Mall Glacier Melts Under Heat of Christmas Backlash

The management of South Park Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina got the message loud and clear: nobody liked Santa’s new digs this year.

As reported earlier, the mall erected a new Santa set called the “Glacier Santa Experience”, which burst forth with light at random times and featured Santa huddled in a snow cave ready to take pictures. The problem? It was missing a Christmas tree, cheery elves, traditional Christmas lights, or anything else commonly associated with Christmas. One shopper claimed she couldn’t even find the word Christmas on any of the signage around the display. Just Santa on ice, that was all.

By Saturday the mall agreed to put up a tree but on Sunday workers showed up, dismantled the display and hauled it off to wherever it came from. The mall management now says

After listening to customer feedback, Simon made the decision to remove the modern, interactive Santa set that was installed at SouthPark and replace them with traditional décor that centers around Christmas trees. Our focus is on ‘Spreading Love’ which is the theme throughout all of our shopping centers during the holiday season and we are looking forward to celebrating the holidays with our shoppers as we do every year.

Does that end the backlash?

Maybe for South Park Mall. But there are at least six other malls with the same display — and the same level of outrage.