The holiday season is often a time of magic for young children. They get to decorate their homes, have special events at school, and make a list of things that they hope to get on the big day. However, for one Illinois girl, her holidays started off rocky when she went to see a mall Santa who said something to her that didn’t sit well with her mother, and she got the entire thing on camera.
The TikTok video posted by user @niaroseberg, starts off with her 8-year-old daughter approaching a mall Santa Claus sitting in a large green velvet chair. The Santa had a classic look, complete with red suit, black boots, and fluffy white beard. However, when Nia’s daughter went to meet the big man, she was taken aback.
“Are you asking for a boyfriend for Christmas?” the Santa asks the little girl. She quickly shakes her head and replies, “No.” The video then cuts to the mother telling the woman working the counter about the situation. “I just feel like that’s inappropriate,” she explains. The woman quickly apologizes, but Nia isn’t done just yet. She decides to confront Santa himself.
Illinois Mother Confronts Mall Santa Over Inappropriate Behavior
“Why did you ask her does she want a boyfriend?” Nia asks the Santa. “It was just a joke,” he says, looking a bit stunned. “You can’t joke like that. She’s only 8-years-old. She felt really uncomfortable. I think for future references, you shouldn’t be asking kids stuff like that. That’s very unacceptable. Now she’s traumatized,” the concerned mother stated.
The mall Santa did apologize for his joke, and seemed to understand that what he said wasn’t appropriate. However, Nia isn’t about to let things go. She revealed in the comment section that she was planning follow-up with the mall and find out if the Santa had been fired for his actions.
“In a Santa Claus role, there is a clear power imbalance, as children are often encouraged to trust and interact with the character. Abusing this position for inappropriate conversation is a serious breach of trust,” one person commented. “That’s so wrong,” another agreed. “People are weird and say weird things. this is not okay,” a third person added. “This is why I stopped bringing my kids to go sit on a strangers lap!!” a fourth social media user declared.
In a follow-up video, the mother revealed that her daughter was so upset that she drew a photo of the situation, and wrote “Mall. Bad. Santa.” as the caption.
This mall Santa may be looking for a new job soon. Meanwhile, let’s hope that this little girl in Illinois doesn’t let any of this impact her holidays going forward.
