television station NBC-2 of the man yelling during the Cape Coral Festival of Lights one Saturday night.

Cape Coral police told the station that officers were at the event but couldn’t do anything because the man was “exercising his freedom of speech.” They added they could have intervened had he used a voice enhancer such as a megaphone, or started a riot.

Cindy Menkes of Cape Coral says it’s about decency and said she’s sad that “the magic of this time of year” was taken away from some children. Yes, Mrs. Menkes, there oughta be a law.





Utah parents Lisa and John Henderson simply canceled Christmas for their three sons, who they felt have been acting overly entitled. In a blog post, Lisa writes:

“Our kids have been acting so ungrateful lately. They expect so much even when their behavior is extremely disrespectful. We gave them good warning, either it was time for their behavior to change or there would be consequences. We patiently worked with them for several months and guess what, very little changed. One day after a particularly bad display of entitlement, John said, ‘We should just cancel Christmas.’ And, so that’s what we did.”

The Hendersons will still decorate, go to church, and partake in other family traditions. They just won’t have presents or Santa. Instead of getting, they’ll give: they’re using the money they would have spent on gifts for service projects, and adopting grandparents — older widows and couples with no family for the holiday — for Christmas dinner.

Henderson believes that the hollow threats moms and dads make about Santa punishing the naughty is emblematic of a parenting culture that spoils children. “We continue to give our children things even when their behavior doesn’t warrant it, simply because we as parents don’t want to live with the consequences.”