Special needs kids get visit from Santa, NYPD Highway Patrol at annual ‘Santa Sleigh Ride’

Santa skipped the ferry — and caught a cooler ride to Shaolin instead.

Kris Kringle himself teamed up with NYPD’s Highway Patrol to give out lots of goodies to special needs kids on Staten Island Wednesday.

Dozens of officers from the NYPD’s Highway 5 unit joined in for this year’s “Santa Sleigh Ride,” an event which has brought them to the Seton Foundation for Learning in Bulls Head for the last 12 years.

This year’s celebration was extra special, as it was event founder Det. Tommy Cerbone’s last in uniform before his upcoming retirement due to a 9/11-related kidney cancer diagnosis.

“We started this 12 years ago … I wanted to pay this thing forward that changed my life,” Cerbone told The Post.

The officers, family members and neighbors showered the kids in holiday hugs from Santa, handed out gifts and let them hop on the seats of the NYPD motorcycles.

The Seton Foundation is dedicated to teaching kids with an array of special needs, and for more than a decade Highway 5 has visited every holiday to make sure the kids don’t miss out on a visit from Santa.

The kids held a special ceremony for Carbone to honor and thank him for his work with them — but he insisted the day wasn’t about him.

“This is not a Det. Cerbone operation — this is a Highway 5 operation,” he said.

“This is a group effort with our civilians and our families — it’s a group effort. Without these children, we wouldn’t be here ourselves.”