What to tell dc's about Father Christmas having a monetary limit.

[imaddictedtomn]

So my dd (8) has asked for a £350 ride on toy horse. I said it’s too expensive. So she said Father Christmas can bring it. I said no he’s also got a limit. She said why? When the elves make the presents. ?

I’m struggling with the answer.

Any suggestions?

We told ours that Santa debited the money from our bank account to pay for the presents and that explained why different families have different amounts and value of presents

This is one of the reasons why FC doesn't bring presents, parents and family do. FC only brings the stocking.

I would have said thats its too late big problem not suitable and fc knows what will fit in dp house..

He has a limit because he needs to make sure all the children in the world get toys and that's a very big job! he can't spend too much on one child.

That it's too big!! Bloody predicted crap

That's the problem with living a lie!
You could go the realistic route and say FC is for little children and older children get a bag of satsumas.
Much older children (adults) get to plan the sentimental stuff and check out Rudolf's sherry.
Bah Humbug!

Sorry elves-The elves have to be paid and they have a budget for each child. If she asks it's less than £100 (or whatever you spend)

Beatrice vague : no one really knows all I know is I wanted a large present when I was your age and asked fc and didn't get it, I didn't tell smile your grandma but after she laughed and said of course fc wouldn't allow such a large gift.. '

Same with tech stuff... Steer away from cost and more to what dp wouldn't want dc to have. What eg, TV in room

It's far too big & won't fit through your chimney! After all, magic only working with him and elfs but not with toys. They,
unfortunately have to go as real size.

(I usually make sure that my kids have a list with lots of things that they want... Santa likes to choose 1- 2 items from the list. After all, the elfs have to produce the toys and with that many children in the world, it's a big planning nightmare!!)

Father Christmas and the elves can't make everything. If they did bring one toy that took so long to make the child wouldn't get anything else.

Mostly we say the Elves can make lots of things but not everything, and big things take so long to make they wouldn't have time to get all the stuff ready if they made those.

I would say Father Christmas has one big pot of money for all of the children in the world so he can only spend so much on one child.

On a more realistic note, could you get her an actual horse riding lesson instead? Lessons for beginner children are generally pretty cheap.

Could she be testing you?

If not, could this be one of those "what do you think?" moments?

She's having a laugh.

I agree with pp, definitely be vague, don't act like you know about it either. I never profess to know how magic things work. I don't know why on earth the tooth fairy wants teeth either.

Just say, I don't think he brings such big things.
Say, when I was 8 years old, I remember FC brought me (present), and I never got anything as big as a toy horse.

I'm guessing she suspects it isn't real, and is playing you a bit.

She's on to you. Tell her the truth.

That's why we said that we bought the presents and sent them to FC to delive. He only sent a few things himself.

Tell her the materials cost too much, or it takes the elves too long to make.

Father Christmas only brings the stocking here that way you get to manage expectations and you can put stuff in the stocking that you would never allow Has worked well with all ours although they still have stockings when they have known for years now that there is no FC as there was outrage when I suggested we stop

We say that mummy and daddy send the money to Santa to cover the costs of the elves materials for building things. That’s why some kids get lots of stuff and some kids only get a little amount.

Yes we were always told that parents who can afford to contribute to the cost of the gifts because there are so many children in the world the elves can't make all the toys so Santa has to buy some. And obviously he's not made of money either .

He only ever brought little things in stockings here. And dds knew he wouldn't like anyone asking for anything very expensive - he'd think they were greedy.

We also send cash to santa to help him with the cost of materials so explains why some kids get more and some get less

At 8 your DD could probably handle The Truth.
I would sit her down and tell her.

Or figure out a way to get her to a real stable to ride a horse every so often during the year - agree with SparkyFire.

The DCs here used to write lists. They were told they would get one item from each list, plus a few other things Santa would throw in.

In our house father Christmas was only ever a delivery man. They knew everything was bought by us then "sent" to father Christmas for him to bring on Christmas Eve

Yes, delivery man here too. Family/ parents send the things to him and he brings them on the night.

Knew DD was onto it last year (aged 7) when she asked why we didn’t send them directly to him from Amazon like we do with birthday presents for cousins sometimes. Yesterday she announced that Father Christmas was daddy (she’d be lucky to get anything if he was, the lazy fuck, but I didn’t tell her that).

5 year old still happy with the explanation though.