Do you give gifts from yourself aswell as from Father Christmas?

[thelittlemermaid83]

Last Christmas...

Wow you wrap presents really nicely Karen! Could you give me some lessons

 

[scottishgirl87]

Wow you wrap presents really nicely Karen! Could you give me some lessons

I was gonna say the same! Those presents look lovely!! I always like to colour co-ordinate my wrapping but my actual wrapping always looks crap!

 

[joolz1910]

I send gifts to myself (via the dogs) as well as those I receive from Santa...

OOPS!!! Oh that's not what you mean!

When the kiddiwinks were little, all gifts on Christmas morning were from Santa. Nowadays (at age 26, 24 and 16) they receive one gift from Santa and the rest are from family. It's now more of an exchange than a full-on gift fest!!! We used to allocate a chair/section of the sofa each but now we put them under the tree and take it turns to go and get some to distribute...

Last Christmas...

I want those presents!

 

[Muscateer]

My sister, brothers and I always used to get all our pressies from Santa and always got them laid out in piles unwrapped.

I always left my DD's Santa pressies wrapped but laid out over the sofa and always put a pressie from mum and dad under the tree as I knew she would be the one to ask why mum and dad didn't give anything.

 

[Head_in_the_clouds]

I have to admit I didn't notice my parents didn't "get" me anything when I was tiny as I was more interested in what Santa got me! But when I was about seven my mum started very pointedly saying "You do know that mummy and daddy have to pay Santa to bring you presents don't you? I call up and arrange a budget with him beforehand." Have to admit it did kill the magic. Especially when I asked the other kids if their parents paid Santa and they said no. I thought Santa didn't really want to visit me and my parents had to pay him as a favor . I also remember when Santa did visit he always "forgot" the present I wanted the most and about 5pm on Christmas Day my Dad would find it it the Laundry basket or the porch - that was always my present from my parents!

When I have kids I will let them think all the pressies are from Santa but the one they want the most is from us like what my Dad did with me. I want christmas to be as magical as possible for my children .

 

[Joanne UK]

All of the presents from us to the children we say are from Santa.

Downside to still having children who believe though - DD6 really wants the Go GO Hamsters which are sold out everywhere here and I think I'm going to have real problems getting it unless I pay through the nose on EBay. There was an advert on TV this morning for them and I made a casual comment re their non-availablility. DD pipes up with, "Oh I'll get some because I put them on my letter to Father Christmas so he will just get his elves to make some for me." How will I explain this away if I don't manage to get one!

 

[wideeyes]

I do some from me and DBF and some from Father Christmas. DD was writing he list out this morning and mispelled a few things and I said okay I understand what you mean and she said but it is father christmas that needs to understand it, I told her he would know what she means too.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

All of the presents from us to the children we say are from Santa.

Downside to still having children who believe though - DD6 really wants the Go GO Hamsters which are sold out everywhere here and I think I'm going to have real problems getting it unless I pay through the nose on EBay. There was an advert on TV this morning for them and I made a casual comment re their non-availablility. DD pipes up with, "Oh I'll get some because I put them on my letter to Father Christmas so he will just get his elves to make some for me." How will I explain this away if I don't manage to get one!

I know what you mean, DD saw the Princess Tiana dress and its like over £100 with all the accesories, there is noway i can afford that....she was like oh Santa will get it for me

I'm hoping she forgets about the dress when it comes to Christmas day.

 

[tashasmum]

All of the presents from us to the children we say are from Santa.

Downside to still having children who believe though - DD6 really wants the Go GO Hamsters which are sold out everywhere here and I think I'm going to have real problems getting it unless I pay through the nose on EBay. There was an advert on TV this morning for them and I made a casual comment re their non-availablility. DD pipes up with, "Oh I'll get some because I put them on my letter to Father Christmas so he will just get his elves to make some for me." How will I explain this away if I don't manage to get one!

Have you checked on Amazon. They seem to have quite a bit of stock but not sure how the prices compare to other places.

 

[ukstitch]

DB gets a mix - some come from Santa, while others come from our parents. We find this way works better because we think it looks more "real" because of course if we didn't, then our parents would be buying presents for me and each other, but none for DB...

I have heard that some people tell there children that they send the money to Santa for him to get the presents (where is the magic in that?)

This is something that works quite well when children get a little older and you have to start explaining why they can't have the huge list of things they want

I've also known children to be told that parents buy the presents, send them to santa and then he delivers them - again it's another way of trying to explain away why they can't have something that they want when it's sold out.

While they're younger though, it's not really necessary because they don't actually put very much thought into it all - they're just overwhelmed by the whole christmas magic

 

[joolz1910]

This is something that works quite well when children get a little older and you have to start explaining why they can't have the huge list of things they want

I've also known children to be told that parents buy the presents, send them to santa and then he delivers them - again it's another way of trying to explain away why they can't have something that they want when it's sold out.

While they're younger though, it's not really necessary because they don't actually put very much thought into it all - they're just overwhelmed by the whole christmas magic [/QUOTE]

This is exactly what happened with my eldest. As soon as they start questioning Christmas Magic, you have to think on your feet. My middle DD doesn't really consider all the 'how's and why's' she just accepts everything - not so eldest DD, who is trying to catch me out.

We tracked Santa online last year on www.northpole.com - the kids enjoyed that.

 

[Dimplenose]

Working with 6 year ols is tough. I'd never lie to them but then again I'd never tell them that Father Christmas doesn't exist. If they ask I usually say something like, "Well my children hang up their stockings and they always get presents in them."

 

[Tillybud]

We tracked Santa online last year on www.northpole.com - the kids enjoyed that.

we love the Santa tracker, I can't wait to track him again this year

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

We tracked him last time for the 1st time as DD was more into Christmas, can't wait to do it again this year.

 

[Tillybud]

We tracked him last time for the 1st time as DD was more into Christmas, can't wait to do it again this year.

do you remember the link to the create a video message from Santa someone posted last year ? It was fab and I want to do it again but didn't bookmark it

 

[Laurafoster]

I usually got a big santa sack full of pressies from Santa. However my big main present, whatever id wanted most that year was always from mum and dad. All the rest were from Santa though.