Father Christmas presents - bedroom or living room?

[BossWitch]

Moved house in the summer so dd has a new bedroom. She's 3 so will really 'get' father christmas this year for the first time. Her new bedroom has a little (empty) fireplace, but no mantlepiece. Living room has a gas fire, which is very 80s and underwhelming from a festive "look" point of view, but does have a cruddy mantlepiece.

So - the big question: which chimney would father Christmas rather come down? Should dd hang her stocking up (somehow!) in her bedroom or should she hang it in the living room, where there'll be a tree and I can bang a nail into the crappy fire surround?

Would father Christmas be able to get out from behind the gas fire?

Would he scorn an eighties fake fire and prefer to squeeze out of the tiny bedroom fireplace?

Would purchasing dd a little fake tree (and allowing her to independently decorate this one, thereby hopefully allowing me to decorate the living room tree solo without toddler 'help') for her bedroom make it sufficiently christmassy for St Nick to pay a visit?

Decisions decisions!

You need to watch Arthur Christmas. All your answers are there.

I’m very cunning. I have two matching bags. One goes in her room as she goes to bed. The other is in our room with the pressies. A quick switcheroo before we go to bed and no one hears anything.

your 3 year old may be a heavy sleeper but may become an over wired 6 year old that cant sleep.

We leave the wood burner door open

Present downstairs or we would have to creep around kids rooms.

I would worry that you’ll wake her whilst putting the presents in her room while she’s sleeping? Or that she wakes in the middle of the night sees the presents and refuses to go back to sleep

I'm not worried about the waking - I go in all the time while she's asleep to put clothes away etc and she doesn't stir. She doesn't wake in the night either so think we'll be ok with that. I think I'll try for in the room and be open to changing it if it's a disaster!

Ssshh, I'm with you. My DS have a stocking they put out & an identical stocking which I pre fill for a quick swap so can't recommend that enough if you're going to do stockings in room (Santa never leaves stocking in room here for fear factor & chances of waking them up) but it makes for a less stressful Christmas Eve not having to stuff stockings!

I’d say downstairs, you’ll get a bit of a lay in because Santa can be

clumsy and make a racket if he drops things.

Santa used to be pissed by the time he got to our house and used to
fall up the stairs - cussing and doing stage whispers to
mrs Santa as he went.

I think nothing beats the rustling heaviness of a stocking at the foot of your bed.
I wouldn't get too hung up on the fireplace and how things "work". I always say "I don't know" to any questions about those sorts of logistics. Same with the tooth fairy. I do sometimes speculate how things work - and DC usually have their own ideas too, but the point is, it's magic so nobody really knows - and I am as clueless as the DC . It's much easier than having to come up with elaborate explanations, and then having to defend them, and remember them correctly in subsequent years.
We always had stockings at the end of our beds as children, and it didn't occur to us that the fireplace was in another room, we didn't question it at all.

Stockings in the bedroom, put in after they went to sleep so we are not woken at five on the morning. Presents downstairs under the tree, DH reads and distributes (only after a double expresso which dives everyone nuts) This will be the first year both children do not believe in santander.

Santa not Santander bloody autocorrect

stocking in her room present down stairs, that rush down stairs is big part of the excitement. For first time we even papered over the door last year and my goodness, the screams of excitement and gasps....

Stockings in the hall upstairs so that bedroom door can be shut . Presents all downstairs

Livingroom for us. Always has been. I put a stocking on their bed but santa leaves presents by the fire place.

I may have a whopping big inglenook and perfect for santa to appear down but it also has a firmly screwed in fireboard which requires a screwdriver so we leave a key.

My9 yr old aint stupid, he knows that he cant come down.

Our children lay their sacks in front of the Christmas tree and "Santa" fills them down there. We did this because Ds1 was always a terribly early riser and not a good sleeper so if he woke up and saw presents there's no way he would go back to sleep.

I had a fireplace as a kid, but Santa always came to our living room. The rule was everyone up before we went down stairs. That way everyone gets to share the magic of seeing whether he's been.

We follow this rule for our kids too.

If you put the stocking in her bedroom, please bear in mind you will miss that magical aspect every year! (It's the best bit)

I’d go for living room.
And how F.C. gets into the house is magic, we don’t know! You could
Always leave him a magic key just in case he has difficulty