I was more enthused about the myth before I had to mislead my kids - sheesh, this is tough! They ask a lot of detailed questions and I just can’t muster a bunch of outright lies. “Santa is a big mystery” is the best I can do.
And now I’m supposed to give the jolly fat man credit for all my work locating their hearts’ desires? Their father doesn’t get any credit for paying for this stuff?
When I was growing up, Santa gave all the toys and parents just gave a couple of practical gifts.
In my family everything was from Santa. A colleague of mine told me a different tale, which I found interesting. In her family, your Xmas Stockings & fillers were from Santa, the big stuff was known to be from the parents. I am still mulling over what approach to take myself, I have until next year to decide i think.
Santa gives a pair of socks, an orange (or a clementine), a box of raisins, some candy (amount and quality varies), often something in the lipgloss family, soap (or shower gel from Bath and Body Works), body cream from Bath and Body Works (Men get shaving cream), and maybe a small token or two–sometimes film for cameras (before nearly everyone went digital), hair thingies for those who wear barrettes and pony tails, small toys, or other stuff.
Santa also gives the family 2 or 3 jigsaw puzzles–often selected by the family members who unwrap them.
Santa does not give large presents or major toys. My parents wanted all the praise to go to them, and this appeals to my brother and his wife, so it continues to be the pattern.
(My parents were also inclined to buy items like bicycles in their season, and without linking them to present-giving days–just as well considering our birthdays.)
Each kid receives a gift from Santa and the rest are from us. Usually it is the most special gift on their wish list. My daughter is in on the myth, but my son is still a believer. He is 7 and I am hoping/expecting this to be the last year.
It gets extra confusing as they also get 8 smallish gifts for Hanukkah. On the first night, they got something very nice from my MIL, my wife had them each pick out a WebKin[sup]TM[/sup] they wanted on Saturday night and I provided small gifts from Science Surplus or Gelt the other 6 nights. The highlight has been the break your own geodes.
They are getting less gifts this year than normal as they each wanted a Nintendo DS and that will be the gifts from Santa. Other than that, they are getting some stocking stuffers and some real looking stuffed Zoo Animals. My daughter loves Okapi and my son really likes Fennec Foxes.
I am afraid my son will think my wife and I were cheap this year. But as I said, I think this will be Santa’s last visit.
When I was a kid, my parents took the approach that stockings and a couple presents were from Santa, but more stuff was from “Mom and Dad”. Of course, Santa NEVER gave me clothing, ha! Also, my parents made sure that Santa used noticeably different wrapping paper, and we never saw leftover rolls of the stuff. And I don’t know who filled in the gift tags, but the penmanship didn’t match the handwriting of either of my parents. As far as answering any difficult questions about Santa, they didn’t bother. For example, how does Santa get into our house, when we have no chimney? Answer: who knows? it’s a mystery to us, too.
In our family, Santa gives the stockings, with, of course, a few small inexpensive toys, candy canes, and maybe some other candy. He also leaves one gift for each of the kids, and Mom and Dad. This is a moderately substantial gift, and all the gifts from Santa are in the same paper (and with nothing from us in that paper; we use it the next year, though. No one ever notices.), or unwrapped if it’s a pain to wrap them.
We’re getting a Wii this year, and we decided that was more expensive than Santa would give, so that’s from us.
Last year, with out even being asked, Santa also brought our dog a stocking, and hung it up on the mantle. What a nice guy!
Last year I didn’t really hype it up. He was just excited to see presents! I wrapped a few and left some out (kinda hard to wrap up a train table anyway…). Santa unnerved him anyway.
This year, I think Santa will bring a stocking and a smaller present while the big ones are from me, which is basically what my parents did. I generally remember Santa bringing a stocking of things like socks and candy, a book and a barbie (or accessories… like my Barbie tent was from Santa, and the accessories for my Cabbage Patch kid). Santa would usually leave things laying out so we could wake up at 5 am, sneak out, peek in our stocking and play quietly a little before sneaking back into bed or staying up until we could wake everyone up at 7:30.
And I still get stockings from Santa. He’s fond of lotto tickets for the adults, as well as weird things like snowman poop and donut seeds…
All this reminds me, I think we need to take a trip to see Santa this weekend.
Santa brings one major gift - generally the hardest one to wrap, and the rest come from Mom and Dad. Santa also likes to visit Grandma’s house, and sometimes Aunt Cindy’s too - he likes to spread around the smiles and make his surprises last longer, you see*. Plus, he visited Grandma for so many years when Mommy lived there, he wants to make sure she’s still enjoying Christmas, and he knows she’ll pass on the gifts as appropriate**. And, as was discussed in a couple of other threads, Santa only gives gifts that Mom and Dad can afford to replace if they stop working, because he doesn’t want to make them feel bad***.
As for the questions, turn it back on them: “What do you think?..Oh, that’s a really [creative/good/interesting/unusual/weird] idea!” And if they press you, say, “Well, I’m not sure myself, but I really like your ideas!” That way, A. You don’t have to think so hard and B. You’re not lying to them and C. They’re learning how to think for themselves.
*This was my kid’s idea, you see.
**And so was this, when he got a little older.
***This was Litoris’ idea.
When my kids were little I think 90% of the stuff was labeled from Santa with only a few special items from me. I also made sure all Santa gifts were wrapped in “Santa” paper. That paper being different than all the other wrapping paper which was hidden away and never seen until Christmas morning.
Now I don’t use Santa paper anymore but any gifts they asked for in a list are still labeled “From: Santa”. If they are things that were not on their list but stuff I thought they would like they are from me.
The funny thing is they have not caught on to the fact that if it is labeled from Santa that is sure to be something on their list. My daughter just thinks I am a little cooky but there is really a master plan to it all when I am reviewing gifts that are already wrapped and I am trying to remember what is in them
Each grandchild in my son’s generation has a beautifully knit stocking, with their names knit in across the top, a scene of Santa getting ready to climb down a chimney and his beard is all fuzzed out with the softest imaginable yarn, really quite special stockings. Also realistically sized ones, shorter than a knee-high sock would be, with a normal-sized opening.
Santa fills the stocking with unwrapped doodads and parents give wrapped presents. Santa isn’t limited by silly concepts like material value, so there’s likely to be things like Willy Wonka nerds next to a gameboy cartridge next to rootbeer flavored lip balm. Santa can drop the dough, as long as it all fits into the stocking, no fair stacking things on the floor near the stocking, actually into it.
That’s pretty much it, both for when I was a kid and when my kids were kids. The stockings traditionally held at least a little fruit and a bottle of bubble soap (for blowing bubbles). The gift under the stockting was never wrapped.
Pets were excluded when I was a kid, although they’ve edged in with smaller socks from time to time now that the kids are grown. They’re sentimental that way. The pet socks are usually much smaller, though.
In my family, some of the gifts(including clothes) were from “Santa”, and some were from “Mom and Dad”. I think my mother(who did 100% of the shopping and wrapping) just randomly chose about half of my gifts and decided they were from Santa.
By the way, if you have particularly observant children, please at least TRY to disguise the handriting on the “From Santa” gifts. I don’t remember ever believing in Santa, because I could always recognize my mother’s handwriting. Sigh.
In our family, some of the gifts were from our parents, and some from Santa. Gifts from Santa continued for some time after bro_mcl and I learned the truth, just for fun.
I usually split it about 50/50 with the fun stuff. Or sometimes Santa would give more stuff but mostly the cheaper things and I gave the big cool stuff. I’ll admit it’s kind of a pisser to pick out an awesome gift and then be expected to give credit to some imaginary dude.
Most presents come form parents and other relatives. Santa brings little presents ($5-10). The 3 kings (or wise men) bring the really big presents (bikes and so) on January 6th, but I am having second thoughts about this policy. I don’t want them to think they have no budget. The problem is that this is the present from their grandparents who really have no budget and are hard to talk into setting limits.
We don’t make much of a fuss about Santa. I tell the boy (3yo) that Santa is like SpiderMan. Anyone can be Santa if they were the suit (and they have their red jackets with fuzzy neck and sleeves). Starting this years, they get to be Santa. We take all their old toys, clean them up, wrap them in shiny paper and give them to kids in need.
Santa always gave my brother and I the bulk of our presents. I think this was set up because both of my parents worked shift work, and didn’t have time/didn’t want to wrap all of the presents, and in the Thalia household, Santa wasn’t big on wrapping the presents. Instead, there was a pile o’loot for me, and one for my brother. This system was tested time and time again when my father would ask me if I like the gifts that HE got me, when they were clearly in the unwrapped Santa pile. I wised up, and stopped believing early enough that I got to ruin it for my brother who is 2 years older… little sisters are a dream!
We followed the same system my parents used. Santa fills stockings with a fruit and some candy, also some small doodads or toys. My innovation is one pair of special socks in the toe of the stocking. (There’s a story behind that one, but it’s kind of involved.) And Santa brings one present per kid, usually the one big thing. It’s not wrapped. The rest are from Mom and Dad and are wrapped and under the tree.
My parents used to make us stay upstairs until we were all ready, with slippers and robes and having gone potty, to go downstairs together. My dad made a big deal of needing to shave and generally took his sweet time, with all of us fussing at him. We don’t have an upstairs, so we keep the kids in the bedroom or hallway area. They’re not allowed to go down the hall to the living room, and they’re not supposed to peek. We try to lay out the Santa things out of the line of sight from the bedrooms.
We are also of the school that says Santa fills the stockings; what’s under the tree is from people they know. Some years we’ve had fun asking my parents to send small treats from the States that the kids knew we couldn’t get here - but Santa can work magic, right?
We have a seven-year-old who has probably figured the game out at least 90% of the way, and a thirteen-year-old Santa-pusher who doesn’t want the last 10% to end
I printed up letters (just their first initial) and used those instead of writing anything at all.
M’Kay, I’m thinking Santa gets the credit for my son’s Playmobil pirate ship – which is the coolest thing ever, never noticed that toy line before and now I’m hooked – and my daughter’s Littlest Pet Shop contraption with the big-eyed critters. Both were requests and difficult to wrap. Plus, the fat guy can claim anything else I manage to stick in their to-be-purchased stockings. Guess I should get some big ones.
But the rest is from US, doggone it!
I bought them Batman walkie-talkies. Don’t you think the twins will love that?! Maybe they’ll leave my cell phone alone for a change.
