How to handle DD request for Christmas present I can't afford??

[BooHaa]

DD wants one of these carriages she has seen on YouTube, they cost £1200!! DD is 5 and she fully believes in Santa. How on earth do I distract her from wanting this or manage her expectations???

www.onbuy.com/gb/cars-and-trucks/disney-princess-24v-carriage-ride-on-pinkpurple~c2342~p16663510/?exta=gshp&stat=eyJpcCI6MTIzNC45OSwiZHAiOjAsImxpZCI6IjIyMDQzODEyIiwicyI6IjgiLCJ0IjoxNTc0OTQ4NzAwLCJibWMiOiIwLjAifQ==&lid=22043812&gclid=CjwKCAiA_f3uBRAmEiwAzPuaMw9cKSyEOLvYOL6A51wlwxWYkB5N6bf4OyIB75TKmZh7kN808VujtxoCbiIQAvD_BwE

Santa can't bring anything electronic as it interferes with his magic!

@AaandBreathe Santa brings my kids electrical things every year

I know it's not the point of the thread, but wow, that is hideous and an obscene amount of money.

We also do stockings from santa and main present from mum and dad. I'd be explaining that it was way over our budget and distract with something normal.

Tell her it was too heavy for Santa to carry. Thats a lovely carriage thingy though 😮 never seen one like it!

@MyDcAreMarvel

I haven't seen anywhere else that delivers to UK.

Probably a moot point as we really don't have the space, I'd need to get a crane to get it out of my garden Would be nice to know I could afford it in theory

The idea of Santa is lovely and magical for DC who are young enough to believe.

But that belief has to be managed carefully. You have to realise that your DC may well be friends with DC whose parents have shit loads of money and can spend beyond your wildest dreams.

And that leaves your DC wondering why Santa was so much more generous and so much kinder to them than he was to your DC. Weren't they good enough or well behaved enough? Why, when they were so good did Santa leave them so much less than their friends?

It's hard, but the answer has to be that 'Mummy/Daddy or Mummy and Daddy' have to pay Santa for the presents he brings and we have bought the best presents for Santa to bring.' It's hard and it's horrible.

Although that said, when I was 9 I used to love watching Top of the Pops at the height of disco. I was desperate for a sequined boob tube and a pair of those white lycra stretch trousers that all the pop stars wore. I wrote them on my Christmas list and nagged my DM quite a lot.

Instead I got a Snoopy sports bag, the entire set of Enid Blyton's St Claire's books and a new fangled tape recorder/player with two tape albums. Tony Orlando & Dawn and Mama Cass.

As a 9 year old I was massively underwhelmed. It was a really shit present. As a 52 year old I think it was genius!! I bloody love Mama Cass , Tony Orlando & Dawn and Snoopy!

We’ve always done Santa as just the delivery guy, that way they always knew money was involved and friends might get different amounts etc.

Why on earth is that piece of plastic tat £1300??

Hobby craft have a paint it yourself cardboard carriage for under £10. I know my girls would have loved that.

Where's she going to go in it? Narnia? Windsor Castle?

Ffs, she's 5 get a grip and stop being sarcastic.

That carriage OP isn't £1,200 it's actually about £300.

Maybe Santa can write your DD a letter and explain that unfortunately what DD has asked for is too big to fit down any chimney but he will be sure to get his elf's to make an extra special present just for her so she will not be disappointed.

She's not a brat, she's 5, believes in Santa and has no concept of money

Santa’s elf’s won’t have time to make it by the time her letter gets to the North Pole Cos it takes 2 weeks to get there and Santa’s elf’s have so many toys to make that they can only make small ones.

We have a rule in this house, they can ask for what they want but Father Christmas uses the lists as a guide, so they aren't guarenteed anything but they usually get one thing, some years more than one. I never understand people panicking about last minute Christmas requests.

Santa doesn't deal in livestock or anything that costs more than £10.

BooHaa

This sounds like it is more about you wanting to give her what she wants. You are not letting her down or spoiling the magic by not being able to get it. You are just feeling the same as most of us that you would love to give your DC the world and see them smiling and happy all the time. She will be less bothered about not getting it than you are about not giving it.

Help your daughter write a list, let her know Father Christmas will choose off the list what he wants to give her and make sure she knows she will not get everything on the list!

Oh there's definitely not enough room on the sleigh for that, but there might be room for this one? www.preciouslittleone.com/product-information/170/55377/little-tikes-princess-horse-carriage/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI297L--KN5gIVA7DtCh0gtwaKEAQYASABEgI2zvD_BwE

If it helps reassure you a bit, I've never had any problems saying no to my kids at christmas. It never ruined the magic or their belief in Santa. They've always been delighted with their presents and ridiculously excited.

It's early enough now too that she may well want something else by then anyway.

If you cannot say no to a 5 year old ..........

Not that this is relevant... but I looked at the reviews on amazon and a grown-up without children bought one. Why would you want to spend your hard earned cash on that as a grown up?

Santa brings ALL the presents to my kids, that makes it easier. Also, once they have written their letter, they can't change their mind, so no sudden dream request of a sold out toy on Christmas Eve.

You don't get ALL the items on your list
but you also get some gifts that were not on the list - part of the charm is to have surprises.

I'd just tell her that it's too big and not a real toy that Santa could possibly bring, and direct her towards something else: like the cardboard one suggested above, or something completely different.

If parents buy the presents and give them to Santa to deliver, what's the point of Santa in the first place, it sounds very complicated to explain to children. I prefer the toy factory and Father Christmas idea.

Omg that is a ridiculous price for a toy!

I have told my DD to think about what she wants and to pick out a few things. I said these are her "ideas" and that once she has her ideas Father Christmas will pick out the ones he knows are best for her but that she definitely wouldn't be getting all of them. She was happy with that, excited to come up with her ideas and understood that she would only get a few of the things she had picked (she'd circled nearly every item of every page of a toy catalogue that had come in the post).

I think on the day with all the presents to open and the general excitement, most children won't really notice if something they expected to get isn't there.

If you cannot say no to a 5 year old ..........

everybody can say no to a 5 year old, but apparently not everyone understands that it can be tricky to do it and keep the magic. Why so much bitterness?

I tell mine that some children tell Santa what they want but I find that quite shocking, surely it's better to be excited and say thank you for what you get?

In this house we tell them that santa only buys ONE small present for every child. My friends say this about the stockings too. Parents buy the rest. This helps manage expectations.

This is why santa doesn’t bring the big ticket items in our house. He brings one of two special (but smaller/cheaper) gifts and fills the stocking. Big ticket items are from parents and that’s why some children will get more or less than DD at Christmas. She did say one year she was going to ask Santa for an iPad (when she was 6 I think) and I just explained to her that Santa doesn’t bring big expensive gadgets - only smaller gifts as there are too many children in the world and it would be impossible for Santa to bring them all presents like iPads or PlayStations. Then we discussed what she had received from him in previous years and what she received from mum and dad / gran / aunties etc. She understood and was fine with it.

I think it’s difficult for parents who do all gifts from Santa when this sort of thing arises. I never wanted to explain that or why Santa brings some children a barbie doll and gloves for Christmas when another has 40 presents that includes things like a bike and other expensive gifts. How do you justify that level of unfairness to a child? The kids that get hardly anything must think Santa doesn’t like them or they are naughty etc. Breaks my heart thinks about it.