To think this is a really weird thing to do with presents?

Santa brings the presents in the stockings. The presents under the tree are from family/friends.

You might not like it. But her house her rules. You probably have house rules she thinks are bonkers too. You’d be outraged if she went against your parenting wishes I’m sure.

if it bothers you just give money and take the effort out of it for yourself.

What's miserable about receiving presents from family and friends? Do you have a birthday fairy in your world so as not to cause misery during kids' birthdays when they realise that actual people buy them gifts...?

I really don’t understand why Christmas is only magical if Santa brings ALL the gifts. Surely well-filled stocking is magical in its own right? I’d be mighty pissed off if I was spending time and money on a gift and it wasn’t acknowledged by the child. It’s not about gratitude per se, it’s about the child knowing that I love and care for them enough to want to bring them joy. I also don’t think presents are the only thing that makes Christmas magical for children - or at least they shouldn’t be.

See I don't get this either tbh. Kids are going to talk about their presents, whoever they're from, you just teach them how to do it appropriately.

If you get your kid an X box and Sam's parents get him a book and a chocolate orange, it's still a big difference, regardless of whether parents or Santa brings things. Just teach your kids not to brag or be mean like you you would in any other situation.

Again to reiterate, we don't do ALL gifts from Santa either, but some do and I can't say I really think about it much at all (except when reading seemingly endless posts about it on here) let alone let it make me "feel uncomfortable" 🤷

And yes, gifts ought to be acknowledged by the child. It's a good way to teach them about giving to others and gratitude and manners

I don't really understand this? Surely your children should know that presents from grandparents etc are really from whoever bought them?

Stocking from Santa, everything else from the person who it's actually from. This way my kids can be involved in choosing presents for other family members and they learn that Christmas is about giving as well as receiving. They are actually very helpful when it comes to choosing gifts for their cousins and they like to help with wrapping too. Thankfully, I don't know anyone who claims all presents are from Santa but I wouldn't be comfortable with it either, OP. I don't like the thought of potential upset when Santa brings some kids multiple expensive gifts and others get a lot less. I hate the idea of any child thinking they haven't been good enough because someone else got more presents than they did.

It’s ridiculous and doesn’t make sense to you, but thousands of families will disagree with you, including me.

IMO your Christmas sounds miserable.

I don't do all presents from Santa but some people do and that's fine. It's really not a big deal.

Surely the parents say thank you to the gift giver, the kid is all excited about "Santa" and a couple of years later they don't believe anyway and they say thank you for gifts etc like normal?

And they say thank you for birthday gifts etc when received throughout the year.

I just do not understand people getting this worked up about not receiving "credit" or the correct "gratitude" from a small child.

Do people really force their kids to write thank you letters these days? We have smartphones now.

I think that whatever way you pick there will be some cracks in the story that the kids just accept. My 6 year old wrote a letter to santa with lots of stuff on it that he will open from us on Christmas day. I am confident that he'll be happy with that! We had to tell him that some of the things he wanted were too expensive, which makes no sense if he's asking santa for them, but again he seemed fine with that. Some version of that must happen if santa brings the big gift (DS wasn't getting the Lego Titanic no matter whose name is on the label) and there's a logical contradiction there, too. It makes no sense to have a price limit on presents if they're all from santa but people who do this must fudge around this if their kid asks for a faberge egg? To be fair, we're not a santa fanatic household - I think he half knows it's a game. We are a religious household, so Christmas has a different magic for us in any case.

In our house Santa brings stockings & then one much asked for gift under the tree. The rest are from the giver including anything else we’ve bought for the kids.

The under the tree gift isn’t something massively expensive. One of my kids is getting an Xbox for Christmas, but his Santa gift under the tree will be a Transformer that he’s been desperate for for months.

We do this so the kids don’t go into school proclaiming that Santa brought them an Xbox, when they got something significantly smaller.

However op, each to their own & if your SIL cares to, she could re wrap everything.

It's ridiculous. Father Christmas fills stockings and other presents are from who they are from. Don't get this nonsense about buying presents and sending them to FC to be delivered either, it makes no sense.

Your sister is being unreasonable. Saying everything comes from Santa means that her child’s friends that live in poverty and get no presents, think that they’re on the naughty list, just because they’re poor. Santa brings one small gift, or does the stocking of cheap toys/ chocolate

Don't be so dramatic.

It was a bit tongue in cheek, but I can see how that would be missed by people who live in Fantasy Santa Land.

This. People spend money, and time on chosing, buying and wrapping gifts for each other to show they care, and the parents are denying the generosity of the giver, and not passing that demonstration of care on to the child for them to appreciate those relationships. It's rude and has no positive outcomes- the child gains nothing compared to a child who thinks that a stocking, a present or a selection came from Santa.

It's also more pressure when the child inevitably stops believing, and the belief window is small.

Same here. Gifts under the tree from family, Father Christmas leaves a sack of presents at the end of the bed.

I have always thought the “Santa's not taking the credit” thing is weird, that 7 year old Mary's parents need the validation of her looking up between every parcel and thanking her parents for their hard earned time and cash. IMO no primary school child thinks like that anyway, Santa or no Santa.

In our house Santa brought everything we bought, all our children got a jam packed stocking and sack of main presents, sometimes there was an even an extra thing had been dropped by Santa on his way in and was found throughout the day.

Presents from family did come from family and were under the tree. (now that our children are teenagers, one of the most magical parts of Christmas are the family present boxes arriving in the post!)

That being said there were lots of years when they were little and money was tight that both my parents and in-laws, who always bought a couple of big ticket gifts, would say just add them to Santa piles, turns out they didn’t need any validation either and knew that the special Santa years were for such a short time.

Now I have 3 amazing teenage girls where I can really take the credit for the thought fun and magic they in turn now put into Christmas. To my oldest that loves to do the Christmas table every year and creates some amazing winter foliage displays, little gifts and wine glass decorations. My middle daughter who bakes all December, including the Christmas cake and loves to make Hampers for family. Any my youngest who enjoys wrapping and takes it very responsibly, adding little candy canes, chocolate coins and little funny notes to each present.

Moving towards adulthood they have become fully fledged magic makers as well as thoughtful gift givers and that to me is all the credit I need.

No way Santa would be getting all the credit for the hard work and money other people have put in!

That is a bit odd.
we do gifts off family as family, Santa fills the stockings and gives 1 good present each and a game to play together. Belsnickel brings their Christmas Eve sacks.
but everything else is off who it says

My son's presents in his Santa sack were from Santa. The few he had from us, as his parents were labelled so. Any other relatives presents, came from them. I have always sent thank you notes on behalf of my son for presents from other people and he writes them now he's older. As long as your SIL is thanking relatives for her children's gifts, on behalf of them, then that's fine. The child may not know the presents are not all from Santa, but once the children stop believing, she needs to make sure they are thanking those relatives!!

Indeed. It’s interesting cuz many of us are on this thread that are coming from another culture and where it’s all from Santa and don’t think finding out Santa didn’t exist was any more traumatic than in the British culture.