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Buddy the Elf looked an awful lot like an Idaho 14-year-old girl’s dad.

A man dressed up as Buddy the Elf, the lead character played by Will Ferrell in the Christmas movie “Elf,” started yelling in front of Middleton High School.

“I walked out and saw someone dressed up like Buddy the Elf, and it looked a lot like my dad,” Alayna Sumsion, a freshman at the high school, told McClatchy News. “But as soon as he started walking closer and I got closer, I could tell it was really my dad. I thought, ‘This should be fun.’”

Some teenagers would be embarrassed by their dad showing up to school screaming like a famous and beloved movie character, but Alayna thought it was a blast.

Her father, Gregory Sumsion, 43, said the behavior doesn’t surprise his daughter because it’s how he is. On that day, however, Alayna was expecting her mom to pick her up from school, so her dad’s appearance was a bit of a shock.

She had no idea it was coming, but Gregory was planning it for some time. Like many families, theirs was hit hard financially in 2020, Gregory said.

Instead of exchanging gifts this holiday season, they decided to spread cheer and do acts of kindness for others.

“We decided that instead of doing presents because we don’t have that kind of money, we were going to try to make other people happy and spread the cheer to other people, and their reactions would be our present,” Gregory said.

They had planned to pass out elf figurines to children as one part of their holiday gift. When the duo was looking for other ideas, Gregory found a wig perfect to dress like Buddy the Elf.

“Because I knew that the best way to spread that cheer was to just kind of go in character, and let these kids just smile,” Gregory said. “And that’s what Christmas really is for me is just seeing that smile from kids.”

Gregory and Alayna didn’t expect the video to go viral. He started a TikTok account two weeks ago and posted the video there. Alayna, unlike many 14-year-olds, doesn’t have or want social media.

The TikTok was posted on Tuesday and had more than 683,000 likes and 74,600 shares as of Friday. Gregory said he didn’t post it thinking it would go viral, and that wasn’t his intention.

They didn’t know how big of a reach the video had until one of Alayna’s friends called her.

“She got a phone call later that evening from one of her best friend’s older sisters and she said, ‘Alayna, you’ve gone viral,’” Gregory said. “And Alayna’s first thought was, ‘Crap, do I have to quarantine?’ I found that kind of funny that she had no idea this was coming.”