Christmas is a time for excitement and wonder, especially for kids. They have the biggest and boldest dreams and truly believe in the magic of Santa, elves, and reindeer. As adults, we know too well how hard it can be to find the perfect gifts for the little humans in our lives — the list of toys can be endless and their curiosity boundless. But what about when their requests leave you scratching your head, to say the least? Their fervid imaginations can lead to some pretty unusual gift requests, making us wonder how kids can be this weird.
Just ask any parent who has had to deal with children wishing for a real-life dinosaur or a pet unicorn for Christmas. It’s an absolute joy to see their faces light up with excitement when they open their Christmas presents, but how do you even deal with… this?
If you’re ready to be amazed and amused by the weirdest things kids asked for Christmas, check out these funny Christmas stories that people shared on AskReddit. From hot dogs to a coffee maker, a horse’s head to a divorce, it seems that some kids have pretty wild ideas about what the perfect present should be like. This list of weird Christmas gifts is sure to leave you laughing and feeling nostalgic for the days when your own holiday wish list was just as imaginative and absurd!
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"My uncle was a Santa and he told me that one year a kid asked for a coffee maker because he wanted to start his own Starbucks coffee stand instead of a lemonade stand. Apparently business was not very good as a lemonade stand but he noticed a lot of adults drink coffee, so he'd make coffee."
"I have been a Mrs. Claus for the last few years and I always ask the kids what they want while we do our crafts. My favorite was this 4-5-year-old girl that told me she wanted 'one of those loud horns'. She made a gesture like she was using those canned air horns and she made a little horn sound. She said she wants to use it to wake up her baby brother when he naps in the daytime so he 'knows what it's like.'"
"I asked my 6-year-old student what he would like from Santa and he said being able to take more naps."
"One year my brother asked for a dustpan. This was well in advance of Christmas and everyone assumed he would just forget it and move on, but as a joke one of his presents was in fact a shiny new dustpan complete with the little mini-broom. Of course, there were also the typical toys you'd expect a 5-year-old to enjoy, but he wasn't particularly interested in those. Instead, he spent most of the next week or so sweeping things into his dustpan."
"My brother once asked for a 'tiny broken thing', when Santa looked to my mother for guidance she explained he likes fixing things."
"My mum found an old Christmas wish list I'd written to Santa when I was 5. I'd asked for all 101 of the Dalmatians."
"Well, my son walks up to Santa, refuses to sit on his lap but instead takes his hand, stares him dead in the eye and says: 'I want one of your elves. He’ll live with me and grant my every wish. If I don’t like him, you can have him back next Christmas.'"
"After waiting two hours in line my daughter asked Santa for a hot dog."
"According to my parents, when I was in kindergarten I asked one of the teachers (who was dressed as Santa) for an orange. Just one, simple orange. Later on, the teachers asked my parents if our economic situation is ok or not."
I was a social worker at a school several years back and one student alerted us to his horrible situation at home when he asked sanya for playes and a table so he and hisnsiblings could eat together. The mom was unemployed and dad and walked out leaving them nothing. We were able to step in and giv them housing assistance, foodd assistance and our santa bought them a disheare set and i bought them a table. We would.never have known had it not been for.the kid telling santa what he wanted
"I asked Santa to grab a toy I had accidentally thrown on the roof since he was up there already. My dad was not thrilled with that request."
"I remember one Christmas I asked for a microwave for my uncle because he broke his."
"Yesterday the big sister asked for a pet mouse, the little sister asked for a snake."
"My 4-year-old daughter asked for hand sanitizer. Later confessed to me it was because everyone in her class was full of germs."
"When I was like 9 I wrote a goodbye letter to my parents telling them Santa was going to pick me up and take me to the North Pole. I sat out in our car and waited on Santa to show up and take me away. The dumbest thing about this was that it was the middle of the summer."
"Once my sister asked Santa if she could have a horse's head and an ice cream cone. She explained that she was gonna paint the ice cream cone the color of the horse, stick it on, mount the horse's head to the wall, and tell her friends she killed a unicorn."
"My daughter asked for pancakes one year. It was very cute. But then I had to get up and make pancakes on Christmas morning instead of being lazy."
"When I was 3 years old, the mall Santa asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I gave him a PERFECTLY reasonable answer: purple."
"One time my 4-year-old sister asked for her rights back. She had no idea what it meant and it made the family laugh."
"I overheard mammy saying to son just outside Santa's grotto, 'You can't ask for a time machine, they are just too big for the elves to build.'"
"My kid, when he was 6, wanted nothing but a beard. Like, a fake beard because he wanted to wear it to school. He got one, and he did."
I'm just imagining like a 6-year-old with a big bushy beard to the walking around at school XD
"My 3-year-old asked for a knife this year. She wants to help me cut her strawberries."
"A cardboard box. The boy was 9 or 10 and confirmed two or three times that yes, all he wanted for Christmas was a cardboard box."
"Was a Santa at a party last week. A kid asked for a whistle that she could blow at night to wake her mom up and scare her when she was sleeping."
"All the Santas will be surprised this year as my 3-year-old daughter asks for skeleton guts for Christmas. She found an anatomy figurine at barnes and noble and has wanted 'skeleton guts' ever since."
"A coffin. Not sure why. I got no more information, and maybe I misheard, but I'm 95% certain that ~5-year-old said simply, 'A coffin.'"
"I remember asking for a photo of Rudolph because I wanted proof of the existence of Santa."
"Dared my kid to ask Santa for 'a new attitude.' Santa's face was priceless."
"I remember my younger sister asking for me to move out of the house three years in a row... I was like 12 at the oldest."
"Well, when I was 9-10 my siblings and I all individually told Santa we wanted car insurance and a house. We didn’t collaborate and agreed to tell Santa the same thing, and were surprised when after the meet, Santa got up and told us this was the first time it’s happened to him and wanted to take a group photo with us."
Kids always know when their family’s situation is bad :( it’s adorable and sad when they ask for things to help out their parents/their whole family instead of asking for individual presents. Never underestimate what a kid picks up.
"I'm a teacher. I had one of my most difficult, obstinate, button-pusher kids come in at recess to talk to me. He said he was worried he would not get what he really wanted - to be a real elf, move to the North Pole and make all the presents. He had tears in his eyes and was the most sincere I had ever seen. Made me really appreciate how hard life was at home; he just wished for a way out."
"My 4-year-old asked Santa for Rainbow TicTacs. Cheapest Christmas ever."
"So I was an Elf a few years ago, got to overhear a pretty good one. A very sweet little girl climbed on Santa’s lap and asked for a 'reindeer egg.' She was pretty sure that because reindeer flew, that meant they were some kind of bird and birds hatch from eggs."
"My kid asked Santa for a gas mask and a helmet, this morning."
"Last year my 3-year-old asked if she could be taken away by Krampus. Santa was visibly concerned."
She doesn't wanna be a spoiled lil child she wants to face the fear of every child to prove her power and assert dominance Truly admirable
Kid has older siblings that watch American Dad. Simple and funny explanation.
Or has parents who watch any of the various popular Krampus horror movies.
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"One year my two brothers went to see Santa together. The first one asked for a fireproof safe and the second one asked for a lock-picking kit."
"I once asked for bread with no crust. Christmas comes, I actually got an entire loaf of bread with no crust."
"My 9-year-old kid asked for lightbulbs. I am sure Santa wasn’t expecting that."
"My daughter asked for a lobster. A live lobster, like the ones in the grocery store, in a big fish tank that could live in her room and be her pet."
"So literally last night we took my kids to see Santa and when asked what she wants for Christmas she says, 'a surprise.' Santa was so surprised he didn’t know what to say."
"I know the weirdest thing I asked for was a pen that could write like a pen, pencil, marker, and crayon. I'd never seen one but was sure Santa could make it. I got a 4 color pen instead."
"At my daughter's preschool, there was a Santa. Kids were asking for the usual things, like toys and unicorns. One little girl goes up. You can tell she is thinking really hard. She asks for 2 rolls of tape. Dream big kid!"
"My eldest son asked Santa for a pair of scissors when he was 2. He got them and cut up his new shirt whilst wearing it then cried when it couldn't be fixed."
"I once wrote a letter to Santa asking him to turn me into a vampire when I was 9. Yeah. I was cringey."
"A kid asked for 5 gallons of maple syrup. When Santa asked him why, his response was that he liked to bathe in it and his bathtub could hold 5 gallons of water."
"I asked for a rolling pin. Not a pony, not a barbie dream house... a rolling pin."
"I asked Santa when I was a kid to put me out of my misery. I was 7."
I asked for an easy bake oven. "Santa" brought my sister an easy bake oven and me a toy tractor.
"I once had a boy who said he wanted to be married and have 100 kids so he could have 100 friends. And no one can say no to being his friend."
"Not a mall Santa but an elf at a charity event. I overheard a kid asking Santa for a real-life Pokémon, not a plushie or a Pokémon-themed toy, a living Pokémon. I'm sure the kid sat there for about five minutes making sure Santa fully understood the request."
"When I was a little kid, about 3-4 years old, I told a mall Santa that I wanted blue juice for Christmas."
"I work with children. Once I asked the kids if they had asked Santa for anything. A shredder - this boy wanted a shredder. No idea why. But after the holidays, he was telling me all about the different settings on the shredder that Santa had brought him."
At 4-5 after starting school, I decided to ask santa for a photocopier. I thought it was great, vecause you could colour the same picture over and over and over. We had one in school, so I wanted one at home. My poor parents had to work to dissuade me from that one..
"6-year-old boy said that he just wanted 'Man United' to win the league. What's best is that Santa said, 'I can't work miracles now kid.'"
"My kid asked for caution tape, like the kind used at construction sites. And a chainsaw."
"I asked Santa to bring my missing cat back."
"My 9-year-old has asked for a relic from the Titanic wreck this year. Poor Santa didn’t know how to respond."
Find ANY broken 'thing' in your garage and there you have it. Titanic 'relic'.
"When my youngest was 4 she asked Santa for a brown, yellow and pink cow so she could have chocolate, banana or strawberry milk anytime she wanted."
"One time I asked for coal. Like, I didn’t know where to get some, we had a gas fireplace. I wanted it in order to make a face on a snowman."
"A 7 or 8-year-old who wanted a Velociraptor, and then proceeded to run around the Santa area showing me what a velociraptor looked like, screeching at the top of his lungs. Sure, it was probably funnier because it was the end of a shift but it has stuck in my mind like none other."
"My younger son asked Santa for presents when he was 3. He wouldn't elaborate but kept insisting he wanted presents."
He didn't know what going to be in them, just that he wanted them. That's really cute actually.
"I was one of Santa's helpers one year and had to ask every kid what they wanted. One little 5-year-old girl was all shy, so her dad pipes up, 'Go on, tell him what you want.' And she peeks her head around him and says 'A beard.'"
"I'm not a mall Santa, but once I asked to go back with Santa to the North Pole so that I could be an elf, too."
Ah some of us had this wish as a young child; some of us wished this just last week.
"My niece just asked me for a 'baseball stadium.' It's going to be a tough Christmas."
"Our son asked for 3 dead fish. He had been learning about the pilgrims who came to America, and that they would put fish carcasses in the ground to act as a fertilizer for growing corn. Thought he'd like to grow some corn too."
Just give him some pet goldfish. They’ll become dead fish in no time. (Okay, I’m sorry, that was awful XD )
"According to one of my cousins, when I was like seven, so imagine a tiny little blond kid with chubby cheeks, I hopped up onto Santa's lap with my other cousin and asked Santa for an RPG-7 or a Grenade launcher."
"When I was a kid, my friends would ask for dolls, games, TV, and bikes. I asked for a desk. I got it though."
"I worked as one last year and one kid asked for a Santa Claus. And I was like wait so you want me? And she said yes! It was weird yet adorable."
"Literally today, a kid asked for a rainbow. Like, ok? Let me box that up for you there."
"I personally remember once asking for a goat and a sniper rifle."
"A toilet brush. I was the kid."
To be fair, when my brother was 4, he asked for Pooppori for Christmas (Edit:Grammer)
"I'm not a Santa, but one of my favorite stories is when I asked for a periodic table poster when I was 4."
"When I was about 8 or 9, I asked Santa to turn my skin black so I could play basketball better. I really wanted to be the next Scottie Pippen..."
"One of my earliest Christmas memories is watching TV to see what I wanted to put on my list. They kept showing commercials for cereal and hey I loved cereal! So I wrote down almost every single cereal known to man."
"Boyfriend worked as a Santa last year. A kid screamed 'poo!' at him when he asked."
"I once asked for a room full of grated cheese."
"I'm sure it's not weird at all, but my son just sat on Santa's lap yesterday and asked for a dinosaur egg - but a real one, not a toy."
One year I snuck an emptied whole Rhea egg into my carry-on bag so I could give my friends little brother a "dinosaur" egg. This was like a year before 9/11 so tsa and customs wasn't as strict (i live in Nee York). That kid was soooo ecstatic when I gave it to him
"I asked for a Christmas tree like the 100ft one in the middle of town. I got a ninja turtle toy the size of a golf ball."
"My niece asked for an Easter basket with a white stuffed bunny. It took us weeks."
"The weirdest thing I asked for was a bottle of spray cheese. A BOTTLE OF SPRAY CHEESE! (Note I was 7 at the time so...)
Loved that stuff as a kid. We called it “squirty cheese” or “squiggly cheese”.
"When I was a kid I asked for pinecones."
Pinecones are great! We put a load out on the window sill in the class I work in last week. If kids have finished their work, they can decorate them if they like. It's been really popular, with kids bringing friends in at lunch to make more. I work with 12 and 13 year olds. Christmas is a great time to do fun childish things. (Also, due to COVID, a lot of them missed out doing this when younger)
"I have asked Santa for a robot that looks exactly like me and can turn into a snowflake and fly wherever I want it to. And it can also fit in my pocket."
"My daughter is 4 and asked Santa this year for a cup, a plate, and a straw."
"My younger brother asked for peanut butter and a spoon. He did get it."
"I asked for orange juice when I was 5... I was a strange child."
"My son asked for candy. The elf handed him a candy cane after the picture. He was so smug about it, like, of course, you have this candy for me."
"My kid asked Santa for a box, plastic bags, and markers. Things that I did not allow her to have. Yes, Santa came through."
"I asked a Santa for a salad shooter. I kept seeing the infomercials for them on TV and really wanted to throw food into it. I had no intention of eating salad."
"One time I asked for batteries for Christmas and I'll be damned if I didn't get my batteries."
"My sister once asked for BBQ and ice cream."
"My kid this year asked for a tree. Don't think he actually wants one... He was more fascinated with the ones in Santa's village because they had animals that moved in them."
"At roughly 5 years old my little cousin asked for a bike with no seat. She meant a scooter."
"I was 5, I remember asking for a helium tank."
"I’m not a mall Santa, but I heard this kid say: sex doll. You should have seen his parent's faces."
"I remember hearing the girl in front of me in line when I was at the mall as a kid say she wanted potatoes. I hated potatoes at the time, so I was repulsed."
In general, when kids ask Santa for food, it's a good idea to look at two things; the kid's weight and their parents. If the kid's a chub, or their parents are extremely well-dressed (may or may not be flaunting some expensive accessories), they're asking for something that they aren't usually allowed or just really like. If the parents look a bit shabby (their clothes are several years old, even if in relatively good condition), you might want to have a private talk with the parents to find out if they may need financial/food assistance (they could easily be too proud to ask, but not too proud to accept help that's offered; most of the time this is the case, at least in my experience as a Mall Santa Helper).
"I took my kids to some Christmas wonderland thing last year and they had to write a wish on a star and hang it on a giant Christmas tree. I took a look at some of them and some kid had written, ‘I wish to break my arm.'"
The thing is, up until I actually broke my leg when I was 9, I did in fact, hope to break my leg. Probably because all the kids at my school who broke bones got doted on by the teachers, and I thought getting a cast was REALLY cool. I clearly remember asking for the cast with blue dog prints on it, and the doctor explaining that because it was only my leg, it'd look super gross since it was mostly white.
"My brother asked for sweet pickles and a Piggin String. He ended up with about 8 jars of pickles and 4 or 5 Piggin Strings because when anyone asked that's what he said he wanted."
"My kid asked for a toaster once. We only had a toaster oven and she wanted the kind with slots."
"Just played Santa today. The coolest thing asked for was in this order by one kid. Cash, Legos, fuzzy slippers, and a bathrobe. I also got a kid that asked for a car that shoots laser beams... I told him I would see what I can do."
"My sister asked Santa for a Tide stick."
My sister did, too, when she was younger! And she got one for several years in a row!
"My brother once asked for a refrigerator. He meant a mini one for his room. But the poor mall Santa most likely thought we were homeless based on his vague wish."
"So I'm from the Netherlands, and we have Sinterklaas (basically the origin from Santa, it had some controversy worldwide the last couple of years) and one kid wanted a gun (we have strict gun laws, no way that's gonna happen.)"
"My sister wanted a unicorn for Christmas, she was 5, and hadn't quite figured out Santa doesn't bring pets."
I asked for a toy microwave when i was little , i really liked the ‘ping’ noise microwaves make. i had hours of fun just making it ping, my poor family 😅
My son is autistic and sometimes struggles with communicating his ideas. We attend speech therapy, and it must be working, because when his great-aunt asked what he wanted, he thought for a split second and said (in a full, well-formed sentence), "I want a coffee cup full of marshmallows." 😂
Congratulations! So happy the therapy is starting to work.
Load More Replies... every year since I was 6 or 7, I've asked for a thing of green olives. no one has obliged
When I was four, I wanted a giraffe, a pencil sharpener, a phone, and a wallet. I got a stuffed animal giraffe, a pencil sharpener, a walkie-talkie, and a wallet. I guess I decided this was good enough. Bonus: I hurt myself attempting to sharpen my pinky with the pencil sharpener I got.
For any Ren & Stimpy fans out there, when I was a kid my parent gave me a Log one year (as a joke, and in addition to normal gifts) 😆
Not a kid ... but my MOM! She asked for a silverware divider for the kitchen drawer -- she was very practical. Anyways, she didn't get one and was really mad. We kids couldn't understand why she was angrier with my dad than with Santa!
Not a kid ... but my MOM asked for a silverware divider for the drawer. She didn't get it and boy was she mad!! Funny thing was she was angrier at my dad than she was with Santa!
I asked for a toy microwave when i was little , i really liked the ‘ping’ noise microwaves make. i had hours of fun just making it ping, my poor family 😅
My son is autistic and sometimes struggles with communicating his ideas. We attend speech therapy, and it must be working, because when his great-aunt asked what he wanted, he thought for a split second and said (in a full, well-formed sentence), "I want a coffee cup full of marshmallows." 😂
Congratulations! So happy the therapy is starting to work.
Load More Replies... every year since I was 6 or 7, I've asked for a thing of green olives. no one has obliged
When I was four, I wanted a giraffe, a pencil sharpener, a phone, and a wallet. I got a stuffed animal giraffe, a pencil sharpener, a walkie-talkie, and a wallet. I guess I decided this was good enough. Bonus: I hurt myself attempting to sharpen my pinky with the pencil sharpener I got.
For any Ren & Stimpy fans out there, when I was a kid my parent gave me a Log one year (as a joke, and in addition to normal gifts) 😆
Not a kid ... but my MOM! She asked for a silverware divider for the kitchen drawer -- she was very practical. Anyways, she didn't get one and was really mad. We kids couldn't understand why she was angrier with my dad than with Santa!
Not a kid ... but my MOM asked for a silverware divider for the drawer. She didn't get it and boy was she mad!! Funny thing was she was angrier at my dad than she was with Santa!
