Baby Signing 'Help' In Santa Photo Will Make You Laugh

Sitting in Santa's lap at the mall is a timeless and at times awkward tradition. The moment is captured on camera for families to remember and the photos it yields are sweet, sad or downright hysterical. In the case of Kerry Spencer, a years-old photo of her son signing "help" while sitting in Santa's lap at a Utah mall falls into the third category.

Spencer says she taught both her children sign language, using it as a tool to communicate with them when they were babies and before they could speak. In an email Spencer shared with Patch, she said the photo was taken when her son was just a year old but she shares the photo every year on her Facebook page and describes it as one her family's favorite holiday traditions.

Spencer said she didn't realize her son Samuel, now 13 years old, was signing for help till she saw the photo. In the photo, she says he is slightly mispronouncing the word "help" but it's the sign he always made when he needed help.

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After the photo, Spencer didn't try to get her son to take any more photos with Santa. Spencer said her daughter, 11-year-old Lily, also doesn't like Santa very much. The family now lives in Parkton, Maryland.

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This year, at the urging of a friend, Spencer shared the photo on Twitter and it has been retweeted almost 8,000 times and liked close to 30,000 times.

Her family now laughs at the photo that has become an annual Christmas tradition.

After Spencer shared the photo on Twitter, others replied to her with some of their own awkward mall Santa photos.

Photo via Kerry Spencer, used with permission