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Original poster

What is an acceptable amount of presents from 'santa'

71 replies

BT11 · 27/11/2022 22:33

Just wondering what everyone feels is an acceptable amount of presents from 'Santa' 'Father Christmas' or whatever tradition is celebrated in your home at Christmas?

Personally I was raised with one gift & stocking from Father Christmas and all other gifts (if there were any) were from my parents. They said it was so I wouldn't expect too much from santa and that it was to remind me that they loved me too.

Just to add - there are some parents I used to see on Facebook when I used it with a whole living room full of presents from 'santa' and I would worry that other children might feel upset that Santa didn't get them as much.

I am due my first child soon and I know the whole idea won't become something we do for a few years but just curious how other parents do this? 🙂

OP posts:
Fluffluff · 27/11/2022 23:32

Stocking of unwrapped gifts from santa... Books... Game.. Sweets. Socks etc
Then a few wrapped from us.
We don't have a big family so afte rrhat maybe 2 other gifts

stargirl1701 · 27/11/2022 23:33

One gift and one stocking here. The gift has to be something elves can make so no iPads!

icebearforpresident · 27/11/2022 23:45

I’m super stingy, Santa delivers one joint present and every year I forget if the stockings were from us or him the year before. It helps that I have 2 daughters who are less than 2 years apart and into the same things.

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Itsfridaynightok · 27/11/2022 23:51

Alll presents are from Santa here BUT we send Santa some money which explains why they might get more/less than others.

FfaCoffi · 28/11/2022 00:05

FfaCoffi · 27/11/2022 23:05

Every year, there's an argument on Mumsnet about whether Santa should bring all the presents / only some (with a few outliers saying none).

People have REALLY strong opinions about this.

But do you know what? When they're young most DC won't have a clue what other families do, it's not something they talk about and compare notes on to that extent.

Heck, my DC didn't even notice Santa gave THEM different amounts of presents alternate years, till they were old enough to know Santa isn't real.

We alternate between the grandparents on each side for Christmas. My family have always done stockings from Father Christmas, presents under the tree from actual named people. My mum give my DC presents from her, she doesn't give them stuff from FC.

DP's family do stockings AND presents under the tree from Santa, and MIL gets a LOT of presents "from Santa".

So it changed from one year to the next for my DC.

But, the DC have never once mentioned this difference. I think the whole thing is so overwhelming (in a good way) they're not stopping to question where the presents came from.

Create your own family traditions, OP! Lots of fun to be had there.

In case it's not clear, I do the stockings! But MIL adds to the Santa presents by giving my DC a bunch of stuff from her under the tree, which she labels "from Santa".

My mum doesn't do this, so it depends on where we are, how many Santa presents they get.

Have never had any complaints / queries / objections!

Thursa · 28/11/2022 04:11

Santa brought one big present, usually what they asked him for in their letter, and filled stockings. Santa also didn’t wrap his present because he was too effing tired by then.

FallingsHowIFeel · 28/11/2022 04:31

Everything we bought was from Santa. Other presents had a tag with who they were from.

As for others kids being upset that Santa maybe didn’t get them as much, no one other than us knew all the present our kids had. We never post on social media and I was g going to change how we did things to suit others.

FallingsHowIFeel · 28/11/2022 04:31

*wasn't

JenniferBarkley · 28/11/2022 05:05

Santa brings the big main present that they've written to him for, and a sack with stocking filler type stuff. We give a medium sized toy, and everyone else's presents come from them with nothing to do with the man in red.

NatalieH2220 · 28/11/2022 05:51

DS1 writes a letter to Santa so what is on there is what Santa brings (this year is a toy car and a kite so not too expensive) plus a few small items that are stocking fillers although I don't use a stocking. Any main presents and anything else I get are from us.

Beezknees · 28/11/2022 06:11

Presents weren't from Santa in my house. I did do a sort of "story" about Santa but I made it clear from the start that presents were from family and friends. Some children get nothing at Christmas and I didn't want my DC thinking they were more special than other kids in that sense. Also I didn't want some fairy tale man having credit for things that I'd worked hard to buy.

RobinRobinMouse · 28/11/2022 06:16

Dd doesn't get anything from us, from Father Christmas she gets a stocking and one main or two slightly smaller mains depending on what it is. I think she knows we love her either way.

PuttingDownRoots · 28/11/2022 06:24

We have never actually said. But have hinted in the run up to Christmas that Santa has thousands of children so only small stuff can fit on the sleigh, not big stuff like kitchens, bikes, games consoles etc. That stuff comes from parents/grandparents

Wtafis · 28/11/2022 06:27

Here Santa gets the stocking which is full of fun bits.
somethung magic (this year a cup he fell in love with at Disneyland but k wouldn’t let him buy as couldn’t get home safely)
and the thing he asks the Santa we visit for, last year it was a cuddly toy goofy.

everything else is from who it’s from

amylou8 · 28/11/2022 06:38

Stocking from Santa, everything else from parents. That's how it was done for me as a child and how I did it for my kids.

BiasedBinding · 28/11/2022 06:55

We do stocking from Father Christmas and everything else from people.

but don’t worry about other families doing things differently - you just explain that to children (“father Christmas does things differently for different families” or whatever), it’s good for them to learn that other people do things differently and that’s normal

DanglingMod · 28/11/2022 07:01

As s child, nothing was from Santa; he was just the delivery system. So thats what I did. Same in dh's family.

I only discovered on mumsnet that some people label things "from" Santa. So you can see that I never worked out as a child that different families did it differently.

caffelattetogo · 28/11/2022 07:03

Stocking and one gift from Santa.

Dinnerdate1 · 28/11/2022 07:04

One or two from Santa. I always over buy as I start in January. But this year is OTT.
My kids have 28 each at the moment. The pile is ridiculous but it's done now. Ive also got to many stocking fillers so they'll have around 18 items each in the stockings. But my logic was this year I was going to get whatever they asked for to cheer every one up as my lovely dh has just got rid of Cancer and it's been shit.
They are good kids and not entitled or spoilt usually but this year obviously I've done that.
And
Other than posting here, no one knows the kids have this amount of presents and I wouldn't go and start bragging about it online etc. probably will scale it back in next year.

BooksAndHooks · 28/11/2022 07:05

Stocking upstairs from Father Christmas. Presents under the tree from us. They know they ask Father Christmas for small things that fit in the stocking. They turned it into an opportunity to ask for the most unusual things they could think of and it became a fun tradition.

Ylvamoon · 28/11/2022 07:06

One toy gift and sweets in stocking...

SamanthaVimes · 28/11/2022 07:09

This year is the first year my toddler properly has a concept of Christmas. I’m doing a stocking from FC and everything else is from who bought it (including her main present from us)

Stocking is mainly art stuff, stickers, playdoh and a few sweets or chocolate.

ChristmasPickleRick · 28/11/2022 07:12

Endwalker · 27/11/2022 22:55

Nothing is 'from' Santa here.

DC know that we buy the presents and wrap them, then we send them to Santa for safekeeping. He brings them back on Christmas Eve.

He's basically a celestial delivery man, like Amazon but jolly.

Doing it this means the DC know who to thank for their gifts, they know why some children get a lot and some get very little, and it stops them asking for unrealistic gifts like flying ponies or £50,000 super computers.

Same here - but it didn’t stop middle DD asking for a pack of velociraptors to train three years in a row Grin

WimbyAce · 28/11/2022 07:13

We do all ours from Santa. I am wondering whether to think on this though as our daughter asked recently if she was getting presents from us. I wasn't sure what to say tbh!

suzyscat · 28/11/2022 07:17

Stocking and 1 small to medium item.

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