What does "とまではいきません" mean here?


>
> 恋人にもなれない、普段は上司と部下という関係が邪魔をする。で、あればサンタの贈り物、とまではいきませんが忘れられない思い出を作るしかないじゃないですか。あなたはいずれフランスに帰るのでしょう？

What does "とまではいきません" mean here?

Also, on that note, I'm kind of confused about the "de , areba"... I would've
expected it to be "deareba" together.

I'm not entirely sure what the meaning of the sentence is because I can't
connect these parts of the sentence together in my head. I'd appreciate any
help in breaking this down. (doesn't have to be any complex explanation, I try
to just learn by intuition when I can)




～とまではいかないが/とまではいかないとしても is [a
construct](https://marshallyin.com/courses/n1-grammar-
course/lessons/n1-grammar-rule-83/) that means something to the effect of "is
not that much, but...", "hasn't reached that degree, but..." I remembered it
being a JLPT grammar point, but strangely I couldn't find much information on
other sites. But please see this related Q&A: [とまではいかないまでも
meaning](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/30100/30454)

Here いく can be roughly understood as "to reach (a degree)". So the preceding
thing is taken to be a baseline for comparison, and the thing being described,
often the sentence topic, has not reached that baseline in
degree/intensity/significance etc. This construct sometimes corresponds neatly
with the English phrase **I wouldn't go as far as to**.

"I wouldn't go as far as to call that a present from Santa". Of course in the
Japanese construct it is the thing at issue that does the "go" action, whereas
the English phrase has the speaker inserting their own agency into the
utterance and doing the "go", but semantically they could both arrive at the
same meaning. Essentially this is hedging language. The speaker is comparing
one thing to another, but is unwilling to assert that they are the same.

で is short for それで/そこで, meaning "then". A conjunction (接続詞) in this sentence,
it actually makes sense here, more so than if it were であれば. I'd expect
something before であれば.

I take あれば to mean (もしそれが)あれば, and それ possibly referring to 恋人になること.




～とまではいかないが/とまではいかないとしても is [a
construct](https://marshallyin.com/courses/n1-grammar-
course/lessons/n1-grammar-rule-83/) that means something to the effect of "is
not that much, but...", "hasn't reached that degree, but..." I remembered it
being a JLPT grammar point, but strangely I couldn't find much information on
other sites. But please see this related Q&A: [とまではいかないまでも
meaning](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/30100/30454)

Here いく can be roughly understood as "to reach (a degree)". So the preceding
thing is taken to be a baseline for comparison, and the thing being described,
often the sentence topic, has not reached that baseline in
degree/intensity/significance etc. This construct sometimes corresponds neatly
with the English phrase **I wouldn't go as far as to**.

"I wouldn't go as far as to call that a present from Santa". Of course in the
Japanese construct it is the thing at issue that does the "go" action, whereas
the English phrase has the speaker inserting their own agency into the
utterance and doing the "go", but semantically they could both arrive at the
same meaning. Essentially this is hedging language. The speaker is comparing
one thing to another, but is unwilling to assert that they are the same.

で is short for それで/そこで, meaning "then". A conjunction (接続詞) in this sentence,
it actually makes sense here, more so than if it were であれば. I'd expect
something before であれば.

I take あれば to mean (もしそれが)あれば, and それ possibly referring to 恋人になること.

