How do you do Santa with teens

[yodelsay]

Do you still put carrot and mince pie and brandy out?

When do you fill stockings??

I'm knackered and they aren't and I want to go to bed but probs have to stay up til after they go to bed!

17 and 15. If they don't bugger off to bed, Father Christmas won't come, because FC is very tired and goes to bed at 10PM. Just like me (funny, that). Not sure how else one would deal with it, and I hate Christmas with a passion.

It wouldn't be me doing. It'd be Dd - for the fun. She'd probably choose the dodgiest carrot and expect dh to have a chop on it after she went up to bed 😂 What to do with the mince pie and drink? Eat/drink it!
Though as she helped her cousin do his earlier on she probably won't bother herself this year now we're home.

Such a compromise here as one is still small ish and the other two are big men now but their dad came over for the day (big thing for DS3 who loves us all doing Christmas Eve together even though we are divorced and it's a good way of having all the boys stick around to do stuff together). and the best way to evict ex-H round the day off is to make a bedtime routine with the sherry and mince pie! BIG debate over getting up time in the morning though! 7.45 compromise made with the older teens!

I do wonder how long this will continue though, next year they will be nearly 13, 17 and nearly 20 which is probably pushing it.

My mum confessed to doing it v early in the morning as we got older. She's always been an early riser though.

A DC in their 20s being given a bedtime!

OMG

I still had a bedtime when I was at my parents house until I was 22. I'd mostly left home by then though. I have an almost teenager and younger ones as well. Stockings get done for all the dc.

My 13 yo wouldn’t date creep downstairs just incase. He also wouldn’t want to spoil it. My DD on the other hand in a few more years I doubt it’ll be quite so easy. 13 yo was in bed by 7:30 just incase since it was dark outside.

I never had a bedtime as a teen. On Christmas Eve I would have been out until late.

What 18+ year old is at home for Xmas eve?! Wi-Fi off and bed by 11:30.... Fucking hell. Tragic.

I think I’m going to do the stockings in the morning. I’m always up first, everything is wrapped and ready. I’ll always do stockings for them, because I love doing them and it’s their socks and pants for the year.

No presents go under the tree until Santa comes, so it has maximum impact on Christmas morning (and also because my dog is a dick and will eat them).

I have the same problem op. Kids are still up and I’m knackered. They need to go to bed!!!!

Santa comes to all ages in our house (including me, only chance to buy a few 'me' gifts . DS is 16 and will sleep until at least 9am, DH and I will be out walking the dog by 07:30-08:00 so 'santa' will come at dawn !

DSs 14 & 15 are now upstairs with laptops and phones and banned from coming back down!! (They don't usually have tech upstairs but it's Christmas!!)

Santa tray is done and stockings are up. We all laughed about it and decided we should put a brandy and an amaretto so Santa can choose and I hate brandy!

Happy Xmas all!

but from 10pm are showered and in their rooms. WiFi and lights out at 11.30pm. Mine are 10,15, 19 and 20.

However, Father Christmas usually has a mince pie and a Baileys left out for him here still.......

The stocking goes outside their door when I get up as I can guarantee it will be before them.

What 18+ year old is at home for Xmas eve?!

Well based on our drive through the city centre at 9pm, most of them it would seem this year. The place was dead, half the bars were closed, the rest were less than half full. No random people mingling outside the pubs or wandering aimlessly across the roads.
I'm sure it's normally busy but not tonight.

Youngsters of today seem very light weight in this front!

It's busier on your average weekday night!

I think there are more gatherings at each other's houses these days, or at the local pub rather than clubbing in the city.

Stockings is TOTALLY different. I am 38 and I still have one!

Youngest is 13, oldest 17, I've set a Santa alarm for 3,00 am 🎄

We are taking it one year at a time (DCs are 13 and 15). Still tracking Santa, mince pies etc out and stockings, they tend to go to bed a bit earlier than usual on Christmas Eve, so I'm going to give them another half hour to get to sleep before stickings are filled. If next year they don't want to do any of it we won't.

^^thats for their stockings on their beds.

What is a Santa alarm?

A Santa alarm is where my phone wakes me up and I put their stockings, filled, on their beds.

DS is 18 and still puts out a mince pie and pernod for Father Christmas. He has yet to lay his stocking out to be filled, but announced a few weeks ago that he would never be too old for a stocking, and asked me to buy him a new personalised one as his childhood one has given up the ghost.

I never had a stocking as a child and nor did DH so I guess that's why we never started.

I remember staying up really late when the DC were little to get the stuff out of the loft/garage/car wherever without waking them and it was a bit of a pain and I was so tired on Christmas Day. So i don't think a Santa Alarm would be for me, 3am is way too early.

I'm not staying awake at 3.00am !
I put the stockings on their beds and go back to sleep.
They know the rule about not waking me until it is light outside.