A 9-year-old boy in North Carolina said he was fat-shamed and left in tears by a local Santa Claus after sharing his Christmas wish list over the weekend.
Anthony Mayse went to the mall in Forest city with his family because his mother wanted to get the family into the Christmas spirit, television station WLOS reported.
“This year we thought it’d be fun to take the carriage ride and let the kids ice skate and go see Santa,” Ashley Mayse told WLOS.
After he sat on Santa’s lap and asked for an iPod Touch and a drone, Anthony Mayse said Santa told him to “Lay off the hamburgers and French fries.”
Anthony Mayse told the station he felt awful about the comment and began to cry.
“What set me off is when he started crying,” Ashley Mayse told WLOS.
Anthony Mayse was so upset by the encounter he ended up throwing away his picture with Santa.
“It affected me so bad that I was crying until I went to bed that night,” Anthony said. “And I want to say to him, ‘You don’t want to disrespect a 9-year-old. Even though what shape and size you are, it doesn’t matter,'” Ashley Mayse told WLOS.
The Santa later apologized to Mayse family, but it was unclear if he faced any disciplinary action.
Ashley Mayse believes the Santa should be fired.
“I’m hoping he’s fired, because I don’t want any kid feeling like he did Saturday,” she told the station. “I mean, it destroyed him.”
