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CALEB RYAN SIGMON is an American actor who also works as a Santa Claus in his local shopping centre.

He’s been sharing tales of his time as Santa on his Facebook page recently, calling them ‘Stories From The Big Chair’.

His most recent story has been shared over 55,000 times and it’s absolutely heartbreaking.

Caleb posted this photo of himself and a picture that a grieving father gave to him

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His story begins:

A man walked in today holding something in his arms. “I have a request,” he said, turning around this picture frame. He took a moment. “My son passed away, last year.” He choked up and couldn’t finish his sentence. The entire photo set was silent. I said, “Absolutely.”

Without anyone saying anything, he handed me the frame and I placed it on my knee. In the photo, I could see on the little boy’s armband that his first name was Hayden. I didn’t ask any questions, but I am guessing that this is his first photo with Santa.

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There were touching scenes surrounding Santa and the dad in the shopping centre at the time:

The camera snap was the only sound I could hear through the entire mall. Normally, I hear all kinds of music and sounds, but it was absolutely silent. After a handful of clicks, we walked over to the screen and he pointed, saying, “That’s the one.” The girl working the computer printed him a full photo package and he pulled out his wallet, saying that this was going to be his gift to his wife.

We gave him the printed package, telling him that it was a gift and that we would be praying for his family, this Christmas. He grabbed my hand and pulled me in and hugged me, then turned around and left. As he walked out, we all had tears in their eyes.

He wrapped up his story with these words:

I’m sharing this to remind us all that Christmas time is unbelievably hard for some families. Pray for the brokenhearted. Smile at people. Just be kind. Love one another.

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