Do you let the kids check if father Christmas has been?

[PumpkinHat]

Hello, sorry for the very boring thread!

This year is the first year that my 2 DC (3&2) will have an understanding of what Christmas is about, father Christmas etc - so I really want to start making some traditions now to carry on.

One thing that's going through my mind is the whole stocking and present under the tree thing. They have got stockings which preferably get opened in the bedroom(?), which is what I did as a child. However, they will know santa has been with the stocking there. Part of me wants them to wake up and then we go and "check" to see if santa has been with all the presents under the tree. But then what happens about stockings? Will they want to open them knowing all that is under the tree waiting for them?

I know this sounds really trivial and I do apologise, I just want to make my DC's Christmas really special - and I know you are all Christmas experts!

If I could have my time again, I would do stockings from FC and tree presents from real people including you.

I let DH persuade me that all the kids' presents should come from FC, which not only made life very complicated (trying to source impossible gifts which they had asked for) but also meant them asking us why we didn't ever get them anything (that makes them sound grabby, which they aren't at all! But they had questions about FC from an early age )

As a child we always had stocking plus one present from Father Christmas (boardgame / boxed toy) that we could open in bed when we woke up (mum and dad sleeping soundly till the noise woke them up). Presents round the tree were from family and opened after breakfast / getting dressed / turkey on.

Everyone has their own way of doing it-

My Dc not allowed downstairs til we go "check" and see if Father Christmas has come (we turn on the tree lights and the fire and make a parental coffee)

They all sit at the top of the stairs and wait and I used to have a bell music box that I pulled and that music signified they could come down. The excitement of the sound of the cord being pulled was palpable even before the music started-sadly broke years ago. Now I turn on a Christmas music box.

We don't do stockings in the bedroom although I know lots do. Ours are hung by the fire and we do them at the end.

What ever you decide will be marvellous-lovely age and you might find over the years the traditions evolve as your family does but the magic feeling of Christmas morning is such a special thing. i know everyone doesn't feel the same but for those who do

We left the stocking outside the bedroom doors and the kids brought them to our room to open. We would then go downstairs to see what Santa had left from them there

As a child I also had stocking in my room.
But now they are downstairs near the tree. We all love the going downstairs all together checking to see if he’s “been”. The chimney is in another room to the tree and stocking so we go there first to check that the mince pies and carrots have been eaten

Stocking is put on child's bed. Child wakes to see Santa has been. Child brings stocking to our bed and we sit up in bed to open stocking presents.

Downstairs to open tree presents after breakfast. Tree presents are from people including us.

After my experiences as a child with my siblings, we put sacks downstairs for Father Christmas to fill rather than in their rooms. We were a complete nightmare, made worse by the fact that we were sharing to make room for grandparents to stay. Tree presents were separate and from real people. This worked for us and there was always one present under the tree that was from us rather than FC.

We never had the issue of them wanting to check whether FC had been as they were never awake first! I think this might be the first year we don't do FC 😢. They are 21,19 and 14 though 😂

Traditions evolve to fit your children though - try something this year and then tweak it for next if it doesn't work.

@MrsAukerman

Stocking is put on child's bed. Child wakes to see Santa has been. Child brings stocking to our bed and we sit up in bed to open stocking presents. Downstairs to open tree presents after breakfast. Tree presents are from people including us.

That's exactly what we do (minus the DCs coming into our room - which is just as well, as they woke up at 3.30am last year and were able to open their stockings without disturbing us). The stockings are evidence that FC has been so no need to go downstairs - and the tree presents are from us/DCs/family and friends not FC, anyway.

When I was a little I opened my stocking upstairs and then my parents used to ask me if I thought Santa might have left anything downstairs. Then we all used to go down to together to check whether he'd been. Even though I knew he'd already been, none of the magic was lost when I went downstairs and saw all the presents!

Stocking opened in the bedroom *these are very little gifts) and then an adult goes to check if santa has been, and turns on all the tree lights, turns some christmas music on, and then calls everyone else down. We still do this even though dc are teens.

We don't open presents then until after breakfast, dp takes the dog out and i prepare breakfast, its usually quick preparation so they are not waiting long. The dc like to give the dog his presents to open while we eat breakfast. And then its present time for everyone else.

Whoever wakes up first wakes the rest of us and we all go down together. I never put stockings in the bedrooms - as a child I think once woke up and saw the stocking being done. It not only spoiled things because I saw it but it spoiled my nights sleep because I could t settle and I felt awful for the whole of Christmas Day that year. As an adult I never did it because it becomes more difficult as the years go on to not get caught.

In our house the stockings were left by the fireplace. Santa always filled them and left them on top of the Santa gifts for each child. The Santa gifts were always wrapped in a different paper for each child. No-one was allowed in the sitting room until we are all together and ready to enter. I had usually been in to put on the tree lights. Then there would be much high excitement and squeaks of 'has he been, has he been'. Then in we all went. The tree gifts from others were opened after Santa gifts. We still go through this process now even though my DDs are aged 23 and 28!

In our house Santa very helpfully sorted the presents into piles for each person and put them on a sofa with the stocking on top. I never found this any less magical than anything else but my mum wouldn’t have thought too much about this.

We always had tree presents in the afternoon so that it was spread out over the day.

Mine get the stocking and presents from Santa. We leave the stockings by the fire in the main room so not in their rooms. They know they can't go down to the hall without us so we all go together.

Only stockings come from Santa here and the presents go under the tree when wrapped so they are already there anyway, no need to check! Kids open stockings in our bedroom but they are see through so so they can spend some time having a look before waking us up.

Stockings From Father Christmas are hung in bedrooms. If they woke at silly o’clock they were allowed to open one gift, then to go back to sleep.

Then stockings hauled into our bedroom and opened whilst we had a cup of tea. Tree lights switched on while kettle boiled.

DC then allowed downstairs to find a pile of gifts each from us, and to exchange gifts over breakfast.

Gifts under the tree from others wait until later in the day.

When I was little, Father Christmas brought just the stocking gifts (well, technically we had little shopping bag things) which went on the end of your bed. And actually he also brought a new outfit for us to wear on Christmas Day. Actual presents were all from real people. I plan on doing the same thing (although I don't suppose my baby will have much idea what's going on this year!).

I particularly don't understand big presents coming from Santa, it's completely alien to me and tbh it's not until recently that I realised anyone did that (and then got rather stressed thinking about people who are in a difficult financial situation this year and whose Santa will suddenly unaccountably not be able to do what he's done before). I guess we often tend to set things up in a way that mirrors what we're used to, though!

Father Christmas brings the stocking and they open that in the morning.
Presents under the tree are from who they are from and get opened later.

So lovely to read what everyone does.

In our house, stockings are downstairs with the present/s they’ve asked Santa for.
This year they have 4 each plus stocking from him. This is in Santa paper, each child different. Bought huge rolls from Costco and use same each year. The stocking is different cheap paper, all different from wherever.
We all go down and dad goes in to check he’s been and turns on tree lights.

They love opening the stocking and choose that first. I wouldn’t like for them to open these without me as I want to see their reactions.

Next, they open Santa gifts and watch each other open, they prefer to do this now but didn’t when they were very young.

We then do presents under the tree which are all jumbled up. One of them chooses a gift, not to themselves and gives it a sibling or mum and dad and we take turns giving and receiving like this. The presents under the tree are from us, them to each other and some from cousins.

Grandparents visit bringing gifts with them later in the day.

Stockings are hung by the fireplace in our bedroom and everyone piles into our bed to open them (including 6ft plus son) when the first child wakes (and nudges the others) usually around 9am.
We then come downstairs, open the one gift FC leaves under the tree then have breakfast before opening tree presents from us/each other.

This is our 19th year doing it this way. I love it.

The stockings and other gifts are all downstairs. On Christmas morning everyone piles into our bed and we chat and have some christmassy tunes on then all go down together to see if he's been. One of mine ended help to manage emotions and excitement so that was what worked for us.

So my DS is three this year. What we’ve decided we’re doing is a small stocking from Father Christmas, to be opened in our bedroom first. Then we’re going to put wrapping paper over the door to the living room, so he can see that he has been but can’t peek before we’re ready to go in together. Then one present will be under/in front of the tree from Father Christmas (unwrapped) and all of the other presents will be from us/family.

Oh this has hit me with all kinds of nostalgia. We always had a little pile of presents in our room (probably very carefully chosen to get us to stfu before 6am) and then we would all sneak down to ‘check he had been.’ The lights were always on the Christmas tree with the presents underneath and the fire on and that first moment of sheer euphoria has always stuck me as the magic of Christmas. My Mum told me in recent years that my dad always managed to sneak away to turn them on in the midst of the morning excitement and that adds a sentimentality to it as he died when I was in my early teens.

On that note, yes OP we always checked and always will.

We had Father Christmas bringing the stocking, which was hung outside her bedroom door (so he didn't wake her up 😉). In the morning she woke up, found the stocking, brought it to our room and sat on the bed to open it. When we were ready, we all went downstairs to open the family presents. If we were waiting for Gran to arrive after Church, she was happy to wait for Gran to arrive to open the tree presents. She's 21 now and we still do the same 😂.

We knew the year she was questioning it all, when she asked if she could have her stocking in her room (clearly intending to stay awake until after midnight).