Plenty of kids dream of meeting Santa only to be intimidated by the jolly icon once they get near him.

But for Baiz Weerts, his 6-year dream of finally meeting Santa was almost crushed by his anxiety. Weerts is autistic and also has a condition called selective mutism. The latter causes him to shut down in social settings, rendering him unable to speak or participate when he’s overwhelmed even though he can speak normally at home and in other familiar situations.

Despite dreaming of meeting Santa since the age of 2, Weerts could never bring himself to approach him on family trips to the mall.

“Baiz asks to go to the mall almost every weekend. He’s like ’I’m gonna do it this time!’ But as soon as we get there, he freezes,” Weerts’ mother, Sheila Seelye, told TODAY Parents. “So, we sit and watch from afar while he works through his feelings.”

But this year, at 8 years old, he decided he wanted to go for it.

Baiz and his twin sister Layna went to the mall with their mom. Layna wanted her picture taken with Santa and ran right up to him at the Gurnee Mill Shopping Center.

But her brother just couldn’t follow her.

“Baiz was emotional because he wanted to follow her but he couldn’t do it,” Seelye said.

As Layna sat on Santa’s lap, Baiz became frustrated with himself and shut down, crawling into the shopping cart in tears.

Seelye was heartbroken for her son. But little did she know that someone was watching and he too felt bad for Baiz – it was Santa himself.

When Layna’s turn was done and she had gotten her cherished photo with the man in the red suit, Santa got out of his chair and slowly made his way over to the little boy. He knew what was going on and wanted to make Baiz’s Christmas special.

Now Seelye and her son were both in tears at the gesture.

While Baiz simply couldn’t interact due to his condition, he let Santa gently stroke his head and arm and took a candy cane and sticker from him.

“He knew just how to calm Baiz down,” Seelye said of the emotional moment. “He kept telling him, ‘You’re OK buddy. You’re gonna be OK.’ He knew just what Baiz needed in that moment. I’ve never seen him so happy.”

Seelye was emotional in part because the family had also just gone through a tough time. Baiz had been sick recently and was in and out of the hospital, so he was feeling extra vulnerable. Getting the chance to realize his dream brought the whole family an extra dose of holiday cheer.

“The timing was perfect,” Seelye said. “Santa picked the right child at the right time.”

While Baiz was anxious during the meeting and nervously rolled the cart belt in his hands for comfort, he didn’t shy away from Santa. And when their meeting was over, he was able to express his delight. In fact, he couldn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the day.

“I believe that was the real Santa mommy, I feel it in my soul,” he told his mother.

Since Seelye got the moment on video, thousands have now watched the touching moment on her Facebook page.

Be sure to scroll down below to see the sweet encounter for yourself.

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Source: TODAY, Sheila Weidner Seelye via Facebook