Retail giant apologises for jumper depicting Santa doing drugs

A retail giant has been forced to apologise over a Christmas jumper that appeared to depict Santa in the act of doing cocaine. The festive-themed garment appeared on the Walmart Canada online store, and was later removed by the company.

The illustration on the garment shows Father Christmas sitting at a table with three lines of a white substance on it and holding straw-like paraphernalia. The slogan on the jumped reads: "Let it snow."

If that wasn't enough to raise eyebrows — 'snow' is a common colloquial name for cocaine — the product description confirmed shoppers' suspicions. "We all know how snow works. It's white, powdery and the best snow comes straight from South America. That's bad news for jolly old St Nick, who lives far away in the North Pole," it read. "That's why Santa really likes to savour the moment when he gets his hands on some quality, grade A, Colombian snow."

A Walmart spokesperson apologised for the sale of the product, produced by the company "Fun Wear," and advised Global News they had removed the product from the company's Canadian store.

"These sweaters, sold by a third-party seller on Walmart.ca, do not represent Walmart's values and have no place on our website," the spokesperson told the outlet.

"We have removed these products from our marketplace. We apologise for any unintended offence this may have caused."

They have also removed other pieces of clothing that show Santa in front of a fireplace with his pants down.

However, other products by the brand are still available for purchase. These include a jumper depicting a mug shot of Santa, another one showing Santa fighting a bear and a Hanukkah jumper with a menorah and the word 'lit.'