Different traditions re Santa

[daisyflowergirl123]

Hi all

Needing some insight into people's Christmas traditions please!

For me as a child, Santa would bring a sack which had a selection of presents (small things like pjs/books/chocolates) and these would be specifically from and delivered by Santa. My parents would then have main presents under the tree from them.

DH has discussed that as a child, the parents that Santa delivered were actually from his parents, so no presents under the tree but his tradition was that the presents in the Santa sack/stocking delivered by Santa were from the parents.

Now my DD is at the age of starting to understand Christmas's were having discussions over which tradition to follow!

So what is/was the tradition in your household?

We never really discussed what came from Father Christmas. We all believed in him as children and knew we had to go to sleep or he wouldn’t come but writing lists of things we wanted was never a thing in our house and I don’t specifically remember ever being told that certain presents were from him. I remember one year getting a book about Rudolph and excitedly telling my mum that it must have been from Father Christmas as it was the only one without a label, but that was the only time I ever remember associating a present with him. Which is probably a bit odd in hindsight, but we were all just happy to get presents so none of us ever questioned it!

I’ve just asked DH and he says everything came from Father Christmas in their house.

We had all the presents (apart form the wider family ones) from Santa. That was the magic and the excitement! We were northern working class so no stockings or presents under the tree (I can’t really see the magic or excitement for kids seeing their presets before day in and out).

It was all about sitting on the stairs from about 5am waiting for my mum
to get back from her night shift so we were then allowed in the lounge to see if Santa had been! Birthdays were for parent gifts. Christmas was about the magic.

I have done the same for my kids - though DH and I have an argument every year as he wants the ‘credit’ for the gifts. But where’s the magic in that?

We would never really chat at school about how many presents Santa had or handy brought us so I hadn’t considered that angle. Plus lots of families do it differently.

I have to say I’m fascinated by all these different stories. It makes me laugh to hear for some people Santy was just like a DHL courier and simply delivered the presents paid for by the parents?!
I just assumed what we did was the same in every house! At least in Ireland anyway. I don’t know if stockings are as big a deal here, or maybe that’s just my experience.
So for me and DH as kids and now as parents, Santa brings everything. Parents don’t have any part in it.
They get other presents from other relatives but not from us.

Growing up, Santa brought everything. Stockings had a few of the smaller in size gifts.

I think Santa bringing everything is quite common in Ireland and was the norm with my classmates and friends as a child.

I'm Irish so it was 'Santy' who came. In our house in the 70s, everything came from Santy. Stockings weren't much of a thing, just a big pile of Santy presents

Oh, presents from aunts, uncles grandparents etc came from them though, not Santy.