how do you know santsa been to your house? TIPS REQ

[nailpolish]

last year he left a torn piece of his sack in front of our fire !

the dds still rmember it and i think dd1 even kept it

whats signs have you ahd in your house?

choc raisins for reindeer droppings

We do the half eaten carrot etc.We also leave some dust and glitter on the hearth of the fireplace.My favourite one though is a trail of chocolate coins from the end of their beds down the stairs leading to the pile of presents.My parents used to do it for us it's a family tradition.Santa's had holes in his pockets for years now.
My Dad loves Christmas he even used to pull the gas fire away from the wall on christmas eve to let Santa out the chimney!

aw your dad sounds lovely!

charlee what is the santa key?

We leave a measure of whiskey (apparently it has to be a Malt),a mince pie and a carrot.

Slight panic last year when I realised we didn't have any carrots as we were going to in-laws for Christmas dinner.

It took 3 attempts at various neighbours to find a spare carrot! Parsnips were more popular last year, though not by reindeer

Said items then placed carefully on hearth by ds.

I remember one year Mother Christmas helped herself to a glass of sherry too and left her glass by the fireplace as well.

We leave out a peice of cake and a beer.

Years ago my Grandfather put horseshoe prints on the roof that because of the snow were clearly visible.

Another year we had been left letters from the Fairies who were visiting with Father Christmas!

The Snata Key is for DS becuase we don't have a Chimney - i found it in a shop for £2 its an old brass looking key with santas picture on and it is on a velvet ribbon.

DS hangs it out on a hook by the front door so Snat can get in on exmas eve then ''Santa'' takes it with him and it gets posted to ds at the begining of Dec for him to leave out again.

DS was upset because at our old house we had a big fireplace and chiney and now we don't so it seemed like a good solution and it worked last year a treat!

That sounds lovely charlee. We have a chimney (one in every room even) but I like the idea of the santa key so much more!

Half eaten Rudolp carrot
Crumbs from mince pie
Drink gone
Note for DD from FC on the tray
Presnets (obviously)
Traces of elf dust on the presents

We have a Santa key too, also bought for a couple of pound from one of those Christmas type shops that crop up in town.

I LOVE doing the fake reindeer teeth marks on the carrot, giggling on the landing with dh. Its the best bit of Christmas for me, along with dragging the half a hundred weight of presents into each of their rooms.

(And of course the best bit is that al the presents are as much of a surprise for dh as they are for the children)

hippo - I have a spare santas key here (no chimney and we got one last year but also bought another one this year as I couldnt find it (it was in the middle of one of the stockings ) I can post it to you tomorrow if you'd like (if so email me your address [email protected])

When ds was small, he went through a phase when he was scared of monsters. We tackled it by pointing out that nobody gets into our house unless Daddy says so, and Daddy is very fussy about who he lets in. When the whole Father Christmas thing started, we were questioned closely about why he was allowed to come in without going through the Daddy doorkeeper. So in our house, Father Christmas rings the doorbell, and Daddy lets him in. We haven't really bothered with any of the other stuff, for some reason!

A nibbled carrot and a drink drunk. DS1 is now five and fc visited at school this afternoon and asked for a beer. So sadly years (mine) of tradition of a glass of sherry will need to be broken and a glass of beer will be left empty on the table.

I take it the people who do icing sugar footprints don't have carpet

I am going to spray glitter over the presents and by the front door.

Don't get this magic key business. Santa has one magic key for everyone's house. He doesn't have a different one for each house. Can you imagine carrying all those around!

My youngest is 11 and we STILL do the icing sugar footprints, bitten carrot etc. They just go along with it as part of the ritual of Christmas. In this house, Father Christmas also makes very cool gift tags, personal to each child, on his computer in Lapland. This started when I ran out of labels one year and I have done it ever since.

And yes, we do have carpet - but we put the footprints on the hearth!

Just the eaten cookies, empty cola bottle and half eaten carrot in our house apart from the huge pile of presents.

Might pinch nappyaddicts idea re glitter on the presents.

Have no desire to sprinkle icing sugar on my floor but then again I am a neat freak

awww im really going to miss being able to do all that for DC's this year, but at least they are still young enough to be many more years My sister does boot polish footprints on the floor in front of the fire - just two, where he landed! lol

This just reminded me one christmas as a child begining to disblieve rudolph and co left a POO!!!! in our garden dad made a big deal about having to clear up after the bl*y reindeer etc but we found it sooooo funny and it kept the dream going for a little longer!!!

(We lived near a field full of cows so dad had popped out on xmas eve)

Ah see we have no chimney so FC would come through front door and our hall has carpet so can't really do the icing sugar thing.