Ahhhh my 8 year old has just seen me with her stocking filled help!

[Lichensclerosus]

We do stockings from santa ive just came to bed filled her stocking up and she's bloody seen me mummy what are you doing with my stocking. I quickly said just checking if his been yet . I've emptied it again and waiting for her to settle back to sleep. I've been in again though and she said mummy why are you moving my stocking. I need some tactile tips!!! How long do I give it to attempt a 3rd try

Just got to wait till she's asleep my 7 year old is still awake too.

I'm trying to get seven year old off now and three year old has just woken up!
They are excited that grandad is here and aunty so I'm giving kt another hour and then doing the stocking but they live on their bedroom doors so should be OK.

Unless she has a fairly generic one, convince her next year that she needs a new one. Buy 2 exactly the same. 1 goes empty on the door, the other you fill. Then just before you go to bed you switch empty for full and it's all done silently with very little movement.

Just wait this year until she is asleep. Set your alarm for 3am if necessary. Next year invent some reason why stocking are hung outside the bedroom.

This is a great idea we def need to buy new stockings I've just gone in 10 mins later to try again and i got met with stop taking my stocking off the door ahh fuck sake

Mine used to hang theirs up in the living room.

This is why you keep the stockings downstairs by the Christmas tree or fire place !

I'd go to bed, set an alarm and get up and do it at horrendous o'clock and then go back to sleep!

Ours are hung in the living room near the tree before bed then placed in room once filled. Dd2 was way too light a sleeper to consider them leaving it on their beds to be retrieved

I wish I'd started the tradition of stockings being hung up in the living room instead of put at the end of the bed when my DC was younger! Would have made things much less stressful, but that was what I did as a kid so just carried it on.

I'd go to bed, set an alarm for silly o'clock, quickly sort the stocking and get back to bed.

I get what people are saying about stockings downstairs but there's nothing better than waking up and feeling that full stocking at the end of the bed Def duplicates next year tho!

The trick is to have an identical stocking ready filled that you just swap over, I appreciate it's too late now though. Maybe put a note in from Santa saying he's filled her stocking but had to wait ages for mummy to go to sleep?

Santa is running late this year and you met him at the door and offered to put all the gifts in their stockings to save him time.

Or checking she was asleep as he wont be able to fill it if she is still awake. Hmmm. Why dont we leave it outside your bedroom door so its not a problem if he turns up in the next 10 mins

Stockings downstairs!!

Failing that, I'd take it off the bed and fill it downstairs then bring it back up, so less noise is made.

Isn't it funny how people do different things? I wouldn't want stockings on the end of beds as I want to see their faces when they see what's in them!

I set an alarm for 5am and do it then.

If I filled it before bed, my kids would wake up at 1am and be so excited to see he had been that they’d never go back to sleep.

I'm exactly the same.

Mine have their stockings in their room, but the rush into bed with me to open them so I do get to see their faces.

We're all done here. My kids hang them up in their rooms/on the doors (their choice). Once I think they're asleep, I steal one stocking, fill it downstairs, sneak it back in and repeat for all the children. Stressful 10 mins but I've not been caught yet!

I wouldn't want to leave them downstairs. When they wake up they bring the stockings in to our bed and open them there. DH is sent to bring coffee upstairs!

She surely knows you were going to do her a stocking if that is the usual thing. Don't worry, she doesn't know the contents! I don't see it as a big deal, your daughter is eight.

With how many children there are now Santa is very busy so he asks parents to help out sometimes. He dropped hers off earlier for the main fill but will add a few special things when he flies over later in the night.

Could you tell her something about you thought you heard Santa in her room the 2nd time you went in? Or the bells of reindeer on the roof?

Just say Santa has had a word with you about how fast he needs to work around the world and stockings must be all together and empty in the sitting room...he hasn't got time to trip around in kids' bedrooms! He only drops them full of treats on the bed if the child's fast asleep- "don't take a chance kiddo by staying awake!"
You can make the story work for you and if they question any of it then remind them that traditions are different all over the world.

We ended up with a stocking hung on the airing cupboard door (on the landing) because of this. Youngest still retrieved it at 00.30, a couple of mins after its deposit

Your children are all so brave. Mine are so scared at the thought of someone lurking around their room. We have to reassure that santa definitely doesn't come upstairs and we had to write a note to the elf asking him to stay downstairs too! Works in our favour though I suppose!