“It wasn't a visit. It was a moment our family will tell stories about for years.”
— ABC7 Los Angeles
ABC7 Los Angeles covered Charles Graves’s Southern California appearances during the 2024 holiday season, helping introduce the Deaf Santa Claus Foundation to California Deaf communities ahead of the documentary’s wider release. The segment focused on the contrast between traditional mall-Santa experiences and what happens when a Deaf child meets a Santa who signs.
ABC7’s reporting also surfaced the broader infrastructure question: how do programmers, malls, schools, and community organizations book a Deaf Santa, and what’s involved in making that booking accessible (interpreters, captions, sensory-aware environments)? The segment connected viewers to the foundation’s host-an-event resources.
The ABC7 coverage was part of the 2024 holiday season groundwork that made the December 2025 theatrical tour stops on the West Coast — SIFF Cinema, Grand Illusion, Sedona — viable as audience events rather than just film bookings.
Read the full article on ABC7 Los Angeles (opens in new window)
