Santa Claus no longer exists for the children of Santa Catarina, Brazil -- but not because someone admitted that he's a fictional character. At a public unveiling for the year's Christmas display in the poverty-stricken region, holiday revelers watched in horror as an apparent mechanical error caused St. Nick to catch fire and ultimately burn completely beyond recognition.

Luckily for all you pyromaniacs out there, people can still afford camera phones in Brazil and captured the entire sequence for your gleeful or horrified eyes, depending on your level of resentment from your own childhood experiences with Tim Allen.

Of course, no one knows for sure what caused the fire. While it could be a malfunction of some sort, as we have speculated, it could just as easily have been a crazy Brazilian arsonist. After all, this is the country that, just two years ago, fired rifles at Santa's sleigh as it descended into Rio to distribute Christmas gifts. Luckily, Santa brought everyone the Kevlar they asked for before he went up in smoke.