When you get to those pearly gates, you tell em youre Santas No. 1 elf, and I know theyll let you in, Schmitt-Matzen recalled telling the boy.
A child who has not reached the age of reason and therefore is not responsible for sin is not going to be rejected from Heaven. The kid was only five. I doubt seriously what the Santa told the child would be considered by God to be mocking him. This is of course assuming the story is true.
What would you have told the child?