The 'Caring Santa' makes a stop in Lafayette

A very special Santa made a stop in Lafayette Sunday morning.

Tippecanoe Mall hosted a "Caring Santa" event for children with special needs.

Emily Maresh said she was excited to hear about the event that allowed her family to bring all three of their children.

"This has been wonderful for us," Maresh said. "Our son was just trached and vented in September so being his first Christmas we weren't sure what we were going to be able to do, and we got an email talking about the ability pact having caring Santa here at the mall it's just great because the girls wanted to come and we wanted to have everyone in the photo instead of just the two girls."

More than 20 families lined up to sit on Santa's lap and get their picture taken. In that line was Chelsie Owens who said she took her son to see Santa last year, but it didn't go as planned.

"Didn't turn out to well because he got over stimulated real quickly," Owens said. "He started crying."

With smaller crowds, dimmer lights, no loud music and a Santa that is specifically trained to interact with special needs children Owens and other families said this year was a big success.

"And doing the Caring Santa this year, it's our first year of actually doing it, it's wonderful," Owens said. "There's no loud music, there's not a lot of people, not a lot of distractions and we were able to get him to go right up to Santa and actually got some very good pictures with him."

"I think it's great that they set aside time for families to come and do this without all of the rush and hustle and bustle and standing in lines for long times," mother of three Melinda Dupler-Singer said.

"It makes Christmas special," Maresh said. "That first Christmas to remember, and the girls get to have a picture of them with their little brother which is a big celebration. We just got out of the hospital from a 68-day visit."

Many parents said this was the first time their children have ever got to visit with Santa, and it won't be the last.