Insensitive Santa Ruins Visit for Little Boy Who Uses a Wheelchair

Marc Ollerenshaw is speaking out after his 6-year-old son, who uses a wheelchair, had a terrible experience visiting Santa.

“Absolutely disgusted with the Santa at Gouldings Winter Wonderland! It’s our first year there and we loved it—didn’t even mind the 90 minute wait,” he says. “But to then get to Santa, and as Harley entered the room in his wheelchair, the first words out of Santa’s mouth were, ‘oh what happened to you? Was you in an accident?’”

Needless to say, the Scotland dad is furious. As a parent, all you want is for your child to be accepted and treated the same as every other kid—regardless of the differences each person has. So it was pretty insensitive for the Santa to blatantly call out the little boy’s use of a wheelchair immediately upon meeting him.

The worst part, Santa didn’t stop after his first invasive question.

When Harley, the youngster, explained that he “was born like this,” ol’ Saint Nick then proceeded to ask him if he’d ever be able to walk again. He was so preoccupied with the little boy’s wheelchair, he never even got around to asking him what he wanted for Christmas.

Spoiling the family’s outing, they decided to leave right after the interaction. Before they left, however, the dad spoke to a manager to call attention to the incident. The manager offered them a free pass to come back for another visit during the week, which they don’t plan on using.

“We are utterly disgusted with the Santa…Harley has done nothing but ask questions on the way home, and has told us that he didn’t like it and doesn’t want to go back,” the dad explains.

Kids look forward to their visit with Santa all season long, so it’s super-unfortunate Harley’s trip went so poorly. Where this Santa lacks, other Santas excel. Another little boy, who is blind and autistic, had an incredible interaction, where Santa went out of his way to make his visit special.