No sane local official who has hung up an empty stocking over the municipal fireplace is going to shoot Santa Claus just before a hard Christmas.

I actually share her view and understand her frustration when any government attempts to ban secular symbols like Santa Claus or Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer or Christmas lights.

Santa is our culture's only mythic figure truly believed in by a large percentage of the population. It's a fact that most of the true believers are under eight years old and that's a pity.

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.

Santa Claus has the right idea - visit people only once a year.

Let's be naughty and save Santa the trip.

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.

I don't really care what people tell children - when you believe in Santa Claus the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy one more fib won't hurt. But I am infuriated by the growing notion posited in some touchy-feely quarters that all women are or can be beautiful.

I don't trust Santa Barbara as far as I can spit. I am afraid that if I went back there it's possible that I could be run through their system their judicial system and wind up in some county jail where I could be killed and I'm not gonna take that chance.

Growing up in northern California has had a big influence on my love and respect for the outdoors. When I lived in Oakland we would think nothing of driving to Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz one day and then driving to the foothills of the Sierras the next day.

I think we have to believe in things we don't see. That's really important for all of us whether it's your religion or Santa Claus or whatever. That's pretty much what it's about.

A group of us started a community center in Santa Monica. We've tried different programs and three have worked really well. A poetry group. Once a week we visit Venice High and talk to girls at risk.

For me growing up Christmas time was always the most fantastic exciting time of year and you'd stay up until three in the morning. You'd hear the parents wrapping in the other room but you knew that also maybe they were in collusion with Santa Claus.

For the past two years President Obama has promised our children the moon stars rainbows unicorns and universal health care for all. But the White House Santa's cradle-to-grave entitlement mandates are a spectacularly predictable bust.

When I graduated from Santa Monica High in 1927 I was voted the girl most likely to succeed. I didn't realize it would take so long.

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want - and their kids pay for it.

Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.

Our family was too strange and weird for even Santa Claus to come visit... Santa who was jolly - but let's face it he was also very judgmental.

Santa Barbara is my hood. I mean it's not much of a hood but it is definitely like my hood. I claim Santa Barbara like I claim my family. I'm going to be married and buried there.

If we talk about the environment for example we have to talk about environmental racism - about the fact that kids in South Central Los Angeles have a third of the lung capacity of kids in Santa Monica.

Believe in love. Believe in magic. Hell believe in Santa Clause. Believe in others. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. If you don't who will?

My parents moved to American Samoa when I was three or four years old. My dad was principal of a high school there. It was idyllic for a kid. I had a whole island for a backyard. I lived there until I was eight years old and we moved to Santa Barbara.

We have domesticated God's transcendence. We often learn about God at about the same time as we are learning about Santa Claus but our ideas about Santa Claus change mature and become more nuanced whereas our ideas of God can remain at a rather infantile level.

I think the true test of a pop song for me and I've talked to a lot of other writers about this is you take your demo you pop it in your car and you drive down Sunset Blvd. to Santa Monica and that's the Hollywood car test.