Little boy uses sign language to call for help while on Santa's lap

But his face says it all.
 By 
Brian Koerber
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

A little boy creeped out while sitting on Santa's lap used baby sign language to tell his parents he was not feeling safe with Old Saint Nick.

Kerry Spencer shared an old photo of her son hanging out with a pretty convincing looking mall Santa when he was just 1 year old.

"We taught our baby sign language. This is the sign for 'help.' You're welcome," she wrote.

As if the little one even needed to sign for help. His face says it all.

Since sign language can have some variations, a few people on Twitter pointed out that this didn't look exactly like the sign for help.

"It's ASL baby sign, so he is slightly 'mispronouncing' the word," Spencer said via DM. "But it is the sign he always made when he needed help."

"We taught both our kids baby sign because they can sign before they talk and it is so very useful to be able to communicate with your baby," Spencer said.

Spencer also shared that this photo is several years old, but it has become somewhat of a tradition to share it on social media around Christmas time.

"I post it on Facebook annually and this year my friend, Mette Harrison, who writes bestselling books, asked me to tweet it so she could retweet it," Spencer said.

The tweet has since racked up over 22,000 likes and 5,000 retweets. Good move, Harrison.

Spencer says her son is now 13 years old, and by the looks of his Twitter, he's handling this whole internet viral fame thing pretty well.

"We all laugh at the photo now," Spencer said. "Posting it is one of our favorite family traditions."

photo of brian
Brian Koerber

Brian was the Culture Editor and has been working at Mashable on the web culture desk since 2014.

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