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Original poster

What does Father Christmas bring UK

90 replies

Sallyh87 · 14/12/2022 22:30

Im not from the UK but have lived here for years and have a DD here. When I was little Santa brought all the big stuff but I’m getting impression from MumsNet in the UK Santa brings the stocking fillers.

This is the first year DD is conscious of Santa and gifts etc and I want to get it right! I want to set the precedent for years to come.

So in your opinion, what gifts is Santa responsible for?

OP posts:
Slimjimtobe · 14/12/2022 22:54

Santa gets everything here except one gift from mum and dad

Upwiththelark76 · 14/12/2022 22:55

Santa brought everything in our house!

Velvian · 14/12/2022 22:56

Stocking fillers.

Y7drama · 14/12/2022 22:58

Just stockings, and one slightly bigger present - up to £30 or so.

Bigbadfish · 14/12/2022 23:00

Santa brings everything and then we get them one thing off us.

Ladypuggerz · 14/12/2022 23:06

Santa was the delivery man only, in our house too. I always liked the idea that my family picked the gifts and sent them off to the North Pole for elf wrapping and delivery, despite bearing witness to my mother's last minute Christmas Eve wrapping each year. 🤣

OddshoesOddsocks · 14/12/2022 23:06

Just stockings in our house

chocolate coins in the bottom, a tooth brush and a small cuddly toy poking out the top are the essentials plus little bits like bubbles, bobbles, books, chocolate, crayons etc and anything small from their list.

They know that they write their list and I discuss it with Father Christmas to see whod like to get what. I handle the bigger stuff and FC gets the little bits and some surprises. It definitely varies from house to house but as far as my girls are concerned this is how me and FC have ‘decided’ to do it.

healthadvice123 · 14/12/2022 23:07

A few presents when my were little and we never did stockings really and didn't know many who did

N0va · 14/12/2022 23:08

When I was younger, Santa gives the stocking gifts and a present under the tree (sometimes one from Rudolph and the elves too) and delivers the gifts that family send to him. Although, it was only gifts that were given by family that woke up at our house on Christmas morning. My dad and other family would give the gifts on the day I saw them around Christmas so we could open together.

N0va · 14/12/2022 23:09

N0va · 14/12/2022 23:08

When I was younger, Santa gives the stocking gifts and a present under the tree (sometimes one from Rudolph and the elves too) and delivers the gifts that family send to him. Although, it was only gifts that were given by family that woke up at our house on Christmas morning. My dad and other family would give the gifts on the day I saw them around Christmas so we could open together.

Got carried away and forgot to add that I plan to do the same for DS!

Blankscreen · 14/12/2022 23:09

FC bring everything here. Stocking and all presents with one gift from me and Dh.

It's for trickier as they got older and still believe because the expectation is still to have a pile of presents from FC but the gifts have got smaller.

With hindsight I wish I had done stocking and one present from Santa the rest from me and Dh. X

MajorCarolDanvers · 14/12/2022 23:11

Stockings and a few gifts

Mumof1andacat · 14/12/2022 23:17

Father Christmas brings 1 present in our house. Others are from relatives and friends or parents (me and dh). We don't do a stocking.

lightisnotwhite · 14/12/2022 23:18

Father Christmas bought everything up to the point they didn’t believe any more. Then he just bought the stocking because it magically filled up and appeared on the bed for morning.🙂

gogohmm · 14/12/2022 23:18

Stocking gifts here. We wanted the honour of the big stuff!

Chattycathydoll · 14/12/2022 23:20

One special present. DD knows it must be something reasonable as otherwise it wouldn’t fit in his workshop ;) so no puppies or dragons as he can’t make them!
It is always wrapped in bright gold wrapping paper which I keep hidden, unlike the rest of the paper which is normal red Christmassy patterns.

PinkHeadphones · 14/12/2022 23:21

Just stockings. Same when I was little. I never really understood the concept of writing a list for Santa when I was young as my experience was he would bring an exciting but quite random selection of small items which mostly could conceivably be made by elves in a grotto not a My Little Pony or a book, for example. My kids have it slightly different in that stocking presents might include books, games etc.

jocktamsonsbairn · 14/12/2022 23:21

Stockings from
Santa plus the main present was always the norm for us. Now that I work with kids in a very deprived area, I'd rethink and just do stocking fillers.

Original poster
Sallyh87 · 14/12/2022 23:26

Thanks all, good to know there isn’t a hard rule on this. I was conscious she will be starting school in a year and didn’t want to be ignoring a social norm.

Thanks for taking the time to respond x

Merry Christmas!

OP posts:
MilkyYay · 14/12/2022 23:30

Stockings. He delivers other stuff but its from/paid for by family etc. He's like amazon marketplace.... all about the logistics & delivery.

Smileatthesmallthings · 14/12/2022 23:31

In our house Father Christmas fills the stocking, and brings the specific one large-ish or 2 smaller gifts that are asked for on the letter. He doesn't do anything unreasonably large, expensive or alive. They are always wrapped in paper with pictures of Santa on whereas ours are all brown paper and ribbon.

All other gifts are from whoever got them.

Eatentoomanyroses · 14/12/2022 23:32

No hard rules. We have said we send money to Father Christmas to help with the toys and he delivers hence why some children don’t get as many/ none. If caught with presents we’ve said they get sent away to Santa for safekeeping and Santa delivers.

SillySausage81 · 14/12/2022 23:58

I'm actually quite surprised by most of the responses here.

In my house when I was a kid (and I'm pretty sure it was the same for all my school friends) Father Christmas brought all presents from the parents, including big and small gifts. By which I mean, from the child's POV they didn't get anything from their parents, it was all from Father Christmas. We never had a stocking, we had pillow cases, and in some years giant sacks when we had bigger presents.

Then there were the presents from other relatives, aunts, uncles etc. that were under the tree waiting to be unwrapped Christmas morning.

However, I have seen a lot of social media posts in the last few years recommending that people should say the big gifts are from family and Father Christmas only brings small gifts, as it saves poorer children from wondering why Father Christmas didn't bring them very much but brought their classmates some really good swag.

ZeViteVitchofCwismas · 14/12/2022 23:59

Op MN is not representative at all of the UK.

I've met one RL person who doesn't give everything from FC (their gift's, family and friends is always from family and friends).

Stocking and the tree's bounty.

Interviewnamechange · 15/12/2022 00:02

In our house, Santa brings 2 presents each and the rest are from mummy and daddy.

My mum used to tell us she sent money to Santa and he bought all the presents and delivered them!