Being Santa is the most stressful thing you can be.

[Sparklespangle]

Sitting here trying to decide when to go and do stockings. (Relatively light-hearted)

Ds is a baby and won't notice or care when I do his.

DD is 10 and hasn't acknowledged the truth about Santa out loud. I think she is still hedging...

She went to bed at 8.30. her room is pitch black. When do I go up, what do I do if she's still up? What if she wakes up and I've got her stocking in the other room. What if she she sees me taking it.

Is it just me or does everyone worry about 'ruining the magic' by being Santa 'wrong'?

Stockings go by the fireplace at ours too and that's stressful enough!

Had to put them to bed and then wait until they were asleep to go get the (very noisy!) Bin bag of presents from my wardrobe to bring them downstairs...at which point OH announced he was going to bed which meant I had to fill the stocking whilst listening out for our child to wake up and Come down 🙄

This is probably our last year of hedging it.as PP said ours starts secondary next year. Feeling really sad about it tonight tbh

@RevolutionRadio that sounds great unfortunately mine have beautiful hand knitted ones that I made for each of them when I was pregnant. Stupid pregnancy sentimentality! If only I could go back in time, I could be asleep by now!

@Emmas85 what a game changer!

I do duplicate stockings and fill them a couple of days in advance ! Then I set my alarm for 4am and do a swift switch (they have them on the end of their beds). If I do it earlier and they wake - the night is ruined, whereas I find they are properly fast asleep at 4, and if they wake, at least they’ve had six hours sleep but in all the years (they are 10, 13, 15 and 17 !) they’ve always gone back off to sleep….. I also go straight back off to sleep too !!

Stockings have always been downstairs because DC scared of Santa going into their room at night!

Feel v sad that it’s the last Santa for 9 year old (although they will benefit from it due to younger siblings!)

Anyway - santa has been. And I’m about to tuck into bed :-)
Good luck everyone!!

@fruitpastille

I'm doing eldest in the morning before he wakes up! Yes, it's stressful.

DH did just point out that getting up at 6am and doing it would be safer. However he wasn't volunteering himself for that! I've always been 'Santa'. It was so stressful when the DCs still believed. Just overheard them getting ready for bed and discussing how/when they each saw me doing it in the past and how that made them realise it want real... They're 11, 14 and 15 now so no worries but I still hate doing it. Usually involves many teenage room related trip hazards!

If I could do it all again, I'd definitely buy 2 identical stockings for each child and switch them rather than (drunkenly) Stuffing presents in them at 1am.

Yep!! DS7 went to bed at 10.30. I stayed up on the pretext of waiting for the washing machine to finish. What I didn't realise is he fell asleep in my bed ... In the bedroom where I'd left the Father Christmas present. Was a very nervous few minutes getting it out of the cupboard, as well as eating/drinking the mince pies and mulled wine which I had drunk hours earlier and replaced with neat ribena left out. I also remembered to leave the window open, as we don't have a chimney (middle floor flat) and DS asked how Santa is going to get in. I think I got away with it ...

We’ve just done the stockings and now the 2 yo is stirring. So Dh has gone back in and had to kick it under her cot as she’ll be wide awake soon, no doubt. The others won’t wake until the morning but my bets are on super early doors…

The toy assembly took longer this year- bloody hot wheels tracks 😩😩😩

DD aged 7 just woke up and turned her bedroom light on. She has now seen the present at the end of her bed and wants to get up and open it/go downstairs/wake brother up/ect. This is so stressful 😫

Santa got pissed at our house one year. Two kids but lots of the gifts ended up in the one stocking.
Just about got away with it.

I remember the year I commando crawled into my kids room, two very noisy rustly stockings in hand and thinking what the hell am I doing!

Following year covid had struck and was my perfect excuse for not having Santa in their room 😁

This is why I really wish I had kept stockings downstairs or at least just outside the door from the get go! 18 years of ninja santa and its so hard! Obviously the 18, 16 and 13 year old know but I still do it and am trying to preserve some magic for my 8 year old!

It's so stressful OP! I'm desperately trying to keep awake until I can be sure that DD13 is asleep. The other two are asleep but I'm still terrified that the rustling may give the game away!

@wtdse

Haha sat here thinking the same thing! Both are fast asleep but can wake in the night with bad dream or want a wee etc. if I do it too early will they catch me, will they then notice the presents and not go back to bed? Do I set an alarm for 2am and go then?! Argh the stress of it all!

I used to do exactly that, set an alarm for 2am 😂 I was always so tired on Xmas Day when the kids were little 😬

I’m done! Woo hoo!

It’s so stressful! Mine usually sleep like the dead but I just went in (empty handed reconnaissance) and 8yo woke up to check her stocking! Nightmare! Why did I not learn from last year’s midnight disaster? I’m desperate to go to sleep - should I do a 5.30am alarm?

DC are 9 & 12 so neither believe and, as DS's stocking ripped last year, I took the opportunity to get them new ones and got duplicates.
I packed the stockings this afternoon and semi-hid them only for DS to spot them. When we did the whole hanging by the fire ritual this evening, he was baffled that I produced two empty stockings, ran to the hiding place, looked confused, said "have you got extra stockings" and then laughed and laughed.

I've thought of the 5:30 alarm too Mary, but what if the DC wake up before 5:30?

My 5 year old has woken up now so no chance of doing the stockings now until she goes back to sleep, but she's so excited that's going to take ages.

Last year, my best friend was struggling with this very thing of when to do stockings what if I get caught etc. She put them downstairs for the first time and when asked by the kids on the morning why, we came up with the elaborate plot of "because of Covid Santa didn't want to risk making you sick but needed to make sure you still got allll your gifts" this was met with a quick "ooh ok" then over, usual present pandemonium began!
She's kept it up this year and said it's a game changer having them downstairs!

@MotherofPearl

It's so stressful OP! I'm desperately trying to keep awake until I can be sure that DD13 is asleep. The other two are asleep but I'm still terrified that the rustling may give the game away!

Surely at 13 she knows?!

@Covidclaire

This is exactly why stockings go near the fireplace.

Yes. Putting them in the bedroom is just unnecessarily stressful.

@Emmas85 I read about that on here a few years ago and do exactly the same!

One year my son set a trap with string all over his bedroom in an attempt to catch Santa, so we have to be extra vigilant! Lol

I'm done but now I don't feel tired. I actually feel very anxious.

The stocking is hanging outside the bedroom and to make it even easier I’ve got 2 exactly the same stockings so it’s been ready for a while, just need to make the magic swap.

DD (8) is still awake and I’m rigid with anxiety - have at least 2hrs of retrieving and wrapping presents ahead of me!!! Last year DD woke up and caught us with the stocking and cried - had to say that Santa couldn’t come in the house because of Covid 🤦‍♀️ That seemed to work at the time; but this year some little twerp who sits next to her has told her it’s definitely your parents.

Now she’s been sceptical for several years; but she desperately wants to believe and is really not happy at all about the fact that she knows deep down it’s us. So the pressure is on that we don’t mess it up again this year 😩

Her door handle squeaks. DP tried to oil it earlier and only ended up getting black oily stuff on the (cream) bedroom carpet. Do I kill DP now, or wait until after Christmas Day…?