Help! There’s been a fuck up in the ‘list’ department..

[Fruitbatdancer]

Having carefully co- created my 7 year olds list, it seems I’d not disciphered the small text in the corner that was a request for 10 snakes!!! He relayed this over dinner tonight, how he can’t wait to see what Santa brings!! 🐍
Too late to get plastic ones now so need to be creative. Had a chat about Santa not bringing live animals else caos in the sleigh but he says not true as bloody hobby kids or some such on YouTube got a kitten once! I’m thinking of something amusing like a printed poster saying “no snakes allowed” or “trade for snake in 2042” (when bloody thing won’t have to be in my house!
Anyone got a better idea?!

Is there such a thing as ‘adopt a snake’? Get one of those and say they only had a few left and Santa had to share them out amongst many other kids.

Is the expectation that Santa brings everything on the list? Or could you just say it’s one of those things he didn’t bring this year?

Snake sweets? You could probably find in a corner shop.

Any chance you could get to an M&S food hall? They have bags of jelly snakes, I always see them beside the Percy pigs😜

Ooo snake sweets are good.
And no Santa doesn’t bring everything, but there was only 6 things on the list. Christ knows how I missed the snakes, it was lost in a drawing of a scooter!!

Well obviously the YouTube thing was staged, and not the real Santa as he does not bring live animals. Do make sure he knows not to believe everything he watches!

You can adopt a snake

www.worldanimalfoundation.com/adoptananimalkits/adopt-a-wild-animal/#!/Adopt-A-Snake/p/86272535/category=0

Clearly Santa couldn't put a snake on a sleigh as they dont have hands to hold on with and they might fall off.

Santa prefers snakes and other wild animals to stay in their wild homes and gives adoption certificates so you can be involved in their lives.

A certificate and a bag of snake sweets…bobs your uncle

He's pulling your leg but id go with jelly snakes - glue them to a sheet of paper and name them - roll the sheet up and put in his stocking.

Do you have a toy shop nearby, maybe they would have snakes and ladders or Snake Top Trumps in stock. Don’t suppose he would like a draft excluder snake? Argos seems to have a hot wheels snake thing or David Williams seems to have a snake book if you have a bookshop near you. Tickets for a Zoo visit (with snakes)? Printed off sheets of snake colouring pictures if he’s getting pencils, crayons or paints already for Christmas.

My son asked for a squirrel and flying powers one year! I wrote a letter in my best Father Christmas spidery writing explaining how he could not bring a squirrel as it was a live animal and that he would need to wait until 2018 when he turned 16 to get flying powers as they were age rules! He loved that letter so we started doing one every year leaving it with the mince pie crumbs :)

the snakes are self isolating due to new variant found in the wet market

We have an ‘animal man’ near us, who does kids parties and schools etc and has snakes you’re allowed to hold. He gives lessons and facts etc too - not expensive either. Worth checking if there’s anything like that near you and wrap up a voucher for it with a packet of snake sweets?

Or zoo/animal place vouchers would also work too (if there’s snakes there obvs)

Do you have a community/neighbourhood Facebook page? You could ask of anyone’s getting rid of toy snakes their kids no longer play with and collect. Our page is really helpful and lots of people rallying round to help others this time of year, for some obscure things too!

B&m/poundshop have snakes in tubs (like the dinosaur/lizard tub things) and large snake jelly sweets but that would require a trip on Xmas Eve which sounds like a nightmare tbh!

Ooh what about snakes and ladders board game? Tesco do rubber snakes for £1.50 too - again means actually shopping though

Miniature snakes aka worms? Worm farm?

Or you could make a hole in his stocking and say they must have escaped!

Marzipan snakes! Assuming he likes marzipan.

Put in box with shredded paper to sit on and punch holes in maybe if he will get joke. Not if will think real snakes!

And no of course you don't have to get everything on list!
That's a v reckless precedent!

Looking back we have done.
Some list from Santa. Some from family. Might well not get all.
We usually have bits we want to get them anyway, not on list.

What happens when older and say Xbox, expensive bike, trip in light aircraft, climbing holiday in South America?!

@PanettoneDisappointment

Miniature snakes aka worms? Worm farm?

Or you could make a hole in his stocking and say they must have escaped!

That's so lovely, I now wish that my DS had asked for snakes too!

Hi Op, You can get these jelly snake sweets; The Natural Confectionary Co, in most shops, Co-Op, McColls, Asda, Morrisons, local Spar/Corner shops, some Petrol Stations etc, and they are only about a pound. They actually taste quite nice, look like a wee snake and aren't crammed full of sugar etc (I buy them for myself - no children). I've attached a link (I hope) so you can see the packet, but think the link shows maybe buying a whole box from Amazon, so don't pass out when you see the price lol.

www.bing.com/aclk?ld=e8dHXn31RZgHhCkhBN3c00YjVUCUwfAKh8p9wQSJSf-GDWo95pGdNlBF7RQf6JQ5kBhZm3XOXLw2vZqK43--5y_D1WQVKIXISgBbY-xixvqpn33eq1ghxI2VZ0qoYhlUp-myvVf3q8-az-IjDo3ZbvE74_DEgOTCXSKamu5ZM3NHkzYFsP_-nU10W9Z6izis_X-eWAyg&u=aHR0cHMlM2ElMmYlMmZ3d3cuYW1hem9uLmNvLnVrJTJmTmF0dXJhbC1Db25mZWN0aW9uZXJ5LUplbGx5LVNuYWtlcy0xNjBnJTJmZHAlMmZCMDE3Uk1HRzM4JTJmcmVmJTNkYXNjX2RmX0IwMTdSTUdHMzglM2Z0YWclM2RiaW5nc2hvcHBpbmdhLTIxJTI2bGlua0NvZGUlM2RkZjAlMjZodmFkaWQlM2Q4MDg4MjkxNjIxMzg4MCUyNmh2bmV0dyUzZG8lMjZodnFtdCUzZGUlMjZodmJtdCUzZGJlJTI2aHZkZXYlM2RjJTI2aHZsb2NpbnQlM2QlMjZodmxvY3BoeSUzZCUyNmh2dGFyZ2lkJTNkcGxhLTQ1ODQ0ODI0NjEyMTQzMjklMjZwc2MlM2Qx&rlid=eecbe193d5001a4845428056eda9cc3d&ntb=1&ntb=1

Good Luck, I hope whatever you are able to get your wee one loves it, and will probably remember the year Santa did indeed bring him the 10 snakes he asked for

@Froppysue

We have an ‘animal man’ near us, who does kids parties and schools etc and has snakes you’re allowed to hold. He gives lessons and facts etc too - not expensive either. Worth checking if there’s anything like that near you and wrap up a voucher for it with a packet of snake sweets?

Or zoo/animal place vouchers would also work too (if there’s snakes there obvs)

Do you have a community/neighbourhood Facebook page? You could ask of anyone’s getting rid of toy snakes their kids no longer play with and collect. Our page is really helpful and lots of people rallying round to help others this time of year, for some obscure things too!

B&m/poundshop have snakes in tubs (like the dinosaur/lizard tub things) and large snake jelly sweets but that would require a trip on Xmas Eve which sounds like a nightmare tbh!

Apologies OP for going very off topic, but this has reminded me that every time I’ve held a snake the little blighter has tried to go down my cleavage. Much to the embarrassment of the hapless snake-wrangler. I think I must have special snake-attracting boobs.

Voucher for a zoo trip and stuff to make a worm farm. We made one up ourselves with a big wide glass vase, layers of soil and sand. It lived on our dining table for weeks 🤮

@FictionalCharacter Are you Cleopatra ?

Coincidentally (and this won't help much @Fruitbatdancer ) when I was three which is over a decade ago my mother (being quite smug in as much as she could she had bought me everything I wanted for Christmas - it was modest ) asked me if I thought Father Christmas was going to be kind. & apparently out of the blue I said yes - as long as he brings me a snake. Cue DM's face a moving mask of horror - I went to Grandma's and she found a plastic snake in a newsagent's - it was pennies ( and this was pre decimalisation ).

If he still believes in FC I would write a letter from Father Christmas and say North Pole too cold for snakes at the moment and he should have a think if he still wants one later.

Santa does not bring animals.

The speed of the sleigh needing to travel would destroy animals insides and kill them.

Have been having the same discussion for the last few years.

Could you get him the Snakes and Ladders board game?

Santa definitely does not bring animals. Online adopt a snake charity thing? Print the snake off if you can…..

Goodness the length people go through! Santa gave us one present and I remember once being disappointed- but not about him (I don't think I believed by then) - that I didn't get a toy fox I really really wanted. Of course now I realise my parents just couldn't afford it.
I wouldn't do anything - maybe the gummy snake sweets, but frankly a wish list is just that - not a demand list.

@Dishwashersaurous

Santa does not bring animals.

The speed of the sleigh needing to travel would destroy animals insides and kill them.

Have been having the same discussion for the last few years.

Now, now - you've clearly made that up. Else how come Santa, Rudolph and all of the other reindeer are fine?

(You have to think these things through to pass the piercing logic of a small child)

Lots of zoos offering adoption of creatures.