Santa Claus goes viral for his reaction when a little girl didn’t want to sit on his lap

This Santa Claus in Florida is truly magical. In this viral video posted by Katie Love on TikTok, Santa Claus responded in the best way to her daughter telling him she didn’t want to sit in his lap. While her 3-year-old daughter Adley looked like she just wanted to keep telling him what she wanted for Christmas, the message Santa provided wasn’t lost on others — the video has been viewed more than 260 thousand times at this point.

Santa praised Adley for being able to set boundaries for her body.

“I asked him to repeat what he said so that I could record it,” Adley’s mother told TODAY.com. 

“I said, ‘This is her body, and she’s in control of her body,’” Santa said in the video. “I asked if she wanted to sit on my lap, and she said, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Way to stand up for yourself.’”

He added, “You can’t let even Santa Claus — if Santa Claus says, ‘Do you want to sit on my lap?’ If you don’t want to, you say, ‘No!’” he added.

As far as the confused face in the video, Love told TODAY.COM, “I think part of that had to do with the fact that she had just told Santa she wanted a purple bike, and she was worried she wouldn’t get the bike after she didn’t sit on his lap,” Love said. “But you can see her start to smile when he reaffirmed her reaction and told her that it was OK to say no,” she said.

Don’t worry Adley, I have a feeling you’ll be getting that purple bike.

TODAY.com also spoke with Steve Lantz, also known as “The Rev Santa,” who says on his Instagram he’s “an ordained Presbyterian like Mr. Rogers.” Lantz got choked up when he realized why he was going viral. “My wife and I have a 6-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son, and we started teaching them at a very early age that they are in control of their bodies,” he told the publication.

He said he was very impressed with Adley.

Way to go parents for teaching your kids bodily autonomy from a young age, and way to go Santa for taking the time to talk about consent.