How does Santa work in your house?

[tony64]

My favourite Christmas memory is when DD had her first bike. I was pushing her around the close on Christmas morning and there was a crushed carrot in the road. I told her one of the raindeers must have dropped it. You should have seen her face. It's one of the things I'll always cherish.

 

[cherjp]

When I was little my mum and dad told us not to go into the living room without them or our presents would vanish from under the tree, I realise now after having children of my own that was so they could see the little faces of joy on christmas morning.My 2 sons are 16 and 13 and its not the same magical experience , but when they still believed my Dh would leave reindeer drools ( made out of weak coffee!!! )and clumpy bits of carrot in the milk that we left out for Rudolph!! He also used to cut bristles off a brush to put around Rudolphs milk bowl too.
I used to tell the boys about Santas robin that came into the garden to make sure that they were being good. And of course all mums have Santas telephone number......
Make the magic last as they don't stay little forever.
Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[T16GEM]

Also in Jack's house which was really good is that santa would leave a trail of glitter from the fireplace, up the stairs to the stockings. Hopefully he'll do that for our kids too.

We always scatter gold metallic shred around the hallway and up to the tree, it's the Reindeer's magical hay! Makes a huge mess but the kids love it!

 

[Sapper383]

We scatter the garden with magic raindeer food, so that the raindeer can see where to come and then have something to eat while santa has his cookies.

i mix up oats and glitter and tell the kids that the elves game it to me....DD loves putting it out on xmas eve

 

[mushumadness]

my boys have these huga santa sacks we got from costco, they go on there baby gates christmas eve then santa fills them up and takes them downstairs. big pressies are put under the tree by santa
we leave drink and choccys out for santa and a carrot for rudolph

when i was a child i had the same as my boys well except my sac was not as fancy lol

friends pressies are picked up by santa and taken back to the north pole

im so excited to see what morgans like this year hes so into santa

 

[katiec]

We're all a bit old for Santa now however when we did do Santa it was a home-made stocking (red felt with a white woolly top and our name embroidered on it) at the end of your bed that arrived over night from Santa which we opened first thing.
Then it was off to church. back and get breakfast on before we could have out "main" santa present.
The lounge door and hatch were always shut and we were told that if we opened them without permission the presents would disappear
We then all went in together for our Santa present (there were 4 children) and had all the other presents that were under the tree.

We carried on the same tradition - without the church bit - until a couple of years ago with DS.

Its lovely to hear all the different ways people celebrate!

Katie

 

[Marl]

We put out oat and glitter/sequin reindeer food also, my DDs help to make it on Christmas Eve.
They put their stockings outside their bedroom door on Christmas Eve (sometimes they try a day or 2 earlier just incase Santa comes early - never does). The stockings are stuffed with lots of small gifts off Santa. All of the downstairs presents are off us and relatives, which are brought to the house, usually the week leading up to Christmas and magically disappear with the elves for Santa to deliver when they are asleep on Christmas Eve.

 

[disneyangel]

We place gifts that are from friends and family straight under the tree. with the exception of those we swap on Christmas Eve with my best friend and her little girl which they are allowed to open straight away

Santa fills a lovely Disney Stocking that Jess leaves outside her bedroom door with small gifts - sweets , colouring pencils , lip balms and toy clay etc.

Santa's gifts that she has asked for in her letter get placed on the sofa downstairs . Some are wrapped (for the last few years with paper she has not seen/helped me use on other presents) and some are left unwrapped. I love laying them all out so it looks pretty

This year for the first time she asked if we were buying her a present as we haven't up until now (she is 8 and ths is the first she's noticed)so there is an extra gift under the tree to her from Mummy and Daddy this year.

She usually gets new PJ's for Christmas Eve but this year I suspect she'll prefer to wear her big babygro we got in primark as they'll be cosier in our minus temps

I love being a Mummy at Christmas. It's just so magical

 

[plutotek]

Gifts from friends/family that were mailed were put under the tree. All the rest were secreted throughout the house until the big night. Whomever hosted Christmas Eve had all the presents from other local family, and they were put out after DS had gone to bed. Prior to bedtime, he would put out the Santa Trap (picture a plastic bear trap) right next to the milk/cookies/carrots. Yes, we were bloodthirsty.

This year is killing DW, as we have put the presents under the tree for the first time even though he'll be home from college.

 

[tashasmum]

When DD was little all presents were from Santa. Then as she gradually got older they were from parents, grandparents etc. They go under the tree Christmas eve when she has gone to bed and still do so she isn't guessing what could be in a certain shaped parcel.

As a small child she would cry on Christmas day night before bed because she thought Santa was going to come and take them all away, she thought you only got them for one day.


DD is now 18 and still doesn't like to know what she is getting off anyone so still makes it special Christmas morning.

 

[Disney Princess Elli]

When I was younger, presents from my parents and friends would go under the tree as soon as we recieved them or as soon as they were wrapped (in the case of the ones from my parents). On Christmas morning, a huge sack full of presents would be at the bottom of my bed and my brother would always have a smaller sack than me as he was a lot older than me so he got mainly money. The presnets in the sacks were always wrapped, which I personally think is better because then you can open each one and be suprised, rather than just looking into the sack and seeing everything straight away. For some reason, I never questioned the fact that my mother and Father Christmas used the same wrapping paper; I must have assumed they both just happpened to buy it from the same place. Big presents like bikes - and if I remember rightly, a play kitchen one year - were loosely wrapped and appeared in the living room on Christmas morning. I remember believing in Father Christmas until my parents sat me down and told me he wasn't real. One year I did have doubts, however, and left a note on my bedside for him to fill in when leaving my sack saying "Dear Father Christmas, are you real?" with tick boxes for yes and no. When I woke up to find the 'yes' box ticked, I believed in him again. After opening our presents and having breakfast, we usually went to my nan's house for lunch and after eating, my nan would always tell me to go check my bedroom in her house to see if Father Christmas had left me anything in her house too. There'd always be a big sack full of presents, like at my own house, but I always suspected my nan gave me these rather than Father Christmas - probably because I thought that he wouldn't leave presents for me where I didn't live. After coming back home - and I don't know how he did it without us noticing - my dad would sneakily put another present under the tree and then tell me and my brother to check under the tree again to see if we'd missed anything. I miss the magicalness of Christmas these days.

 

[Jonjo]

Reading all these stories brings back memories of my childhood. When I was little before I went to bed we always left out a glass of milk and a mince pie for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph. Don't know why we did not leave anything for the rest of his reindeer.

All my presents were delivered by Santa and my mum used to tell me that one of his elves would come and collect the ones from family and friends from her before Christmas Eve and they would check that I not been naughty that year.


When I woke up on Christmas morning Santa would have left all my presents in a sack at the bottom of my bed and my mum would leave a stocking filled with fruit and small toy and some money, all nice shiny new coins on my headboard.

We would then open our presents after breakfast in front of the tree, I would open mine then I would give my mum hers.

I remember one year when I was about six becoming quite concerned because we were having gas fires installed to replace the coal fires we had in the living room and dining room.

How would Santa come done the chimney on Christmas Eve if there was a gas fire in the way? Well the catastrophe was averted when my mum told me she would leave the living room window open for him.

Our tradition now on Christmas Eve is that DW and I attend the Village Carol Service on the Village Green then pop into the pub of a quick drink. Then go home to track Santa on the Norad website and watch a Muppets Chistmas Carol and then head off to bed before midnight.

Then on Christmas morning all our presents have magicly appeared under the tree. I put DW's out in the morning before she gets up, but she must do hers over night while I'm alseep as they are always there before I get up.

We then give the cat her breakfast and let her out and then we have breakfast and open them togther. When the cat comes in about an hour later from her walk around the garden she gets her present. She has two new toy mice this year.