Man Dresses As Buddy The Elf To Meet Dad For First Time

A man who never knew his father dressed up as Buddy from the film Elf when he went to meet him for the first time.

Doug Henning, from Maine, US, had arranged to meet his long lost dad at Boston's Logan Airport, and thought the only way to do it was to dress up as Will Ferrell's character from the hit Christmas movie.

The only problem was that his dad had never seen the film before, so had no idea what he was on about.

In a video showing the emotional moment the two meet for the first time, Doug, 43, can be seen putting on his elf boots and getting into character before his dad arrives.

Then, as his father walks over to his car, Doug starts hopping around with a cardboard sign that reads 'Dad', and shouting: "I'm here, with my dad, and we've never met, and I was adopted, but you never knew I was born.

"But now you found me, and you're here, and guess what? I love you, I love you, I loooove you."

Doug Henning

An understandably confused Raul then hugs Doug, saying: "Oh my son, my boy."

People watching on can be heard cheering for the father and son.

Speaking after the meeting, Doug told Boston.com that his dad must have thought he was a 'lunatic'.

The US marine said: "When he came out of the airport, he probably thought I was a lunatic.

"It was a really good way to break the ice. We ultimately sat down as a family and watched the movie."

Doug said he was brought up by an 'amazing' pair of adoptive parents, however, he recently connected with Raul after tracking him down on Ancestry.com.

Doug Henning

The pair have been keeping in touch and speaking over Zoom over the past few months, but had yet to meet in person.

Raul told Doug about how he moved to the US from Colombia in the 1970s and that he was sorry he missed so much of his life.

After getting to know each other, they found they had a huge amount in common besides their genes, with them both working in television - Doug a camera operator and Raul a sound mixer.

Doug is married with two daughters, and is the first of Raul's children to have kids of their own.

Speaking about the reaction to the video, Doug said: "I'm just glad it was able to bring people some happiness."

Topics: Inspirational, US News, US Entertainment, Elf

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

@SmithersDom