To ask you to clear up Santa for me?

[Waltermittythesequel]

What's the deal with Santa in the UK? Or anywhere for that matter.

In my family we it's:

Kids write to Santa.
Santa brings the presents they ask for, made by the elves, from Santa and only Santa.
Santa also fills stockings.
Grandparents, parents, aunts etc buy totally seperate presents for the children which are given by them to the dc when they see them.

Dh is English and says that santa only brought stocking fillers and delivered presents from relatives who he then had to thank?!

So, what's the general consensus of what Santa does?

PS Everyone I know and knew as a child did it the same way.

By the way I would be delighted if Santa came to collect my presents then dropped them off on the day nicely wrapped!

I was brought up with main present from parents and a pillowcase containing a big pile of reasonably modest gifts such as books, pens, colouring books, and always a selection pack, coins, a handful of nuts and a satsuma from Father Christmas (never Santa). Satsuma would be found under the bed and mouldy weeks later. I'm from the West Country but was an army brat do friends were from all over. Can't say I remember how anyone else's family did it.

I do similar but the kids do get one present from their list plus selection pack, coins, books, bath stuff (fun Lush stuff they wanted) and a couple of other bits and bobs. I spend £50 each in total this year on the pillowcase. Only spend £50 from us too as they don't need anything big this year.

DH's family have all presents bought and labelled by family but delivered by Father C. I don't do it that way because it's daft. I but all the presents so we do it my way.

mummy buys some presents and sends them to santa to deliver.
santa delivers and gives presents and stocking.
santa has a budget and they do not get everything they want.
santa has written his list and finished it already and there is not time for him to get a bloody polar bear.

apparently santa is the only one who is generous according to ds. because I won't get him a bloody polar bear as they do not sell them anymore exactly the bloody same and I can not buy one and send it to santa in time

We usually put the longed for gift and various bits and bobs in the stocking. The DC open that first thing. All other gifts are done later in the day and labeled. Or indeed on whichever day we see the giver. DH struggled a bit because he had the orange and chocolate coin type stocking and thinks I'm a bit mad. I do very well at getting a lot of bang for my buck.

Same as you

Father Christmas left a sack in our bedrooms, but our parents also bought us things which were under the tree. We were well aware that the two were "separate", and knew to thank our parents for the gifts they had bought for us. Relatives brought gifts which we thanked them for in person.
Need to ask DH what his family did. I'm not entirely sure I want to "do" Santa for my DS.

I'm not entirely sure I want to "do" Santa for my DS.

I highly recommend not getting into the hype. It's ridiculous!!!

Surely buying presents, then sending them off to just be sent back makes no sense.
My six year old could point out the logistics is mind boggling.

Peaceloveandpartyrings - you can make Santa as big or as small a deal as you want. This thread is showing how flexible it all is! I'm not into making a huge fuss about Santa but my DH loves setting up the carrot/booze/cake with the DC. Children get their presents no matter what Santa tale you spin.

As kids, we couldn't be trusted to leave the presents alone before Christmas morning - hence the "Santa-as-Parcelforce" probably.

ElasticPants

'Surely buying presents, then sending them off to just be sent back makes no sense. hmm
My six year old could point out the logistics is mind boggling.'

That's what I said to my DH, it's nuts. DH is the only person I have met who's family did this.

I bloody love the Father Christmas nonsense. The comparing of notes with other parents, the sense of outrage when they do it 'wrong' . Love the carrot for rudolf, mincepie and port for Father C and for some reason DD1 insists on leaving a bowl of milk for the reindeers. Can't wait to see him at Eden next week (the real one always goes to Eden). I'm usually a right cynical misery as well.

Would not miss this ridiculous hype for anything!!

FC fills stockings.

FC leaves a main present under the tree. (Not electrical in my house. Elves can't do electrics.)

Family (inc me) also buy presents.

This year I'm poor so will only buy DC a small present from me. (Except the 13yos fitbit. Which obvs FC can't bring.)

pyjamas! monkey nuts!? smellies!!???

But clothes and food are disqualified from Santy pressies, everyone knows that!

Does chocolate count as food? Are smellies allowed if they are on 'the list'?

Smellies on 'the list' !? What self respecting modern greedy consumerist child asks for smellies?

It's not the of Tiny Tim with a spinning top, Ho no, toys, big BIG toys go on the list.

Chocolate is food, parents buy that. It's essential for life. Santy brings luxuries, dreams, bank busting booty. Well, maybe a selection box.

Parents do a small present or two as they have to give Santa money for presents

What. The. Actual. Fuck?

Santa brings everything in our house. We send him money to make and deliver the presents.

That's batshit crazy. Lol.

Santy doesn't get money! Santy is a Superhero that magics forth FREE pressies.

FC delivers all the presents on behalf of family members to our house. He's like a beardy, airborne, rotund version of Postman Pat.

Chez PILs, presents have nothing to do with FC (who doesn't exist) and everything to do with wonderfully benevolent grandma and MUST live at Grandma's and ABSOLUTELY NOT be taken home to play with, until Grandma 'gets sick of the clutter' halfway through June and bins them all without checking with the child they supposedly belong to, because all of that makes Christmas delightful for a 5yo. .

I may sound slightly OTT but the thought of £300 of barely touched Sylvanian Families carted off down the tip has damaged me

That is fucking traumatizing! She's the anti-Santa. The anti-Santy even. Evil. 😢

One year I told the DC Father Christmas lost his money in the Icelandic banking crash.
It helpfully coincided with my losing my job.
They loved their bowl/post it notes.

Father Christmas brings the stocking presents everything else comes from parents and other relatives. Well that's how we did when our girls were children and my siblings did the same for their children. In fact that's what my parents did.
I'm English originally from London

I think it's madness to tell the kids Santa presents are free. Surely you can explain that the elves need to eat
"Santy" makes my skin crawl

FC brings stocking fillers here, everything else is from the real person and goes under the tree as soon as I wrap it. Which, as I am extremely slightly Christmas-obsessive, is the 1st December or thereabouts.

Does anyone else NOT do the writing to FC thing? My oldest, who is 9, has spontaneously written to the big man in the last couple of years, but she just shows me the list and doesn't seem to mind that we don't do anything with it. I express vague interest and mentally add a couple of things to my twitch list. I've never been able to reconcile the idea that a Christmas list contains 'main presents' but FC doesn't bring that kind of present in our house, so I've chosen to ignore the list idea.

There was one time, when she was about 5, when we were staying with family and my niece appeared on Christmas Eve afternoon to say "I thought you should know that OldestChild has written a letter to Father Christmas and put it under her pillow for him to find". Cheers kid! What am I supposed to do with that information at 4.30 on Christmas Eve?

For data, I'm English, husband is Australian but had a crappy childhood so has no real Christmas traditions. Consequently most of our Christmas reflects mine growing up, which is clearly the Right and Only Way to do things.