This weekend will see children around the world eagerly await the arrival of Father Christmas, who will bring their presents in the middle of the night and leave them under their Christmas tree - taking a mince pie or two on his way out.
Keeping little ones believing in Santa is hard work though, especially as it means parents need to hide the presents they've bought their children in a place where no one will find them. If their kids accidentally find their presents before Christmas Day, then they'll know that Santa doesn't really come down the chimney to deliver them.
But that's exactly the dilemma one mum is facing after her five-year-old daughter happened to find the stash of presents that her mum was planning on telling her Father Christmas had delivered - and she's worried the blunder will have ruined the magic of Christmas for her youngster.
In a post on Mumsnet, the woman said: "I only have myself to blame but please help me salvage this.
"My daughter is five and very very excited for Christmas. We don't have a lot of money, but this year I managed to get two playsets of a type of toy she likes and my plan was to build them up and they would be sitting out 'from Santa'.
"I picked them up this week, but I've been busy, so I hid them in a cupboard in a room she never goes in... but somehow curiosity overcame her and she's found them! Santa should have been making them in his workhouse!
"How do I resolve this? Do I buy new gifts from Santa and say those ones she found are from me? It's my own fault and I probably feel disproportionately sad about this, but I feel like I’ve spoilt the magic."
Commenters on the post were quick to reassure the mum that she won't have ruined Christmas for her daughter, and offered her suggestions for how she could salvage the situation and keep her daughter believing in Santa.
One person said: "This is a good opportunity to reset that Santa brings stocking fillers and the rest of the presents are from parents. So yes, I'd say they're from you and put something that you were going to give her as the surprise Santa present."
While someone else added: "You're just waiting for the elves to take them to Santa to deliver. Sounds implausible? I used to believe this nonsense when I was a kid! It was what our parents told us."
And a third wrote: "Tell her Father Christmas sent them to you to check they were the right ones and now he's asked for them back so he can deliver them."
In a follow-up post, the mum thanked commenters for helping her feel better about the situation, and said she would reshuffle her daughter's presents so that a couple of smaller items could come "from Santa".
She said: "Everyone, you have made me feel so much better about it all and you're right about what Santa brings. We usually only give one or two things that were cheaper [as being] 'from Santa' and everything else is from us, but I might scale that back again to a few 'bits'. The things she found will come from me.
"Glad to hear so many people have been in the same position."
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at yourmirror@trinitymirror.com .
