Mall Santa Goes Viral After Telling Child Who Asked For Nerf Gun “No Guns”

An Illinois mall Santa Claus has gone viral after video of him telling a child who asked for a NERF gun for Christmas “no guns” made its way to social media. On Sunday, Sabella DeCarlo shared video (originally posted by another person, Susan Parker) of her son’s visit to see Kris Kringle at the Harlem Irving Plaza mall in Norridge, Illinois. However, instead of it being a positive memorable visit for the child, the little boy was moved to tears after Santa told him that he would not bring him a gun of any sort and listed off various other gift alternatives.

DeCarlo wrote in her post that she quickly told her son that the mall Santa was really just a helper and not the real deal, but the video itself soon went viral, being shared by various others thousands of times on social media.

The video prompted a wide array of responses from those who viewed it — both positive and negative in terms of how they saw Santa’s response to the NERF gun request — but for some it was an opportunity to reference iconic holiday movies. A Christmas Story is one that came up more than a few times. Elf was referenced a few times as well. Others took this as an opportunity to suggest that maybe Jay and Silent Bob should get involved. Still others thought this might be a good time to suggest that maybe parents shouldn’t be perpetuating the Santa Claus concept at all. You can read on for a selection of some of the reactions.

As for the mall Santa, Harlem Irving Plaza posted to their Facebook page on Monday that the Santa had resigned after the incident and that the “real” Santa had visited the little boy at home to present him with the requested NERF gun, sharing their own video of that kinder moment “in hopes of restoring Holiday magic to everyone.”

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