When I was around 6 or 7 I asked Santa for a Dragon. I did not want a stuffed toy - I wanted an actual dragon who could be my friend. I had seen Pete's Dragon (this would have been mid-70s) and thought the dragon was the bees knees. Santa brought me a small stuffed pink dragon. I was crushed, but he did try. LOL

My daughter has asked for Perry the Platypus. I don't particularly like cartoons like this, or stuffed animals for that matter, but that dang platypus has sucked me in with that silly noise he makes. Plus, I once saw Perry the Platypus do the double dutch and I about died. Cracked me up. As soon as she made the request, it was promptly bought, and I was already done with my shopping, too. Maybe not such a crazy request, but did I mention I don't really like cartoons or purchasing cartoon-themed gifts?

Santa brought all of us kids -- me and my three big brothers -- a mini-bike one year. But Santa also knew I wasn't very much interested in motorized things, so he all also brought "all of us" a unicycle. I rode the mini-bike once - straight into a firepit - and then became the unicycler of the family.

I had a ballerina doll when I was little. She had a turquoise and silver tutu, and I wanted to BE her. (I have orthopedic birth defects of the feet, legs and spine, so that was never gonna happen.) I wanted a turquoise and silver tutu for playing ballerina, and my Grandmother volunteered to make one. I will never know if it was that turquoise materials weren't available or if my Mother overruled it because HER favorite color was red, but I opened the gift and it was a RED tutu. I was devastated and cried for hours. (I'm sure my Grandmother was crestfallen, but when you are six or whatever that isn't on your radar.)

It's worse to substitute something a child really really wants with a cheaper, easier, or not-quite-right item. If you can't give them what they want, do something else. I had a few of those experiences as a kid and STILL feel bad when I think of them, decades later.

A couple years ago, I overheard a kid asking Santa for a jet pack (he wanted to fly "for real"). I felt sorry for his mom. That is a difficult request to fulfill!

Perry the Platypus is my hero. I would want him for a Christmas gift too =]

When I was around 8, my sister wanted the Jasmine Barbie doll for Christmas. I told my parents not to send Santa her list because I wanted to buy it for her. I saved up all of my allowance for weeks and once I had enough, my dad took me to the store to purchase it. I was so excited that I got to buy my sister that gift instead of Santa.

My kids are still too young to get the whole Santa thing but I can't wait to hear what to see what requests are made!

A little boy I babysit told me one year all he wanted for Christmas was soda. That's it. He wouldn't say anything else. So he got lots of toys but his favorite present was a 12 pack of orange soda. I think he was 2 or 3 at the time. Now he just wants trains (which I promptly went out and bought).

My friend asked her niece (age 2 or 3) what she wanted for Christmas and she responded, "Jellybeans."

Ahhhh... simpler times.

Once my niece got some money in her stocking, and we asked her what she was going to get with it. She promptly said, "Cheez Nips. My own box." And that's what she did. And the next year, Santa came through with a box of Cheez Nips too!

SherryBinNH, I feel you completely. One year I wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid and got one of those homemade ones (back in the 80s you could apparently buy a pattern to sew one yourself). I was heartbroken and embarrased to show my friends, so it's been hidden in my parents' basement ever since. I would honestly love for my mom to buy me a "real" CPK, even today.

"Beef Jerky... mild" was on my step-daughter's list. How do you not indulge that?

In the 4th grade, I wanted a watch. My mom kept telling me I was too young to have a watch so every time she asked my older sister what time it was, I would run up to the clock and give her the EXACT TIME. No 4:30...nope, it was 4:27. I was sure I wasn't going to get a watch but there it was...a Cinderalla watch with a pink strap. I still wonder what happened to that watch and the figurin that came with it. That was the best ever.

When I was about 7 or 8, I asked for bed sheets with color on them instead of the all-white ones we had for all the beds. There were eight kids, lots of beds, lots of laundry. I was totally thrilled to get my own set of polkadot bed sheets. I can still picture them. And they were only for me.

When I was a kid I really couldn't understand why Santa and the Easter Bunny had different rules for different houses. The girls down the street got real rabbits from the Easter Bunny one year, so the next year I asked for one. Well, my parents weren't down for that so on Easter morning... no rabbit. I spent most of the day searching the house for one because I was really worried that it had just hopped out of my basket and was hiding somewhere in the house. I thought it would starve to death.

This is the true meaning of Christmas! How heart-warming and special! Your sister is very lucky

I remember when my cousin was little (maybe two?) all he wanted was spiderman chapstick. Random. My son, now five, as asked for seeds (vegetable, flower, whatever) for the last two years. A few other random things...but Santa, don't forget the seeds!

I got a "FoPatch" kid the first year that cabbage patches came out. You couldn't buy one to save your life, sold out everywhere where we lived. I thought the elves had jacked up my doll before getting it to me, because it just didn't look quite right. I got 2 real cabbage patch dolls the next year. After that, I actually preferred the fake one, her name was Jill...I don't remember the names of the other 2.

My sister gave me Perry the Platypus for Christmas last year! I don't watch the cartoon, but he is a goofy-looking defender of my bed pillows. He makes a sound similar to our African pygmy hedgehog when you squeeze his flipper.

I love hearing all of these stories! One year, I must have been about 5 or 6, I asked for Fruit Loops. We weren't allowed sugary cereals unless we went camping (and even then we had to mix it with Cherrios or Wheaties). I thought I'd found a loop hole by asking for them for Christmas. Santa did bring them and I remember getting to eat them, straight out of the box, on Christmas day, no Cheerios or Wheaties involved, it was the best!. I had the rest of the box to myself for the week (Cheerios were added starting the day after Christmas). Can't wait for when I have kids of my own and get to hear their funny wish lists.

One year, I very seriously asked for only:

- a new toothbrush
- a waste paper basket
- a new pillow
- a ruler

My mother had no idea what to do. I still remember the waste paper basket (blue plastic, with kind of a pleated pattern). And I still have the ruler (pink, slim, 9 inches long from Pier 1 imports circa 1982).

When I my son was three, he asked for pink cake. It took me a really long time to figure out exactly WHAT pink cake was but he told everyone who asked that he wanted pink cake from Santa Claus.
Turns out it is a cake in a pink bakery box. Santa came through!

I always feel bad when kids are so earnest in asking for things they want, and don't realize they're not ever going to get that thing (first, because Santa isn't real and secondly, because they sometimes ask for expensive things). I remember a friend's kids asking Santa for something that cost hundreds of dollars, and that kid really truly believed Santa would get it for him. I knew it'd never happen because there's no way his parents could have spent that much on one gift.

It should go without saying that you shouldn't give your kids real animals for the holidays unless you've discussed with them the responsibilities involved. And animal shelters are actually more stingy with adoptions during the holiday season because they get so many people who want to give their precious snowflake a puppy or kitten or bunny and don't realize they've just given a child a living thing that requires proper attention and care.

And I'm sorry if it seems like I'm picking on you, @kellieinCA. I'm not, but your story just brought up some thoughts (not a judgment on you). I think people are better off when they don't give animals as gifts. They're living beings and all. They deserve to be given good homes where people have thought out their actions.

This year my 3 year old son asked Santa for a "big, huge rainbow that smiles." That's it. No cars, no dolls - just a rainbow...that smiles.

Not funny, but special...
We (my husband and I) went through a very very bad custody battle for my daughter many years ago. "The Grinch" would not allow my daughter to have any of her toys, except her one stuffy.
So daughter sits on Santa's knee a few weeks later, all she wants is her Snow White barbie doll and the dwarves that she had, back from "The Grinch".
Needless to say "The Grinch" was heartless and refused to give even those few items back, so we started searching and searching, day in day out, every store that sold toys in Toronto we went to, battling traffic, parking, shoppers. So then I started with the phone book (this was 1993 the internet was not a big thing then) and still no luck. Now we live in Ontario and there were none, absolutely none, to be found in the entire province, but we did find a very helpful lady at a big box toy store. The only set left in Canada were in Winnipeg, but she arranged for them to be shipped. not to the store, but to us directly, to our door, they arrived on December 23rd, just in the nick of time!
But the look on my daughters face, when she opened that present, I would have walked to hell and back again just to see that.

Growing up my mother would never purchase sugary cereal for breakfast. We found it completely unfair that all our friends had fruit loops and frosted flakes while we had eggs and whole wheat toast (now I am forever grateful). And one year all three of us asked for sugary cereal from Santa. To this day my younger brother still gets Lucky Charms every year in his stocking "from Santa" - he is 20 years old. I love silly Christmas traditions.

When my daughter (who is now 9) was 7 all she wanted was paper- lots and lots of paper. I mentioned it to friends and family and she got like 12+ reams of paper (nicely wrapped) and she couldn't be happier! So EXCITDE! Bragged about it for months... She really felt like santa listened. It wasn't for a lack of paper in the house she just didn't want to have to ask for it (I usually have some in the printer that she has to ask to pull out) she wanted it to be her supply and it couldn't be lined paper....it had to be clean sheets of paper. I found it do odd and sooo funny.

WhOoPs sorry for the typo!

Love these stories: Very sweet and touhing and amusing! I'm sitting here like a silly woman with a big smile in my face :-D

My sister, mother and I all got our own bottle of green olives that we'd crack into Christmas morning. Still do, actually.

I have a friend whose son just asked Santa for a copy of an in-flight magazine from every airline in the world. His dad travels a lot for work so this could be an attempt to experience that a bit with him, or it could just be that the kid figures Santa must have access to pretty much everything as he travels the globe. Either way, we've got a network of folks collecting and sending in-flight magazines to try to fill this off-beat Christmas wish.

Not Christmas, but one birthday I asked for (and got) a birthday cake from the local bakery (always had a think for 'real commercial, small town bakery cake'; not the crap you get in most grocery stores now. ....and...a can of sardines. The only fish we sometimes had in the house was tuna; maybe oyster stew at Christmas. Mom did not like fish; I think tuna was barely tolerable for her, but it was cheap.

One year my sister asked for an identical twin sister. And we didn't even believe in Santa growing up. Apparently she didn't understand where sisters come from :-)

My daughter, who is now ten, asked for plants a few years ago. We were bemused at first but ended up getting her a terrarium and she really liked it. That same year she also wanted fabric scraps. A neighbor had given us her old scrapbooking stuff and there were a few fabric scraps in it. My daughter loved playing with them. She would use them with her barbies, as carpets for her dollhouse, or place holders for glass and/or plastic animals that she has. It's the little stuff. This year, of course, she wants an iTouch...

My oldest daughter has a wild imagination and always changed things up to the last minute about what she wanted. She thought she could change her mind last-minute and have Santa magically know her thoughts. We had to explain that he worked primarily in a mail-based wish-list world... and once her letter was sent, it was pretty much final.

So, this year, she sat on Santa's lap and said, Santa, there are a LOT of things out there that I like. I really don't want to be greedy though, so can you just surprise me this year?

I about melted. And now I am wondering if her presents will be near magical enough, if she really has some other idea in her mind of what she hoped the surprise would be.

At least she was sounding thoughtful and selfless in her request :)

When I was 8 my parents gave me a whole crab, wrapped in holiday paper, for me to eat all by myself on christmas day. It was my best and most memorable present ever. Once a foodie, always a foodie!

I recall as a child, growing up in Ireland, I wanted a full-sized Dalek ( from Dr. Who ). I woke Christmas morning to a robot, battery operated, small Dalek. I was disappointed, but by God, that little robot worked SO well!

When I was three, I asked my Mom for a diamond. I didn't want anything else, just a diamond to play with. I even got one - a plastic one. I must have been the happiest kid on earth that christmas. :)

Last year we thought we were in the clear (truck...check, spaceport...check), until the 5-year-old added "and a shiny stick" to his Santa list at 6pm on Christmas eve. So I stayed up late carefully wrapping silver ribbon around a twig from the yard and hoping this was close enough to the vision he had in his active imagination. After a brief turn as a magic wand, it got lost in the overwhelming shuffle of the grandparent gifts, but he still talks about the shiny stick.

Ya... I agree.. pups and kittens not as holiday gifts! Forever homes only!

I didn't ask for this but, when I was a kid my grandmother gave me the same nightgown every year for about 6 years in a row.. it was pale blue acetate I think.. probably very flammable and it didn't last long... so I guess there was a reason that I kept getting it. Ha!

Story from someone I worked for a few years ago: her kids asked a mall Santa for an X-box "to share". Santa nearly fell off his chair. Guess the "s" word wasn't one he'd heard much that day.

When I was 7, I asked for a white horse. Imagine my surprise (and totally spoiled disappointment) to return home from my friend's house to see a brown horse tied up to our barn wearing a huge bow and gift tag from "Santa." I was thrilled, but also SORELY disappointed that I wouldn't be having any of my fairy tale fantasies as a princess riding a white horse. Lucky me.

When I was 3, all I asked for was a Charlie Brown face cloth. It took my parents ages to find it, but find it they did!

One year when I was young I asked my parents for a kitten for Christmas. I was so fervent in my request that I prayed every night that Jesus would let me have a kitten Christmas morning. I remember coming into the family room to find a goldfish in a bow wrapped bowl. The note said Santa couldn't find any kittens that needed homes, but hoped that I could take care of this homeless goldfish.
I don't even remember being disappointed:)

My brother, age 7 at the time, asked for briefcase and three piece suit. And he got it. And we still tease him about it.

My three year old decided that she wants one of those Glade color changing candles.

when i was like 2 and my brother was 5, he asked for "one of those plastic cards that buys you everything"... still my mums favorite present related stories.

that's the best thing i ever heard...i want one too!

my 3 yr old boy wants money from Canadian Tire!

A few years ago my best friend's 5 year old girl showed me her list for Santa. #3 on the list was "a red velvet cupcake". They live 4 hours away from me but I made sure to schedule another visit before Christmas so I could bring her the red velvet cupcakes I made especially for her. I brought a ton of different decorations so she could decorate her special cupcake exactly to her liking. I'll always remember that!

For years I asked Santa and my Mom for a remote control car and never got one. No matter how old I got, I would still put it on my list. A few years ago, my Mom bought me, my sister, her husband and herself remote control cars. It is one of my favourite Christmas memories and now, as a 33 year old woman, I still get that car out and play with it sometimes!

when i was 10, i desperately wanted an outdoor playhouse, one with a front door and windows with curtains, a place where i could read my books and putter around (and escape my fighting parents and annoying little brother). i will never forget how excited i was on christmas morning - and how shocked i was that there was no playhouse in the back yard. i am almost 60 years old now, and whenever i see a little playhouse in someone's yard, i immediately get butterflies and feel a terrific sense of longing!

When my little brother was 3 he was OBSESSED with Barney and because of it, his favorite color was purple. All he wanted for Christmas that year was a pair of purple high tops and my mom couldn't find them in his size anywhere. She ended up buying white ones and hand dying them purple, he loved them!

I don't remember it but my mother has told me that when I was quite young (maybe 3? so 1986) I announced I wanted a computer for christmas just a day or two before hand. Apparently my dad spent quite the late night searching for a computer for a preschooler and that christmas I got a fisher price computer - you pushed the buttons and a series of pictures would scroll up the screen. Though I don't remember that christmas morning I do remember many years of clicking away on MY computer in my dad's cubical on take your daughter to work day. :)

A couple years later I one of the department stores had a big pile of stuffed golden retriever puppies. My mom let me carry one around while we shopped and by the time we were finished I'd named it and fallen in love with it, but dutifully put it back in the pile when it was time to leave since that had been the deal. My mom went back so that I could get one from Santa only to find they were all sold out. She spotted one being held behind the counter and when she inquired about it it was being held for someone. She stayed at the store all night and they finally let her buy it 5 minutes before closing. It ended up being one of the toys I loved about to death and dragged around with me everywhere.

I don't remember being particularly spoiled as a child but apparently my parents had a good sense of what would matter to me most as a child. :)

We did this too!
Me, my sister and my little cousin lived together at the time, and none of us were allowed sweet cereal, so we conspired to ask santa for it, and in each of our stockings we got a box of fruit loops or coco pops. It's become a tradition now, all us grown up kids go home for christmas, and one of us will get a box of cereal in our stocking to have on Christmas morning!

I also remember for my 5th birthday I was adamant that I wanted a unicorn. I can remember my dad staying up late the night before with a candle, and the next morning he'd twisted a wax candle into a unicorn horn, covered it in gold glitter and fixed it to my mother's palomino horse's bridle, and braided ribbon through her mane and tail. When all my little friends came over for a party he dutifully led them all around the garden on "Unicorn rides" There are still photos of me beaming on the horse's back, and I vividly remember proudly showing off my unicorn to all my friends.

I never got to see my older brother for Christmas. One time when I was about seven he was in town, so he took me to the mall and told me to pick something out--anything! I chose a Hickory Farms sausage sampler. The kind with fake plastic grass between the packets of crackers and sausage.

AnnieS5, why not get your kid a print of something like this http://sweetkitty22.deviantart.com/art/Rainbow-Smile-104206188 or http://ksj.mit.edu/tracker/2007/02/sf-chronicle-lo-upside-down-rainbow for their wall?

got a playhouse story for you then!

I'm not sure that we asked for it, but my parents had a big dog kennel in the backyard for breeding dogs and when it was empty we used to go inside it an pretend it was a playhouse and play house. (I think my parents were privately horrified the neighbors would think they were locking us in the kennel.)

One Christmas when I was 6, we got a giant envelope under the tree and inside was this giant silver key (cardboard covered in tinfoil) with a big red ribbon. We then proceeded to follow the treasure map included that led us straight to the backyard where to our immense shock, there was a little blue playhouse / garden shed that we'd never seen before! It had window boxes, a table and chairs, and even a little loft area. To this day, I have no idea how my dad managed to keep us out of the backyard long enough pre-Christmas to assemble it.

A girl aged 4 wants nothing more than for Santa to come visit her on her birthday. Next may... We already agreed that he'll show up!

my stepson had an odd fascination with cleaning brushes as a little boy, so his stocking was always filled with brushes and dusters for the few years he was into that. my husband and i always laughed shopping for his stocking on the grocery store cleaning aisle. he was also really into vacuum cleaners and santa brought him more than one of those, as well, real ones, not toys.

These are all amazing, you all: sweet, poignant, and HILARIOUS. I could read a million of these!

When I was 7 all I wanted was a Cabbage Patch doll, I got a faux one, that had bald patches when you untied her hair. I was bitterly disappointed and probably winged endlessly to my mum about it. A few decades later, spending Christmas with my family and own children, I opened a present from my Mum, it was that darn Cabbage Patch doll. The look on my face was apparently priceless and I had fight my children off to stop them from stealing it!

My 2 year old son wants Santa to bring him a toy flamingo. Wish granted.

I remember one year I asked for a pen. Yup. I got it, and I had it for years! I still remember what it looked like.

Also, my parents would always put little boxes of Legos in our stockings every year to give us something to do when we got up super-early on Christmas morning while we were waiting for our parents to get up. It stopped us from bugging them to get up, and it turned into a fun Christmas tradition :)

We tell our kids that Santa clears what he plans to bring to children with their parents so that they know not to expect Santa to bring them something we wouldn't approve of. We also tell them that Santa uses their letter to get some suggestions.

My 5 1/2 year old wants a two foot long remote control car that his 22 month old brother can ride in. We've already told him that Santa will not be bringing that. While it would be cute the potential for disaster is too great given how easily distracted my kindergartner is.

LOL... oh gosh... still laughing...