To suggest (manipulate) what Santa brings the DC's?

[gluteustothemaximus]

So this is what Santa does in our house. DC will write a letter, asking for one thing. Santa brings them that one thing (leaves next to the eaten cookie and wine milk).

All the presents under the tree are from mum and dad.

Each year Santa always gets it right, DC are always over the moon. Basically in the build up to Christmas, we'll be shopping and might see something we know they'll love and is cheap enough and suggest - why don't we ask Santa for that? They say 'yay' and job done. The magic of Christmas prevails.

Reasons are, if things are tight, we can afford the santa gift, and they get why from mum and dad pressies are less (although they've never ever complained about anything). It stops them asking for just anything they've seen on the tv which might be too expensive or not able to get, and stops disappointment if they don't get it.

That's fair right?

I don't want Santa getting all the glory and say all presents come from him.

What does Santa do in your house?

[HeCantBeSerious]

Nothing.

[HerRoyalFattyness]

I do exactly the same, but santa brings 3 presents each.

[GrainOfSalt]

Father Christmas brings the stocking. If it can't fit in a stocking he can't bring it. DS can ask for things from Father Christmas and hope he can bring it but but there are no guarantees. So far he has always asked for lego and the old man has been forthcoming but when he gets to the stage of asking for an ipad he will most likely be disappointed (unless FC wins the lottery before then )

[Flingmoo]

YANBU - of course you can decide, you do know who Santa really is, right?

My son is only 2 so I'm still figuring out what our Christmas tradition will be but I was thinking I might do a stockings/smallish present from Santa, then if I want to get him extra it'll be from us. But I hate clutter so I'm probably just going to get him 1-2 presents this year as he'll have so many from relatives it seems silly to get him even more from us/Santa, the whole house would be overrun with toys and tat otherwise!

[strawberrypenguin]

Santa does stockings here. We (or other family) do under the tree presents but Santa passes on some ideas from the Christmas list

[ViewBasket]

Stockings from Father Christmas, presents under the tree are labelled from the giver.

[deadringer]

We always give one or two big gifts from us, then a range of smaller gifts from santa in stocking.

[YouTheCat]

I always explained to my kids that they can request gifts from Santa but mam still has to pay for them and Santa gets to decide if they've been good enough to receive them.

It worked for me. I never had that much money and the kids understood.

[LittleBooInABox]

Here Santa brings most of the presents, he gets a small stocking from me.

That and DS birthday is two days before Christmas!

[gluteustothemaximus]

unless FC wins the lottery before then

[Clandestino]

Santa does nothing in our house. DD knows where the presents come from which makes it possible for her to negotiate and for us to leverage the expectations. Christmas isn't any less magic because of that.

[monsterbookofty]

We do the same. Dd has asked for a pram and ds has asked for a ps3. The baby is getting toot toot animals to go with his safari park.

[bobblewobble]

Santa brings the stocking, which doesn't have anything they have asked for in it. So socks, toothbrush, book, mug and bits and bobs like that. Santa leaves a sack (Small Disney store sack) whatever fits in there is from Santa. Usually 5/6 small things and one main gift. Everything else goes under the tree from Mammy and Daddy and gifts to each other.

We do it this way as when I was young we only had a stocking from Santa and my Mum bought maybe 2/3 small things each for us that were given out while sitting around the tree. My husband, everything was placed on a sofa and from Santa and ripped open in 5 minutes. So we compromised. Works well for us. We get to watch everyone opening their gifts and takes a lot longer than just ripping everything open.

[MatildaTheCat]

In our house you could ask Santa for things but he wasn't always able to get everything because he was a very busy Santa. By the time children start asking really awkward questions they know really, they are just testing!

[PurpleMinionMummy]

Stockings and one present under the tree from santa. Family gifts go under the tree too. A pile of presents each from us. Although only one of my dc's believes in santa now

[bobblewobble]

I forgot to say that the gifts in the sack, they get to rip open (like my husband did with all his gifts on the sofa) and everything under the tree is handed out individually.

They get to make a Christmas list of 10 things between birthday and Christmas but they get a couple of things off the list and some things not on the list. They know they won't get everything they have asked for.

[allowlsthinkalot]

Nothing here! Dc know where presents come from but there's still plenty of magic. If we did do Santa I think I'd do the "Santa fills stockings" thing.

When I was young Santa brought everything but I also knew they were from relatives. Like some cosmic postman. I believed until I was 8, never questioned it.

[ohforfoxsake]

Stockings (nothing more than a fiver or practical - pants/socks/shin pads etc) from Santa. Opened in a frenzie first thing, chocolate, wrapping paper carnage.

Breakfast.

Handing out of presents, in turn, slower process and bigger presents (including their 'big' one from me).

[stillwantrachelshair]

That's what we've always done. Both DC conveniently want the Playmobil sets a neighbour mentioned she was thinking of selling back in March and which have been in the loft ever since.
They are well trained and appear to have little imagination. They usually request whatever present I have already bought from the Xmas bargain thread and dropped hints about, sweets (we never buy sweets) and a surprise which, guess what, is something else I have got at a bargain price or which will complement another toy they have.

[gillybeanz]

Everybody does it differently, but in our house everything came from Father Christmas.
I bought things off their list and added things myself, that I knew they needed.
So a few wants and a few needs, I never bought any of them everything they wanted, you can't always afford it, nor is it always practical.
Dd has asked for a segway? 2 years now, she isn't getting one as they are expensive and she'd never get my money worth from it.

[marvelousdcomics]

We used to do that we bought presents but Santa bought the stocking. Now that dc are 15,13 and 11, it doesn't work very well

[nooka]

We've never done Santa (I wasn't brought up with the tradition and dh was but didn't really care about it) but we do ask our children to write Christmas lists, mainly as suggestions for relatives.

I'd worry about the risk that as they get older your children are less influence and then the one thing your children ask for you can't get or you end up paying over the odds for because expectations are so high. Of course that assumes you keep the story going after early childhood, but it seems to be quite common for ten year olds to still believe now.

[DorothyBastard]

FC brings the stocking, contains fruit (what a swizz, if they've any sense they just put it straight back in the fruit bowl!), sweets and chocolate, and one or two presents, relatively small but from their list. Rest of presents under the tree are from us.

[oblada]

i'm glad im not the only one where santa does nothing :) i just feel uncomfortable with the whole pretence. i was told the truth v early on by my older brother and OH is from a different culture with no santa so difficult to get into it :) ill ask for suggestions but actually will rely on suggestions much more for birthdays and do my own things for xmas (kids are 5 and 2).

[gluteustothemaximus]

I think I felt I had to do Santa - but didn't want 'him' to have all the glory for everything, so that's where the one present idea came from.

It's interesting to hear how others do things - and it's no less magical (I didn't mean any criticism in original post).

My DS teen has just confirmed he knew about Santa being a fake earlier than I thought, but says he kept it up in case he didn't get the Santa present!