Gifts: Santa vs. Mom & Dad

[tink fan]

Santa brings three gifts --- because Jesus received three gifts from the Wise Men. Mom and Dad bring the rest.

The only requirement for the gifts that Santa brings is that they have to had asked Santa for it. We choose three to give to them.

 

[Priorityonecb]

It used to be that Santa brought the "big ticket" items (unwrapped w/the stocking). Now that my girls are older (12, 18) Santa fills their stockings and leaves one gift that is just something they would like, not necessarily even asked for. All other gifts are wrapped and from us under the tree.

 

[jenseib]

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.

This is pretty much how we do it too.
My older 2 no longer beleive and don't live with me anymore, so there gifts are wrapped in regular paper now and I write from Santa, but 5 YO knows they are from me and she laughs that I tell her we will pretend that they are from Santa.
But 5YO still belives, and all her paper is one kind and then I hide the extra, so she doesn't see it used on anything else.
My kids have asked, as did I as a kid, "how comes you don't buy me much for Christmas" and I always have told them, which is what my mom told me..."Santa has alot of people to get gifts for, so I send him a check each year to help cover his costs." They seem to be Ok with that.

 

[DawnM]

Well, we don't do Santa, so Santa gets no credit!

Dawn

 

[CowboysButterfly]

This is the same in my family. Stockings and the big gift. My kids are 30, 26 and 24 and there jolly well better still be stockings and the Santa gift

This is how it is at our house and we are 38, 32, and 30. You can bet your bottom dollar there would be a revolt if Santa didn't show up with stockings and at least one gift. My son(14), is the same way.

 

[canadianjovigirl]

My kids are 15, 11 and 9 and they get 3 gifts from Santa and their stockings. And a couple of small items from mom/dad....we try to do activity stuff like movie tickets, zoo tickets, science center tickets, tickets to somewhere for a day trip etc. as the kids are getting older and tired of stuff......would much rather make memories than collect things..........

 

[figment41]

I know flames are coming my way.

Really YOU need credit for all the christmas gifts. Your children health and happiness is what is important. A little imagination and magic brings a pretty huge smile to most kids faces. That should be enough for you as a parent. Now I am not saying you should not get your children something from yourselves big or small. But the comments on here about how the parents need the appreciation because they worked so hard for it seems a little sad to me. No very sad even selfish!!

Christmas time has changed in meaning so much over the recent years. Giving and sharing is what the season is all about not getting recognition for your hard work.

 

[pilferk]

Santa fills the stockings and brings 3 or 4 presents (usually 1 big ticket and 2 or 3 smaller items)...ALL toys!

Mom and Dad do the rest, a mix of toys, books, and clothes.

Budgetwise, just the toys, probably pretty equivalent. Might be 60/40 in Mom and Dad's favor. Include the clothes and books...Mom and Dad do the majority.



That's the way it was when my wife and I were growing up in our houses, too.

 

[DawnM]

Well, I was sort of joking. I don't need "credit" but we don't do Santa, which is going to be much more controversial anyway and I was trying not to go down that road.



Dawn

I know flames are coming my way.

Really YOU need credit for all the christmas gifts. Your children health and happiness is what is important. A little imagination and magic brings a pretty huge smile to most kids faces. That should be enough for you as a parent. Now I am not saying you should not get your children something from yourselves big or small. But the comments on here about how the parents need the appreciation because they worked so hard for it seems a little sad to me. No very sad even selfish!!

Christmas time has changed in meaning so much over the recent years. Giving and sharing is what the season is all about not getting recognition for your hard work.

 

[toledo13]

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!!

Santa got the $$$ gifts in our house when I was little. In my house when we have little DD's and DS's running around... Santa will NOT get the glory. We will... and Santa will just do a little gift and stockings.

 

[irish_trip_mom]

My kids learned in preschool that they could ask Santa for three special things, just like Jesus got three gifts. So my kids now write a list with about 5-6 things. Three of those come from Santa. Others come from us. Yep, Santa gets the best gifts, and that's ok with me, because someday they'll know the real deal. But hopefully not for a long time!!

But there are some things that Santa just can't possibly bring, that would definitely give up the believing. Like, if Santa brings the dance gear that my daughter knows the order forms go to me.

I am trying to do inventory today, and will probably be returning some things. Between having three 8 year olds, each kid doesn't need a ton of stuff, that between us, Santa, my 5 siblings, DH's brother and the grandparents, these kids want for nothing. Nothing at all!!

 

[irish_trip_mom]

BTW, in the big Zhu Zhu recall hub bub last week, my friend said she was going to make sure Santa got credit for those, because when they got recalled she didn't want her kids mad at her!! LOL!

 

[Bastiansmom]

My DH is a supervisor at a casino and they never close! Which means he has had to work the past 3 Christmas mornings. DS is only 7, so he doesn't really remember daddy evr being there when he woke up. We've always had to get creative with what santa brought and when because DH wanted to be there when DS got his presents (from us or Santa). He is usually home by noon, so DS would get a smallish gift and his stocking from Santa, and would have to wait until DH got home to open everything else. DH was supposed to work Christmas morning this year, so I wrapped almost all the presents and stuck them under the tree. Then DH found out he is going to be off. (His boss decided that since only a few people in their department have small kids, they should be off for Christmas.)

So this year we get to have a typical "Christmas Morning" although I am having a really hard time coming up with a "Santa present" because everything else is already wrapped. So far he is getting the new Mario game for Wii, a Mario cartoon on DVD and two basic controllers for the Wii from Santa.

The other day DS was asking me how many days until Christmas. I told him 17 (or whatever it was). Then said, "we'll go to Nana's house and the next morning will be Christmas." He said, "then we will wait until Daddy gets home to open presents " (he wasn't sad about it.. he understands). To which I could reply..."Nope, Daddy is off for Christmas.... You can open presents as soon as you get up!" His face was priceless. He is so excited. Maybe this will be something the boss will do every year!

Even if we didn't have to deal with the work issue, most presents would still come from DH and I. For some reason I don't think DS would believe if we overdid. it.

 

[Buckeye Princess]

I know flames are coming my way.

Really YOU need credit for all the christmas gifts. Your children health and happiness is what is important. A little imagination and magic brings a pretty huge smile to most kids faces. That should be enough for you as a parent. Now I am not saying you should not get your children something from yourselves big or small. But the comments on here about how the parents need the appreciation because they worked so hard for it seems a little sad to me. No very sad even selfish!!

Christmas time has changed in meaning so much over the recent years. Giving and sharing is what the season is all about not getting recognition for your hard work.

Ditto

 

[Bastiansmom]

I know flames are coming my way.

Really YOU need credit for all the christmas gifts. Your children health and happiness is what is important. A little imagination and magic brings a pretty huge smile to most kids faces. That should be enough for you as a parent. Now I am not saying you should not get your children something from yourselves big or small. But the comments on here about how the parents need the appreciation because they worked so hard for it seems a little sad to me. No very sad even selfish!!

Christmas time has changed in meaning so much over the recent years. Giving and sharing is what the season is all about not getting recognition for your hard work.

The majority of DS's presents come from DH and I for many reasons, a few of which are: 1) The scheduling issue mentioned in an above post. 2) It is just as magical for Santa to bring 2 gifts or 20, 3) we don't want DS to think he can get whatever he wants just because he asked Santa 4) He will get the same amount of gifts and the same funds will buy them regardless of who they are "from", and I would rather him get to enjoy the magic of Santa, and get a lot of stuff from his Mommy and Daddy who want to make the day special for him. We buy gifts for everyone else, so shouldn't we buy a little more for him?

It isn't about wanting "credit" for it. It is about keeping Santa special and magical by giving something special (although that fell thru for us this year) Similarly, I try to teach him that he can't pray for things like Legos (God isn't a magic genie). He can pray for God to help him save his money and to be good so Mommy and Daddy (or someone else) can get them for him. He can't wish for unrealistic things from Santa either.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

I think that how, if at all, families deal with "Santa" is up to each individual family. Santa is to us about getting, not giving so we choose not to focus so much attention on Santa and what he can "bring' the children. We don't give our children many gifts at Christmas. Yes, they get some, but after reading other threads here about what other families are doing gift wise, our gifting would look very meager. How we present Santa is what is right for our family, it doesn't mean that another family's presentation of Santa is wrong or that we are taking away something from our children by not making Santa the hero of Christmas (Jesus is for us). Like I said it is a personal choice depending on various factors such as traditions and personal experiences. Whatever is right for each individual family is what should be done.

 

[redshoes]

Around here, Santa brings whatever is too big of a pain in the butt to wrap . Last year, he left my boys' gifts in big red bags with their names sewn on them. This helped to prolong the excitement of discovering the gifts, but I didn't have to go to the hassle of wrapping things (I'm the worst gift wrapper ever). Those bags are under our tree now and are ready for Santa to use this year.

My DH and I try to stick to the three gift idea, some years we are more successful than others. We try to theme them with: something to wear, something to learn with, and something to play with. So, Santa usually brings the one special thing that my boys ask for and we provide the three other gifts.

 

[nikkistevej]

We do 1-2 unwrapped gifts and a stocking from Santa- this year a cupcake maker and a few refills for the maker for DD7. We bought quite a bit of other things for DD from me and DH- her big gift from DH and I a Nintendo DS Lite- we also got some clothes/Zhu Zhu stuff/movies/toys /games. The Santa gift probably wasn't even a 4th of what we spent- but that is what she asked Santa for.

 

[pilferk]

Around here, Santa brings whatever is too big of a pain in the butt to wrap . Last year, he left my boys' gifts in big red bags with their names sewn on them. This helped to prolong the excitement of discovering the gifts, but I didn't have to go to the hassle of wrapping things (I'm the worst gift wrapper ever). Those bags are under our tree now and are ready for Santa to use this year.

My DH and I try to stick to the three gift idea, some years we are more successful than others. We try to theme them with: something to wear, something to learn with, and something to play with. So, Santa usually brings the one special thing that my boys ask for and we provide the three other gifts.

You and I should have a competition on that, because I think (and my wife confirms) that I would take the title of "Worst Gift Wrapper EVER!".

 

[DawnM]

I think that how, if at all, families deal with "Santa" is up to each individual family. Santa is to us about getting, not giving so we choose not to focus so much attention on Santa and what he can "bring' the children. We don't give our children many gifts at Christmas. Yes, they get some, but after reading other threads here about what other families are doing gift wise, our gifting would look very meager. How we present Santa is what is right for our family, it doesn't mean that another family's presentation of Santa is wrong or that we are taking away something from our children by not making Santa the hero of Christmas (Jesus is for us). Like I said it is a personal choice depending on various factors such as traditions and personal experiences. Whatever is right for each individual family is what should be done.