What Really Happens if Santa Brings Duplicate Gifts?

Many kids believe that Santa Claus not only comes their home but also visits their grandparents or their other relatives. This is especially true in young children. However, one of the biggest issues that come with letting young kids believe this is that when Santa Claus brings the same present to both homes, the questions are going to start. After all, if Santa Claus is supposed to know just what he brings every kid then why did he bring the same present to both locations?

What do you do if Santa Claus does bring duplicate gifts? This is a tricky question because you could risk destroying the idea of Santa Claus for your kids if you are not careful.

Avoiding Duplicate Gifts: Tips and Tricks

So, what can you do? Here are some of our suggestions on how to deal with this:

1. Tell them that Santa Claus was not responsible, that the parents and grandparents had put in their own order to Santa, and he must not have had the elves double-check to ensure there were no duplicates.
2. The elves must have put the gift at one home and forgot to mark it off their list that they had already dropped that. After all, the elves carry extra toys on hand in case they forget to pack something at the North Pole.
3. You could tell them that it was an accident and then offer to “return” it to the North Pole…of course, you will need to return it to the store that you got this from and get them something else.

Many parents also choose this time to explain to their children that Santa Claus really only comes to their home, rather than also coming to their grandparents, and that it is actually their grandparents who are buying the gifts that they receive here. This can come as a shock to some kids, however, most kids are okay with this explanation.

The Magic of Christmas: Sharing, Caring, and Giving

Santa Claus is one of the childhood memories that kids will remember when they get into adulthood and even have their own kids. The things that you do for your kids now to encourage the idea of Santa and all the magic that goes into it will be something that they do for their own kids. So before you start to give any type of explanation, you are going to want to make sure that it is kid friendly and will still encourage them to believe in the idea of Santa — of course, that will change when they get to the older kid stage and are now learning that this is an imaginary ploy.

If you are stuck on what to tell your kids when anything is Santa involved, then take a minute and think about yourself as a child. What would you have believed? What would have made the idea of Santa that much better for you? You are in the position now to make all these dreams come true when it comes to Santa with your own kids.