The extreme right?Day two of the Christmas special of unnecessary upset: after having a bit of a giggle at trees shaped like genetalia, it's time to move on to less obvious material - the politics of Santa Claus.

Modern-day capitalist-style Christmas is patently associated with what can most charitably described as "tack". The Rossmann chain of shops in Germany joined in the exploitative fun by selling no doubt overpriced objects d'art such as model snowmen, furry reindeers and little Santa Clauses.

One such pointless model of Santa was positioned holding a sack in his left hand and pointing towards the sky with his right. The customer complaints immediately poured in.

Why, they demanded, would you have a Father Christmas doing the Hitler Salute? This is particularly a problem in Germany where imitating Hitler in such a way is a criminal act under the Spreading Propaganda and the Inciting Hatred and Glorifying Extremism acts with a potential prison sentence of three years.

The shop itself was perhaps unsurprisingly taken aback by this, having not quite had the image of the Third Reich in mind when stocking their shelves. "We were astonished by the reaction," said their spokesman, a Mr Lange. Nonetheless, the items were immediately not only removed but entirely destroyed.