Help! Ds5 is waking up every time I try to Santa!

[Howmanysleepstilchristmas]

He was asleep by 8. I prepped stockings and went to check at 10.30. He woke up. Left it till 11. Same. 12 midnight, woke again. Santa is tired. Any tips?

Haha we heard our 3 year old son fidgeting around went in he is fast asleep however pulled the stocking , peter rabbit , and another teddy all into bed with him and tucked them in . Now trying to be stealth like removing them was hard... now hoping hw stops stirring as once is up he is up 😣

Ugh. He just shouted. Wants to know why I’m up.

How many sleeps.. yep, mines also been snoring for the best part of an hour..!!
I tried again, got almost to the bed and she say bolt upright asking if the big man had been..
Stocking now on floor of bathroom, will come up with alternative cover story when she wakes at 4am ready to start her day..!!
Happy Christmas lovely MN people..😊

The trick is to have 2 stockings the same. One pre filled, the other they put out. Then you can have a quick change over

@4forksake yes, I have 2. Now I just need ds5 to sleep long enough for me to swap them...

And he’s just woken ds6.

Dd6 stirred as I went in, but thankfully went back off. Ds12 was in bed asleep at 8 (unheard of) as he was so excited....BUT then woke up and came down to the loo at half 11 as I was finishing putting pressies out, and was still awake at midnight when I did stockings.
Obviously he doesn't still believe, but for him to actually witness me doing it was a bit sad 😢

I just turned the landing light off to pretend I was going to bed. He started crying. Now ds6 and dh are awake too. It’s going to be a long night...

Might be time to be firm and do the 'Santa won't come if you're still awake' thing, whilst removing his stocking as he's up anyway, to put outside the door, explaining that Santa will label his and his brothers.

Oh dear, I'd forgotten all this! My kids are in their 20s now. We open all our presents Christmas Eve evening so we can eat sweets and chocolates without spoiling Christmas lunch and to have a lie in on Christmas day.

But i would swap with you in a heartbeat, treasure these years

Ah, what I didn't mention was the stocking on his bed...! Caught him going for a wee, and told him not to padlock it at night. He's grumpily acquiesced, and the job is now done. Thank goodness.

How funny. I used to love all this. Remember it all you will miss it.

What happened in the end?

Dh woke at 3.30 and insisted I go to bed and leave the stockings in the lounge. I was worried they’d think he hadn’t been but when ds6 woke (5am!) I helped him find them. He has decided that the stockings were left there because the arrow on the Santa stop here sign he’d made pointed that way, so it worked out!