A mother has criticized a ‘malicious Santa’ who is said to have smoked in public and used profanity – prompting the six-year-old to ask some awkward questions.
Charli Lewis, 26, feels she ‘abandoned’ daughter Layla after disappointing festival experience in Greater Manchester – The schoolgirl meets the giant for the first time.
Charli said she spotted the Father Christmas impersonator pulling down his beard to smoke in the parking lot at the Radcliffe Boys and Girls club.
She said he was ‘wobbled’ when organizers asked him to go back to his cave – but he didn’t seem to know where it was.
When Layla finally got the chance to sit on Santa’s lap, Charli said they saw him ‘collapsed on the couch’ with his belly on display.
Charli claims that he’s not trying to be festive and rude.
But Laura De-Foe, the event organizer, insisted Santa was a ‘wonderful and gentle man’.
“He would never intentionally upset a child, and some of the other kids that left were very happy and told us we did a great job and they would come back,” she said. speak Bury Times.
Charli said Father Christmas ‘didn’t try to be his voice’ and ‘didn’t do anything like Santa Claus’ when she and Layla visited the cave on November 27.
“I feel like I let her down as a mother,” she revealed.
Describing the moment they arrived at the car park, Charli said: ‘He was smoking a cigarette with a beard around his neck.
‘I tried to block Layla in the car…so she wouldn’t see.
“But she said, ‘Oh, look, there’s Santa Claus.
‘I don’t know if she saw the cigarette in his mouth.
‘We followed him a bit, and we were just behind him, and the event organizer said, ‘Go back to your cave’. “
“He replied that he forgot where it was.”
Charli said Layla had ‘a lot of questions’ when they got back to their car.
‘She said she knew it wasn’t real Santa, stuff like that.
‘I’ve tried to get Layla to meet Santa before, but she’s a bit of a nervous kid.
‘She always retreats last minute, so it’s the first time I’ve really wanted to take her, and it’s the first experience she’s had now.
‘Children don’t take long to believe in Santa, which is why it’s so important for them to have a good experience, but this Santa doesn’t act like Santa at all. “
Luckily, Layla now has a second chance to see Father Christmas thanks to Radcliffe Litter Pickers, an organization in which schoolgirls volunteer in their spare time.
Volunteers came together to form a club to pay for the six-year-old boy to visit Santa at a local Christmas market.
A spokesman said: ‘A good Santa keeps the magic of Christmas alive, which is so important for a child’s early years.
‘They need to have a good first experience, so we wanted to help clear Layla’s bad memory.’
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https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/03/manchester-girl-horrified-by-bad-santa-who-smoked-and-slurred-words-15712832/ Manchester: Girl horrified by 'bad Santa' smoking and swearing
