Any suggestions as to why santa would do something so illogical?

[roundthehouses]

We live in Spain where the 3 kings (6th jan.. or is it 5th? i forget.. not my tradition..) are the big present givers, not santa. We do both, santa brings a stocking on xmas eve and then the kings bring presents in january (they bring them to granny´s house so all the cousins open them together its a whole family tradition thing). So far so fine.

Except dh´s family has developed this tradition (oldest cousin is only 7 so not borne of centuries of tradition) of telling (all) the kids when they are given presents by aunts, uncles etc on xmas day that they are presents santa left for them at the aunt/uncles house.

Its always kind of bothered me but whatever ds is only small. But this year he is 3.5 and very excited about santa. I can´t really see telling the family to change the way they do things but if it doesn´t make sense to me that santa would leave him pressies at home and then randomly leave presents for each of the cousins at other people´s houses, it is sooner or later not going to make sense to him. I know he´s little but I want to have some kind of plausible explanation that will carry us through a few years at least.

Yes I knoooow he will find out the truth eventually but I want him to have a few more years of magic yet and I do think the stories we tell have to at least sound reasonable and not made up on the spot in a rush to get around a tricky question...

any suggestions as to why santa would do such an illogical thing?

Santa leaves presents at every house a child visits. None of mine have ever questioned this. Niether did we as children.

My family say that too. No child questions it. Apart from dd who is 3.5 and thinks FC is codswallop.

Maybe FC was visiting these other houses in line with new Christmas Regulations to check the efficacy and health and safety adherence of their decorations. And he's fairly forgetful being a 566yr old man and realised he had other presents for your ds. But he's also lazy and wants to get home in time for Corrie so he just piled them up there and hoped for the best.

They'll believe any old rubbish!
Don't worry

perfect! thank you that will work a treat

I don´t like it either, I know that debate has run and run on MN but personally I prefer my child to know e.g. aunt x bought him a present and for him to thank her rather than santa be given the credit for everything! I would love to have the balls to just say to the in laws actually this is from us, not santa, but its really not worth getting into a barney over and i can´t see how i can possibly bring it up without it becoming a row (especially given VERY dominant SIL - She Who Must Not Be Challenged).

I hate the "all from Santa" line too but there's not much you can do is there? I don't think your son will question it too much tbh there's a lot of disbelief begin suspended at that time of year!

mine get a small felt christmas sack filled with bits from father christmas. they get an annual each year, mini boxes of cereal, jaffa cakes, smellies and some cheap tat from hawkins, usually joke stuff or such like

We lived in Germany where St Niklas came on 24th December.

Santa Claus came to our house on 25th, but not to the DC's friends.

They have never questioned it, even when we are in Scotland or Germany for Xmas, and Santa knows that we are there and where to find us.

It's true, children don't question as much as you think.

It's only now I think 'why didn't I question the fact they everyone in my family bought me presents but not my parents?'.

We will e going with the above - some from us some from FC.

We are another small gifts from Santa everything else from well whoever bought it! It was the same for me growing up and we never questioned it. Santa didn't even wrap presents in my house, just put them in the stocking.

Sometimes he would leave one or two gifts somewhere random and my mum and dad would discover them in Feb/March

santa is magic, and amazing and very clever. i have no idea how he manages to do that/no idea how he will do that but i'm sure he will. -that seemed to answer any questions in our house.

In our house Santa delivers most of the presents - but only one of them is actually from Santa -the rest are ones that other people and me have sent him to look after and deliver on Christmas eve.

I do remember having a worried discussion with my mum about how Santa was going to get into our house (no chimney, but it was ok they were going to leave the back door open for him) and how he'd find me (living in a country where most people didn't celebrate Christmas - but it was ok cos Dad had registered with Santa!).

But I do think that the "Santa is magic" line covers most things.

We've gone for "Santa is pretend". It doesn't seem to matter at all. They are still awestruck by the chomped carrot and empty mincepie case next to their full stockings on Christmas morning.

My children know that AUnt or Uncle or Gran etc bought their gifts. FC brings the big present and they get a stocking for their rooms.

I hate all the arsing around and lies people have to tell their children but this is a happy medium for us.

i was always told that santa did the stocking presents, but other people (mum, dad, aunty doris, gran etc) bought presents but had to send them to santa to deliver only on christmas day....

i am just suitably vague with my kids and hope they don't ask questions! [hgrin]