DS is just turned 4 and since early last January he has had a specific toy in mind to ask from Santa. For nearly an entire year this is what he has wanted. A few months ago he saw it in a toy shop after not ever actually seeing it in person and it's tiny. It's a playset and I know in his mind it was as big as some of the playsets he already has but it is honestly titchy. A week or so after he saw it he asked if he could ask Santa for one more thing (a small to mid-sized toy I had already bought and stashed away as a Christmas surprise) so I said that as they were both quite small he could ask for two things. So for the last couple of months he has been delighted about getting these two things from Santa. These aren't the only things he is getting. I only let him ask for 1 or 2 things but get him a number of surprises.
But for the last two weeks he has been absolutely crazy about a particular toy. It's quite big, the Rescue Bots Firehouse, and he doesn't know it but I have some Rescue Bots for his stocking. I've explained over and over that he can't ask for the Rescue Bots Firehouse that he can put it on his savings list and save up for it. Normally that's a great way to make him stop asking for toys as he's happy to save. But with Christmas coming he really, really wants the firehouse from Santa.
I have told him it's not happening, that it's too late and Santa already has his toys packed up. He'll be at a party next week with Santa (played by my Dad) and he's primed to tell him his toys were packed up weeks ago so he can't change it now. But I suspect he will be very sad to hear this. The thing is I just remembered a Smyths voucher that he got for his birthday which would cover most of the cost of the firehouse, as it's on sale right now. I'd put the voucher away, as with a birthday a few weeks before Christmas I thought it would be better to wait until spring/summer for him to spend it. But now that I've remembered the voucher I'm torn. I could use it for the firehouse and make him be ecstatic on Christmas day. Or I could not get it and he'd likely still be delighted with what he gets but it's possible he'll be disappointed.
(BTW, I'd give him the value of the voucher later in the year but maybe for an experience of his choosing instead of toys. I wouldn't be essentially be using his own birthday gift to pay for a Christmas gift.