KARACHI: It wasn’t ‘jingle all the way’ for Santa forcing himself to look ‘merry’ at the gates of the St Patrick’s Cathedral on Christmas morning on Thursday.

Hilary Pereira has been dressing up as Santa Claus and showing up at the same place for 10 years now, but today he came wearing a while jacket with green collar and sleeves and only a hint of red with black trousers. Only his red fleece hat lined with the white fur indicated who he was. The red suit, the big belly and the joyous laugh were nowhere to be found.

“Are you really Santa Claus?” A little girl asked him as he nodded, patted her head and wished her a merry Christmas.

On being pointed out to him that he was missing his red suit, Mr Pereira said: “Look, when your own Muslim scholars with longer beards than mine are being targeted and sent up there,” he paused, looked upwards and sadly shook his head, “then wearing a red suit I’ll have no chance at all! It will make me even more noticeable and prominent as a Christian. And no shooter misses a big red target!”

About the red hat, he said: “Well, it takes a second to take it off. Getting out of the suit takes longer.”

But another disappointing thing about this Santa was the missing sack of gifts, too. “Look, I don’t have gifts! But I have some very good and believable excuses,” he said. “If any child demands gifts from me, I tell him or her that my sack full of gifts was confiscated by Customs at the airport.”

When pointed out again that he was killing children’s hopes, Mr Pereira only shrugged, smiled and said: “Look around you, it’s hopeless anyway!”

Meanwhile, inside the church the morning masses included prayers said for peace. “We see a troubled city, a troubled world. Each one of us sitting here has his or her own problems,” said Father Mario Rodrigues, the parish priest.

“When you and I go through trying times, we are called to believe and truly accept His word. We are called to give up everything that does not lead to God, everything that takes us away from His message. Pray to Lord for peace.”

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2014