FOREST CITY, N.C. (CNN) – It’s practically straight out of a “Bad Santa” movie.
A western North Carolina mother wants the local Santa Claus fired after saying things that put her 9-year-old son in tears.
On Saturday, an otherwise jolly time on Main Street led to a holiday moment the boy would like to forget.
“I went out and started crying, because I just felt so bad,” Anthony Mayse said of his conversation with Father Christmas.
“When he got done, he said, ‘Lay off the hamburgers and French fries’,” Anthony recalled. “And that really just disrespected me, and I felt awful.”
The family built the day around going to see Santa after several events.
“This year we thought it’d be fun to take the carriage ride and let the kids ice skate and go see Santa,” mom Ashley Mayse said.
Meeting St. Nick should have been the kicker, not the heartbreaker.
According to Anthony and his mother, he sure didn’t act like a saint.
“He acted like he didn’t want to be there to do the job,” Ashley Mayse said.
Anthony was asking for an iPod Touch and a drone for Christmas when the family said he was body shamed.
“Very rude. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ashley told WLOS. “What set me off is when he started crying.”
“I was just mind-blown,” Ashley said. “I wished a million times that we never went.”
Anthony said he was saddened by the incident.
“It affected me so bad that I was crying until I went to bed that night,” Anthony said. “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’.”
He later tore up his picture with Mr. Claus, who’s employed to spread good cheer by the Rutherford County town of Forest City.
The town manager said Santa had apologized to both the supervisor and the Mayse family. He wouldn’t tell WLOS whether disciplinary action was taken.
“When he went to apologize to me, he didn’t even mean it,” Anthony said.
Instead of a letter to Santa, Ashley would prefer the city send a “pink slip.”
“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.”
They’d like the Forest City Santa to “lay off” the insensitive comments. For now, no more St. Nick for them.
“Never again,” Ashley said.
“I’d probably go to the mall, but not Forest City again,” Anthony said.