How Do/Did You Explain Christmas Presents to Kids?

[AlexanderSalamander]

My kids are 2y and 6m so I haven't had much explaining to do this year. But I've been thinking for future reference...

How do/did you explain these things to kids to keep the Christmas magic? :

1. Grandparents who we don't see much brought a bag full of wrapped presents to our house 5 days before Christmas. What do you tell kids to explain why we have these early?
2. Other people's presents. Did Santa drop them off at our house? Does he not deliver these ones to adults?
3. Did you go shopping with kids for presents for siblings/Mummy/Daddy/relatives? If so, how do you explain buying the presents (then Santa delivering them)
4. What other tips etc do you have to keep the Christmas magic for kids?

In our house Santa delivers the stocking only, the other presents come from everyone else, and are put under the tree as and when they arrive.

Advent calendar and candle to count down, a carol service, singing carols at home, extra treat food

Father Christmas does only the stockings in our house too.

It's good because it really limits the size and type of gift they can ask him for.

Gifts under the tree come from us and family. No way is FC getting credit for my work Also, it's important they see who gives what, and thanks them appropriately, and make choices about what they giving to others also.

1. Granny brought them early, kids know they are from her and write a thank you note once able.
2. We bought them for Auntie Sue etc, Santa doesn't sort adults
3. Yes, we buy for our family and it's nothing to do with Santa
4. It just us, you really don't need to try too hard.

Santa only brings the stuff we buy, I don't like other peoples gifts being lumped in with Santa presents. They deserve to be recognised and thanked a accordingly for their kindness.

Santa only fills the stocking here, all other presents are from the giver.

As above, Father Christmas brings the stocking only. Tree presents come from the sender.

Santa only brings Santa gifts, grandparents family members gifts etc go under tree as and when they arrive and are from them not Santa.
Santa's sleigh isn't big enough to carry every present a child gets just a few that he makes for them

Like others have said, presents from relatives and friends are from the giver. We explained to DS (2yo) who they're from and put them under the tree, we did get a "why?" But he accepted that it's for Christmas and some people like to exchange gifts at Christmas.

Santa brings a stocking that is filled with a few treats (santa chocolate figure and coins) something creative (paint set) and something wooden (train set) in our house.

In our house Santa brings a stocking (a sack for DS at the moment) and one main present that DS asks for in his letter to Santa. The rest is family and friends which they should rightly get the credit for imo

Santa brings main presents (things I have bought) mostly from the list, some because he thought they'd like them - never in the 20 years I've been a parent has a child who believed in Santa asked me why I haven't bought them anything for Christmas & I can't be arsed with the "we buy presents & send them to Santa" thing as I feel it ruins the magic a bit we send Santa money is even worse I don't need the credit happy for it to go to the big man in red 🎅🏼

Presents from other people always go under the tree & are clearly labelled.

As above santa does stockings and a few gifts. The rest are from us. Its exciting to have some presents under the tree before the big dayfrom grand parents etc... also want kids to know who to thank.

Santa only brings the stockings.
5 year old DD has been involved in the choosing and wrapping of presents.

@NatashaAlianovaRomanova its all very well not saying that Santa gets the money but Ive resorted to that when my little cherubs ask for expensive presents as a way to get a free xbox. I must confess to winging it on santa mythology.

Santa doesn’t exist in this house, so my son knows that people buy him presents with their own money. It doesn’t stop him asking for a real dinosaur though...

My parents used to tell us that FC sorts gifts by magic using a self-updating list, so if parents/aunts etc buy something that was on the list, FC knows because the list magically updates itself. FC only did stockings and apparently he knew by magic that what we really really wanted were new pants and toothbrushes etc even though we didn't know this ourselves 😁

Father Christmas brings the stockings and one gift from their list.

Other presents from parents & relatives. As we’ve seen their it’s (to help them write them ), they end up getting more from their lists. No one has questioned anything about the logic or magic!

I’d be telling them that of course Father Christmas can’t deliver ALL the gifts to everyone - he’s magic but that would be crazy! Also you don’t model the nice part of gift-giving - choosing something personal from you to them, wrapping with care etc - if it’s all given by Father Christmas.

The only thing we do is the stockings and Father Christmas present in separate wrapping paper they’ve never seen before.

Like a lot of the PPs, FC only brings stocking fillers.

DC have always helped choose presents for family members. (One of their pet hates is that Step-Mum boys something for their Dad from all the DC, wraps it and writes their name on the label and in his card. They have no idea what it is until he opens it. )
The magic of Christmas is in the giving. Small token gifts chosen to suit the person are more important than big expensive things they don't really like.

Santa brings the stocking and the one toy Dd asks for. She's never asked for anything expensive fortunately.

To keep christmas magical by all means do elf on the shelf and have santa if you want but don't use them for a behavioural management technique. Elf spy cams and constantly threatening that Santa won't bring you any gifts if you do X, Y, Z is a surefire way of ruining the magic of Christmas. Our elf was not naughty he just bought a chocolate coin instead of having an advent calendar and then at the weekend when I had more time he would bring cheap Christmas activities for us to do together, stuff for making paper chains, chocolate playdough, gingerbread, mince pies, a Christmas sticker or activity book. Stuff we would do normally but with added magic. Also after the first year our Elf became a 'supervisor' and would disappear for days at a time to makesure the other elves were doing their job.

I was put off saying everything was from Santa after reading a FB post when DD was little saying how unfair it was to children who don't receive any or much for Christmas to then go back to school and find out that their friends got a big pile. Particularly when some parents use Santa for their behaviour management tool as then those children just feel that they must have been naughty when actually their parents didn't want or couldn't afford to buy them lots of gifts.

• any or much from santa.

Also Dd loves choosing her own gifts for people, when she was small I would giver her £10 in a little purse and let her choose what she wanted from Poundland for our family members, she used to really like that.

Another one where Santa brings the stocking and one present that they have asked for. Everything else is under the tree and from family (we open those presents after lunch so it is spread throughout the day).

I also make sure that Santa has different wrapping paper and that labels are printed as I always wondered why our presents were the same and why Santa wrote just like my parents...

Do you not come from the UK? Santa only brings the stocking presents.

@testing987654321 that's not a UK wide thing

Father Christmas brings santa sacks/stockings only, they are all wrapped in his own paper (usually with a picture of him) so we know he has brought them. Everything else is has been bought by family. The main/ most expensive presents are from mum and dad NOT Father Christmas.

And if they ask the reason other kids get more from Father Christmas than they do it's because mummy and daddy send the money to Father Christmas so he can make/buy the toys for them

Father Christmas brings stocking presents as others here. Everything else from the family/ friends.

Dcs are 20 & 17 & FC still brings stockings!!

santa only brings stocking presents. family and friends presents go under the tree and opened after stocking presents. lists are written of who have what so thank you letters/texts/emails can be sent