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Original poster

High expectations from Father Christmas . . . what would you say?

51 replies

theshrimp · 29/11/2005 22:55

My DS (Age 6) has chosen what he really really wants from Father Christmas from the Lego catalogue. He has made a good choice of 2 reasonably priced things and we are happy to buy him these (from Father christmas.) Plus a few surprises in his stocking. He's always been really pleased before.
But . . . he keeps drooling over a Star Wars spaceship that costs £250 and I have told him that there is no way on earth that Santa is gonna bring him it, as it's too expensive, etc.
Apart from the comments (But he's magic mummy!) . . .how do i explain if a school friend is given a very expensive gift from Santa? It is bound to happen.
DS's a lovely little boy( most of the time) who is not spoilt at all andI don't want to disappoint him but I wouldn't feel comfortable spending this amount of money. (I also think he wouldn't really play with it that much.)
Has anyone else had a similiar problem?

OP posts:
foundintranslation · 30/11/2005 14:26

referring to your post 2.22:44 mud.

marthamoo · 30/11/2005 14:31

I say Santa doesn't bring everything you ask for because he just hasn't got room in his sleigh (and some children ask for baby elephants and stuff which he just can't do) but because he is magic he knows which thing you will like the very best and play with the most (even if you don't!) and he will definitely bring that. So I would gently start dissing the spaceship - oooh, what a lot of pieces it's got, I bet some would get lost, it would be too fragile to play with when you'd made it (if it's the one I'm thinking of it would be too). He'll be so thrilled with what he does get on Christmas morning I bet he won't even remember the spaceship.

saltire · 30/11/2005 14:31

My 2 DS get a small sack on the sofa with presents from Santa, Everything else goes under the tree (presents from Grandparetns, Aunts, Uncles, and MUM and Dad). We tell our two that Santa has thousands of children to visit, so they may not get everything they ask him for, but he tries very hard to get everyone something on their list. They accept that.

flamesparrow · 30/11/2005 14:34

I've decided that Santa can bring stockings/12 days of christmas (don't ask... long story), and that mummy and daddy do the rest. I seem to recall that my mum had to pay santa, hence us having a budget.

It never occurred to me that other children got more from FC than I did.

marthamoo · 30/11/2005 14:35

Is it this? My ds1 (8) has sighed over it in the catalogue for ages but there's no way on Earth he's getting it! It is 16+ (more of a collector's piece than a toy really) - there's another get-out if you need one.

iota · 30/11/2005 14:36

is it worth it?

get out clause....only for age 16 plus !

iota · 30/11/2005 14:36

once agian beaten to it...I typr too slowly

Caligyulea · 30/11/2005 14:38

ha ha mazzystar. I did once know someone who told her children quite brutally that santa was mummy, so forget the £500 presents.

spidermama · 30/11/2005 14:40

It's good for kids to learn they can't have absolutely everything they want in life. Especially handed to them on a plate.
They need to learn the true worth and value of things otherwise they'll be confused and unhappy.

Bozza · 30/11/2005 14:40

I tell DS that Santa brings everything. But he gets most of his presents from other people later in the day (so given in person), so I say that Santa brought that to Grandma's house for him, or to Auntie X's house for him and wasn't that nice of them to ask Santa to bring that for him. Eventually as he starts to twig that Santa isn't real he will realise that the presents are from whoever they are from IYSWIM.

Bozza · 30/11/2005 14:43

at that. I would say that Santa won't bring it because it is for people who are 16 or over. Like I say to DS that he can't watch Revenge of the Sith until he is 12. He did try to claim to being 13the other day but seen as how he is only 4 and we are his parents we didn't fall for it.

Bozza · 30/11/2005 14:48

Actually I find Star Wars and the associated merchandise to be a pain wrt to age-appropriate stuff. Because a lot of the merchandise and advertising is aimed at quite young children. And we are happy for 4yo DS to watch the old U rate films but then the merchandise is from the new film which, of course, he can't see. Then the lego is for age 6,7,8, 16 etc and he's really into lego but he's only 4....

YeahBut · 30/11/2005 14:55

My dds are being brought up in a household that is far more affluent than the ones that dh and I came from. Dh and I feel that it is very important that they are aware of the value of money and don't just think that if they ask for something it will magically appear courtesy of santa or anybody else for that matter. Santa brings a stocking (well small sack really ) of "filler" pressies like books, hairslides, sparkly costume bracelets etc. but the main present comes from dh and me. The girls haven't queried this yet, but at 5 and 3 their demands aren't too outrageous yet. If and when they do, I plan to tell them that as there are so many children in the world who have parents that can't afford to buy them toys at Christmas, we've asked Santa to save his money for presents for those children and to leave our girls something small. I hope it gets them thinking about other people less well off, whilst not denying them any of the excitement. I refuse to let an urban myth about a man with a beard make me spend a fortune on even more toys!! BTW, dh and I are not miserable sods, we just feel quite strongly about how commercial Christmas is and the way children are encouraged to ask for more and more stuff.

iota · 30/11/2005 14:58

Bozza - -if you havea ps2 the Lego star wars game is good - -my 4 yr old loves it

Bozza · 30/11/2005 15:00

Thanks for that iota - we do have a PS2 so that might be a good one for DS's birthday which is February.

gscrym · 30/11/2005 15:33

I liked the one about mummy having to pay Santa.

You could always say that Santa only has so many of each thing and that the Spaceship is for the bigger boys or girls. That way, if it comes down in price by oh say 90% in the January sales or pops up on ebay second hand, it can miraculously appear. Tell him that Santa popped round after realising that it had been left in the work-shop.

He'll probably forget that it even exists when he sees all the cool stuff that he'll get at christmas.

gscrym · 30/11/2005 15:37

If it's the Millenium Falcon, it's on ebay.

Original poster
theshrimp · 30/11/2005 16:58

Everyone's come up some really good ideas. Mud -I think yours is the best:"santa sees they really want in their heart and will get the most joy out of" genius.

Even if I had all the money in the world I think it would be a nightmare present as he would probably dismantle it by Boxing Day. All those bits everywhere. And i'd probably be hoovering bits up for the next 6 months.

OP posts:
moondog · 30/11/2005 20:39

If people give my children toys/games full of millions of pieces,I'm afraid they don't even get opened,but are passed on (pristine) to charities,school fairs and so on.

Blandmum · 30/11/2005 20:46

In our house Santa brings the stocking gifts. the kids know that we get the other stuff. They don't have a probelm at that. at spending £250 on one thing! I nearly had a fit when I saw that the trainable dog thing that dd wants if £59. I thoiught that was bad enough!. I've probably spent that amount between the two of them (prob a little less tbh) but that is everything, including the stocking stuff

BudaBabe · 30/11/2005 20:46

Bozza - my DS (also 4) tries to tell us he's older too! I usually say - great that's 6 (or whatever) birthday presents I have not had to buy!!!

DS isn't really aware of Star Wars except that his cousin (7) is and now my Dad has bought then both Star Wars annuals for Xmas.

Thanks for the suggestion re Lego Starwars PS@ game!

BudaBabe · 30/11/2005 20:47

the thanks for Lego Starwars PS2 game was to iota!

edam · 30/11/2005 20:52

Um, if the conspicious consumption comment referred to my post, I wasn't suggesting anyone had to spend that amount on a single present, just that if money wasn't an issue (which is what I understood from the original message) then I would buy something ds really wanted even if it was expensive. I've bought expensive presents pre-ds because I had the money; it wasn't showing off, I didn't run down the street shouting 'look what I bought!'.

Posey · 30/11/2005 20:58

Dd was 7 last Christmas and we had Christmas with my sister who's little boy was 2. We had to co-ordinate our Santa things as my sister said she wasn't going to do a stocking. That would've taken some explaining to dd "Has * (cousin) been so bad this year he didn't get anything from FC!" I had to ask them to follow our tradition with a main present and 3 or 4 little bits in a stocking, even just for that year.

RTKangaMummy · 30/11/2005 21:03

DS says the £250 lego doesn't do anything iyswim

IMHO it is for adult collectors rather than children

DS wanted a pillow from FC when he was younger so that was what FC got for him and he was soooooooo happy -- He was about 3 years old and had never slept with a pillow before

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