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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask you to clear up Santa for me?

162 replies

Waltermittythesequel · 09/12/2015 20:48

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.

OP posts:
LauraChant · 10/12/2015 11:17

In my (English) family, Santa brought a random but exciting assortment of small, unwrapped, toys that he made in his workshop, eg spinning top, weird bath stuff and chocolates, stampers with name on, kaleidoscope, puzzles, and these went in (real, ie American tan type actual) stockings by the bed. Or a pair of tights cut in half usually. People think this is weird but I can't begin to express the excitement of being able to glimpse strange lumps and bumps and labels through the material in the dawn light but not quite seeing what they are until you get up and pull the things out one by one.

Mum and Dad bought us one main present (eg bike or My Little Pony dream castle), us sisters bought each other presents when we were old enough. These were the ones under the tree opened Xmas morning. Grandparents, aunts and uncles also bought us presents and we got these when we saw them (probably Christmas Day or Boxing Day) or if we weren't going to see them they would be under our tree. Under the tree also were our family's presents to aunts and uncles, cousins, etc to be handed over when we saw them, so there was a good pile, it's just they mostly weren't for us.

We do the same thing now. I had no idea anyone did anything differently until I was grown up.

Bambambini · 10/12/2015 11:17

"I remember being horrified and puzzled when a school friend said she got nothing from her parents but a ton of stuff from Santa but Santa didn't wrap anything so everything lay out unwrapped."

That could have been me! Parents didn't get us anything, all from Santa and laid out unwrapped.

Wasn't till I was late teens or so that I asked my mum if she could wrap my presents. Never wanted to hurt her feelings before then, that I preferred to have them wrapped.

MuddlingMackem · 10/12/2015 14:49

Another one here for the unwrapped presents from Santa. DH's parents did wrapped, but mine didn't and we don't for our DC.

Gatehouse77 · 10/12/2015 15:44

FC does stockings and one family present (DVD, board game, etc.). Everything else is from the person who gave it.

Same for both DH and I growing up and what we do now.

Where we seem to differ greatly from the masses is only putting up the tree/decorations on Christmas Eve. That comes from my family...

AwakeCantSleep · 10/12/2015 16:52

Gatehouse that's the tradition in my country. Tree goes up on 24 December and comes down on the Twelfth Day (Epiphany).

Original poster
Waltermittythesequel · 10/12/2015 17:14

Santa doesn't wrap presents here and everything is already assembled for maximum play time.

OP posts:
mumeeee · 10/12/2015 18:27

As I said before Father Christmas only brings stocking presents and they aren't wrapped. Everything else is wrapped and nothing assembled. DH and the girls loved doing Lego sets and other stuff together it was part of the Christmas fun.

HSMMaCM · 10/12/2015 18:47

Santa fills the very small stocking. That's it. All the other presents are from us and other relatives.

InternalMonologue · 10/12/2015 18:48

mumeeee I'm confused, why would pre-building Lego even be a thing? Surely the whole point of Lego is for the recipient to buck it themselves? Confused

I can't get my head around not-wrapped Christmas presents.

InternalMonologue · 10/12/2015 18:49

build, obviously.

And non-wrapped "main" presents. The stocking itself is disguise enough for stocking fillers Grin

BramblePie · 10/12/2015 18:52

I'm Scottish and we had the same as you OP

BramblePie · 10/12/2015 18:55

All mine were wrapped!

BabyDubsEverywhere · 10/12/2015 19:01

As dc, we woke to a stocking from Santa in our room, then a huge pile from Santa including all main gifts from him in the living room. Under the tree were presents from siblings/parents/others all labelled from them to us. No confusion. We do the same with ours. DH cant remember, his family life was a bit shit generally though.
We're from the midlands if that matters :)

BabyDubsEverywhere · 10/12/2015 19:04

Santa build the big main thing and that isn't wrapped, like bikes, Barbie houses etc. So they can be played with straight away :)

ACatCalledFang · 10/12/2015 19:05

My parents used to go and see Father Christmas each year to discuss presents... Gets round the whole conundrum quite nicely, and we were all believers. We then had presents from Father Christmas, with input from our parents, in our sacks (wrapped) in the morning, then tree presents from family and friends in the afternoon.

Really surprised at unwrapped presents! Ours were never assembled either, with the odd exception of things like a doll's house. Poor DDad spent most of Christmas morning on his hands and knees assembling things and hunting for batteries...

Hulababy · 10/12/2015 19:13

In our house it is:

Father Christmas brings ONE special gift - it is unwrapped, often traces of elf dust is still visible. Where required, it is often already assembled/set up and ready to be played with/used.

All other presents go under the tree and come from named family and friend. Pretty much everything comes to the house in advance and nothing is opened until Christmas Day morning.

Sometimes FC is a delivery service too - was when I was growing up.

We don't have stockings at all. Never have done.

DD is 13y now so it is all a bit different these days - mind you, apparently FC still needs to bring a special glittery gift!

BeanGirls · 10/12/2015 19:14

My way is exactly the same as yours and I'm from Ireland. I've never heard of anyone doing it any other way and I live in UK now.

AllPizzasGreatAndSmall · 10/12/2015 19:27

We tell the DC that we buy the presents, the elves wrap them and Santa delivers them.

I started this with my children as I want them to realise that some children don't get as much as them / they don't get as much as others not because they've been good / bad but due to circumstance.

Yes,I think it is important that children know it is the parents that pay for the presents so they understand why there is a limit and also why some children get more or less than them.

Dd once asked why she got so much more than some of her friends and I told her that FC sends gifts suitable for the household, so as not to make the parents feel bad so, for example, millionaires children would get ridiculously expensive presents.

Great, punish the poor kids by giving them less than the kids with wealthy parents, nice one Santa!

mumeeee · 11/12/2015 00:26

Internal I think you misread my post or I didn't explain properly. We didn't ever pre build Lego sets but I've heard other people saying the past that they have built certain Lego sets (!Harry Potter/Star Wars)before giving them to their children as they thought the children would like to see the completed thing. I really don't know why they would do that though.

oobedobe · 11/12/2015 02:13

We do it the same way as you OP, works well, it only got confusing the year we spent Christmas with the in-laws, and they would announce every present as 'From Santa!', and my SIL declared that Santa had been to her house too (she has no DC) to leave presents for my kids, even though mine had already opened their (real) sacks that morning Confused.

I kept trying to point out who the presents were really from (Aunts, Uncles etc) and that they should thank them, while the in laws were obvious and kept mentioning Santa all bloody day!

TBF I don't think they 'did' Santa/Father Christmas with their kids so they have a funny idea of how it 'works'.

JessieMcJessie · 11/12/2015 08:32

I'm detecting a bit of snobbery here from all those saying they can't possibly call him Santa. It's a class thing, isn't it?

mumeeee · 11/12/2015 08:45

I don't think it's s class thing. I've always called him Father Christmas and I so has everyone else I know wherever I've lived and I've moved a few times. I now live on Wales and everyone here says Father Christmas. I think Santa is an American thing.

TattieHowkerz · 11/12/2015 08:54

Santa is not an American thing.

You will be hard pushed to find many Scottish people who say "Father Christmas" unless they have English parents or are being very affected. I think it is also mainly Santa in Ireland and Northern England but may be corrected on this.

InternalMonologue · 11/12/2015 10:07

mumeeee Ah I see Xmas Smile Yes I misread you, sorry!

In the spirit of supporting hypotheses, TattieHowkerz, I'm Scottish (with Irish family) and it's always been Santa for us. I've only come across people using FC on here and on telly/in books.

Daisysbear · 11/12/2015 10:20

Anything my parents bough came from Santa. Small presents in stockings at the end of our beds and main present under the tree and room locked until after mass. Spread everything out over the morning until grandpa and other relatives arrived with more presents. Xmas Smile

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