Santa speaks her language

Put down your camera phones and camcorders, because the most heartwarmingly adorable holiday video clip of 2015 has already been set loose upon the Internet. Yes, it’s unlikely anything will top the festive wonderfulness of watching this unexpectedly talented mall Santa converse in sign language with one surprised and delighted six-year-old deaf girl.

Filmed in Middlesbrough, UK in the Cleveland Shopping Centre, the 41-second video shows a lively little girl sitting on a mall Santa’s lap. As he tries to communicate with her Santa gives the girl a little tap on the arm to get her attention and then begins speaking to her in sign language. A smile spreads across her face as she realizes what he is doing. Then she begins to sign back. A truly tear-jerking exchange follows, as Santa and the little girl have an animated conversation that appears to delight them both.

Now it’s delighting others. The video was published to YouTube on Saturday, and already has more than 200,000 views and 179 comments. Most commenters shared the fact that the video made them a little teary-eyed:

“Congrats you just made a 40 year old man squee over his 1st cup of coffee.  That is ADORABLE!!!” 

And:

“Another 40 year old man reporting in. For a second or two I felt like I had butterflies in my phantom uterus. So much AWWW”

And

Others wrote in to provide a charming explanation of this particular santa’s special talents:

“You can’t fool me mall-santa, I know you’re the real Santa.”