I just happened to be off on Christmas Eve and by chance turned the channel and caught the local weather guy tracking Santa for the all the kiddies-- who, beyond plausibility, were apparently all watching TV weather for just that reason --when I see Santa's location (6:30pm central, or GMT-6) as the Azores. Just one problem, though. The bright spot on the map indicating Santa's location was sitting squarely over the Canary Islands. What's the problem with that, you ask? Well, the Azores are about a thousand miles northwest. The only reason I know this is because I spent 10 months on the island of Terceira, mid way in the island chain. I don't know why it should have bothered me that the map was wrong, but it did.
On top of the aforementioned flawed map, I'm told the map showing Santa in Atlanta was also wrong-- the web address hadn't updated prior to air, so an arbitrary location was related to all the excited kiddies in S.E. Alabama. "Santa is in Atlanta! That's right next door!"
Does anyone see the problem here? Not only is Santa a lie we tell our children every year, but the station I work for resorted to lying about the whereabouts of our lie! (not the weather guy, he didn't build the graphics) But then, every time any station tracks Santa, it's essentially the same thing: Lying about the whereabouts of a Lie, when it would be far easier to tell the truth and tell the kiddies that Christmas is really about the celebration of the miracle of God taking on human form to live a sinless life, that He might sacrifice that life to redeem fallen man. It's a beautiful story, with every bit of mystery and excitement as Santa, but more... It's completely true.
In all fairness, I recognize that the whole idea of Santa is fun, and is in the spirit of giving. Smashing the illusion of Santa for children who unquestioningly believe could be a cruel and devastating blow to that innocent trust. But better to not tell the children about Santa in the first place. After all, what picture, what story, could possibly be more beautiful than God, a babe in Mary's arms?