Relatives' presents - do you say they're from Father Christmas?

[ImperialBlether]

My children are adult now (waaah) but whey they were young, we'd say Father Christmas bought all the presents. Then we realised we didn't seem very generous so we said he'd brought everything except the main present. Then we got confused and said he'd brought the main present.

My children's relatives who'd bought presents would give them their presents when they saw them over the Christmas period.

My friend tells her children all presents from her, grandparents etc, are all under the tree and have come from Father Christmas.

Another friend gets very confused and says she gives Father Christmas the presents to bring to us.

Another one says that everyone sends him the money and he buys and wraps the presents.

What do you do?

[PorkChopSter]

I'm with Limetrees.

Besides which, I want credit (and thank you notes).

[HappyMummyOfOne]

We put any from friends/relatives under the tree as we get them, I like DS to know who actually gives him the gifts. Our presents we put out xmas eve late so presume he thinks they are from santa/us and I sometimes do a stocking but last year did a sweetie/dvd hamper instead.

[starfishmummy]

Father Christmas brings some presents. The rest come from those who have given them. ALthough MIL tends to say father xmas got hers too.,

[OvO]

Santa brings either one big present (a bike etc) or a small pile of much begged for cheaper presents. All the rest are from whoever sent them.

[FreakoidOrganisoid]

No! Father Christmas does the stocking and that's it.

[ChippingIn]

sjuperwolef - I like your style

Santa fills the stocking and places a present on the foot of the bed (to somewhat delay the start of the day), he brings either a big present or several smaller ones and the parents take the credit for the rest :) Well, except those from friends & family which are from them - to claim they are from Santa is grossly unfair IMO.

However, as I said... I really do like Sjuperwolefs idea even more!!

[sjuperwolef]

thanks santa isnt getting all the credit for my dps hard earned money being spent its a joint effort between santa and myself so we both get thanks for my long man hours involded in looking for, buying, hiding, wrapping, and placing under the fricking tree

[Moanna]

I fall with the majority in this, that main/relative/GP etc parents come from the givers.

Santa does the stocking gifts.

A lot of people feel very differently and don't you dare try and change their plans.

[girlywhirly]

Another vote for F Christmas does stockings, all other gifts are labelled from the giver.

[MinimallyNarkyPuffin]

Father Christmas does stockings and a few presents under the tree. Basically, Father Christmas doesn't fill in the FROM part of the gift label, and doesn't label stocking presents because she he has enough to do. Mum and Dad buy the 'big' gift. The other presents say who they're from.

[azazello]

Father Christmas brings stockings with some playdough, books, colouring/painting stuff which is opened before breakfast. We give main present labelled from us, everyone else gives presents labelled from them.

We get round the inconsistencies by saying that FC gives some presents to all children but sometimes parents will ask him to bring something extra if they can't deliver it themselves.

We also do the same sort of list thing as Sjuperwolef although I speak to FC on the phone. He's often too busy for a meeting at that time of year.

[MinimallyNarkyPuffin]

It's also possible that Father Christmas may provide some unspecified form of ParcelForce-esque delivery service for presents from other people, because they appear at the same time as his presents do.

[LoveInAColdClimate]

Father Christmas does stockings. Everything else is from the person who bought it!

[Hulababy]

In our house:

Father Christmas brings one special gift of its own. Sometimes it is the biggest or more expensive gift, sometimes not. But it is the gift that DD has particularly asked for.

We then buy our own gifts and they are labelled from us. Gifts from family and friends come direct from them and are labeeled as such. These gifts go under the tree in the days running up to Christmas. They are all opened on Christmas Day.

DD can then thank everyone appropriately afterwards.

[pissedrightoff]

My plan is that santa's elf arrives on December 1st bringing the advent calendar, He departs on 24th leaving behind the Christmas eve hamper (jammies,dvd etc).

Santa will bring stockings and one main present.
All other presents are from whoever they are from.

[oldsilver]

Father Christmas brings the stocking, the main present and also a small birthday present for him (Christmas Day Birthday).

All the rest are from the individual people.

MIL keeps trying to say that Father Christmas left some her presents at the wrong house ie hers which tends to undermine us saying that "he knows where you live". And as she leaves I say to DS "say thank you to grannie (sic) for her presents she bought you". It's now a tradition

[Mowlem]

In our house, our children are allowed to ask FC for 3 presents (1 big one, rest small). Last year my DD1 asked for a barbie toy, a bag of peanuts and a DVD. FC also fills the christmas sack. That's probably about 20 presents in total, but it always includes a year's supply of vests, pants, socks etc, some clothes that are needed and lots of cheap presents that the DDs want but are not normally allowed (chewing gum, coco pops etc). I try to get most of the items in the sack for as close to £1 per item as possible (except for the essentials).

Any big presents (costing more than £5) will come from us.

Any presents from other people are from the people who give it.

oldsilver my mum also likes to do a Christmas sack - we've compromised by saying that my mum pays for the sack, and FC merely wraps it up and delivers it back to her house, some kind of delivery service. It keeps everyone happy :)

[olibeansmummy]

This is the first year were really doing Santa as ds will be 2 1/2. Santa will bring a stocking and other presents bought buy us, except for one big one that will be from us.

Presents from other relatives will be given to ds by the giver as we'll see all close family on Xmas day, and other family send money. Then they get to see ds enjoy his present and he can thank them for it :)

[lillybloom]

My dsm bought dc1 a stocking for his first Christmas. When I put it in my bag, she said it was for her house so Santa could leave pressies at her house. I just said no Santa comes to his own house- thats how it works.

[fit2drop]

I used to say that santa brought the presents that people had asked him to bring so anything they got from relatives was because the particular rellie had specifically asked Santa to bring the jigsaw, dolly or whatever and Santa had written love from Auntie J. on it so my kids knew who had " asked " Santa and knew who to thank for which gift.

[myBOYSareBONKERS]

I had the same issues when ds1 went to school as one of his best friends birthday is in December and so only gets a small stocking at Christmas, whereas my ds sack is huge.

What I have told them is that each family has a different arrangement with FC. Some buy the presents and send them to him for him to bring, others send him the money and what the Elves cant make he can go to the shops to buy (after-all they are very busy so they cant make EVERYTHING!! ). And some families do a mixture - and for those who may not have as much to spend that year FC will buy them for them.

and this is why some children get lots and others only get a few bits.

[upahill]

When the kids were little our plan was ( still is actually, now family tradition)
they come down stairs to see 'if father Christmas has been!'
They would then open their presents.
Late in the afternoon they would then open presents from the family.

I learned early on that if all the presents were opened at once the place desended into chaos and all the excitment was over with in half an hour or so.
Also the presents from the family didn't seem special when everything happened at the same time.

[oldsilver]

Upahill, we roughly do the same except for in the afternoon it is time to open his birthday presents DS is normally sick of opening presents by about 2.30pm.

[startail]

No! As I've mentioned before on another thread, I was brought up by totally logical no God, no fairies, no FC parents.
As they are our house guests at Christmas DDs open their presents and say thank you for them on Xmas morning.
DHs parents did the Father Christmas thing seriously, so I label the DDs presents from us from FC just to humour him