“It was so wonderful to watch.”

This is 36-year-old Erin Deely and her 6-year-old son Brayden of Charlotte, North Carolina. Like a lot of parents, Deely traditionally has her son take a picture with Santa at the local mall during the holiday season.

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As a baby, Deely would take Brayden to see Santa, but shortly after he turned 3, he was diagnosed with autism, and the photo-taking tradition has since become a challenge.

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We had to adjust to a life of therapy appointments in-and-out of our house, developmental specialists testing him, as well as doing therapy with Brayden on our own time to help him meet milestones.

We also had to sort of "grieve" that we wouldn't have typical holiday traditions (having pictures taken or throwing birthday parties, for example) because they were either too chaotic for Brayden or he just didn't understand that there was even a holiday happening.

Through a post on a Facebook group for parent's with special needs kids, Deely heard about the Caring Santa program, which gives autistic children a chance to meet the jolly man in the big white beard.

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