Story By: James King, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash

A German bakery has received hate mail after producing a line of chocolate Santas with COVID-19 face mask.

Herbert Hacker, the owner of Cafe Heintz in the town of Bad Konigshofen in the German state of Bavaria, has reportedly been flooded with messages from haters after altering Father Christmas’ traditional image.

Herbert and his daughter, Corola, thought it would be a good idea to incorporate an extra detail on their chocolate Santas this year and included a face mask over his mouth and nose.

The bakery posted photos of the new-look Santa on their Facebook page on 13th November.

Although they intended the post to be a light-hearted conversation starter, the idea was not well received and many netizens complained that they were offended by the addition of the face mask.

Many online users also said they hope the bakery goes bankrupt and told the owner that he should be ashamed of himself.

Facebook user ‘Fotini Korkmaz ‘wrote: “That would end up in the rubbish with me.”

According to local media, the bakery owner suspects that most of the online haters are COVID-19 sceptics.

However, not everyone was angered by the idea and customer Jane Schmidt said: “Why should Father Christmas not have a mask when we are all expected to wear one?”

Other positive comments included “thanks for making me smile” and “don’t let the drooling angry citizens get you down”.

Thanks to the media attention, orders for masked Santas are flooding in and Hacker has even asked other pastry chefs in the area to help out with the demand.

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