A terminally ill little boy was granted his one wish for Christmas — to meet Santa Claus — and ended up dying in Old St. Nick’s arms.

“They say I’m gonna die,” the 5-year-old child whispered to Eric Schmitt-Matzen, who plays Santa for the holidays, as the boy lay minutes from death in a Tennessee hospital. “How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?”

An emotional Schmitt-Matzen replied, “When you get there, you tell ’em you’re Santa’s No. 1 elf, and I know they’ll let you in.”

The devastating moment for Schmitt-Matzen, a 300-plus-pound mechanical engineer who looks like a real-life Kris Kringle, occurred several weeks ago after a nurse called him and told him to come quickly.

The 60-year-old Santa didn’t even have time to change into his regular getup. He rushed to the hospital 15 minutes later in only his Santa suspenders, although he still looked the part with his long, white beard and prodigious belly.

The nurse handed him a gift she had ready for the boy.

“When I walked in, he was laying there, so weak it looked like he was ready to fall asleep,’’ Schmitt-Matzen told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “I sat down on his bed and asked, ‘Say, what’s this I hear about you’re gonna miss Christmas? There’s no way you can miss Christmas. Why, you’re my No. 1 elf.’ ”

The unidentified boy perked up, using his last burst of energy to unwrap the present.

After Schmitt-Matzen assured him that he was passing on to a better place, the boy gave Santa a hug and asked a final question: “Santa, can you help me?”

“I wrapped my arms around him,” Schmitt-Matzen recalled. “Before I could say anything, he died right there. I let him stay, just kept hugging and holding on to him.”

The boy’s mom ran in moments later, screaming, “No, no, not yet!” as the nursing staff broke down in tears.

“I spent four years in the Army with the 75th Rangers and I’ve seen my share of [stuff],” Schmitt-Matzen said. “But I ran by the nurses’ station bawling my head off. I know nurses and doctors see things like that every day, but I don’t know how they can take it.”

It was so upsetting, he canceled a trip to visit his own grandchildren the next day. Schmitt-Matzen couldn’t get his mind off the heartbreaking moment for weeks.

“Actually, I thought I might crack up and never be able to play [Santa] again,” he said.

But Schmitt-Matzen managed one more event. “For them and for me,” he said.