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!

Oh I've seen you mention dog, I didn't think about this as it will be the first Xmas we've had dpup who sleeps on dd2's bed! Also to add with the stockings in my bed - that's what I did when mine were your dc's age. They are 7and 10 now and open them in their own beds

Even when my sister and I stopped having FC presents (when we were about 10) we still opened all presents except stockings after lunch. It makes the present opening last much longer!

My mum used to try to make us do this as apparently that was how she did it as a child, but we were not having it. "Won't you save at least one present for after lunch?" she would cry plaintively. Her mistake was waiting until we were old enough for it to be something different before she tried to introduce it - if she had done it that way from the beginning we wouldn't have known any better! I think Dad was the driving force behind "open all presents in the morning" as that was how he had done it. And we did get presents later anyway because we would see family later that day or on Boxing Day and open their presents then.

willingwarlock I think you are right there, the traditions need to be in place from an early ish age. When I moved out and had to start making my own traditions with dh it did feel very alien to begin with, and we had a few years of trying different things to see what we liked best (pre kids). I hate to admit it but the first year or so of being moved out I really just wanted to be back home because doing anything other than what I had done for 20 odd years didn't feel right at all. I can't wait to have all these christmasses with the DC, the magic is most definitely back.

Santa leaves his sack downstairs and dd rushes down to get it and bring it upstairs and we all open stockings, santa presents, presents from us etc in bed in a big frenzy .
I always hide one big present until after lunch so she has something to look forward to later on as well.

@WillingWarlock

Even when my sister and I stopped having FC presents (when we were about 10) we still opened all presents except stockings after lunch. It makes the present opening last much longer!

My mum used to try to make us do this as apparently that was how she did it as a child, but we were not having it. "Won't you save at least one present for after lunch?" she would cry plaintively. Her mistake was waiting until we were old enough for it to be something different before she tried to introduce it - if she had done it that way from the beginning we wouldn't have known any better! I think Dad was the driving force behind "open all presents in the morning" as that was how he had done it. And we did get presents later anyway because we would see family later that day or on Boxing Day and open their presents then.

Ah, it was the norm for us so we never questioned it! We didn’t have family visiting on other days as my Mum’s parents would be with us and my dad’s family would normally post things or come up a week or two before Christmas... so Christmas was the day for presents!

Have you considered putting the stockings in the hallway near the bedroom? I think I will be doing this as I'm worried about waking my 5 year old and also worried about my 3 year old just ripping into the stocking when the idea is that they come and open them on our bed :)

Santa can bring what you want him to bring. I was going to do stockings ony from Santa but it just felt a little wrong to me when it came to it and DD already has the idea that Santa puts presents under the tree.

We have compromised as me and dp were both happy with the idea of presents coming from Santa but saying (if asked why we don't buy anything but relatives do) that mummies and daddies help Santa - we send them the kid's letters, we tell him if they've been good, we say what kind of things they like and we also say a couple of things we would like them to have.

We would never say that santa is just the delivery man or that we pay money for the presents he brings or anything like that, but we like the idea if collaborating slightly with Santa so that he still brings everything. Best of both worlds to us :) (And means I don't have to do different wrapping paper!)

Oh and lists are also limited. They can ask for 5 things this year and next year I will subtly change it to 3 things.

Stockings hang on the fireplace and that's where Santa fills them them and leaves them. Other santa presents are arranged beside the stocking - Santa brought all the gifts here.

All other gifts from family are under the tree in another room including one mid-size / value one from us.

The order for opening was / is (we have a teen now) wake up - come to us, we all get up, no-one goes downstairs alone.

We all go down at the same time. Dh goes ahead and slightly opens the sitting room door and would peek in and say something like 'Oh! I think he's been here...' cue major squeals!

dd would then go in and stare in wonder for a couple of seconds. Even though all presents are together she always gravitates to the stocking first and takes aaaaaaggggeeessss looking at each small thing in there. Then she looks at the other presents and dh and I open our stockings.

Then we move to the other room to the tree presents and at some stage during all of this dh makes us a coffee!

My dc’s are teens now but we kind of changed it each year as they grew up, dd2 has ASD so never really got the father Christmas thing until she was 6/7 then became terrified of the thought of him coming into her room so I told her the truth.

When small we used to do stockings by their bedroom doors, they were allowed to open these when they woke up, then we would have sacks downstairs with bigger presents from fc, under the tree would be gifts from family which wasn’t much as most our family don’t really bother or give cash so it was mor3 adult presents under the tree.

Now they are older they have their stocking downstairs and can collect it when they wake up and open it upstairs or downstairs, presents under the tree are from me and family/friends, they are all mixed up rather than piles, we open them gradually after having breakfast.

I'd never leave the stocking anywhere other than the end of the bed, just because I can still remember that magical feeling as a child of waking up and feeling it rustle against my feet

We do stocking a one gift from FC so they open these and then we all head in to the see what's under the tree, kids go in first but usually one of us goes in to set up our phone to catch their reaction. We live in a bungalow and the only time the front room door gets shut is xmas eve!

I have always wanted to wrap the door but never done that. Thought it looked fun!

We've left the stockings on the kitchen table with FC treats and they head in there to find their stockings when we wake up. Then in to our bed to open them.

Stocking in bed so they wake up to the full crinkly stocking experience... Then go down stairs to see if he has been...

We do stocking and one present under the tree (wrapped in different paper to the others although they're probably too excited to notice anyway lol) off Santa, the rest of the presents off us and other people.
They open their stockings upstairs, then we come down and check if Santa's mince pie and milk is gone, and that Rudolph's eaten his carrot (leave some crumbs and a bit of carrot on the plate lol)
Then they open their Santa present and the rest of their presents.
They still love checking for the mince pie etc even after they've opened their stockings

To be honest they don't really remember which presents were off us or Santa either lol I think they're just too excited!

Fuck i hadnt even thought about stockings! I will need to go into attic for them. Disorganized this year!
4 dc (17mth twins, dd2.5 and ds7)
Last year dp fucked it up. We were late to bed (1.50am by time we finished building and wrspping shit and giving twins their night feed) and ds woke at silly oclock looking to open stuff. I said he could have 1 then back to bed. Next thing hes bounced in 2 hrs later after opening all of his on his own cos daddy said he could (he wanted to be left alone to sleep)
Not sure how to do it this year. Maybe leave stockings in older 2 rooms cos they will play together anyway.
No way of keeping them out of living room and we are in a bungalow. Really dont want to be starting the day at fucking 4.30 again.
And here i thought i was doing well to get organized this year🤣
Reading wveryone elses traditions has made me smile though. I love seeing their little faces light up.
What about anyone who puts sweets/chocs in the stockings? Do you let them eat it before breakfast (its one day and christmas so fuck it) or would you rather they ate something decent first?

Everything’s downstairs here, DC usually wake up about 5am and ask if he’s been, we all check downstairs as a family

hairwizard Oh no! I bet you were gutted that by the time you woke up your ds had opened all his presents! Still, looks like you had your hands full last year with a young toddler and baby twins so can't blame you really, I'd have probably been the same.

@Hairwizard Chocolate before breakfast is definitely allowed on Christmas Day!

Fking raging i was. Dp fucked off to bed and wasnt up til after 9am. Then was looking breakfast. He was told to go sort himself with something (not so politely of course)

There is both fruit and sweets in the stocking (and some years, a portion pack of cereal). Anything in there is ok to eat straight away. (In fairness, all through December, there is a chocolate figure with breakfast from the advent calendar!).

Back to normality as the holidays start winding down.

In our house FC always leaves a little ornament or bauble on their bedside tables so they would know he’d been! Then we head downstairs for sacks and presents - nothing from me, all from FC.

They’re now 15 & 12 and haven’t believed for years but it’s exactly the same routine except it’s a later start! This year they have a miniature snow globe each which I’ll leave in their rooms on my way to bed!

Yours are at a lovely age to start making traditions with. Enjoy it, the years fly past!

Because we live with my mum and sister we wait till they are awake to do Father Christmas presents, when I was younger mum always put stockings in our room next to our bed. So when they wake up they come into us and they open one at a time one after the other, that usually wastes some time and mum and sis are usually awake by then. Then we enter full blown chaos when they see what santa has brought.

We do sacks which are filled with stocking type stuff from Santa/FC, the dc (8 & 12) leave them downstairs by the tree as that was easiest when they were small. We go down and watch them open them around 8am.

Tree presents are from us & extended family. When they were small I may have said a couple of tree presents were from Santa.

I don't think my kids have ever really questioned what gift is from who when they were younger. Now we make them read the tags (we write little clues on there) first .

No tree presents are opened until I've done some dinner prep and we are up and dressed with a glass of bubbly and some snacks on hand. So they play with the Santa stuff for a good few hours in the morning (and scoff all the treats), then we have a relaxed present opening late morning and see what everyone got.