Lifestyle

Santa Fat Shames 9-Year-Old And Leaves Him In Tears

by Sarah Hosseini
Image via Twitter

Santa to kid: ‘Lay off the hamburgers and french fries’

The guy that eats millions of cookies a year and prides himself on being zaftig is giving weight loss advice …. to a child. If that doesn’t get you on the naughty list (or fired) we don’t know what does. A mother in North Carolina says her nine-year-old son was in tears after a snarky Santa served up more than good cheer.

Ashley Mayse and her son Anthony were attending a Christmas event, ice skating and enjoying a carriage ride together, when they decided to visit Santa. This is when their jolly night took an awful turn. Anthony went up to Santa and asked him for an iPod Touch and a drone. Instead of ‘Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas kid I’ll see what I can do,’ Santa reportedly fat-shamed the boy.

“When he got done, he said, ‘Lay off the hamburgers and french fries,'” Anthony told WLOS. “And that really just disrespected me, and I felt awful.”

Daggers in our hearts. Santa attempted to destroy the little boy’s self-confidence and his spirit.

“Very rude. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ashley said. “I was just mind-blown. I wished a million times that we never went.”

For the record it’s never appropriate for a parent, family member, or anyone who’s not a healthcare professional to comment on a child’s body. Ever. I once had someone say to my then five-year-old daughter, “You’re so lucky, you’ll always be beautiful because you’re skinny.” Excusez moi? I was horrified. As calmly as possible I replied, “Well, in our family we teach our children that all shapes and sizes are beautiful.” I thought I was going to strangle the person for attempting to undo all of my body positivity lessons.

Santa’s job is to make kids happy. A professional generator of jolly good fun and cheer. Show up, say ‘ho, ho, ho,’ do a jolly laugh or two and listen to kids talk about all the crap they want.

Apparently, after the insulting incident (and hopefully some serious meditation at the North Pole), Santa did realize it’d be a good idea to give up the red suit gig and has since resigned.

The town manager also issued an apology to the mother and a statement confirming that the body-shaming Santa Claus will no longer be at his post. Anthony’s mother is relieved, not just for her son’s sake, but for other kids. She told the Huffington Post, “I hate that it came down to that, but I’m glad he’s gone and no other children will have to go through what my son did Saturday.” She continued, “It was really heartbreaking.”