Caring Santa Gives Children With Autism Memories To Last A Lifetime
BURLINGTON (CBS) - It's that time of year again, when parents dress up their kids and head to the mall for a photo with an old friend.
Unfortunately, for some families, the effort involved in seeing Santa just isn't worth the wait.
"My youngest son has autism and cannot wait in lines and has a tough time with noise and crowds," Pam Bybell told WBZ-TV.
That's why she started bringing her son to Caring Santa at the Burlington Mall. It's a program started by Autism Speaks. Malls across the country close down for a few hours on a Sunday in December to give kids who don't like the chaos time alone with Santa.
"The elevators are off, the music is off, there aren't crowds, the children get as much time with Santa as they want," Bybell said.
Her son Brett physically shuddered when we asked him about the line to see Santa on a normal day. At 16 he's now a little old to be coming to sit on Santa's lap so instead he came back as one of Santa's helpers.
"Here I'm helping kids create ornaments, do drawings all that while they wait for Santa," Brett said.
"Parents of kids with disabilities sometimes don't get these special treasured moments because of the challenges our kids face," Pam said.
It's no surprise that these milestones can be emotional for parents but the Caring Santa program even had Santa tearing up.
"It's emotional," he said, wiping a tear from his eye.
You could see him stifling sobs, as he looked at the children and the smiles on their faces.
"If we can just get one of the children to even smile it's more than any gift," Santa said.
It's an event in keeping with what the holiday season is really all about, one that brings more than a twinkle to the eye of old Saint Nick.
