How does Santa work at your house?

[JabbaJawz]

I was talking with some friends about this last night, and it's interesting to hear how each family handles Santa's gifts. My gifts from Santa were never wrapped, and I always cleared off a certain couch or space on Chrismas Eve for him to leave them. I stuck with the same trend, and don't wrap my daughter's Santa gifts either. And if it's something that needs to be put together, I go ahead and do that so it's ready to go when she wakes up on Christmas morning. I might not do that part forever, though, because as she gets older she might enjoy helping put the things together.

Some people wrap, and some don't. And my cousin and her brothers and sisters only got 4 gifts each from Santa (there were 5 kids in the family). And what do you tell a child when they wonder why Santa brings some kids more than others (an issue that a lady I know was having)? In reality, some kids don't get anything from Santa.

 

[SmallTown]

The problem is you're trying to take over santa's job.. Let him leave whatever he wants and don't worry about it

 

[JabbaJawz]

Originally posted by SmallTown
The problem is you're trying to take over santa's job.. Let him leave whatever he wants and don't worry about it

Don't be a butt, lol!! :razz2:

 

[justhangn]

Originally posted by laureng
Don't be a butt, lol!! :razz2:

He can't help it Lauren.

We wrap the gifts from Santa and we also give each of our children the same amount of gifts to open.

 

[SmallTown]

We always had unwrapped gifts as the "big things" from santa.. Even up until I left home, the parents would still leave stuff unwrapped as a "from santa" gift.. Even when you are older and know what is going on, it is still something special to get up on christmas morning and see something new

Heck, I STILL get up at 5am to open gifts!

 

[Kyle]

Originally posted by justhangn
... We wrap the gifts from Santa and we also give each of our children the same amount of gifts to open.

What do you do after the younger one breaks half of hers?

 

[Kain99]

Well we have always wrapped..... Kinda crazy these days since the kids have known what they are getting for two years straight.

OOP's I take that back... We didn't wrap the boys dirtbikes last year.

We let Rachel open her cell phone last night because I figured with all the crud at school she could use it early.

Traditionally, Christmas has always been a really big deal here.

 

[JabbaJawz]

Originally posted by SmallTown


We always had unwrapped gifts as the "big things" from santa.. Even up until I left home, the parents would still leave stuff unwrapped as a "from santa" gift.. Even when you are older and know what is going on, it is still something special to get up on christmas morning and see something new

Heck, I STILL get up at 5am to open gifts!

That's AWESOME!!! My parents always did the for me, too - meaning I still got "Santa" stuff in the morning, even when I was way old enough to know better. We used to open presents on Christmas Eve, but don't always do it that way anymore.

 

[justhangn]

Originally posted by Kyle
What do you do after the younger one breaks half of hers?

Tell her "tough utter".

 

[SmallTown]

Originally posted by laureng
That's AWESOME!!! My parents always did the for me, too - meaning I still got "Santa" stuff in the morning, even when I was way old enough to know better. We used to open presents on Christmas Eve, but don't always do it that way anymore.

My parents are due in town this weekend to celebrate christmas.. eventhough I won't have a "santa" gift, I sure better have a stocking full of stuff!

 

[cattitude]

When the kids were little, the Santa gifts were always unwrapped. As they got older, to keep the magic and fun alive, Otter and I used to stay up until the wee hours hiding gifts and leaving little clue (notes) that led them on a trail to find their gifts. When they were older teens I used to wrap all the gifts and just label them 1, 2 or 3. I knew which number corresponded to which kid, but they didn't.

We only have one child at home now and the others have some many other family obligations, it's hard to have everyone at home on Christmas morning. Very sad and difficult for me.....

I do enjoy watching my other children (2 dogs/4 cats) open their gifts.

 

[JabbaJawz]

Originally posted by cattitude
When the kids were little, the Santa gifts were always unwrapped. As they got older, to keep the magic and fun alive, Otter and I used to stay up until the wee hours hiding gifts and leaving little clue (notes) that led them on a trail to find their gifts. When they were older teens I used to wrap all the gifts and just label them 1, 2 or 3. I knew which number corresponded to which kid, but they didn't.

We only have one child at home now and the others have some many other family obligations, it's hard to have everyone at home on Christmas morning. Very sad and difficult for me.....

I do enjoy watching my other children (2 dogs/4 cats) open their gifts.

Those are some really neat ideas to keep Christmas interesting as the kids get older and Santa rolls out. I'm sure it's really hard as the kids grow up and get older, I'm not looking forward to that part of things at all.

 

[justhangn]

Originally posted by cattitude
I do enjoy watching my other children (2 dogs/4 cats) open their gifts.

With our two Sheppards, watching them dig into a "gift" should be funny to watch.

 

[Kyle]

Originally posted by cattitude
... As they got older, to keep the magic and fun alive, Otter and I used to stay up until the wee hours hiding gifts and leaving little clue (notes) that led them on a trail to find their gifts. ...

That could work well in conjunction with getting them out of the house. Just coordinate a move with some "Scavenger Hunt-like" Christmas notes and by the time they get back....

 

[RoseRed]

My parents would leave the one "big" gift from Santa out on display Christmas morning, just waiting for us to discover it. I now do the same for my daughter.

And I too buy gifts for my dog and cat. The dog looks so sad while watching us unwrap gifts and get's all happy when I give her hers and she carefully tears off the paper then TEARS into the new toy.

 

[JabbaJawz]

Lol!! I buy for my 'sister' (my parents' boston terrier), too!

 

[jeneisen]

Well I have always thought my family tradition was really cool. What we do is Christmas Eve the immediate family (brothers/sisters/parents only) do like a finger food buffet and sit around and we exchange gifts for each other. Santa comes the next morning so we would have more to open then.

Santa did wrap our gifts, I think its more fun that way b/c its the element of surprise to me. You can guess what it is and when you finally open it you can see their facial expressions and stuff. We always do our stockings first. Santa brought little gifts for the stockings as well as candy. Then we open the Santa gifts. We have the rest of the afternoon to play with them.

Now most of us are adults, we go to my anuts house on Christmas morning for brunch and see the family. We do a Chinese auction for the adults and each bring a wrapped gift for 20.00 and under. That way everyone leaves with something.

My mom started this tradition when we were born b/c she hated they way her parents handled christmas. Santa brought their Christmas Tree, and all their gifts were things they could use, like underwear and stuff. No toys. Plus they were waken up at midnight to get their gifts. Mom remembers being so tired and dreading Christmas. She didn't wan that for us.

 

[JabbaJawz]

Originally posted by jeneisen
My mom started this tradition when we were born b/c she hated they way her parents handled christmas. Santa brought their Christmas Tree, and all their gifts were things they could use, like underwear and stuff. No toys. Plus they were waken up at midnight to get their gifts. Mom remembers being so tired and dreading Christmas. She didn't wan that for us.

That sucks!! I can't imagine waking my kids up in the middle of the night to see what Santa brought them! And...with the toys these days, I'd probably still be up at midnight putting the daggone things together! And Santa bringing the tree - phooey on that! Part of the family fun is to decorate the tree together. Thank goodness your Mom broke that trend, lol!

 

[justhangn]

Originally posted by laureng
That sucks!! I can't imagine waking my kids up in the middle of the night to see what Santa brought them! And...with the toys these days, I'd probably still be up at midnight putting the daggone things together! And Santa bringing the tree - phooey on that! Part of the family fun is to decorate the tree together. Thank goodness your Mom broke that trend, lol!

It sounds like her grand parents were masochists. What a screwed up Christmas that must have been.


“Gee honey, this year Santa brought you sleep deprivation and hysteria”

 

[jeneisen]

Yeah I feel the same way. I think I will carry on our traditions to my kids (if I ever have any). I like the idea of wrapped gifts. I just think it adds to the surprise.