Must. Stay. AWAKE!

[MissusClaws]

I’m sure I’m not the only parent who’s desperately trying to stay awake to do their Santa bit!
im knackered and I k ow they’ll be up at silly o’clock. I’ve set an alarm incase I do nod off.
my 10 year old, as far as I can tell, is still a believer and this will no doubt be the last year. Problem is, he’s a light sleeper, but has insisted that FC leaves his presents in the end of his bed like every other year. How do I style it out if I inadvertently manage to wake him up?!
would love to hear some funny stories of parents being(or almost being!) caught in the act!

As a new mum I said to DH that we would be setting the standards out from the start-and FC leaves presents in the living room from the start.
I would have liked in the shed but I did compromise 🤣🤣🤣

Not my story but I have a much younger sister and when I was home from uni for Xmas she once woke up as my mum was putting out presents and my dad was having a very noisy Xmas shit so he had to pretend to be Santa and tell her he had diarrhoea from too many mince pies and to go back to bed or he wouldn't be able to leave her presents. He then had to stay in a freezing cold bathroom for an hour til she went back to sleep

Be rude to waste them!

I’m about to check if he’s asleep… pray for me!!

Just done it.

My ten year old was actually desperate to go to sleep, but the 4 year old put up a fantastic effort and didn’t conk out until 10:15.

I took them out earlier and dh moved eveything from under our bed to the understairs cupboard to make it easier for us.

Glad it's not just me. So tired , also set multiple alarms

I thought DD9 was sleeping, snuck in to check and she's WIDE awake 😅
I can't wait to get to bed and am losing the will.

At 10 it’s not a disaster if you’re spotted, in fact I wonder if he’s hoping to spot you to confirm his suspicions. If you’re rumbled just say “ho Ho Ho” and style it out.

Also trying to stay awake as long as possible, though DS is fast asleep I worry he’ll be up for a wee and stocking is on landing. Set an alarm for 1am incase I do zonk out, figured I’d be able to get back to sleep after rather than chance doing it before he wakes.
Just had to send DH back downstairs to eat some gingerbread, drink the milk and bite the carrot as we’d forgotten.

Could you imagine the horror of falling asleep and being woken by the children in the morning?

i bet that’s happened to a few unlucky sods over the years.

Previous poster just reminded me. I can remember being about 10/11 and lying bed stressing because I didn't know if Santa was real or not. So I was pretending to be asleep to catch my parents out.

I was thinking if I didn't catch them out then I'd never know, and then when I had my own children I wouldn't know whether to get presents for them or not. I was imagining my future kids coming down to no presents because I still believed!

When I was about 4 or 5 my Dad was working night shifts and his shift finished early Christmas morning. When he got home he put Santa's sack full of presents at the end of my bed and went to bed. Poor sod was woken about 30 minutes later with me screaming "HE'S BEEN!!! HE'S BEEN!!!"

We do stockings on the landing. They’re teens and only just went to bed. Obviously they know but I don’t want to be caught still. I would happily have gone to bed at 9.30pm 😂

watching The Holiday. Didn’t fancy love actually tonight, which was my plan.

Hang on in there. Before you know it you can do the santa sacks in the morning before your teenagers wake up 🤣 ( mind you I'm waiting up for my 19 y.o dd to come home from the pub).

It’s done! I went into his room and closed the door behind me to see if he opened his eyes. He didn’t, so santa’s been. Just need to wait for the 13 year old to fall asleep now, so I can put his on his bed. Might just plant it outside his room though, as I really want to sleep!
I’ve told them 5.30 is the absolute earliest they can get up. Remains to be seen if that actually happens

DD caught me once when she was three. I heard her coughing in her room about midnight. I lay waiting for an hour to check she was back to sleep then went in and she was awake. I styled it out with a 'i heard a noise and look what I found by your door!'. Luckily she was young enough to believe me, and also luckily we all managed to get back to sleep for a few hours

DD7 won't let me put her stocking in her bedroom as she doesn't like the idea of someone she doesn't know creeping around her bedroom, she's a smart kid.

She also won't go near anyone dressed as Santa as 'they could be anyone'.

Everything is done, DD is flat out after spending a night with her grandparents. She was struggling to stay awake when we were watching 'A Christmas Carol' & was desperate to stay awake long enough to see the third ghost.

It will be our first Christmas without my Dad, this time last year we knew it would be his last so I went all out.

Merry Christmas everyone xxx

A bit late to help you this year OP, but this might help next time. When ours were small we had a second identical set of Santa stockings. They went to bed with the empty one on the end of the bed. We stuffed an identical one, then when they dropped off, we crept in and swapped them over. It was the least possible amount of fuss, and a lot quieter and quicker than carrying parcels back and forth.

Mine are 3 and 1 so passed out pretty early with excitement. Along with my husband…

I’ve been solo Santa and made the most of the yummy mince pie we left out. Also, first year hosting at home since we moved out of our teeny flat, so am glad to have started off with leaving presents in the living room after reading this thread!

I already do this. They put an empty pillowcase out and I swap it for the pre-filled stockings.
with my oldest, I used to manage to change his duvet cover to a Christmas one, while he was still asleep! No chance I’d get away with that with my younger ones! 😂

Ds first tooth fell out today so we’re playing Tooth fairy and Santa tonight 😂

First Christmas after kids dad and I separated, only a few weeks in, and I was determined to do Christmas well. First bought a tree that was way too big then Xmas Eve tip toeing through the house with a fish tank and fish and setting it all up at gone 1 am.
And 6 year old dc totally believed Father Christmas brought the tank complete with gravel, pump, water and fish down the chimney. So it was worth it.

We told our 3 year old Santa only comes to children who are asleep he's never gone to bed so fast in his life 😁

A few years back DH bought a Santa suit and put out the presents dressed from head to toe as Santa, just in case someone crept out of their room...

My parents used to give us one of dads big wooley socks to put at the end of the bed. It wasn’t till recently I realised this meant they had a matching one to prefill. I have failed to do this and the personalised stockings will have to be removed from teenagers rooms before filling.