Meeting Santa is a magical moment for any child, but for one Father Christmas in a New Zealand shopping centre, he decided to swap ‘ho, ho, ho’ for ‘no, no, no’.
In a video shared on Facebook, Carter - a Deaf boy who uses New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) - sat next to the famous Lapland resident and asked him for a Gold Iron Man toy for Christmas.
Unfortunately, the only thing that was Stark here was Santa’s reply, who turned to the boy’s mother and asked: “Is there nothing you can do to help him with surgery?
“Nothing you can do to fix it?”
The mum stood firm in her response, signing as she said: “No, no need for that … No, there is nothing to fix, we have sign language.”
Carter then collected a small present from Santa, signing “thank you”, walking away with his mum.
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The clip has since been reposted to Twitter, where people have expressed their shock at Santa’s remarks:
Santa is on my naughty list this year. 😵💫
— Quinn 🦻🏽 (@Quinns_quirks) November 28, 2021
Glad the boy’s mother advocated with him. But geez.
Embarrassing
— Craig Merry 🐘🌊 (@CraigMerry) November 28, 2021
A role model Mum - yes! A role model - Santa NO!
— Daliah Pietersen (@DaliahPietersen) November 28, 2021
Glad she stood up and expressed the right words. Deaf awareness courses for all Santas please!
Kuddos to the mom, but I’m sorry if I was there or this was my child I would have probably been more pissed like “what surgery Santa? What surgery does my perfectly communicative child need?” 😒
— Bre 👻✨ (@magic_bre) November 28, 2021
Great response from Mum but a little sad she had to advocate for her son in this way TO SANTA!!
— Emily Beardshall (@EmilyBeardshall) November 28, 2021
This 👇🏽 😤 #SantaStruckOff as he could do some serious damage to young and impressionable minds. #Audism #Ableism at its worst. https://t.co/YeD4UdFeJj
— Deaf4Deaf (@Deaf_4_Deaf) November 29, 2021
Everyone is pissed at the Santa and I get it! Me too! But also - you’ve run into *so many* hearing people who think this, right? What really angers me is how widespread this thinking is because of the various ways that the media plants and reinforces this harmful misconception. https://t.co/R5fyaFhvLk
— Jenna Beacom, M.Ed (@jfbeacom) November 29, 2021
Advocating to “fix” Deaf/ HOH ppl is cultural erasure. The Deaf community has a rich culture and history, and oftentimes getting a cochlear implant a) causes someone to feel alienated from this culture, and b) reinforces the fact that they need “fixed”. They don’t. https://t.co/J2YfDXGzOT
— Noelle (@Gingrsnappr) November 28, 2021
Commenting on the incident, the NZSL with Carter Facebook page wrote: “This is not the first time I’ve had to have this conversation with Santa. It’s awful having to answer these questions in front of Carter - when we are there to talk about his Christmas Wishlist!
“I kept up my smile but wanted to get out of there as quick as possible!”
