TORONTO — Every Christmas when Santa Claus checked his list of naughty or nice children in Antigonish, N.S., Colin and John-Angus MacDonald would invariably make it onto the naughty list.

That's because the laid-back rockers, now members of the Trews, say they spent a good part of their childhood assuming the role of schoolyard Scrooge. "We were the kind of children from new-age hippie parents that dispelled a lot of myths of our more conservative, Catholic friends," says vocalist Colin MacDonald, one of five kids in the family.

"We were always the ones (told), oh, 'We heard that you made Billy cry today because you told him there's no Santa Claus.' "

Unlike ardent Santa fans like jazz singer Molly Johnson, R&B performer Keshia Chante and pop crooner Kim Stockwood, the MacDonald brothers say they never bought into the magical story of Santa.

Mention Santa to guitarist John-Angus MacDonald and he's quick to point out that the image of the jolly old man was made famous in part by soft-drink giant Coca-Cola, which incorporated the red-and-white rendition we know today in its ads in 1931.

Prior to that incarnation, people around the world were more likely to envision the gift-laden figure as either leprechaun-like, a Scandinavian dwarf, a northern European goat, a white-robed girl or as a queer mixture of gnome and bishop, according to various legends.

Jazz singer Dione Taylor says she knew exactly what Santa looked like because as a kid she enjoyed a special moment with him every Christmas morning.

Until she was 10 years old, Taylor would be surprised not only by presents, but by a special guest waiting at her house in Regina.

"I would go downstairs and Santa would be waiting at the table and he'd have a special gift for me," Taylor recalls. "I'd talk with him and say, 'How was I this year? Was I naughty or nice?' It was really cool."

Chante says she wrote letters to Santa until age 12. She'd also make him cookies and left out milk on Christmas Eve as a kid in Ottawa.

"I'd go up in my room, and my mom would tell me that Santa comes around 11 o'clock every year, because I'd be sleeping by then," says Chante, now 18. "And usually by midnight I'd wake up and open presents with my family."

The idea that a jolly old man accompanied by flying reindeer would sneak into her house with gifts every year was thrilling, she says.

"Just the fantasy and excitement. Santa Claus is exciting for a little kid, especially knowing, 'Oh, I was a good girl all year, I'm going to get all the gifts!' "

Singer/songwriter Stockwood says waiting for Santa in Mount Pearl, N.L., near St. John's, was an unbearably exhilarating ordeal when she was young.

"I remember just, like, trying (to sleep)," says Stockwood, now the mother of two sons, ages one and three.

"I would have stapled my eyes shut because they kept coming open and I was thinking, 'If I don't go to sleep soon, Santa's gonna know and he's not going to leave me anything!' "

Santa Claus should be an integral part of any child's Christmas, insists Johnson.

The Toronto jazz artist says she encourages her two boys, ages six and nine, to believe wholeheartedly in anything magical that catches their imagination.

"Children need to be children as long as possible," says Johnson, who says she still believes in Santa.

"My thing with Santa Claus and fairies and fairy tales and Mary Poppins and things is: they only come if you believe. Once you stop believing in Santa, he'll know and he won't come. Mommy will be there with the present ... but it's about believing."