When I grew up, "Santa" was fun, bit not hugely touted in my house. We got a stocking full of candy and stuffers, and that was Santa's gift to us. Everything else was from our parents or the respective people who bought us something.
Apparently, my husband's parents gave Santa all the credit for any gifts they bought.
So in our house, we have compromised by making the "big" gift from us, and anything else we buy is credited to Santa.
How does it work in your family? :)
Santa typically gives the "wow" present and a few smaller things. Anything that they "need" (clothes, sheets etc) come from us. We usually give something fun from us too. This year I may have gone a bit overboard and they are getting pretty cool stuff from Santa and us. :)
Usually there was "the gift", the one that they sit on Santa's lap and ask for. That was the gift from Santa, the rest from us. It never matter how big or small that gift was, only that they asked, after all kids don't look at their toys and say well this costs X dollars, that is an adult thing. Plus Santa made the toy, duh! :)
We do the opposite. The wrapped gifts under the tree are all from us, and Santa leaves a bigger, or most special (unwrapped) gift, on Christmas Eve. And he fills the stockings.
The game was up when my then 5 y.o. came up to me, crawled into my lap, took my face in his hands, pulled me over nose-to-nose with him, and said, "Tell the truth, Mama. YOU are Santa."
So here's what I did. First, I told him and his big sister the truth, since they had figured it out anyway. Then I told them that if they liked getting presents from Santa, they'd join me in a yearly "let's pretend," and they wouldn't breathe a word to their friends/classmates, because we didn't want to spoil the fun for them.
My kids are way past Santa age now, but one present is still from Santa, whose handwriting, as my young Sherlock Holmes has told me with a grin, does look remarkably similar to mine...
We do about half from us and half from Santa. I always thought that was how everyone did it!
One gift from Santa. The rest are from us, friends, and relatives.
half and half. half is from us, half is from santa. i love that my kids are already tracking santa online. they are 9. i will milk santa thing as long as i can. growing up santa always brought me a sweater. i always knew it will be a sweater and i was always excited to get the sweater. santa is a sweet part of childhood. soon enough they will know mom and dad did it all but not now.
When the kids were little -- one gift from Santa, plus the stockings from him. The rest from family etc.
For my kids Santa brought 1 gift which was left at the foot of their bed. When they woke up their Santa present was right there and they could play with it. Santa also did their stockings. Everything else was from us. The reason for this was because if they saw 1 gift it wouldn't blow the whole Santa thing.
We usually do whatever they asked Santa for is from Santa. I make sure that anything that may not fit or may need to be returned/exchanged is from us. This year we still have not decided what exactly my son will get from Santa. We got him his first hunting rifle ( I think it's a rifle - I am not a hunter) used from a friend of a friend. We planned on it being from Santa until a good friend of ours told his son, "Hey, Trey got a gun just like yours!" My hubby quickly silenced him (luckily our son wasn't nearby), but now we are thinking that if we give it to him from Santa when he tells his buddy about it he will say "Yeah, I knew you were getting it!" Now honestly, my son is almost 10 so I know we are pushing the whole Santa thing with him, but as long as he plays along with the magic, so will we! We love the magic of it all!!! Plus we have a 2 1/2 year old to still play the game with.
Most years it is a bigger item and a few small from Santa and then the rest from us. My parents did the same and so did my hubby's.
Oh - And stockings are from Santa. Funny though how as a kid I never questioned why my card from my parents was at the top of the stocking even though they should have been asleep when Santa filled the stocking! :)
we're exactly like you!
:) khairete
S.
We do something they asked Santa for as from Santa. The rest of from who it's from.
When the kids were young, we did it the opposite way as you. The big WOW gift was from Santa, the other gifts were from us :)
One big thing, and some smaller things from Santa. I have a hard time keeping track throughout the year if I do too many from Santa. Santa does stockings, too. The rest are from us...I want some credit, too!
Really big gifts come from us (how could Santa afford to give every kid a tablet?)...
I'm struggling this morning. i haven't been wrapping the presents from Santa (they do tend to be "big," just not always expensive). But this year all the gifts are small, and there are a lot of them. I'm thinking I should wrap them, but I sooo hate wrapping presents ;-)
We don't do santa.
All gifts are from us....or extended family when we see them later in the day! We worked hard to be able to do Christmas.
L.
When my kids were little, (way long ago, I will admit), we tried to get at least 1 item from Santa from their list....... we didn't spend a bunch of money, though.
We did family gifts on Christmas eve (that is how hubby's family celebrated), and Santa came Christmas morning. (Or.. sometimes Santa came "early" if we were going to visit family over Christmas... that was fun, coming up with how Santa would come early. There are some good memories from that.)
I don't remember how it was growing up. I know there was Santa but cannot remember if he brought everything or just the fun stuff. In our house, Santa brings an "oh, wow" gift and the stocking, we gift everything else.
When I was a kid Santa filled the stockings, but all of the other gifts were from my parents. My kids each get a big gift from Santa, along with stockings, and the rest is from us. When they were little we would wait until after they went to bed on Christmas Eve before putting any gifts under the tree, and let them think Santa brought them all.
I was the only child and grandchild until I was 10, then my cousin the second one until she was 18...so we were VERY spoiled. We got tons of gifts. But the "big" one was always from Santa! Bikes, stereos, electronics, etc, was always from Santa.
Then a few years ago on here, someone posted about heck no they don't give Santa all the credit for the "big" or good gift! I was like WTH??!!! We have been doing it WRONG forever! However, this year that has changed. Our kids are 17 (spec needs) 14 and 11 and WE gave them their "big" gift but Santa still got them something decent. Our stockings have always been "nicer" gifts that some I suppose. This year the kids are getting in their stocking things such as CD/Radio player, jacket, video games, clothing and games. They also get their favorite candy and nuts.
On a side note, last year I bought presents throughout the year and the kids ended up with a TON! And they seemed so unthankful and after a few days forgot about most of it. So I told them we were cutting back this year. Someone on facebook said they give 4 gifts: a want, a need, a wear and a read. So we did that this year. We compromised a little and they have a 5th gift but that's it. And we gave them a years notice that we were doing this so it REALLY made them think what they really wanted. From now on I'm all about SIMPLE CHRISTMAS and will be focusing on what is MOST important, which is time with my family and friends and doing things for those less fortunate. Sorry about the rambling post! Merry Christmas!!!
The gifts under the tree are from us. On Christmas morning they wake up with their stockings full and that's from Santa. Things in the stockings include small toys, movies & candy.
I think when I was growing up, the majority of presents for my sister and I were from Santa. With our kids though, we usually do one gift from Santa plus the stockings and the rest from us. In years past, Santa gifts were usually the wow gift (electric scooters, new bike, PS3 (for whole family), etc) but this year budget didn't allow for that. This year, 3 of our kids are getting sparring gear for karate, 1 is getting a small karaoke machine, 1 is getting a new beyblade stadium and beyblades, 1 is getting a barbie car.
Usuallly 1 gift for each child and one joint gift plus the stockings from Santa. This year we gave them each a second Santa gift because it was too big for the stocking and went along with a stocking stuffer. Santa gifts are not the 'big' gifts, those come from Mom & Dad. Sorry, I worked to hard to provide those to let the jolly old elf take credit, lol. Plus I didn't want the 'big' gift wish list getting out of hand since they think Santa can just get it for them because his elves can make it. They know Mom & Dad have a budget and we can't afford new iphones/computers/beats for each of them.
it's something you need to figure out for yourself. my beliefs teach me not to lie to my children at any time. thats how you learn to trust and respect each other in my opinion.
Each child has one decent toy from Santa that is unwrapped and sitting by their filled stocking.
All other presents are from us and generally they are wrapped and under the Christmas tree for at least a week before Christmas.
I know of several people who wrap their 'Santa' gift in special 'Santa' wrapping paper, but at least one has run into issues where the kids end up seeing the Santa wrapping paper and questioning it... It works easier for us to just have an unwrapped gift sitting by the stocking.
Merry Christmas, everyone!!!
