to feel my niece's birthday 'wish list' has given me hope for the future

[Lydiaatthebarre]

She's be 11 next Monday and I asked her to email me her 'wish list' so that I could choose something from it.

The list requests:
Pyjamas
A couple of books (named ones that she wants)
A Painting by numbers kit
A new lunch box
A Selection box.

It's the kind of list I could imagine kids drawing up when I was young.

AIBU to be delighted that there are no expensive items, phone accessories, or faddy 'latest must haves' on the list, and to find it quite sweet and uplifting?

My DD once asked for a pet pig, that was all she wanted!

The Christmas that every child wanted Buzz and Woody from Toy Story my 4 year old DC just wanted a Toy Story hat and a Toy Story video...until bedtime on Christmas Eve when he announced that he wished he had asked Father Christmas for "those men" . Sadly Father Christmas had already packed the sleigh so couldn't oblige.

My DS1 (6 at the time) once asked Santa to make all the poorly babies in hospital better
Nothing else on his list

(I’d had his baby brother in the November who’d spent time in NICU)

I cried and cried and cried

And eventually persuaded him to ask for a Lego set as well 🙈

To whoever wanted fairy dust - I got some from eBay in a little pot with a cork stopper and on a string to go round your neck. About 2.99. Dd1 loved it!
Dd2 (4) has nice lists like these. Last year was puzzles and a train. Dd1 (7) not so much. God bless Harrods father Christmas when she was 3 and asked for a real kangaroo. He didn't even double take as he replied he couldn't carry live animals.
This year she wants a surfboard - we live in west London & she's never surfed ffs!

Small grandchild ( just 6 ) asked for
6 eyes ( so she can see all around when racing )
A driving licence ( I know I’m not old enough but FC won’t get into trouble because he is magic )
Immortality ( sorry kiddo but MIL has already nabbed that one ! )
A bag of mini Daim bars ( she asked and got them last year and the smile on her face as she proudly offered them around still makes me tear up ! )

Kids can be lovely really. When it was my niece's bat mitzvah a few years back (when she was 12), when her parents asked her what sort of party she'd like, she just wanted lunch with wider family at my parents place', and when I talked to her about present options, she asked for the smallest, simplest version of what I was offering her.

@polkasq you have just granted a small child's wish!

Lovely. It's so very refreshing.

My four (who still all believe) think you can only ask for one thing. If they are good they get an extra surprise. Of course, I watch them during the decision making process and tip off grandparents/aunts&uncles. But I love that they haven't cottoned on and don't write massive lists.

Today's four lists (final drafts to be sent to the North Pole) include pj masks, Lego, a bath bomb making set and a watch. They all asked Santa how he was and they all said please and thank you.

I am so bloody proud, I could burst.

My lovely niece (who is now 21) had an almost impossible request every year.. the most memorable being traffic cones...

IncyWincyGrownUp - my DD asked for the brown felt tip because it had run out as she kept drawing horses!

I hope your DD loves her pens.

She’s never one to dislike a pen gift. I had a spare sharpie that I chucked her way a while back. She has two full sets in her room, but was still happy with her spare.

Would that all her likes were as simplistic. Her Doc Marten habit is bank account crippling!:o

I asked ds what he wants for his 5th birthday next month.

Apparently he really wants his own pet lizzard or snake 😲. A robot dog. A book with flaps about animal facts. And some tarpaulin to build a den.

My 4 year old has asked for chocolate. Just chocolate. Any chocolate apparently. 😂

Awwwww. How lovely. X

My 2yo wants a 'boo (blue) choo choo' - I assume he means Thomas the tank engine

My son asked for "lots of tuna and lots of ham" for his birthday a few years ago.

My friend's wee girl asked for a donkey one Christmas!

When mine were tiny we put a wrapped cucumber in the stocking of the one that hated cucumber and a wrapped can of kidney beans in the stocking of the one that hated kidney beans, as a little joke. As they opened them I realised it wasn't funny at all and was a bit mean. They looked at their new gifts a bit perplexed, shrugged, swapped gifts and carried on happily 😁 and yes OP that's really, really lovely about your niece 😊

One of my DC (13 at the time) once told me all they wanted for Christmas was to feed a real penguin and a new flannel 😂

DD about 5 or 6 asked for a tin of baked beans. When I asked why she said 'i used to have tins of baked beans in my cupboard in my old room, I miss them. "
(we used her chimneybreast part of wardrobes as tin storage space)

Every year I get her a baked beans gift in her stocking. She still loves them now

My dd asked for a green flashing yo-yo from Santa last year.
It was so hard to find one haha!

This year she's asked for

• colouring books and pens
• a barbie
• slipper socks
• girls day with me

I don't want her to grow up

My youngest is 16. For the last 9 years she had asked for exactly the same thing, a goat.

My four year old wants "fork knight". No bloody way...

Dd was about 8 when she asked for a cucumber!?! Santa obliged of course. Your niece sounds lovely.

My nearly 3 year old wants ‘a little present’ but hasn’t specified what is to be in it.

Aw that is so lovely.

My 7 year old dd is going to ask Father Christmas for a tiny dinosaur. She won one at a Halloween trail thing and wants another so the first won’t be lonely. They cost about 50p.

My 3 year old ds wants all the presents. He even came back from my mums with her Argos catalogue to show me some things. He does not want a tiny dinosaur, he wants the big fuck off expensive ones, plural