Anyone forgot to 'do' Xmas for their dc ?

[hollywoodhills]

Quite random, but it has me worried and I've had nightmares about it

I'm concerned that I will mess up the magic of Xmas morning.

Last year Santa forgot to take the card that dd had made for him. Dd was a bit confused about that.

Then dd had a present which was actually for ds.

Im worried about staying awake to sort it all. My dc will not sleep on Xmas eve if they hear me walking about.

Last year was horrendous and I went to bed at 2am in the end.

The thought of the stockings are giving me a headache as any noise and they will be wide awake.

This is all based on the last 2 years on Xmas eve. I try to tire them out but the excitement just takes over and my eldest will not sleep until I am in bed and all is quiet in the house.

Has anyone fell asleep on Xmas eve and Santa has forgot to leave the presents?

Father Christmas will be observing social distancing this year so all presents will be left downstairs - solved!

This all sounds like hard work.

I grew up in a different country but we always do one gift from Santa and it goes under the tree. We never had stockings but British DH insists on them. I just do them from us.

It's unrealistic that Santa has time to do all these faffy stockings and multiple presents. One under the tree is believable though 😆

Every Christmas when I see these threads I am more and more grateful I'm not Christian and I don't have these things to worry about.

@Pascha

We manage stockings by getting them to hang it on the doorknob, then we have two identical stockings each, one empty, one full, and we just switch at the door.

The trouble generally is getting the buggers to go to sleep in the first place .

We have very creaky floorboards (old house) so the stocking is always deposited downstairs in front of the fireplace, along with half eaten carrot, mince pie, half drunk glass of sherry etc. The only problem with that is that one of the dogs decided to have a go at "opening" it in advance one year We fortunately spotted the damage (just bits of wrapping) in the nick of time and did a hasty repair job involving aluminium foil and some Christmas napkins. Not the most stylish but it did the job.

Wish I had been organised enough to think of duplicate stockings though. That is genius!

@BullBailey

I would look at how much ‘santa’ is giving them. Maybe just do stockings and one gift from Santa and the rest from mum and dad? Get everything prepped before hand (wrapped, stockings filled etc) and hidden well in your room. Then set an alarm on Christmas Eve to make sure you’re up to lay it all out and Remove anything that the kids have Left for him - keep this to a bare minimum too.

Make it easy on yourself and keep it uncomplicated.

This ^^ Why on earth do parents make it more complicated than it needs to be? Stockings from Santa, and presents from family. It also means that children learn to say thank you.

I remember staying up late one Christmas Eve building a doll's house, but it was definitely a present from us, not Santa.

One Christmas we got ds a ELC tractor. Late DH was trying to put it together on Christmas Eve in the dining room....
I opened the door after two hours to enquire how it was going.
"Do you want to do it???"
"Errrr no thanks."
"Well bugger off then!!"
I did. Another ninety minutes later he had finished!!

Haha! I remember my dc at 23 giving me a hard stare when I said maybe stockings should stop now. That’s hardly up to you mum, he said.

Stockings in the living room. Far easier to just get it all out before you go to bed whilst one stands guard to make sure no children are out of bed.

Also re the tooth fairy, we had 2 identical pouches so one with the tooth and one with the coin. Just slid my hand under the pillow. My friend's DDs are younger and she bought a fairy door! It is a beautiful little door that you blu-tac to your skirting board usually on the landing near the children's bedrooms and the tooth is left there for the tooth fairy, again just get two or three identical pouches.

Dh always takes a day off in December to wrap presents with me. We stick on some Christmas music and each child has their own wrapping paper design.

@Elderflower14

One Christmas we got ds a ELC tractor. Late DH was trying to put it together on Christmas Eve in the dining room.... I opened the door after two hours to enquire how it was going. "Do you want to do it???" "Errrr no thanks." "Well bugger off then!!" I did. Another ninety minutes later he had finished!!

That's true Christmas spirit Thanks for all the ideas. Unfortunately I cannot get duplicate stockings but that would have been ideal. Presents are usually left downstairs but dd will no doubt be listening out until the house is silent.

I've been lucky so far with the fact that DC1 has always been good at going to sleep! I am worried DC2 will be too excited the older they get and the more they understand.

We leave the stocking in the door handle, it was far to stressful trying to sneak it into the room! We also only give a few things from Santa and the rest from us, so if they were to ever wake up and see us wrapping I'd just say this ones from us, Santa hasn't been yet.

I used to have actual nightmares about waking up on Christmas morning having completely forgotten to prepare for Christmas! Kids left at home now are 17 and 21, last year I put their stocking by their beds and said goodnight as I headed to bed and they stayed up 😂

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon will be there.

Stockings on the fireplace in the living room. Fill at leisure in the evening. Sorted.

Also, if you want, you can follow The Organised Mum Method's Christmas prep guide. The idea is that everything festive is done before December 1st so you can actually enjoy advent.

www.theorganisedmum.blog/2017/08/24/lets-start-thinking-about-whispers-christmas-bear-with-me/

Tell them this year Santa left the presents in the garage/shed for 3 days to quarantine, and you have permission to bring them in on Xmas Eve but they are not to open a single one til Xmas morning. Then crack open a bottle, send them to bed and get yourself a film on.

Christmas presents downstairs, stockings on the bedroom door.

One year I wrapped a Nintendo DS and forgot about the game hidden in one of many many hiding places. DS2 was inconsolable at not getting any games to play with his new DS, whilst watching his brother play with his.

I’ve joined a few midnight ‘waiting for the kids to go to sleep’ threads on here over the years. So much easier now they are older and I don’t need to sneak around the house at 2am.

We always had presents downstairs. We told the children to wake us ( often we had only been in bed an hour !) then we would all sneak down together to see if Father Christmas had been.

Every Christmas when I see these threads I am more and more grateful I'm not Christian and I don't have these things to worry about.

Santa could not be less Christian TBH. Most of the practising Christians I know play Santa down or don't do him at all.

We also put the presents in the living room. I'm doing the organised mum organised Christmas this year and will have everything bought and wrapped by 1 Dec hopefully so I'll just have to wait to their asleep, put it out and then go to bed myself. That's the plan anyway.

What exactly are you preparing until 2am? I have the big gifts wrapped well before, stockings gifts in separate bags then it's just a quick assembly job, much less stress.

In our family we also have a big difference in incomes so we tend to make the Santa gifts smaller and the ones that are officially from us bigger. I think it's nice for children whose families have less not to wonder why santa brings more to the kids who are already rich, it makes it less of a shock when they work out the truth, and also saves some Christmas Eve work!

One year Santa in our house growing up for a little ... tipsy after midnight mass and forgot to do our stockings. We were grown - think late teens - but it was a thing our parents still did. My sister staged a sit in in bed and wouldn’t get out until Santa brought the stocking outside her door

With our littles we do big presents in a sack downstairs and the stocking in the bedroom is full of smaller things which can be slung in really quickly. The rules are that you have to be asleep not just pretending or he will leave your gifts downstairs. It’s worked so far but I am LOVING the duplicate stocking idea!!!

It's easy to solve. Stockings are left downstairs by the fireplace. Other presents are wrapped and then put in cardboard boxes and sealed. Then hide them in accessible places downstairs, in the pantry, garage, shed - anywhere that isn't upstairs!

Send the kids to bed and prep dinner for the next day. When done sit down to a nice festive drink and some nibbles. Pop some telly on and wait for them to finally go to sleep. Get everything out 10 minutes before you head up to bed.

Never leave wrapping til the last minute either. I have memories of my poor mother frantically wrapping on Christmas Eve. I only did that once and it was bloody miserable. Aim to be finished with all of the wrapping and present swaps before the kids break up from school, it takes all the pressure off.

We dont do Santa BS and I'm miffed at all the double stockings, no wonder initial and nice ones are all gone by mid Oct!

Due to covid, santa won't be able to enter kids' bedrooms to deposit stockings this year unfortunately. He and his ellves have decided that they will be placing them alongside the main gifts. Job done. Crack the baileys!

In our old house the only remaining fireplace was in our bedroom so the stockings were there. Here it is downstairs, which will help Father Christmas as at his age and weight he doesn't want to risk catching coronavirus. Tell her not to come down if she hears anything because no child wants to be the one to give Father Christmas coronavirus! For the first time I don't need to be so machiavellian as the youngest has declared himself a skeptic. Perfect timing as going to secondary next year.

My favourite tip:

Tell the kids that Christmas Eve is tommorow night.

@BoudicasBoudoir

Yes, duplicate stockings is the trick. Learned that one from my own parents.

I do remember a friend telling me that her father forgot to do stockings after her mother died, and how upset she and her sister had been. They were only tiny at the time. Heartbreaking.

That’s made me cry in Lidl car park. How awful.