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?

[DoTheMaccaroni]

I don’t understand why the hell people bother! The whole Santa thing causes so much confusion and upset to so many families. My daughter is 2 so she hasn’t got a clue yet but at most she’ll get 1 present from ‘Santa’ but I’ll also be telling her that it’s just for fun and just pretend.

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

I do sometimes worry I might fall asleep, or one of them might wake up while I'm doing the wrapping on Christmas Eve - but so far I haven't had either of those problems.

We do stockings by the fire, as we have a genuine open fireplace, so it makes sense for the stockings to be where Santa comes into the house.
Makes it a LOT easier.

But most presents come from actual people they know, not Santa - he only does small presents that fit into the stocking.

[BorderlineHappy]

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!


Bah Humbug.

When our kids where smaller, we just left the toys downstairs. Much easier.

Ours are older now,so this year we are just giving them money.

[Benjispruce2]

We always put them downstairs by the fireplace.

[Beautiful3]

I've tried to make it as easy for myself as possible. I've told mine that parents buy the main presents, and Santa brings a small token gift (because he has to give one to every child in the world!) Also i don't do stockings, tried it and it was such a faff trying to buy so many small things (bits of crap) to fit in them! If you want to do stockings, hang them downstairs. I place all of their presents into big red sacks, one each, so no wrapping needed!

[beela]

A couple of years ago, when ds was 8, he woke up as we were brushing our teeth ready for bed at about midnight (that never happens, he must have been sleeping really lightly because he was so excited). Anyway, he discovered that fc had already been and was beside himself with excitement for the rest of the night. At one point he was in tears because he was trying so hard to get back to sleep but just couldn't.

That was a long Christmas day.

[Acidjazz]

So.... because of covid 19 and the fact he got muddy footprints in my hallway. Santa will not be allowed into the hall past our porch. So stockings will be left there to be collected in the morning. (His milk and mince pies will have hand sanitiser on the tray too)

Santa only leaves the kids one present they ask for in their stocking. I get them everything else and they know I put it under the tree. Also removes some stress.

[HellooJackie]

I stress if I'm not organised. All wrapping has to be done by at least 20th Dec. I did some once in Christmas Eve and it stressed me out.
My DS has an ELC kitchen this year and I know I'm going to have to build it throughout December it looks like a bloody spaceship would be easier to build!

[vintageyoda]

Overtherubicon

Exactly what you said there. The thought of children from families in poverty or, worse, neglectful 'bad' families wondering why Santa would be so generous to others and give them so little / nothing at all just brings me to tears and always has.

As soon as my kids started asking about Father Christmas being real I said that it's all about the fun and colour, these things don't have to be real for us to have great fun with them. This way they never spoiled it for their younger siblings but got involved in creating the fun and fuss. Not one of them was disappointed with the truth and we still (they are 15, 13 & 12) have great fun dashing outside to see the sleigh passing by, leaving stuff out for Father Christmas and his reindeer, threatening each other with being on the naughty list and delighting in stockings first thing in the morning.
We absolutely love Christmas as a family but I think our culture has got a bit out of hand in trying to create the perfect Christmas. You mustn't lose sight of what is important. If getting the stockings in the room is impossible, change the rules. You need to enjoy yourself too.
Having said all that, my fave day is Boxing Day when I can stop prepping, cooking, sorting, thinking....just relax amongst my gorgeous kids enjoying their gifts and all the yummy food.

[HellooJackie]

@DoTheMaccaroni

I don’t understand why the hell people bother! The whole Santa thing causes so much confusion and upset to so many families. My daughter is 2 so she hasn’t got a clue yet but at most she’ll get 1 present from ‘Santa’ but I’ll also be telling her that it’s just for fun and just pretend.

Well is there any point then? If you're going to tell her it's pretend?
It is part of the magic of Christmas for children. They don't believe of long so make the most of it.

[PatchworkElmer]

We just leave DS’s downstairs 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Seriouslymole]

Ours at 9 and 11 have decided they don't believe in Father Christmas any more. We will still do stockings but as always they will be filled and left downstairs. In our house FC has always brought small things and generally things they need - toothbrushes, flannels, pants, socks, plus a couple of toys and books and the requisite satsuma and a few chocolates.

[Wilbedon]

When DS1 was little he found the idea of Santa coming into the house utterly terrifying. I used to meet Santa in a nearby town to collect his presents.

The simplest thing would have been to tell him the truth, but he has a little brother and went to nursery and school with lots of other children who did believe. I did not want to be reason why Santa was ruined for an entire class of four year olds.

[Nonamesavail]

Nope. I cut everything right back. No excess pressies, no excessive traditions like the elf etc or foot prints mine leave a carrot and mince pie and I bring a bag of pressies down when they are in bed. So much easier

[ilovebagpuss]

You can’t really ruin it you’re trying and thinking about it and they get lovely presents. Even a bit of a muddle won’t ruin the spell because it’s just love.
My brother and I used to always get a mixed up present like the wrong book or set of smellies that had been wrapped in a rush. Mum would say Santa must have been extra busy or tired we never thought to question it. It became a bit of fun we looked forward to as well what daft item would we open that was not meant for our stocking.
I did borrow the duplicate stocking idea when Mine were small they were so much easier to wrap and fill and just put away ready. We live in a bungalow so nowhere to escape to for secret wrapping unless I took a day off.
If you can get it done in advance so you can just enjoy Christmas Eve we had some exhausting late ones and I wish we were more organised but it’s harder when they are little.

[daisychain1620]

My two are teens now but I still ask 'what would you like from Santa this year?'
We were talking earlier this week and DS said he has no idea where we hide the gifts or how we put them out without them knowing 😀
I never forgot to put anything out but I used to have horrible dreams that a burglar stole everything and I used to wake thinking I could hear noises. It only happened when mine were little. Stressful lol

[Halliehallie9828]

I wrap everything and put it in the garage.
Once the kids are asleep it all gets moved around and put under the tree.
Our daughter has a mini tree in her room and I put a couple of gifts under that.

Then gotta do they whole chuck crunched up carrots outside, couple of boot prints.

And bed.

[Friendsoftheearth]

I think not being able to sleep because of this sounds like anxiety.

Christmas will be exhausting with young children it always is, our record year was opening christmas presents at 2.15am after being asleep for precisely 2 and a half hours. You need to go with the flow op. Stop worrying and taking it all so seriously. What goes wrong will make for wonderful family stories and memories in later years.

I think you may need some help with your anxiety levels, it is October, you have plenty of time to make a list and finish everything even by mid November. I would imagine your underlying concern is the state of the country by December, not unreasonably and you are focusing on things you can control.

[FreeAcorns]

Taking a leaf out of MIL's book, all presents are put into different santa sacks (different colour/design for each person). I do this as I wrap / receive gifts from family so it's all done by christmas eve. On the night, simply pop the sacks under the tree. Minimal noise/fuss and everything is in the right place. Kids also then know which sack is theirs and can get stuck in with abandon, without worrying they are accidentally opening someone else's presents (especially useful when they can't read yet!). Stockings are downstairs - they usually are fairly minimal though. Mostly chocolate coins and sweets.

[dolphinpose]

We always did 'hang up your stockings by the fireplace' so there was no need to sneak into their rooms. If you have a fireplace, do this. If not, hang them up by the tree or make a focal point by a window or somewhere you can say Santa's elves sneak in.

Buy or make 2 identical stockings for each child. Label them. Wrap up stocking fillers and put them in one set of stockings way in advance. Mid December at the latest. Then hide them really carefully. On the night, all you have to do is switch them over.

Remind them that if they hear any noises they must stay still. If the elves or Santa think they'll be seen, they might run off.

Big presents go under the tree in advance. They are not from Santa. They are from family.

Go for a long walk in the fresh air on Christmas Eve if the weather is fine. Feed them their favourite every day meal. Nothing too exciting or rich. Stay as low key as you can. They pick up on our nerves.

[TheMamaYo]

Aah, Santa does the row of stockings in my own bedroom. He knows the children love jumping into bed with me in the morning to open it.

I think it is all about as much preparation as you can before they go to bed. And leave some presents under the tree, take the credit for that! Santa only leaves the stocking and one gift each. The rest I am quite happy to get the thank you hugs for. Enjoy Christmas, OP. Kids will fully accept you are in partnership with Santa. It's not worth getting so stressed about.

[Newnamenewopenme]

My mum stays over the night before Christmas and is a godsend! We tell the girls that she doesn’t sleep well so gets up 20 times a night (this is true) and Santa is ok with that because she bumps into him most years so if they hear movement then it’s probably her giving him a hand organising the presents!

She loves doing it and it makes my life easier. She also wraps all of the gifts whilst I do other stuff (give the house a quick clean/take the dogs out for their evening walk). Although she must have a good deal with Santa because there are always more presents that are labelled from Santa that I was expecting, even for me and dp!

[whiteroseredrose]

Two identical stockings! Genius. I wish I thought of that years ago.

Mine have a pillow case with smaller bits from Father Christmas. The aim was to give them something to open and play with when they woke up at 5am.

We never had problems with them waking when the pillow cases were put in their rooms but Father Christmas was obviously worse for wear one year when he got the stockings mixed up. DS didn't understand why he had Hermione's wand.

[Echobelly]

Bloody hell, this makes me glad I don't celebrate Christmas - sounds like there's a lot of pressure on for people to make it 'magical'.

[Echobelly]

And by 'people' read 'mums'