Blind, autistic boy 'sees' Santa for first time
Photos of Texas boy, who is blind and autistic, getting to 'see' Santa for the first time go viral.
A Texas mother’s post about the “Best Santa ever” has gone viral after she shared moving photos of her 6-year-old son, who is blind and autistic, touching Santa’s face and feeling his suit as they shared a special moment.
The Wolf family, of Watauga, had traveled to Cabela’s on Dec. 5 to meet Santa after Matthew expressed an interest in him.
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“I went over there and whispered real quick I said, ‘He’s blind and he’s autistic but very interested in Santa,’” Wolf told Fox 4 News.
What followed next, according to Wolf’s Facebook page that has received more than 224,000 reactions and nearly 95,000 shares, was a little bit of Christmas magic.
“He said ‘say no more’ and immediately got down on the floor to greet my little man,” Wolf wrote on Facebook. “He talked to Matthew for a long time. Let him feel all over him. Told him to pull his beard, feel his hat and talked about his red suit.”
Wolf told Fox 4 News that her son’s favorite book is “’Twas Night Before Christmas,” but that she had never realized that he didn’t really know what a “twinkle” in the eye meant.
“He asked Matthew if he wanted to feel anything and Matthew said, ‘your eyes that twinkle’ (from the poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas) so Santa let him touch all over his eyes for as long as Matthew wanted.”
Matthew was then brought over to Santa’s reindeer display so that he could feel what the animal’s fur is like.
“It was great,” Wolf wrote. “My heart was full seeing Matthew so interest.”
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The man who donned Santa’s suit was not identified in Wolf’s post, but Fox 4’s Lauren Przybyl posted on Facebook that he is James Langley, who has an adult child with special needs.
“All children need is love,” Langley told the news outlet.
Matthew had only asked Santa for water during his visit, which Wolf said is typical of her son.
“He’s not like all the other kids that want a bunch of toys,” she told the news outlet. “He’s just not into that. He’d rather have that experience and actually find out what Santa is.”
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