Feb 3, 2014
Part Three of Four …in which our fearless podcaster brings up religion, politics and sex while he continues his Top 40 countdown of Doctor Who stories. Topics include dangerous breasts, Tom Baker going Superfly in the middle of a story, why stupid kids will survive an alien invasion, and Matt Smith doing his Bill Cosby impression.
Still enjoying your countdown. I don't know whether kids in Scotland pray to Santa, but I rather doubt it. In much the same way that (as you rightly point out) the duck pond bit is a throwaway, so is the praying to Santa. It just seems like something a little kid might do. Heck, we don't even play the Santa game with our six-year-old girl, but she still enjoys singing the Santa songs, getting her picture with Santa, etc. If she really thought Santa were real, I could imagine her talking/praying to him.
Also, there is a tendency of some Christians to view Jesus/God as a kind of "Santa Claus" figure, who gives us whatever we want and ask for. So maybe the scene is playing with that some, too. But I really think the major point is just to establish Amelia as an imaginative and, at the moment, scared little girl.