An Illinois mall Santa is making news for all the wrong reasons after telling a young kid that he wouldn’t be bringing him a Nerf gun for Christmas.

Sabella DeCarlo brought her son Michael to the Harlem Irving Plaza shopping mall in Norridge, Illinois the other day so he could visit Santa, but the child ended up in tears after asking for a Nerf gun for Christmas, only to be told by sanctimonious Santa that he doesn’t deliver toy guns for Christmas.

Liberal Santa sends Young Boy Away in Tears After Refusing to Gift Him a Nerf Gun for Christmas @Hasbro pic.twitter.com/9QbKtxcJGK

— Matthew 🎄🎅🏻 🔫 (@WhiteHovse) December 7, 2020

On Facebook, DeCarlo wrote that this was the first year her son was actually excited to visit Santa.

It was supposed to be magical but instead I had to watch my sweet little boy fight back tears because Santa told him No because of his own personal beliefs. I had to think fast and explain to him that this Santa was just a helper and not the real guy. I just wanted to console my baby and get him out of there, flipping out on Santa would have only made it worse. His Elfie is going to bring him a Nerf gun directly from the North Pole, from the real Santa, tonight.

I have a feeling Michael is going to have more Nerf guns than he knows what to do with now that the story’s gone viral. In fact, Texas Rep. Chip Roy tweeted out an update to the story on Tuesday showing a special emissary from the mall making a home delivery to the DeCarlo residence.

Jolly Justice! The mall got rid of #WokeSanta & took the little boy the nerf gun. Worth a watch! #MerryChristmas & #StandUpForAmerica! https://t.co/AwTaSlAxH8 pic.twitter.com/o3yv25HyjJ

— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) December 8, 2020

Good for the mall for trying to make things right, and I hope that Woke Santa, as Rep. Roy called him, learns a Christmas lesson of his own; you leave your own politics aside once you put on your furry red suit. You’re there to make sure the kid walks away with a smile on his face, not to reenact your favorite scene from A Christmas Story and tell a child that they’ll shoot their eye out.

In a statement on Facebook, mall management posted an apology to DeCarlo and her son Michael, stating that the mall and the 3rd party Santa company are “deeply distraught” over what happened.

Santa is heartbroken and crushed that he has made this child so sad and upset, and turned in his resignation. The Santa company will continue to remind all Santa’s how important it is to not impose personal opinions during visits with the children.

HIP immediately contacted the family and worked with our Santa company in hopes of rectifying the situation. We are happy to report that the “real” Santa visited the boy at his home today to bring him a nerf gun! We hope we restored Christmas magic to this boy and his family with Santa’s special visit.

Sabella DeCarlo, on the other hand, is using the viral video to help other kids this Christmas. In a Facebook post, one of DeCarlo’s friends mentioned that she is now organizing a “large Nerf and toy collection for kids in need.” That’s a great way to turn lemons into lemonade (or maybe rotten eggs into eggnog), and great to see DeCarlo using her 5 minutes of fame to help others in addition to highlighting the issue with the anti-toy gun Santa.