Gifts: Santa vs. Mom & Dad

[Grendalynn]

Ok, since we seem to be talking Christmas.... everything from gifts to budgets, I am interested to knwo who spends what on what. What I mean is: What kind of gifts does Santa bring.... and what type of things do Mom and Dad give? Of these items, what part of your budget is spent on them - More $$ from Santa or more $$ from M&D?? Thanks!!

 

[deb24k]

In our family Santa gets all of the glory. He brings the children an abundance of things including the big ticket items. We do not buy for our children throughout the year with the exception of outdoor toys and seasonal clothing so we don't mind the splurge. Our children receive new Christmas PJs on Xmas eve and they receive a well thought out gift from Mom and Dad and then one from each other. They seem to be as excited and grateful for our gift and thought as they are about Santa's.

PS My children are 6 and 3 (almost 7 and 4)

 

[luvmy3]

Santa brings the bulk of the gifts here, including the *big one* that each kid gets. The only time Mom upstaged santa was a couple years ago when I bought the Wii for the entire family and kept it a surpise for dh. I want my kids to enjoy the magic of Santa (I know I may get some flames, but that is what Christmas morning is to our family) so I let him take all credit. Mom and Dad usually get things like slippers, pj's and a Christmas ornament

 

[sk!mom]

Santa always brings 1 big gift in our family plus the stocking. Mom and dad give everything else. My kids are now 13 and 24 so they've known the score for years yet Santa still comes.

 

[mjantz]

Santa fills the stockings & Mom and Dad bring everthing else. When they were little Santa brought more but as they got older I wanted them to know that Mom & Dad bought the gifts.
I think I'm going to have to tell DD the 'truth' this year so we might start having 'Santa' bring more.

 

[hmdavid]

I grew up with Santa bringing the bulk of the gifts, however DH grew up with Santa bring one big ticket gift and parents giving the rest. With our children we have followed my family tradition, but it does cause problems when our kids talk to our nieces about what they got from Santa!

 

[disney1990]

Our children are grown now, but, this is what we did when they were little.

One present to each child came from Mommy and one present came from Daddy. All other presents came from Santa Claus. Now here's the catch, all presents for daughter #1 was wrapped in 1 Christmas paper and only that paper. All presents for daughter #2 was wrapped in another Christmas paper and only that paper. No other present to anybody else, was ever wrapped in two two Christmas papers. Strange I know.

 

[powellrj]

santa was the only one to give gifts in our house. Parents didn't give gifts until they were older and no longer believers.

 

[Avonlady1001]

We have a DD 4 (almost 5) and DS 1. Santa brings almost all the gifts under the tree...including the ones to DH & myself. One or 2 are from mom & dad...some are from Rudolph, Flickers (our "elf on the shelf" wannabe), etc. I get creative. LOL

 

[hollieplus2]

Santa brings big ticket item, stocking stuffers and some small items. Santa gifts are not wrapped either so he knows as soon as he gets up that santa came. I like the big shock and awe...then he opens the stuff we got him. Everything is from the both of us.

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

Santa always brought the smaller ticket items. Mom and dad gave the big stuff. The reasoning was that if something went bad (loss of job, etc) a little one would understand mom and dad cutting back, but it would be harder if Santa did.

 

[charming23]

When I was little Santa would bring the stockings, the big family present, and a few for me. As I got older Santa continued the big family present and everything else was from Mom and Dad or the cat lol.

 

[bjscheel]

We give them one to share. Santa does the rest. I wish it was the other way around, in retrospect. We have gone to WDW in November or December in 2006, 2008, and 2009, so it would be nice to say, we're not giving any presents since we went to WDW. They would totally understand because they get so much from DH's side. But Santa still needs to come through. However, it's not too bad because they get about 6 presents each that are not real expensive. I'm thinking DD11 has to figure it out soon!

 

[BeckyScott]

Really, Santa brings the good stuff.

Mom & Dad give clothes. Mom & Dad are boring!

Santa rocks! Last year he brought me a Wii Fit! (unfortunately I did not realize the Wii Fit was going to groan and call me uncoordinated or I would have let Santa bring me something more polite)

 

[klineyqueen]

Our children are grown now, but, this is what we did when they were little.

One present to each child came from Mommy and one present came from Daddy. All other presents came from Santa Claus. Now here's the catch, all presents for daughter #1 was wrapped in 1 Christmas paper and only that paper. All presents for daughter #2 was wrapped in another Christmas paper and only that paper. No other present to anybody else, was ever wrapped in two two Christmas papers. Strange I know.

We do the same thing too....so it doesn't sound weird to me at all. We actually started it the year we had two kids and neither could read....so they would know which gifts were his and which were his sisters.

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

We are VERY fortunate, we have a very close family friend that dresses as Santa and visits several children right around Christmas. Last year it was Christmas Eve. He gives out stuffed animals or little toys, but I think the DS's third year I had the brilliant idea to take him the one thing DS was begging for to give to him. THAT was the best thing I've ever done. ("Santa really enjoys this too) That meant more to him than anything, so that's what we do every year now (DS 's 6 and 3). We were very lucky last year, we saw Santa at the mall so he told him what he wanted and that is what I had for Santa to bring... he was so impressed!!! Neither boy cares or checks who gave what on Christmas morning, it's just ripping paper all over, no questions, so I've never worried about it. This year is getting tougher since DS6 is asking for things I'm not getting... been done with my shopping for a month now, and I say Santa can't get everything and he says "well, he makes anything, so it shouldn't be a problem"... NOT a $400 Lego Death Star!!! I'm still working on explaining all this!!!!

 

[disneychrista]

Santa always brought one "big" item and the stocking. Mom & Dad everything else.

Santa also did not wrap and left his present under our stockings.

This is what I did. Now that my kids are grown (well 18 & 16) I bring everything and fill the stocking, much easier than having to wait up until kids are asleep to fill stockings.

Also as the kids got older, I stoped feeling the need to give them a lot of things. And will spend less that $250 on Christmas for everyone this year. (Kids & my parents).

 

[Ava]

When I was a kid, we always got one gift each from Mom & Dad, and the rest came from Santa. The one exception was the Christmas pajamas - Mom bought those for us, but it was in addition to something else. I expect I'll do the same with my DD when she's old enough.

 

[Ava]

One present to each child came from Mommy and one present came from Daddy. All other presents came from Santa Claus. Now here's the catch, all presents for daughter #1 was wrapped in 1 Christmas paper and only that paper. All presents for daughter #2 was wrapped in another Christmas paper and only that paper. No other present to anybody else, was ever wrapped in two two Christmas papers. Strange I know.

My mom did the same thing - the two different wrapping papers for my sister & I. She'd also write each of our names on a sheet of paper to label the piles of gifts. I think I was about 8 or 9 when I finally noticed that Santa's handwriting looked a lot like mom's.

 

[AutumnKlassic]

My mom did the same thing - the two different wrapping papers for my sister & I. She'd also write each of our names on a sheet of paper to label the piles of gifts. I think I was about 8 or 9 when I finally noticed that Santa's handwriting looked a lot like mom's.

My mom gave me a sheet of labels and had me put my own name on it! This was a big help to Santa. I would fill out a couple of sheets (they had 4 labels on them) and then start asking mom "Do you think I should do anymore?" We did this since i was 4 and could write my own name.