question inspired by another thread, sorry if been done before, but am nosy....what of yours childrens gifts are from santa??

[psychomum5]

all, just stockings, just one gift, none??

in my house, just the stockings and santa sacks. everything under the tree comes from us or the people who send them.

we also spread gifts over a few days. the inlaws give their gifts on the day they come, so they can have the pleasure of the gifts being received, and also see the thrill on the childrens faces, and it helps stop getting the children overwhelmed.

oh, and they can say thanks on the day, saves me the hell of getting them to do thankyou letters:o:o

what are your traditions??

We're the same as you. It's important that they can thank the people who sent them gifts imo.

In our house Santa sends a sack, we also provide gifts from us, and presents from family, friends etc are clearly labelled as such - so that dd can thank people personally (great minds think alike)

Like you, just stockings are from Father Christmas. All other presents are from the people that give them and they generally get given when we see them apart from the odd friend who might post something. I can't begin to imagine the stress that would go with everything being from Father Christmas! Having to hide them all instead of putting them under the tree as and when, having to see everyone in advance or get them to post things so they all arrive in time, having to placate relatives who wanted to watch the children open their gift. Nightmare!

We still do thank you letters though.

The stockings are from father Christmas, presents under tree from us and giver.
I do ask my children th write thank you letters, even if they have opened the present in front of the giver.

Same as you.

When DD was little Santa even used different paper

Stockings from FC

Rest is from givers (including us). All opened on the day (except possibly from PIL who may choose to save theirs until we go there on Boxing Day), and Thank you letters are compulsory (although 2 lots are bad enough, so I can see why you would opt out of 5, psycho!)

Grimma - FC still uses different paper here, and hides any leftovers carefully!

Santa brings the stockings here all other presents are credited to whoever bought them.

Stockings

grimma, santa still uses different paper here, even tho all are now 8 and rising....tis the tradition, santa cannot possibly have normal paper

as for the letters, I cannot be arsed, we ring said people who aren;t there. feeling very bad tho now, maybe I should enforce some manners into letters...

I found that DD was much happier doing homemade cards for thank-yous instead of actual letters.

oh that sounds bad doesn;t it, 'cannot be arsed'

I used to help them, when there were fewer children, but it was such a chore (fighting with a dyslexic DH and DD2) that it drove me to wine, and then the letters would be finished by me, and that negated the point of getting them to try and do them..

so we started ringing people, and for us, it worked better. well, unless you have the honest beyond all child who lets the giver know that the gift stank of fags and it wasn;t nice. that was my mother tho, so not someone who I really care about upsetting.

oooh, homemade cards, that would work, they like making them.:)

None. Although the kids love to pretend they are, and 'Santa' (ds1 dressed up) delivers everyone a present in the afternoon. They get SO excited!

Grimma - Santa uses different paper here too! I buy the really cheap stuff from the market, as I know it's unlikely that the people giving presents will have bought paper there so there's no chance of anything being the same!

Stockings only from Father Christmas plus whatever they've asked him for if they've visited him - I encourage the children to ask for something small, "because he has to get presents for all the good children in the world" so they don't ask for something like a DS or a Wii that a) we might not be able to afford and b) if we could afford it I'd want them to appreciate we bought it! Also, they don't think that Father Christmas is an easy way to ask for something big and flashy.

Last year, DD's friend's dad wrapped the Santa presents and the ones from him in the same paper! She no longer believes.

We do main pressies from us and surprises from Santa. DD thinks Santa brings the stuff mummy would never buy (strange toys, cuddlies, plastic stuff, non-useful presents). One day they'll thank me...

Psycho - could you divide out the job - so they do a collective Thank you card from psychofamily to whomever, and all sign it - that way they would only have one or two each to do?

(and save the one-on-one battles for birthdays )

oooh, homemade cards, that would work, they like making them

yes, using card-making bits and bobs Santa has thoughtfully included in the stocking

now that is just sneaky grimma:o

stealth, joint thanks, now why did I never think of that ...god you would think my brian had been sucked dry by all the children or summit!!

Santa brings stockings and gifts under tree to. All presents from family friends are labelled as such and thank you's given for those. Plus he gets one present from me (so he doesn't wonder why everyone else gives him presents except me)

Thank you letters much easier if you do a postcard type like this where you just fill in the blanks :)

www.phoenix-trading.co.uk/web/corp/area/shop-online/category/christmas-postcards-thank-yous/?bid=13df57f8b881d308e041742627c325832a186bd4&search=false&sortorder=1&itemsperpage=12&bid=13df57f8b881d308e041742627c325832a186bd4

Stockings and all presents from us come from Santa, also in special and carefully hidden paper

Gifs from everyone else are put under the tree and are credited to those who gave them.

I had to quickly cobble together a story about us paying Santa for some of the childrens' gifts after being quizzed one year.

That ^ is how my parents did it and so I just automatically followed suit.

Santa also fills the advent stockings in our house, though ds is a bit sceptical of that this year.

The stockings are from Santa, everything else is from who bought it!

There are a couple of presents that DH and I bought for ourselves (DVDs we wanted for ages) so I've wrapped them up and decided to label them from Santa too :o

Oh yes Santa brings gifts for me too. I've been good after all, and it's the only way I get anything new/practical thet I actually want (pjs and a frying pan)

Santa brings everything in our house but the story goes that apart from stockings which are exclusively from Santa, relatives either send the pressie to Santa to bring or send him the money to make or buy it so everyone knows who to thank. That way there is the most amazing suprise on Christmas Day. Just an old family tradition I suppose! I have to say that it's very hard work indeed for me!