DS changing his mind!

[Noimaginationforaun]

Hi! Looking for some help from some much more experienced mums!

Our 3.5 DS has suddenly started talking about Father Christmas bringing him a car he can ride in? He only asked for chocolate when he wrote his list! We have bought all his presents and there is definitely not a car he can ride in in the mix!

What do I say? We keep telling him well Father Christmas has already sorted all the presents, he didn’t ask for it in his letter so he didn’t know, maybe he can ask for his birthday.

I don’t want him to be sad on Christmas Day! For context, DS is adopted and this will be his second Christmas with us. Last year, we kept it really low key as he had a lot of fear about the presents being taken away etc due to past experiences. We are obviously very happy he’s settled so well and now has no such worries about presents being taken away but we don’t want him to be disappointed!

There’ll always be something they dream up at the last minute (or something impossible - real dragons, the house next door to a best friend, etc). On the day he’ll be so excited with it all he won’t care or remember.
A neutral “wow, that does sound fun! Perhaps Santa would bring it next year when you’re older. Will we go to the park / make a decoration/ do some painting now?” might work.

This. It should not be too difficult to do. He is 3 years old. You need to learn to manage his expectations anyway going forward.