It was one of the feel-good stories that came out just in time for the holidays even though it was centred around a sad situation but, it was so feel-good that people forgot to check if it was in fact, true.

On Wednesday, the Knoxville News Sentinel revealed that they could not verify a columnist's account of a man from Tennessee who plays Santa Claus nor could they verify that he did have an encounter with a child as he died in his arms.

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The story was published early this week and quickly went viral which in turn put the spotlight on Eric Schmitt-Matzen who has been dressing up as Santa Claus for more than 9 years. 

During an interview with The Washington Post, Schmitt-Matzen stuck by his story saying that he was called over to a nearby hospital to grant a terminally ill 5-year-olds wish to see Santa Claus in real life. He then went on to say that the unnamed boy had died last month after he had told the child that he was Santa's "number one elf". Unfortunately, he refused to provide any other details surrounding the story saying that he doesn't want to reveal the identity of both the child as well as the medical personnel who were present during their encounter.

Jack McElroy, editor of the News Sentinel confirmed that they have done additional research in an attempt to verify the story and although Schmitt-Matzen has been verified to have been dressing up as Santa for almost a decade, his story about the dying child remains unverified. 

In a statement that was released yesterday, McElroy said, "The story does not meet the newspaper's standards of verification, therefore we are no longer standing by the veracity of Schmitt-Matzen's story."

The Post also could not find any further details regarding the story and were not able to disprove the story that Schmitt-Matzen had told one of their writers, Sam Venable.

Venable, who happens to be one of the veteran writers at The Post has refused to comment on the story that gained worldwide recognition after CNN, NBC and Fox News aired the video that quickly went viral on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Tagsviral, False News, christmas, Santa Claus