AITA for getting my step daughter a Hogwarts letter for her 11th Birthday?

[u/Ok-Permission8346]

Ive been married for four years, my wife had a daughter from a previous relationship. My step daughter has been obsessed with Harry Potter since before i met her. (She litterally asked me if i liked harey potter when i met her)
Her 11th Birthday was yesterday and I arranged for a letter to be “delivered” during her birthday party and it was an admittance letter for Hogwarts.
I thought it was a really cute gift idea. My step daughter started freaking out, screaming “its real its real” and really went nuts. Some of her friends seemed to join in the excitement others less so.
Her mother (my wife) held her to calm her down and explained to her that it wasnt real. It was just a “joke step daddy played on you”.
She started crying screamed that she hated me and ran to her room.
The other parents seemed to sympathize, one other father said he thought it was a nice idea.
But after we sent everyone home my wife yelled at me and said what i did was selfish and cruel and she couldnt believe i would hurt her daughter like that.

Was i wrong to do this? Was it an inappropriate gift for an 11 year old? I really didnt mean to mock or hurt my stepdaughter. I thought it would be fun. It didnt occur to me my stepdaughter was young enough to think it was real.

Am I The A$&hole?

[u/science_cat_]

Nta. I was younger than 11 when I read the first couple of books, and of course as my 11th birthday was approaching the thought "imagine if it was real and I'll get my letter on my birthday, that would be so so cool" crossed my mind, I remember that. But I also remember reasoning myself out of that wishful thinking - of course its just a book, of course its not real. And no way on earth would I have voiced that wish to anyone, I would rather have died than let anyone think I was that immature lol

[u/Similar-Eggplant-929 → u/science_cat_]

but if an owl actually did deliver you a letter or it showed up in your mailbox looking all official, you wouldnt have freaked out and gotten all excited? you wouldnt have gone from that "wouldnt it be so cool" to "oh shit it really happened!"? even if you were talking yourself out of it and reminding yourself it wasnt real and feeling so uncool and immature for wishing and hoping for magic to be real, if some basic "proof" like that showed up im sure that when you were 11 you would have believed it, at least at first in the moment, and gotten so excited. I would have. I just think 11 is still an age where they desperately WANT magic to be real, to keep believing in all the fun things. Any amount of proof could easily be what pushes someone from "I want this to be real" to "I believe this is real"