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Christmas

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Original poster

Which presents does Santa bring in your house?

78 replies

duke748 · 15/11/2011 09:03

Me and DP are having an argument disagreement about which presents Santa is responsible for.

He thinks that Santa buys and brings all the presents for kids except the ones from relatives.

I think that Santa is responsible for the stocking only and any presents under the tree are from Mum and Dad and family.

Who is right? And does the kids' age matter? ie his way when they are young and my way once they are old enough to question why Mum and Dad haven't bought them anything?

What happens in your house?

OP posts:

Zeeky · 15/11/2011 10:13

I've been having this discussion with DH and various friends recently -I hadn't realised everyone did it so differently! I always knew DH's family did it differently but I thought that was just cos they're a bit weird! In their house, FC was just a delivery man for all the presents from family/friends and didn't actually give them anything (although how they then explained why the elves were making toys I don't know ).

In our house FC brought us a stocking & a massive pile of presents which were just from him. Other family/friends presents were given to us direct or were under the tree. We never seemed to notice that mum & dad never got us anything!

We do the same as I had as a child - stocking on the bed, sack of presents downstairs, family presents under the tree & I make sure there is also one from us

tummytickler · 15/11/2011 10:26

It has always been that FC does stockings only - wrapped in cheap paper with pictures of FC or reindeers or something on.
The dc all do lists, but know that FC does not give everything on the list, as he needs to share the presents out. So they get socks, pants, book, pens, choc, little bits and pieces, with one or two of the smaller things on their list.
Everything else is from us, or whoever has given the gift.

Lisatheonewhoeatsdrytoast · 15/11/2011 10:36

Santa brings all the gifts here, obviously mummy and daddy let him know your list and send some pennies to him!

I was told this as a child, so was my DH so works well

lydiathetattooedlady · 15/11/2011 10:45

This is the first year i think dd will remember properly (4) But we're going with santa delivers everything but stocking and one present from him, the other presents santa has carefully made/chosen but brought with the hard earned money mummy and daddy have earned!

JingleAllTheSoddingWay · 15/11/2011 10:49

Mine are only 1 & 2 yrs old so not had to explain it yet but I'm thinking something along the lines of Father Christmas brings Stocking's and a few small presents under the tree. Then mum & dad buy the "main" present and family buy some presents too.

I figure this way, Father Christmas still brings things, they can't ask for extravagant gifts as main presents as mum & dad don't have that much money and family still get their thank-you's.

Will this work do you think?

lydiathetattooedlady · 15/11/2011 11:00

OOh should also mention that the children recieve their gifts from family as they see them and will always thank the giver as they know they are from them and not santa!

aliciaflorrick · 15/11/2011 11:11

When I was little Father Christmas did a stocking and also the big presents. Relatives would give us presents to put under the tree to be opened on Christmas Day and we never noticed that mum and dad never gave us anything.

For our DCs FC fills a stocking and this year when my DCs have been talking about Christmas they've got really excited remembering that every year they get a new toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, but they will also get a couple of books, a DVD and loads of tut in there.

But the main present comes from Mum and Dad and gets put under the tree at night and we also wrap up games and shared presents. I think we did that because basically only my brother buys the DCs gifts so they never had a lot under the tree to unwrap so we like them to have a stack of gifts under the there as well.

DuelingFanio · 15/11/2011 11:11

Father Christmas brings the stocking, the rest come from whoever spent the money on them. Clearly!

izzybiz · 15/11/2011 11:16

FC fills the stockings and brings one gift each which is specially wrapped- sparkly paper, bows, etc.

All the others are from family.

Listzilla · 15/11/2011 11:17

DD's only 1 now (and DS is still cooking!) so we haven't had to think this through yet, never mind explain it!

When I was little, Santa brought the stocking stuff and toys. Relatives delivered their own gifts whenever, and my parents didn't get us anything. Truly horrible, grasping child that I was, I do remember being annoyed by that.

DH's santa brought a toy or two, there were no stockings and his parents didn't get them anything. There was generally at least one passed-down bike every year (there were 6 kids), but FIL generally resprayed them to make them look different.

So in this house, he'll do stockings and parcels under the tree. Relatives gifts will be from them and they can deliver them themselves. But we'll do something small on Christmas Eve - jammies and a book or DVD to have with Christmas Eve hot chocolate.

Practical as it seems to tell them that the parents have to pay Santa, I'm not sure I could bring myself to do it. It seems contrary to the spirit of the thing, somehow. And they believe for such a short time.

lilyj2010 · 15/11/2011 11:18

well when i was growing up my mum and dad got us 1 present and the rest were from santa. I do the same with my dd now. her presents from us r 2 sleeping bags (cost me over £70) and a few happyland ppl. altho dd will only be 17 months she is only getting these from us as my goddaughter, 7 yo was with me at wend when bought them and told me to give them to dd for xmas. I dont see why children would get so excited about santa for a petty stocking!

jeee · 15/11/2011 11:19

Father Christmas brings small presents - quite often the elves have been playing with them before they go into the stocking (names in books, tatty video covers.... all evidence of this). Large presents come from us. Obviously other presents come from the person who buys them.

Of course, some parents have a chat with Father Christmas and arrange for him to bring the big presents, but it would be too expensive for him to provide big presents for every child.

stealthsquiggle · 15/11/2011 11:24

" I dont see why children would get so excited about santa for a petty stocking!"

Well, we always did and my DC do.....

bunnyspoiler · 15/11/2011 11:45

My DC get excited about stockings too! it's not about the quality of the presents, it's the whole magical and different aspect to the event- the anticipation and waking up to find presents at the end of your bed, how wonderful! The stocking tat is always the most appreciated stuff on the day too.

FC brings the stockings in this house, he also has final approval over what the parents and relatives buy. Hence we can threaten with "he's watching" if behaviour is poor.

jeee · 15/11/2011 11:49

Father Christmas brings presents irrespective of behaviour in our house. Given that he's going to deliver anyway, telling children he's watching them seems a little.... creepy.

Thinking about it though, there is another reason for not allowing FC to deliver all presents. If some come from us, we can spread out the presents, rather than having everything unwrapped before five in the morning breakfast.

KWL51 · 15/11/2011 11:57

tc brings the stocking on the end of the bed, so small gifts such as a pen, notepad, novelty eraser, hair clips, xmas socks, and we bring the other presents and fmaily/friends bring thier presents.
this started as when ds 1 was an only child he was quite upset that if fc had brought and paid for all the presents and so had nanny grandad auntie etc then why hadnt mummy and daddy brought him anything? so now 3 more children later the story sticks, although ds1 at 14 no longer beleives and tells us that its not right to decieve the little ones??

bunnyspoiler · 15/11/2011 11:57

I don't think they feel creeped out jeee they do view things with a bit of healthy scepticism and humour (seeing as one is 12 and the other nearly 8), people are over thinking this a little!

Rugbylovingmum · 15/11/2011 12:01

In our house the main present is from Santa plus a couple of smaller things (maybe a jigsaw and a dvd) and all the rest are from us or family. I want DD to appreciate the effort other people go to to buy them nice presents plus it stops her christmas list getting out of hand. At the same time I think Santa is more exciting if he is bringing their main pressie but that's probably just because that's how my parents did it.

jeee · 15/11/2011 12:02

Three of my DC are not believers (8, 9 & 11) - but they still know that they'll get presents whatever. I just prefer that they get presents unconditionally. When do you say, "that's it, no presents, you've been too bad." And once you've said it, when do you retract?

stealthsquiggle · 15/11/2011 12:06

When asked by random well-meaning adults what he got for Christmas, the first thing(s) that come to DS's mind are generally the stocking toys - resulting more than once in them looking at me like this thinking "is that all he got?" (and me wondering why we spent money on a main present when the tat is what he remembers )

OryxCrake · 15/11/2011 12:09

Father Christmas has always just given the stockings in our house, which is the same as when I was growing up. They arrive on the end of the beds (well, now the DC are older and go to bed later than us they arrive outside their bedroom doors - anyone have any idea how/when to stop doing them? Ours are 22 and 17!)

Everything under the tree has always come from whoever bought it, including us.

That way, the DC have been encouraged to buy small gifts for family since they were quite young but it's never interfered with the FC magic.

It also means that I have no idea when they stopped believing as we've never had 'that' conversation - at some stage when they were fairly young, Father Christmas began to be talked about with a knowing twinkle in the eye but nobody has ever actually said 'he's just pretend'.

I did worry about DC1, who has Asperger's, in case he still believed when the other children had stopped, and if it had looked like becoming a problem I would have told him. In the event, though, it wasn't an issue. We did the 'he's real if you believe in him' thing and it just morphed into how it is now.

LauraShigihara · 15/11/2011 12:15

Father Christmas brings all the stocking presents, even for my grown-up children. Then my youngest, who is eight, will have a large present from him, wrapped in FC style paper. He usually gets something he has asked for but I have vetoed because it is too expensive

When the oldest were little, we only put adult presents under the tree and FC delivered all the children's pressies during the night., bought by the family, sent to the North Pole and delivered on Christmas Eve. A bit like a big, red, jolly postal service

Now, I just plonk most things under there as we receive or wrap them because they just look nice and the big man just delivers a few bits - his gift, the stocking presents and the main presents from us which we have sent to him.

daveywarbeck · 15/11/2011 12:16

Father Christmas merely delivers them.

blackteaplease · 15/11/2011 12:17

Apparently one year , I opened all of my presents which were from Santa (not mum and dad) and then turned to my parents and asked them why they hadn't bought me anything! After that Santa only brought one present.

Oddly, we didn't do stockings, we were however, allowed to chose a present from under the tree on Christmas Eve to take to bed and open first thing in the morning.

FreakoidOrganisoid · 15/11/2011 12:28

Father Christmas does stocking only here. They contain one decent present (this year a small lego set) then lots of little bits.

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