Broke: Dreaming of the Red Ryder Carbine Action air rifle. Woke: Shaming a child in public to the point of tears over a request for a friggin’ Nerf gun.

Count me with Meghan McCain — this person is a flat-out garbage choice for any interaction with children, let alone as Santa Claus:

What is this garbage? This man is a woke Santa who hates nerf guns and so he makes kids cry?! If your liberal politics are too much of an issue to interact with children maybe you shouldn’t be a Santa! https://t.co/v9QKJ2JH6e

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) December 8, 2020

“No, no guns,” he said in a video posted Monday after the boy said he wanted a gun. The boy’s mother then clarified the request, saying, “A Nerf gun.”

“Nope, not even a Nerf gun,” Santa replied in the video, which has been viewed more than 200,000 times. “Nope. If your dad wants to get it for you, that’s fine, but I can’t bring it to you.”

He continued: “What else would you like? There’s lots of other toys. There’s Legos, there’s bicycles, there’s cars and trucks. What do you think?”

The boy then began to cry as his mother walked over to console him.

Imagine bringing your child all the way to a mall Santa in the middle of a pandemic just so he can capture a small part of the magic of Christmas, and then getting tangled up in someone’s Woke Lecture Series instead. At least in A Christmas Story, the Santa had a real safety issue in mind — “you’ll poke your eye out, kid!” (Also: Ralphie nearly did later in the film.)  There is no safety issue with Nerf guns or in this kid’s earnest request for one. There’s only an adult imposing his political agenda on kids just looking for a brief sense of wonder and joy with Santa Claus, and shaming them for violating his taste in Christmas gift requests.

Garbage might be too mild a word, come to think of it.

Thankfully, this does have a happy ending. It even ends with a firing — although not in the firearms sense:

Jolly Justice! The mall got rid of #WokeSanta & took the little boy the nerf gun. Worth a watch! #MerryChristmas & #StandUpForAmerica! https://t.co/AwTaSlAxH8 pic.twitter.com/o3yv25HyjJ

— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) December 8, 2020

That’s how you restore the magic … and maybe send a message to the wokesters who intrude on the joy of children. Someone’s getting a lump of coal in their stocking, that’s for sure.