How to spot a fake in the shopping centre!

When I was a child I watched the film My Fair Lady over and over again.  My mother introduced me to the joyous story and the delightful Audrey Hepburn.  I was hooked and could happily mouth along with the words to both the songs and the dialogue.  Eleven years ago I moved to a London flat located nearby the shopping centre, Whiteleys in Bayswater.  Each time I visit I am reminded of a line from the aforementioned film when Henry Higgins asks where a dress can be purchased for Eliza to wear to the horse races.  The quick response from Pickering is, “Whiteleys of course!” Graceful ironwork, wide corridoors and a sweeping staircase adorn this emporium to all that is coveted.  It was however a much more sophisticated place in its heyday.  A world away from the mall that it has morphed into, Whiteleys was originally a department store selling fine bespoke goods.  This was the place to turn to for a glamorous gown, travelling trunk or millinary worthy for an outing at Ascot.  I still appreciate the store for the variety of wares available today but I fear that there is currently a fake good on offer at the very heart of the building.  I hasten to add that I cannot verify this claim, but am simply responding to the allegation that I have been offered by an eleven year old girl.  She told me that she has every reason to believe the Santa currently housed in the central Christmas tree at Whiteleys is a fake, or to quote her exact words, “That Santa is a phoney!”  She backed up her argument by convincing me that the real Santa is far too busy at this time of year to spend all day in a shopping centre, holed away in an equally dubious non deciduous tree.  I went to Whiteleys today to see for myself but a very large elf was guarding the door and as I was not in the company of a child, I thought the Santa might become suspicious if I visited him on my own.  I am not certain of the correct way to proceed on the matter.  Should the Office of Fair Trading be alerted or perhaps a word with Whiteley’s management would alleviate this niggling doubt.  My eleven year old friend has come up with a solution.  She has offered to sleep underneath her own, very real, needle shedding Christmas tree on 24^th December and ask the genuine Santa if he has been moonlighting in Whiteleys.