A North Carolina mother says the local Santa Claus fat-shamed her nine-year-old and made him cry, telling him to lay off the hamburgers and fries.
Anthony Mayse, 9, went to visit Santa in Forest City with his family and asked for an iPod Touch and a drone for Christmas, when he was allegedly fat-shamed, KSTU reported.
“When he got done, he said, ‘Lay off the hamburgers and french fries,” Mayse told WLOS. “And that really just disrespected me, and I felt awful.”
“It affected me so bad that I was crying until I went to bed that night,” he added. “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.”
Anthony’s mother Ashley called the Santa “very rude,” adding that “he acted like he didn’t want to do the job.”
“What set me off is when he started crying,” she said.
Anthony later tore up the picture he had with the Santa employed by the town.
The town manager said Santa apologized to the Mayse family and his supervisor, but his mother said that is not enough.
“I’m hoping he’s fired, because I don’t want any kid feeling like he did Saturday,” she said. “I mean, it destroyed him.”
There is no word on whether or not disciplinary action was taken against the Santa.
Another Santa lost his job for comments he made. A mall Santa in Florida was fired in November because he told a ten-year-old girl that Hillary Clinton was on the naughty list.