have your kids ever gotten into your 'santa stash'

Ok,my case is a little different,not santa but similar. Last summer i did a 'pirate treasure hunt' for her and i didn't really tell her i did it and she assumed pirates came.It was done @ my parents cottage on a lake so it was good. I made the pirate chest out of an old shoebox,got a bunch of dollar store things and threw them in there ( using free stuff and making most of it this year though),made the clues,note,map,was going to have her make a pirate hat/patch etc.

I realllly liked doing it for her last year.she was soooo excited and planned to do it this week for her but... i threw all the stuff for it in a reuseable shopping bag in the closet, not really hidden but sorta high up(guess she climbed a bit). I know shouldn't of done it in the first place but i was planning on packing it today and of course she looked in the bag today! She SAYS she ONLY saw the toy boat in there when i asked what she saw but who knows because 4 year old lie sometimes!

Wondering what you do when that happens?? Buy more stuff? Might just tell her the pirates couldn't make it and asked me to do one? I've used one excuse when something similar happened before at christmas, i told her i was going to send it in the mail and since the maillady is like one of her idols,lol it sorta worked but she seemed less excited then previous years...unless it is a age & getting older thing.

This has happened to me close to Christmas. All I did was move the items to a new hiding spot for a little while and when asked I told the kids that they weren't for them but rather a donation I was making. They bought it and after a few days they didn't even think about it. I did however filled an extra bag with just junk and let them see me take it out of the house. So I think that helped with my little white lie also.

I said that the box has winter gloves and scarves in it, and not the actual toy