How many gifts from Santa

[CBoysMomLovesDisney]

I originally told my ds's 5&4 that santa would only be able to bring 1 or 2 toys for ea of them (from their letter to santa), and that mom & dad would buy them gifts. Reason is--- "santa can only carry so many toys". they seemed ok with this as long as santa got them something from their list. I planned to have santa give them the item they most wanted, the one they been asking for for months.

I am now second guessing myself. Is this a good way or not? am I being mean? Overall they will be getting lots of gifts toys, cloths, books, movies, etc.

I would like to create a tradition & keep to it. This is really the 1st year that both of them are into santa & christmas.

Any ideas would be helpful.

 

[qtwns]

We have always done three for each kid from Santa, because after all, baby Jesus only got 3 gifts (gold, frankincence...). My boys always know that their top 3 gift ideas need to be given to Santa. Mom and Dad handle the rest...within reason.

 

[Lizzy2]

I think if this is the way you want your traditions to be then that is great. You are not being mean. My DD5 is getting way more stuff than she needs this year and to be honest I kinda think we've gone a little overboard. My problem is that I started shopping at some clearance sales in the summer and even though I haven't spent tons of $ since I got good deals its still alot of stuff. We are "recycling" one gift though. She will inherit one of her Dad's old game systems and we just purchased a new game that she really wanted. We just didn't think she was old enough to understand the value of these expensive game systems or the "wow" factor of having a new one. She just wants to play the games like Dad.

 

[kilee]

I think what works for you will be a perfect tradition. I never really separated it when DS was little, and well now he's just a few week's shy of 14 and all the gifts are from "santa" .

 

[aprilgail2]

Santa brings everything except one thing that is from me...Santa brings all the "cool" stuff! I like Satna getting all the "credit" for the gifts, soon enough she will know they are from me but while she is little I like Santa bringing everything!

 

[ntburns22]

Well this year we started shopping in April buying things on sale to save money. We ended up with the biggest Christmas ever for our kids. They each have 14 gifts to open, not all are big, like a puzzle for example. We have already made one trip up to DH's work to put things in for Toys for Tots. I am thinking we will take one more before I wrap. Santa is bringing everything but new PJ pals, Disney Blankets, and a gymnastics mat.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

One gift from Mom, one gift from Dad, and one gift from both Mom and Dad. The rest from Santa.

 

[GEM]

We (Mommy and Daddy) get our little guy one gift, which he opens on Christmas Eve. The rest, usually an embarrasingly huge haul , is delivered after he is in bed on Christmas Eve and every bit of it is from Santa.

I agree with whoever said that someday, too soon, he will be grown up enough to know that, really, it's all from us. So, now, while he's little and believes 100%, we have TONS of fun with Santa!

 

[DVCLiz]

When we were little, all of our gifts came from Santa. I never questioned why my mom didn't give us Christmas gifts - the thought never crossed my mind!!

My girls have birthdays relatively close to Christmas, so I've always told them that I will give them a big gift on their birthdays and Santa will bring everything at Christmas. That's our tradition, and it's the way we do Christmas every year -if I tried to change anything now (they are 13 and 18) there would be an uproar!!!

I don't think it matters a bit whether Santa brings 1, 2, 3 or 50 gifts, as long as that's what works for your family. I do get a little irritated, however, when someone has decided to use one system and tells me I should change to fit it (I'm thinking of a person who went the 3 gifts for the Wise Men route and told me I should stop giving more than 3 gifts to my children at Christmas.) It's no one else's business how a family chooses to celebrate Christmas!!!!

 

[barkley]

from day one both our kids have gotten the bulk of their gifts from us-and always the one we know will be the biggest hit of the day. reason being is if times ever came up when finances were such that there had to be a meager christmas it could explained that mom and dad did'nt have the resources that year. it's realy hard when a kid who believes in santa 'has' to 'learn' about him by virtue of him not providing what he has in past years (i know too many kids who despite parents telling them santa won't be bringing an item they are insistant that 'santa will come through'-very devastating situation on christmas morning ).

 

[CBoysMomLovesDisney]

thank you all - i've changed my mind.

A few of you said that it won't be long before the kids don't believe in Santa -(and seeing that i really can't believe they are already 5 & 4) . I want them to enjoy santa as much as they can before the magic is gone.

Since I already told them that santa will only bring 1 or 2 gifts, I am going to leave it at that. Then enjoy the smiles on their faces when they see all the presents that santa brought. I know they will be so excited, they are very much looking forward to santa coming to our house.

DVCLiz - your probably right the kids won't even know if we got them anything.

 

[disykat]

Our kids always got one gift from Santa. It was next to their stocking in the family room. The rest of the presents were from us and were under the tree. Our kids never cared who gave the presents. It never occured to them to question how many gifts. They were just excited to get gifts. I don't think it was any less magical for them.

We never really made a big deal about Santa. We just did it the way my parents did it when I was growing up - sort of low key. They came to their own conclusions about things and pretty much told us what they believed.

 

[dementia412]

I never got more than one gift from the fat man, and it still seems weird that he would bring any more to kids. What is mean about santa bringing only one thing?

 

[DVCLiz]

I never got more than one gift from the fat man, and it still seems weird that he would bring any more to kids. What is mean about santa bringing only one thing?

I don't think it's mean at all. I just think if you were a family that had a "one gift from Santa" policy and you tried to get me to change my way of doing things, I'd have a problem with that.

I also think if you have kids who really are noticing and questioning the dollar amount or quantity of gifts someone else received, it's probably time to have a little talk and explain in the way you think best about the economic realities of Christmas gifting. If a child is old enough to be that sophisticated about it, he or she is probably old enough to understand something about a mom and dad "helping" Santa by leaving extra gifts under tree, or whatever you come up with that seems to work for your family.

At my house, Santa always left a big pile of gifts, and there were no other presents under the tree Christmas morning. We opened family gifts from grandparents, etc. either before Christmas as the were delivered or after Christmas when we visited relatives. So Santa was it for Christmas morning. I don't really know why my mom decied to do it that way (she was a single mom) but that's what my brother and I remember, and we loved seeing a big pile waiting to be devoured!! (By big pile I mean a chair seat covered with packages -we each had a "special" chair in the living room for our gifts.)

 

[aprilgail2]

I never got more than one gift from the fat man, and it still seems weird that he would bring any more to kids. What is mean about santa bringing only one thing?

Its not mean, people just do it differently than others. The only time it becomes an issue is when a kid like my daughter, who didn't know any better, said to her friend whose parents do the one gift thing, You must have been really bad for Santa to only bring you one gift...that friend went crying to her mom asking why Santa thought she was bad and she only got one gift from him while my daughter had 20+ under the tree from santa...it is confusing for the kids. Another thing my duahgter can't figure out is why we have to have a toy drive at christmas so poor children can have christmas gifts-she asks why santa hates poor poeple and won't bring them gifts!!

 

[AtlantaSue]

In our family, Santa brings the most exciting gift, plus maybe 1 or 2 other list items, and these are left unwrapped underneath the stockings. After seeing what Santa brought, and going thru the stockings, we all sit down and open the gifts under the tree that we give to each other.

We've never really said anything as to how much Santa brings or doesn't--but he definitely brings the #1, most wanted items! This year, Santa is bringing 3 bikes - . Mommy's excited, too.

 

[LBAK]

Santa brings all the gifts except for one gift from mom & dad and the girls get a special gift from dad. Usually jewelry.

 

[mickeyfan2]

(I'm thinking of a person who went the 3 gifts for the Wise Men route and told me I should stop giving more than 3 gifts to my children at Christmas.)

Personally I find this one kind of funny since the Bible never says there are three wise men just wise men. Jesus does not get just three gifts but three types of gifts. He could have gotten gold from 100 different people.

 

[KrnB]

For our boys' first Christmas, I think Santa's just going to give them the gifts crammed into their good-sized stockings. I think that's probably what he'll do as they get older too, or maybe just one additional gift.

That's what DH did with his son while he still believed.

Santa always gave me tons of gifts - all wrapped in red or green tissue paper (which was a great idea because there was never a worry of ending up with the wrapping paper someone else used). I honestly can't remember if Mom and Dad gave me lots of gifts too when I was little, although knowing my DM, I probably did. I just remember always have stacks of stuff to open. I do know that, as I got older, Santa gave me a stocking full of stuff, while the rest was from DM and DF. In fact, DM has informed me that Santa won't be bringing me gifts anymore because A) I have children that he'll be bringing stuff for, and B) I'm getting too hard to shop for when it comes to stocking stuffers.

 

[JVL1018]

Santa brings each of my kids their one most wished for gift-this year it;s a Lego StarWars X Wing Fighter for my son and a Pound Puppy for my daughter( )--I also bought them a joint gift-Toss Across- and that will be from Santa to both of them.

He also brings their stockings, which are filled to overflowing-from little necessities like toothbrushes, to Gameboy games, to DVDs and CDs and toys like Magic 8 Ball for DS and 20Q for DD. Lip gloss, body glitter, jewelry and hair accessories for DD, Star Wars figures for DS, candy and Disney pins for them both, and Webkinz for each of them.
Santa brings a ton of stuff, but most of it is in their stockings-he always just brings one individual gift and sometimes 1 joint.

They've never been bothered that some kids get more from Santa-they don't care who it comes from really, I would guess!

I don't do most gifts form us for "credit", I guess it's just when I think of Santa stories, I think of him pulling one gift out of his sack to put under the tree and him filling the stockings. So that's why we've done it this way.