Did anyone else's parents do this with presents at Christmas?

[TowerOfJoyless]

Every Christmas morning as a child my sister and I would wake up, go into the living room and find toys sitting out on the couch from santa and looking back, it really was quite magical and exciting.

Now call me thick, but it never dawned on me for a long time that we never received any gifts from relatives, including our own parents.

Years ago, I had a conversation with an aunt where I mentioned one of these gifts sitting on the couch to which she replied, "oh that was me who bought you that!". It then occurred to me that mum and dad had been collecting presents from everyone and passing them all off as coming from santa.

Is this quite unusual? Have to admit I have never heard of anyone else doing this before. With my own Ds I tend to have a few presents from santa and the rest from DH and I, plus he is also aware what comes from friends and family.

Presents from Santa & family gifts from whoever have it.

If times were hard I don't see the harm though.

I think that's quite unusual! Sounds lovely as a child to have a huge pile of presents from Santa, but seems a shame for the relatives who get no acknowledgement or thanks.

I've heard of people doing that. I'd be raging if my brother did that with the things I buy my nieces. I've always thought it was strange doing that for precisely the reason you've said - it sounds like no one else has bothered.

Tradition in our family has always been the 'big' present is from.Santa. The rest are from who ever bought them.

I remember my.pal at school got everything from Santa we decided she got extra to compensate for her family being so mean and buying nothing

This Santa Claus malarkey it's a minefield!

My kids just get a stocking from Santa. The rest are from relatives/friends - which is great because my kids can then thanks the kind givers

Presents come from parents/family/friends. Santa is just the delivery guy.

I think it depends if you get a lot from family. In our house now and when I was a child there was a huge pile from Santa but we only got one additional present from my aunt.

Now our kids get a big pile from Santa and to be fair a good few family presents. But they are handed over on the day.

My parents did this but no other relatives bought me stuff. So everything was from Santa until I was old enough to realise santa didn't exist.

My kid ults get a stocking of little bits from santa and big presents from family.

But I know lots of families where everything comes from santa regardless of who was the giver.

I'm not from England and at home everything was from Santa. We celebrate Christmas Eve, have a family get together and a big meal and Santa brings presents after. I think it's easier that way. And more magical when he is in a hurry and leaves big sack full of presents for everybody on the doorstep [santa]

As far as I remember everything was there Christmas morning (we usually stayed at my grandparents house Christmas eve) so my parents presents and their presents were there along with presents from my auntie/uncle and great grandad. When seeing other grandparents they would be from them.

It was never said 'this is from Father Christmas, this is from mum and dad, this is from nan and granddad' etc.

Everything that was bought by parents was from Santa. I never thought about not getting anything from parents? All family gifts were from that person though

Sack of presents from Santa plus other presents with tags on from family/friends which got out under the tree as they arrived usually got opened later in the day after lunch. I never questioned why mum and dad didn't buy us anything!!

In our home, Santa brings a big pressie and a stocking of bits n bobs. There are some gifts from us parents. gifts from friends and family are labelled and the kids know who gave them what.

I have only know of 1 other family where everything came from Santa. When bringing pressies to them, we had to make sure there were no labels or gift tags which meant the parents also didn't know.
I was a bit and disappointed that the kids didn't know that their relatives had got them anything.

Santa presents go in the stocking, presents under the tree are from me
and Santa leaves the presents from other family members under theirs trees as he knows they like to see the kids open them.

We had same as you - stocking from father christmas, other gifts from relatives. Our DC get gifts from us as well as from FC.

I did use to wonder why father christmas bought my friend the barbie house whereas I got mostly pants and toothbrushes from him.

My MiL does all gifts from Father Christmas. Even now which confuses the life out of her grandchildren as none of us do that!

DH's family do this ie all presents from all relatives are from Santa.
In my family, presents from DF and DM were labeled from Santa. Presents from everyone else had their names on them. It never struck me as a DC that my parents never bought me a Christmas present.

Small presents in a stocking growing up and now.

I would feel it was really wrong to pass of presents from other family members from Santa. I expect my kids to thank and appreciate them, not see them as coming from a magic bottomless pit of largesse.

We got a stocking and one present from Santa. The rest were labelled from parents and family.

I've heard quite a few families doing that, but it does mean that children don't learn to say thank you for their gifts.

Off and as. Sorry for typos.

Santa brings a stocking with little toys, sweets etc

Gifts are from whoever choses to give one

We found it exciting seeing the presents start to arrive and go under the tree and were able to have a surreptitious shake to try and guess what it might be, now our DCs do it, I believe it is better that the gift comes from the giver and the DC thanks them directly

The DC also like making & giving gifts in return

Father Christmas leaves a stocking or sack at the end of the bed.
Gifts under the tree are from relatives & friends etc.

My sister gives me money to buy presents for my dc so what I buy goes in the pile from Santa. In our house all presents come from Santa but mummy and daddy (or aunty) have to pay for them, hence no individual present from us.

Other family members hand the dc presents when they see them so they know it's from gran or uncle etc.

We always had small presents in a stocking from Santa, big presents and presents from other people under the tree, not from Santa.

DP had big presents under the tree from Santa.

We visit MIL every other year, and when we're there DS gets santa presents under the tree as well as a stocking, but when we're not at MILs he doesn't.

DS seems totally unfazed by this! I used to be pretty rigid about what was the "right" way to do Santa. Now I reckon it really doesn't matter!

Reckon as adults we overthink it and the DC just go along with whatever!

However - relabelling gifts from others as from Santa is another level. If the family members are know about it and are happy, fine. But if it's happening behind their backs that's not on really IMO.