Does Santa come to all the children in the world?

[Haycorns4Piglet]

Because if he does, why the toy appeals?

What do you tell your kids?

My child has never asked

Santa only brings one present here, the rest are from us, family etc. so the toy appeals are for the children whose parents aren't able to buy them presents.

We have always told DC that the main presents are from us. Santa brings a sack of smaller things. That way they understand why children get different amounts of things - depends what the parents can afford. The toys donated are for the parents who can’t afford a lot.

Santa does stockings, the main gifts are from parents.

Like Christ am I working all year for Santa to get the bloody credit! He visits, he brings a small something, he does his best to get round to everyone even if it’s just to leave something small and taking a bite of mince pie.

No. Santa brings the stocking, parents get the presents. Appeals are for the presents.

Also many children are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and more and therefore have their own holidays and traditions, many of which DD knows about. She attended Hanukkah at the neighbour's from birth!

I've never been asked this either.

If I was I think I'd say 'yes Father Christmas visits all the children in the world who celebrate Christmas, but these children won't get any presents from their families because they're very poor so the toy appeal is to help out the families to give presents to their children'.

Of course that wouldn't work if your kids get loads from Santa, here they get a stocking of small bits and one big present from FC, everything else from family.

Definitely not. Sometimes very sadly not. Some children don’t have homes to live in so there is nowhere for Father Christmas to visit. Some are a long way from their homes and Father Christmas can’t find them, especially if they are travelling as refugees.

Some children live in a family where they celebrate at different times or in different ways. They get presents at different times from different people. Only children who celebrate Christmas are visited.
He does go all over the world visiting children in most countries.

Apparently I told my mum that if children didn’t get presents it was because they had either been naughty or didn’t believe and so we shouldn’t get them anything either! Which is logical to be fair to child me. It’s a bit harsh though 🙈.

The santa story is inherently flawed. I am
hoping DD doesn’t notice but she’s a chip off the old block….

I just say that sadly he needs a little help some years as there's so many children and its hard for him to get to everyone.

I tell them they only come for children in Christian countries. They are very aware that maybe half the world doesn't get Christmas presents. For the toy appeals, Santa only brings the stocking, big gifts are from family.

That's exactly what I've told my son when he asked.

Santa only brings a stocking, and only to kids who believe (so none of the locals when we lived in the middle east).
In families where there isn't enough money for presents from Mummy and Daddy, we donate to give those children something else to open on Christmas day.

@ChristmasCakeAndStilton Dd doesn't get any gifts from us so if we told her that she'd probably think she deserved a donation! 😂I actually like how everyone does it differently.

I don't believe in lying to mine so DS has always known Santa isn't real but a fairy story. It hasn't spoilt his enjoyment of xmas at all.
Now an adult he is an atheist.

Luckily my DDs are easily appeased any time they ask questions, that’s if they do ask.

Now they are old enough to understand we bulk out santas gifts I’ve told them that we donate to families who can’t afford extra gifts. We do monthly donations to a local food bank so they already understand there are families who struggle, the toys are extras we do at Christmas time.

I say that Santa shows us what it is to give and be kind. We help Santa by helping him and giving to others.

Ds1 asked me that at age 5. He wanted to know why we were doing shoeboxes for poor children because why couldn’t they just get the presents form Santa.

im not sure exactly what I said but it wasn’t very convincing as he stopped believing in Santa after Christmas that year!

Don't know actually, it hasn't cropped up yet. Santa brings everything in our house so will need to get thinking!

When mine were younger I said Santa can't go to the war countries so we did the shoe box appeals

Father Christmas brings one toy and a stocking here. The rest are from people. I tell my children all DC get this but some families only get this and we donate so they can have something other than FC's gift.

Only stocking from Santa but he delivers all the family gifts

Santa brings the stocking (if you've been good!) and mummy and daddy send money to Santa for other presents.

At the moment, DD is very much in the magical "Santa is real" phase, and it's lovely to see. She's picked out a present for a little girl who's mummy and daddy might not have a lot of money to send to Santa because we want her to understand that sometimes families don't have a lot of money to spare and it is a kind thing to do to help other people.

My mum always said parents have to send money to Santa so I go along with that now too. It really explained to me one year why I got loads of toys and my friend just got a pack of felt tip pens.