1st year not doing "santa" presents for teens??

[rudolf54321]

I was the youngest of four kids. When I was 12 that was the last year my parents got us "santa" presents. I had great christmases as a child, waking up on xmas morning and finding a pile of presents under the tree waiting to be opened! But when I turned 13 it changed completely, my family opened presents on christmas eve after midnight mass. I got one xmas gift that year: a hair straightener from my parents. While I was very grateful I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed since i was used to waking up on christmas morning to lots of santa presents! A lot of my friend got lots of presents and I remember being embarrassed and making up lies of things I received! Of course my parents had 4 kids so I completely understand concerns for money..

How did other people transition their kids from not believing in santa? When I have my kids I want to spoil them a little on christmas like I was but I dont want them to be ungrateful spoiled adults/teens. However I dont want their first christmas as a teen to be disappointing.

I felt that was the way for a lot of things, as soon as I turned 13 it was as though I was no longer a kid.

I am thankful that my parents gave me magical christmases and raised me to be happy and appreciative as an adult but I feel that there was a better way for them to do it?!!

P.S. sorry to be talking about christmas in August!
Also When we did santa presents our parents didnt give us presents from them! And relatives live abroad so it was only our parents giving gifts!

Father Christmas still brings us all presents in our house.

Why wouldn't he?

I still get/give them and I'm closer to 60 than 40.

mrsfuzzy we are Pagan too, celebrate Yule with food, drink & gifts. Happy Lammas 😃

Can I just say, I do find it odd to open a thread to tell other people they shouldn't be talking about something. Can't you just ignore it? I manage to with subjects that don't interest me

Kate. This is a parenting site. It doesn't take too much thinking to realise that some people struggle with Christmas. There is a Christmas topic for people who want to discuss it year round. It was introduced after many of us kept throwing our toys out of the sack about it.

For me it was Christmas without my Dad. Just seeing the threads set me off.

For others, who have lost children, it's much worse. It's not the same as not nothing about a thread with camping in the title.

We still do this in my family but a couple of years ago my sister and I started doing one for our parents. We now have an agreement that as long as everyone gets a stocking it continues tis only fair. Last year the mil stayed so she got one iyswim?

OP

I really don't remember when we stopped with 'Santa' presents or putting out milk/whisky & a mince pie/carrot. But I left home at 17 & had younger siblings. Christmas changed due to boyfriends & splitting my time between their family & mine.

Santa brings all the presents in our house, my youngest is 16. We still live the Santa magic.

Santa comes to everyone in our house who is there on Christmas eve. This year the children in our house will be 17, 33, 42 and 70.
He brings stocking presents which tend to be silly bits (candles, useful bits and bobs) and toiletries. Any other presents are from family etc and are under the tree until Christmas morning and opened after breakfast!

I would be sad to not get my chocolate coins in my personalized stocking!

I'm 56 and father Christmas still brings my stocking (and my ohs!!) To my mums house, and she still stays up til after we've gone to bed!! But fr Christmas now leaves them outside the door as I'm a pretty light sleeper!
I am quite sure I will carry on doing the same for my dds.
And anyone who's away at Christmas still gets their stocking saved for them!!

Father Christmas still brings us all presents in our house

Why wouldn't he?

^ This
Why wouldn't he still visit us?

Hmm, I don't really know. We started giving the main gift from us when they were about 7 or 8 as we realised it looked like we hadn't bought them anything. Mine are 16 and 15 this year, what we've done for the last few years is simply not have a gift from us and a bag from Santa, we still have a pile of gifts in the bag (which still says Santa) but obviously they know it's all from us.

We struggle more and more to make it look like a pile. But I add in things that they need such as PJs, socks, etc and also put in big bags of popcorn and crisps and cans of fizzy drink to bulk it all up.

We've never done family gifts on Christmas eve or anything though so I guess that makes it easier.

Family gifts have always been envelopes with cash in so whilst very welcome, not the most exciting thing for a young child so we've probably always overcompensated.

My son is four so hopefully many more years of believing for him! But it is an interesting question and I wonder what single mums do? I will buying presents 'from Santa', but my ex is planning on visiting with own gifts (and wants it to clear they will be from him). At some point, DS is going to start wondering why Santa brings him presents, as do daddy, nanny and auntie - but mummy buys him 'nothing'! (Nanny, like dad, also likes my DS to know the gift is from her, auntie not so fussed).

As with previous posters, we have a similar "if you don't believe, he doesn't bring" rule in our house.
DD(almost21) & DS(17) still put out Santa & reindeer snacks, and we all get filled stockings on/by our beds. Presents downstairs are a mixture of us to each other, friends/family, and Santa (he usually brings the big thing, bits & bobs & the ridiculous things mum & dad would normally refuse to buy)
DP(46), and I (40) love gathering all the little bits for the socks over the next few months.
My mum(75 this year) often comes to us at Christmas and has often said that she enjoys opening her Santa stocking the most.
We usually visit PILs between Christmas & new year, and take filled stockings for them too. FIL especially really looks forward to his sock full of little gadgets, sweets & bits of ridiculousness.

Stocking fillers are serious business in our house; I can honestly say that I get more joy from sourcing silly or thoughtful little nicknacks for each person than I do from any other part of the Christmas planning.

There are also essentials; carried on from my stockings as a kid. Shiny tuppence in the toe for luck, apple, orange (satsuma or Terry's choc for gran), comic or magazine, choc coins, then an assortment of little bits & bobs. Everything is individually wrapped, but that's a throwback to the days when we'd get to bed at 5am after constructing toy garages then they'd jump on our bed at 5:15 shouting Santa's been! Could usually get an hour surreptitious dozing as we opened our socks.

Life's hard enough, why take away what little magic & joy there is? Long live the spirit of Santa!!

This year there will be at least 12 stockings on the fireplace; youngest recipient 9 months old & oldest 78. And we all try to sneak around to put prezzies in without anyone else seeing...

Lorelei If ex will be amenable. I would suggest that you both do a gift from you for your son and any others are from Santa. Even if it means ex brings along the gifts that santa left at his house for your son. Most of the pleasure is watching your child opening them so I can see that he'd want to still have that. Which he can, whilst still not messing with the system... :)

Or, some people do a small stocking from Santa (could as ex for a contribution) and all other gifts are from named people.

I'm 32 and still do Santa presents! It's just fun.

We've never believed in FC but we have always had stockings.

Good idea, hacks (didn't want to refer to you as 'wanker'!) Yes, one thing from each of us (plus nanny & auntie) then other bits from Santa. I don't mind if ex gets him a 'big' present, was just worried that it may seem like I get him nothing. The stocking will most definitely be my responsibility, though - ex is free to contribute - but it's my favourite bit! Still get a small one from my mum at the grand old age of 41

We still have Father Christmas- "children" will be nearly 16 and 21 this year. Why does it have to stop?

My mum still does stockings for us and I'm 30. It's always a family calendar, underwear, a chocolate orange and some bits and bobs. If my dp is staying too he also gets one.

In our house when you're 12 you get a present from mum and dad instead of Santa.
Last Christmas was our son's first year as a 12 year old. The game was up with him anyway so he thought it was great. We bought him the same amount and sort of presents Santa would have brought and they were all surprises. We all get up on Christmas morning and open our presents together so there wasn't really any change for him.
Santa still left him a stocking.

When I was a kid we only ever had little things from Father Christmas - we knew we couldn't ask for anything big or expensive. Anything bigger came from parents or relatives, still nothing huge though - and we had to write thank you letters. We could open stockings as soon as we woke up, but family presents under the tree had to wait until later.

I did the same with my two, only ever little things in a stocking from FC, and I've never stopped it. Anyone staying in our house over Christmas gets a stocking, even just a wee one consisting of half of a pair of socks with the other sock and a few other goodies inside. I have been known to do pets, too, and one year we had 9 humans and 3 dogs staying in the house...

Dh's family had never bothered with stockings past the young-child stage, so I had to train him!

Even my dad in his 70s still has a stocking that we fill up for him. I have never seen stockings as a child thing. Everyone gets one.
We never did santa presents but my ex's family dad so my kids still get presents from their dad with from Santa on them as teenagers. It's about tradition not beliefs.

I think Santa decided we were old enough to do without presents when we got married....

However I did notice that the presents became a bit more token gifts over the years, but we didn't care - it was continuing the magic that counted! We were warned that Santa might not be quite so generous as we got older, which is perfectly reasonable.

I'm 39 and I still get a Santa present ( from Santa on gift label) and a stocking from my parents ⛄️