If you're a parent or grandparent who loves Christmas, chances are one of the things you get the most excited about is taking your little one to meet the man in red himself, Santa Claus. It's the perfect start to the holiday season, and usually comes alongside a bunch of other festive activities, like decorating the house, baking cookies, and doing your shopping.

Or course, anybody who's actually taken their toddler to meet Santa can tell you that it's not always quite as simple and straightforward as you would hope. Toddlers don't always like being handed off to a mysterious old man they've never met before, and the fact that he is (allegedly) the one that brings them presents and is supposed to be a jolly friend to good children is often kind of lost on them. A quick look at the internet shows that there's no shortage of photos of kids being absolutely terrified of Santa Claus.

So it came that Kerry Spencer, the mother to a toddler, took her son to visit the man in red at her local mall, and much like many children before him, the kid just was not having it. However, instead of screaming and crying like most children would, he had a bit of a different way of expressing how he felt...

Spencer posted her son's reaction to meeting jolly old Saint Nick online, where it quickly went viral. Not only does he have a look of pure confusion and terror on his face, but the best part is the sign he's making with his hands.

See, her son speaks American Sign Language, and in that particular language, the sign he's making is the sign for "help." So he's concerned for his life and literally asking for help. It'd be tragic if it wasn't so adorable and hilarious.

Spencer seems to be handling both her and her son's internet fame quite well, taking time to explain the picture to other Twitter users. Hopefully her son was able to ask Santa for what he wanted once he got over his initial fear!

Have you ever had a child get scared of Santa Claus? Let us know in the Facebook comments!