Child says one thing to Santa, another to us

[Janeway]

My little girl told Santa a couple weeks ago that she wants an American Girl for Christmas. Well, she never told me this. And AG dolls were on sale a bit ago so I asked her if she had wanted an AG doll. She told me no. I figured she just slipped up or something. But then, yesterday, we ran in to Santa at the art museum and she wanted to talk to him. And then, I heard her tell him she wants an American Girl doll. Not kidding! So I asked her if she just told Santa she wants a doll, but she refused to answer. Not a naughty sort of refuse to answer, but rather, I am not sure, like I overheard something I was not supposed to hear. So I decide to call her friend's dad and find out if she ever told her friend she is hoping for something for Christmas. Yep, she is. She wants Calico Critters according to her friend.

 

Christmas means a lot to me, as well as the whole Santa thing. At her age, this is probably/possibly the last year of "the magic" of Santa. I suspect she is asking Santa for one thing and us another. But I already bought what I thought she wanted so I do not want to go back and replace everything unless she actually does want the other thing. Has anyone had this happen?  If so, what did you make of it? How did it turn out?

[gardenmom5]

my guess would be this is a test, to see if Santa is "real", and not mom.

[Terabith]

I think sometimes this is how kids tease out if Santa is real, if he brings them something they didn’t tell anyone else they wanted.  

[SKL]

Could be to see if Santa is real.

It could be that she believes your family can't afford / won't splurge for an American Girl doll and she would rather not ask you go buy one.

I'd guess a mix of both.

[matrips]

I used to have mine write a letter to Santa.  To make sure he didn’t mishear or forget.  And we’d make a copy of it.

[wintermom]

My first thought was, "You're screwed." You can't win. I guess there may be a future lesson in 'how to deal with disappointment.'  It's tough being a parent! 😉

[Tap]

My first thought was like others...to test out if Santa is real.  Another thought is a plan, to make sure she doesn't get a repeat gift. Maybe she wants both.  

I  guess a third idea maybe she feels too old for AG doll and doesn't want to ask for it, but since she can't control Santa's gifts, well......

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I'd guess either she's playing scientist (testing her hypothesis that perhaps Santa is Mom/Dad), or she wants more than one thing, but she doesn't want to ask for too much, so she's spreading it out. Another option is that she's just seeing things advertised, or talking to friends, and the power of suggestion is causing her to change her mind or add to her list.

FWIW, We never told our kids to believe in Santa. When they would ask, we'd just turn the question back to them with, "What do you think?"  We could see their mind milling over the options, realizing that if they said he wasn't real, he wouldn't be. They had the power to keep him alive, or let him go. Eventually they let him go, but we let them each believe as long as they wanted to.

[Guest]

Well, I madethis cartoon, years ago, because of a friend's situation-her daughter wouldn't tell her what she wanted for Christmas because she said Santa already knew! It was definitely a "testing the theory that your parents are Santa" thing in that case. Sometimes, parents just can't win 🙂

 

 

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[CAJinBE]

Our daughter did this in an email to Santa to test us. Fortunately we caught it in time. That was the last year of Santa.

[Guest]

Another vote for either testing a hypothesis or does not think she can ask for something so expensive from mom. 

IMO, I don’t like to try to keep kids believing if they have doubts and was never big on the Santa narrative anyhow.