Is Father Christmas/Santa Claus not so much a thing now?

[DottyHarmer]

I just get the feeling that there is much less emphasis now on FC bringing presents (for children obviously). I have seen online and in real life people just piling the presents up under the tree even for young dcs instead of the idea of FC creeping around filling sacks. (Perhaps always was a bit disturbing when you think about it !)

I suppose kids are more.”knowing” now and they can see everything online, see that stuff is delivered and also that gratification can be instant. The adverts atm all seem rather transactional now too.

I just was musing whether FC would go the way of stagecoaches on Christmas cards, ie a thing of the past.

[quote mincepiesallround]@Mrsmch123 Kids definitely talk about it (which I agree, we didn’t as kids). There have been so many posts on my local Mums FB page along the lines of ‘my son can’t understand why FC is bringing his friend whatever console and not him’. When my DD (6 at the time) was compiling evidence against FC’s existence one of her points was ‘FC brings some kids stockings only, some kids stockings plus one or two tree presents, some kids all their presents… that doesn’t make sense!’[/quote]
Yes, they definitely talked about what they got when DS was younger. If asked what he got for Christmas he'd say 'My mum got me.. and my nanna and grandad got me.. and my auntie got me..' and so on. I wouldn't want my child to think I hadn't got them anything for Christmas!

Still very much a thing among our family and friends although my daughter is 7 and I suspect this might be her last year of believing - she's already been questioning it. Santa brings a stocking and a few presents, mummy and daddy give the rest, and any from friends and family are put under the tree to wait till Christmas.

I think now it is harder for parents to keep up the pretence and magic of Christmas with all the social media etc. I think for parents who cannot afford expensive novelty advent calendars or all this Elf thing then it can make Christmas very upsetting

I haven't decided if we will do granny/granda/auntie gifts or if Santa will drop presents off at these houses. Either way it's only for a few years that they believe so no issues I feel.

He can say thanks for the gifts at his birthday ect

He’s definitely still a big part of Christmas for literally everyone I know who has young children, including me, although mine don’t believe in Santa anymore. Have to say though, he’s always brought the stockings and maybe one lower value item that was on their list, he never brought the expensive presents, whether it was a bike/Nintendo switch/dolls house. This is because we haven’t always had a tonne of money and I need to be able to be straight with my kids if I know they’re not getting something. That and the petty cow bag in me doesn’t want Santa getting all the credit.

We always had Santa presents left in the middle of the floor, and presents under the tree were from whoever's name was on the label (these weren't opened until late afternoon - but you could dig into Santa presents as soon as you woke up).

I didn't even know there was a thing until just a few years ago that, in some houses, literally EVERYTHING for DCs comes from Santa - nothing from DGPs or loving extended family, no presents for the parents either, everything was for the DCs and it ALL came from the man in the red suit.

Is that more what you mean OP?

A few posters have mentioned that it's odd when parents have all presents, including those from relatives, passed off as being from Santa. This is how it was when I was growing up and don't recall finding it odd that I never got anything from family, maybe I just never spoke to friends at school etc so never cottoned on to it being unusual? I don't know why they did it that way and my parents are no longer here for me to ask them about it. But I don't do that with my own kids, that's for sure! A few things are from Santa, a few from us and gifts from relatives are from the actual relatives.