To despise the elimination of elves..

[IWishIWasSheRa]

2 of my friends tell their kids they buy the toys, give them to Santa and he delivers them on Christmas Eve if they've been good. Their theory is they don't want Santa to get the credit for the things they worked hard to pay for and put thought into...

IHere the Elves make toys all year long, Santa delivers them and mummy and daddy buy you a little present too. Job done. what do you reckon are times changing?

Times aren't changing. You've just discovered some people do it differently to you.

Elves make knickers, socks, hair clips, colouring pencils here.

Proper presents come from us, Santa isn't getting credit for the glory gifts!

Elves drop of Xmas eve pjs and hot chocolate here.

Nope, times are not changing. It'll been the way you describe since I was a girl (a long time ago). This new-fangled elf business is an unnecessary layer. I blame Will Ferrell.

Although elves are the least of our problems of Maryz finds this thread....

But the elves have always worked in FATHER CHRISTMAS' workshop.

Poor, forgotten and overlooked elves. :(

Elves make wooden/handmade toys.

When DD has written her list, I send it along with my hard earned cash, and Father Christmas decides what she is getting from the list.

But DD will be 9 this Christmas and I think she is currently humouring me

Oh, I forgot the Xmas jammies.

They also deliver the jammies while the kids are in the bath

:o Mary will unleash the Elves of War.

We've never had elves. Elves just don't feature. Mum and Dad buy the big flash stuff, and Santa brings a stocking full of tat plus one medium-quality present which has been specifically asked for. He always manages to fulfill a particular request, but he does it elve-less.

I am quite scared of the elves of war now but I digress, I just wish we could all have the same theory on Santa- like "you can't leave the hospital with your new baby without signing this 'Santa contract' Then you wouldn't feel bad about lying to your kids because your hands are legally tied/ have to answer questions on conflicting theories or have to pretend that Santa went to nanny's too but say thank you to nanny for your presents.

Although I do keep laughing at the idea of a child opening a present- deeming it 'medium quality' as assuming its from Santa

Father Christmas brings one present.

Oooh - a Santa Contract is a great idea. Maybe it could be part of the birth registration process - you only get the birth certificate if you sign a bit of paper agreeing to the Official Santa Rules. The Coalition could use Mumsnet to agree the rules - we'd hold some sort of official consultation process, invite a few elves along to see if they have any valid input, and then report back on our findings. There would be no controversy at all about The Santa Rules, I'm almost sure of it.

Once we've cracked Santa we can move on to Tooth Fairy Rules and decide once and for all if it's 50p or £1, and whether the TF does indeed write a tiny weeny thank you letter or not. Also an official list of reasons as to why the TF sometimes forgets.

people do things differently

in our family santa brings the stocking and one present. family members then give gifts to each other including parents to kids.

Other people i know have everything from santa

i don't get the whole sending the presents to santa so he can deliver them at xmas - sounds very environmentally friendly and a waste of time!!!

The big man brings one prezzie here (and a few novelty bits) that they find in their santa sacks by the fireplace.

All the rest are labelled by us and the other senders

The whole elf thing backfired on me horribly last year. Ds (5) came home from school waving a letter to Santa they had written in class asking for a wii (well, actually, a "wee"). I pointed out it was only a week till Christmas and wiis are very expensive.

"Don't worry Mummy, the elves will know how to make a wii," he replied confidently.

Turns out they don't.

There should be some rules for the tooth fairy. The tooth fairy round our way is shit

Are the prezzies donated to the children's hospital made by the National Elf Service?

We've been stitched up by elves

DD1 has wanted a flying unicorn for a couple of years and insisted that elves could make her one as they were 'magic'

If anyone spots a flying unicorn on their travels, let me know!

freddie I found him but he's all grown up now and unable to fly due to the ASBO

Santa's elves only make the small stocking gifts. Elves are tiny, so they can't make big stuff (certainly not a unicorn), and (as anyone who's read Harry Potter knows) electrical gadgets misfunction in a magical field, so magical creatures can't make wiis or ipods etc.

having elves and santa bringing everything backfired spectacularly one year

"Mummy, I know that Granny bought me X and Autie mo bought me Y, but you and daddy didnt buy me anything. :'-( "

Rip out my heart and stomp on it.

SO now, Santa brings stockings, mum and dad do the pressies. our kids are old enough to know that anything with Santa on comes from us.

Actually, last year my ds2 launched himself onto my DH, thanking him profusely for his pressie. Which I had discovered, sourced and wrapped without any knowledge from my DH other than a Christmas eve "are we all sorted for Christmas then?"

No elves involved here.

Actually now I think about it, FC is just a glorified parcel delivery man.

Less FC and more DHL...

I tell my dd that i give santa some money for the presents. Santa uses the money to buy the things needed for the elves to make the presents. My dd gets presents from me & santa.

My dc get one biggish present each from Santa along with their stockings. We tell them this so they don't see Santa as being terribly unfair- why do some children get lots of presents at Christmas and others very little? I would definitely have the one present rule placed in the Santa contract.

Honey dragon- having done teeny thank you notes for the tooth fairy complete with fairy dust in the excitement of losing a first tooth I can conclude that it is a shit idea and must be banned in the contract. 9 teeth later and dd2 about to start the process I feel like the tooth fairy should definately become an Eco warrior and just stick with a quid.

Please note that all unicorn related requests are covered under section 17.5a - elves have a magic quota and unicorns consume a whole years worth of magic so are only sanctioned on leap years when the blue moon is aligned.