Do parents ever actually follow through with threats of no Christmas presents for kids?

We all know that Santa Claus doesn't give presents to kids who have been , but I wonder how many parents actually follow through on that. For example, I just read a post on Yahoo Answers where someone's 3-year old son flushed the TV remote down the toilet. Now they probably have to call the plumber, and that will be expensive. If I was the mother, I would consider returning all his presents and using the money to pay for the plumber. Then on Christmas morning I would explain that since he'd been , Santa didn't leave him anything. Would this be effective in teaching him to behave?