Daughter’s Culinary Christmas List

[PinkTigerLily]

Dd (6) asks Santa for specific Christmas dinner items every year. I mean out of the box stuff - spinach, pasta, meatballs…

She is well fed with homemade dinners every evening, made from fresh British produce with typically 3-4 fruits/vegetables, 3 days vegetarian, 3 days meat/fish, and then a (homemade) pie or a roast on Sundays. Minimal butter/oil (2-3 tbsp per meal). Lunches from school catering, so she’s getting fairly round meals too. She’ll eat everything. I guess my point is, she’s not starving or deprived of fresh, healthy foods. She’ll ask for specific meals now and again if we haven’t had it in a while (she loves mushrooms, for example).

She’s not asking Santa for cr@p. She’s laying out her ideal Christmas dinner. See attached photo. I’m just… 😐The cheek of it! I’m the one who cooks it! Not Santa! Nor does he order in the groceries! I’m not gonna say anything to her though… She’s still young, right?

Anyone else’s kid(s) do this? Or did they ever at some point? If so, when or how did it stop?

No one has said anything about dredging things in fat except you! I think it was weird to include this in the OP as a) it had absolutely no relevance to the rest of the post and b) I don’t don’t actually know anyone who does do this.

This is such a weird thread?...

Is it supposed to be a stealth boast that your kid eats well and loves veggies?... I try my best but I can't relate to having children that 'scoff' down veggies, request spinach or are having celery stolen. (By other kids, apprently!!)

I kind of wish I did though, mine just ask for junk/sugar and I am constantly battling them.

People really attacking me for mentioning I’m working on preventing that fate for my child, before people assume I’m starving her or dredging everything in fat? Do you think it’s normal to starve your kids or dredge everything in fat?

quite simply, this is the strangest op response I have ever come across

Feels like you may be overthinking this OP. Young children write all sorts of batshit stuff on their Christmas lists. My 7 year old wrote several things he already owns. Just decide whether you actually can / want to cook the things she's listed or not as well as sorting Christmas dinner and go from there. @rainbowstardropshas it right, you could just tell her santa doesn't deliver meals.

I don’t think it’s normal for children to ask for food from Santa regardless of if it’s healthy or unhealthy

Maybe I’m crazy, but all of the things I mentioned fall into the middle ground.

I’ll also add that my daughter was picky through ages 2-4.5 years. It must run in the family or something. She wouldn’t eat anything; Her comfort food was Cheerios. I cooked every day and night. If she didn’t like something, I’d try to cook it for her a different way next time. It took a lot of resolve. Now she’s at a point that feels normal. I’m proud of her for becoming so open to food.

Maybe I’m crazy

Maybe!

First, ignore the sniping. For some reason there are people who seem to gain enjoyment from tearing others down. I read your post as being about something rather quirky and cute that your DD does that you are wondering whether you need to discuss. You clearly put in a lot of detail about how you cook because you were trying to hold off the individuals who would otherwise accuse you of only getting veg into your kids by drowning them in butter, or under feeding them such that they ask for food. Those apps are pathetic and you shouldn’t give them the attention they so obviously crave.

To the point though, I think it is rather adorable what your DD has done. Clearly she thinks that part of her Christmas list is not just gifts but choosing what she would like to eat. She’s only 6, she neither understands that it means more work for you nor that it is quite unusual. She probably thinks it’s just what everyone does at Christmas.

If you don’t want or have time to make the extras she has asked for, given she knows you cook what she asks for, then do sit her down and explain you can’t do it and why. Maybe offer to make her that meal another time? Or, do make it, but still let her know that you don’t mind doing it but it takes time and effort so she knows to be thankful.

Personally, I’d probably do the latter. They aren’t tricky dishes and some things like meatballs can be made now and frozen. And I’d consider it a cute Christmas tradition. But then I too have a DD who loves food and am soft enough that when she started loving Chinese food, I taught myself to cook it! I love food and cooking so love that my DD is the same and we can go out for delicious, interesting, meals as a family or cook them together.

It does sound as if this is quite a loaded topic for you, op. Just easy-breezy “meatballs and spinach- that sounds lovely. Let’s have it on Boxing Day”. No need for any soul-searching.

"Meatballs and spinach with gravy and carrots and potatoes mashed up, and chicken" sounds unappetising, or at least not very Christmassy. Maybe include the spinach and/or the carrot/potato mash and gravy if those are favourites of hers, but mainly I'd just ignore it and cook whatever you'd planned. I wouldn't treat it as being rude or cheeky; she's six and has no idea what goes into planning, shopping for, cooking and serving Christmas dinner. If she makes a big fuss because she didn't get the exact sinner she asked for then you'll have to address it, though. Maybe explain that there's a traditional meal for Christmas and point out the parts you know she likes, and perhaps offer to have "her" meal another day.

a) I don't think there's anything wrong with letting kids have a say in what goes on the Christmas dinner table. I ask my kids every year. If it's something that won't work/I don't want to cook, I say no. It's pretty easy! Just tell her Santa doesn't make the dinner, you do, but would she like meatballs? (If you're happy to make them. If not... say no.)

b) My youngest asked FC for a chocolate cake and an apple, and he is neither starved nor dredged in fat! They just ask for random things sometimes.

Hahaha! My daughter used to ask for pasta from Father Christmas! Just a packet of dried pasta 🤷🏻‍♀️ Mind you, she likes eating it raw 🤪

Yes - but that's not what I meant. The middle ground is between being starved and being fed things that are dredged in fat.

I don't think you're crazy - I just think you're very focused on food in a way that people without a historical eating disorder aren't.

🙄

😂 we used to make jewellery with dried pasta .it’s a craft supply surely .

😂
It is indeed! Paint some, eat some. Win win!

So much for the festive spirit …..
I’ll put it out here now - one of my 4 children, a boy if it makes any difference, is just like the OP’s little girl. He’ll eat most things, loves mushrooms and I can guarantee that if you gave him a plate of food that had green veg such as spinach, cabbage or sprouts they are exactly the things that would be eaten first. No doubt some on here will think him precocious but he has even been known to ask for salad and sushi for tea! His 3 siblings are similar, but definitely don’t embrace everything with the same enthusiasm.

Both OH and I like cooking and we eat similarly to the OP so perhaps that’s why I’m more on her side, but I didn’t read her post as a boast at all.
We all have our own Christmas traditions and thankfully ours don’t include requests to Santa for food, but as someone up thread said a few meatballs and spinach are not hard to incorporate.
If OP lived next door to me my son would be more than happy to join her little girl after he’d had his turkey dinner. Even taking into account all the Christmas chocolate in the morning I’m sure he’d manage to squeeze in a few meatballs and spinach, although he might come home and say that there was no garlic bread to go with it. Before anyone asks, he is definitely not overweight!
If I was the OP in this situation I’d fulfil the food requests this year and tell her daughter next year that Santa has let it be known that he will no longer be passing on requests for food as he has realised that parents have enough to do at this time of year.

My kids eat really well too, which is why I was a bit bemused about the OP! Most of us don’t feel the need to tell people that we don’t drench our children’s food in fat, or that they eat vegetables, because it’s just a given 🤷🏻‍♀️

And nobody would consider your ds precocious, either. Honestly!

Beyond not cooking things I know people don’t like or can’t have, I am not taking Christmas meal orders.

Here is your Christmas dinner, eat it. I definitely wouldn’t be doing festive meatballs.

OP, you clearly still have significant issues around food and I would urge you to reflect on the messages you may be sending your children.

Strange deletion 🤔

From one angle, it's nice that she is thinking through her ideal Christmas day, not just the presents side of it. I think this is what she is getting at.

Looking at her dinner hopes, could you maybe get some stuffing balls (or cut open a few sausages to roll into balls with a very little bit of stuffing) and then cook some spinach? So that the majority of what she was thinking is on offer for dinner, but not an outlier for a Christmas dinner, with just the spinach as an extra? Call them 'Christmassy meatballs'?

Otherwise, I like the voucher idea and would do it!

Just add a few meatballs and a bit of spinach to the usual dinner. My youngest always wanted baked beans with his Christmas dinner - and still does at nearly 40!