The issue of The Pilot published on this day in 1935 has an odd but interesting headline on the front page: “Santa Claus Explains His Position Regarding Cigarette Smoking.”
Apparently Santa wanted to clarify that he does not endorse any specific brand of cigarettes (perhaps some advertisements were suggesting otherwise) and that he “does not approve of smoking by mothers or anyone every expecting to become a mother nor should a boy girl smoke before they are privileged to vote.”
As to his own habits, Santa said that he smokes pipes (clay in winter, corncob in summer), primarily because “cigars and cigarettes interfere with proper driving of Dunder, Blitzen and my other reindeer.”
