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?

FC & his chief elf had a few too many a couple of years ago and fell asleep on the sofa.. woke at 3am in a blind panic to do stocking and present duties!

I don't stress about any of it, I enjoy all of it. Stockings hung at the fireplace, take 1 minute to fill when the kids are in bed. Presents all wrapped ahead of Christmas Eve, just need to be moved into position. Different paper for each child, no mixing up. DH has a nibble at the carrot, leaves a dreg of milk, leaves crumbs from mince pie. It's easy if you don't leave everything to the last minute.

Always build any big toys in the days leading up to Christmas. God I love Christmas.

Top tip, don’t use the same wrapping paper for any Santa presents, that you use on actual presents. It was how my then 5yo DD sussed the whole Santa thing, and then her whole childhood belief system - Easter Bunny, Toothfairy fell on the same day? All because I was too lazy to go get another sheet of wrapping paper Still she’s 17 now and thinks it was hilarious.

Ha ha, I have this fear OP! Especially because my eldest, who will be 8 this year, is always in such a state of utter excitement that she doesn’t sleep and I am always shattered and desperate to go to bed! One year baby DD2 was poorly so I was looking after her and DH had to do the stockings etc while I shouted instructions. That was stressful as he doesn’t usually get involved!

I try to get all wrapping done well before Xmas eve and then I pack the stockings into bags - 1 per child. Then on Xmas eve I can just empty the bag into the stockings - they are personalised so I can’t buy duplicates. Everything else is downstairs usually on the sofa rather than under the tree but close enough!

I love the magic of Xmas but it is exhausting!

My tips for you OP:

-I write a list of everything I buy for DC’s as I buy, then tick off the list once wrapped and make a note of where you have hidden each present.
-Different wrapping paper for each child.
-On Christmas Eve if possible send children out with DH or grandparents for an hour, bring presents out from hiding places and put in sacks/stockings.
-Hide sacks and stockings in car (luckily our car has blacked out windows but could cover with a sheet or something if they won’t fit in the boot), much easier to nip out to car once kids are in bed than digging presents out from their hiding places all over the house.

• We also leave all presents downstairs on either side of the fireplace.

Stocking left on stairs, or downstairs and presents in the living room.
The stocking comes from Santa and the rest comes from us and family.

When we were kids we were allowed a sherry glass of raisin wine on Christmas Eve as a treat. This was the 1960's to be fair.

Looking back it was clearly so we would be snoring our heads off when Father Christmas came (we didn't call him Santa back then)

No but our tooth fairy gets lost sometimes

@ShizelsWeegie - I used to get a Babycham!! And I still say Father Christmas - sounds much cosier to me!

@Ginfordinner
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 often see this kind of post as though it's a 'no brainer'. Neither me or my husband ever had a stocking as children. We just had a selection of presents in a sack from Father Christmas.
Neither of us had gifts from parents but family gifts were separate.
Our experience was our frame of reference when we had our first child. We were the first in our group of friends to be parents by years and our DC were the first grandchildren. We didn't realise anyone did things like stockings and parent gifts until DC were much older.
My SIL (BIL's wife) insisted on a stocking of bits and bobs from FC and big presents from BIL and her, so the children learn to say thank you. I've never once received a thanks from them for their gifts. Mine always say thank you.
As you point out the big stuff needs building regardless of who brings it.

Don't tire them out, wind them down.

I keep a radio on in the kitchen most of the time so my kid is used to some background noise in the house and doesn't wake up at every creaky floorboard

I messed up so often with little things like the wrong gift for the wrong child that when I told my middle kid she said "I don't know why I didn't think of that when Santa makes so many mistakes"

And I keep it easy. Stockings are a few small gifts and all kids get same/similar eg chocolate, dvd, book, colouring etc. Often they end up with the favourite colouring book of their sibling No harm done. Santa has so many kids to visits tiny mistakes are inevitable

We also have a really noisy cat. I have to tell visitors that if they hear the sound of a herd of wild horses falling through the roof and thundering down the stairs as the house collapses underneath them, it's fine it's just the cat.

He has his uses!

I've done the whole Santa thing for my children as my parents did for me. I think its really bah humbug for those parents that insist on telling their children from very young that he isn't true.

I'm not sure who gets the most of it, me or them, but we all love it.

I got caught one year bringing the presents in by my youngest so just told her that Santa had left them in the garden as he was in a hurry and asked me to put them under the tree. I followed it up with a letter apologising from Santa for waking her up. She loved it!!

Stockings are left in their rooms, no chimney here. Duplicate stockings is genius, but I quite like the sneaking around :)

Last year my son didn’t sleep until silly o clock. We finally did the stockings and he was awake and in our room within 20 mins of filling them.

We now hang the stockings on their bedroom doors so we don’t have to go into their rooms to fill them.

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

Ah yes, I recall those days, into bed exhausted at 2 am to be wakened at 3 am with little bodies jumping on the bed screeching He's beeeeeeen!!!

@Whathasthiscometo

Stocking left on stairs, or downstairs and presents in the living room. The stocking comes from Santa and the rest comes from us and family.

This is how we’ve always done it. They ask Father Christmas for smaller gifts and us for the main presents. Stops any expectations for gifts out of budget etc as well. It’s quite fun for them when they write their letters to think of gifts suitable for stockings to ask for.

Never done this ,but I remember forgetting to do the Easter Egg hunt and woke up at about 2 am to hide mini eggs around the house!

Wrap presents before Christmas Eve, and write yourself a little list the night before to remember what to do.
Stockings are downstairs, also helps!
I don’t have hugely great Christmas memories from childhood so I’m paranoid about getting it right for the kids.

We hang the stockings on the fireplace in the lounge and wrap all the kids in different coloured paper. Makes life so much easier 😁

Santa only brings stocking here, we bring the presents down after breakfast. I cant leave them downstairs I'm worried we will get broken into and the presents get stolen, now that would ruin Christmas!

The poor tooth fairy had been too busy on occasion, but she came eventually, even if a day late.
As for Santa, now kids are older, I set my alarm for 4 am or thereabouts, no way I can wait until they are sleeping. Luckily they don't get up as early as they used to either.

stockings and presents downstairs, paper streamers leading from their door to the stockings. SOOO much easier (and also less creepy than having a strange man creeping about in your bedroom when you sleep, which when you think about it is wierd as fuck)

Different wrap for each child, presents left downs stairs under tree, wrap up as you buy and hide and no stockings!

@ShizeItsWeegie I remember my gran used to give me a shery glass of ginger wine! Never occurred to me until now that she had an ulterior motive!