Normally if you tell a bunch of kids Santa isn't real, you're just being mean.  You're not a CRIMINAL.  Apparently, Canada is trying to change that.

Last week, a 24-year-old man was at a Christmas parade in Kingston, Ontario, Canada . . . and he was drunk.  As a float went down the street with Santa on board, the man shouted at a bunch of kids that SANTA WASN'T REAL.

And someone called the cops.  The man was TECHNICALLY arrested for public intoxication and violating his probation . . . but we all know he was REALLY arrested for telling kids Santa isn't real.

A police officer said the man's hair was gelled to, quote, "look like a set of devil horns" and that he's, quote, "pretty despicable to tell kids Santa isn't real."