How many presents does Santa leave at your house?

[nicki.momof3]

Ok, then I think you mislead in your post that you leave reality behind....this sounds very much like a LESSON to your children and that you indeed do not leave reality behind.

Dawn

I just reviewed my OP and no mislead. Making Christmas magical and leaving reality behind does not mean you have to over spend what you don't have. 15 gifts under the tree does not have to cost a million dollars. You can still make Christmas magical and dream while still spending within your limits. As I said we buy gifts year round when they are on sale. The kids are taught about $ when they purchase gifts for each other (they are given a budget and are required to stick within it).

Lessons can be taught in a fun and magical way.

 

[PixiePlanner]

OK, I originally said 2 plus stocking. I must not have been thinking. I am ashamed to say this year the big guy is bringing 4 each plus stockings. I shop year round to take advantage of deals but I got a little carried away this year.

 

[DawnM]

I am not going to argue with your logic, but it isn't my logic. You criticised someone for using lessons and reality and now you are saying you use lessons and reality after saying you don't believe everything has to be a lesson and that reality should go out the window.

Dawn

I just reviewed my OP and no mislead. Making Christmas magical and leaving reality behind does not mean you have to over spend what you don't have. 15 gifts under the tree does not have to cost a million dollars. You can still make Christmas magical and dream while still spending within your limits. As I said we buy gifts year round when they are on sale. The kids are taught about $ when they purchase gifts for each other (they are given a budget and are required to stick within it).

Lessons can be taught in a fun and magical way.

 

[Tiger926]

I am not going to argue with your logic, but it isn't my logic. You criticised someone for using lessons and reality and now you are saying you use lessons and reality after saying you don't believe everything has to be a lesson and that reality should go out the window.

Dawn

Yup, she criticised me, and I totally agree with you that she did mislead. Her response was in direct response to me saying that we pay Santa for our kids' gifts and that he consults us in regards to what gifts are purchased. She would not have responded as she did, had she not believed that us doing this was an unnecessary lesson as she believes it takes away from the magic. I totally agree that she did imply that because we are teaching our kids financial lessons, that somehow we are taking away from the magic of Christmas. It's pretty evident from her responses, as she said it's not always necessary to teach a lesson, and that at Christmas, she doesn't want her kids to think of money.

Regardless, based on her last few responses, she too is teaching her children lessons about Christmas as well, Tiger

 

[Scot-n-Michelle]

Just curious - many responses about presents being left unwrapped - what is the meaning behind this??

 

[K and K's Mommy]

At our house, Santa brings three gifts for each child. Three because that is the number of gifts the wise men brought to baby Jesus! They are not always the most expensive items, but are typically the things that the kids really seem to want the most. We wrap gifts, but Santa leaves his gifts out unwrapped and he also fills the stockings.

This is us also. He brings three gifts plus stocking stuffers. Our Santa does wrap though!

 

[ZPT1022]

OK, I originally said 2 plus stocking. I must not have been thinking. I am ashamed to say this year the big guy is bringing 4 each plus stockings. I shop year round to take advantage of deals but I got a little carried away this year.

Don't feel bad, it looks as though in our house, Santa is bringing about 17-18 gifts per child. Granted, a gift might be a $5 item, but still, each child will have 17-18 wrapped gifts from Santa apiece.

 

[momof1princess]

Just curious - many responses about presents being left unwrapped - what is the meaning behind this??

i have always left DD's santa gift unwrapped as a way of distinguishing it from the gifts she gets from us. there's really no other reason for it, at least for me. we told DD santa has millions of gifts to deliver and doesn't have time for wrapping. as the santa gift is usually the biggest around here, not wrapping has saved me TONS of time and frustration, lol.

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

These are all very interesting responses and reasons behind the giving. In our house dd gets the "big" gift from Santa. My reasoning is that she doesn't believe that I will/can buy her expensive gifts for the rest of the year. Santa is magical and can "afford" the big ticket item while the gifts from me are small in comparison ie. pjs, snowglobe, socks, board game. Santa is bringing a wii this year and I have suffered with the idea of paying that much $$$ for a game. But it really all dd has repeatedly wanted. I hope it was a wise decision on Santa's part.

Also, Santa doesn't wrap gifts in our house. DD gets up and magically sees Santas gift in the living room, along with a stocking of fruit and small $1 items like lip gloss, crayons, notepad or lifesavers.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Santa brings as many gifts as those elves can shove in the sleigh.
A lot. That would be my answer. See, Santa only comes once a year. He does not bring toys all year long. He only brings them on Christmas so he likes to go overboard. Mom and Dad usually give the kids a few gifts because they do love the little buggers so much and of course they give the kids gifts on their birthdays. On Christmas Santa is the big cheese if you will.

 

[kayrosek]

It varies but Santa always brings the toys and big gifts. DH and I are credited for clothing, books, family gifts like board games and DVD's and keepsake items like snowglobes and ornaments. This year is a bit different. Gifts from mom and dad this year have mostly been recieved already and were big (WDW trip, Bahmas Cruise and new digital cameras to take on those trips) We told the kids that times were hard for alot of people and that we are blessed. They have gotten alot from mommy and daddy so Santa will be bringing them 3 gifts each and we told them they woulden't be getting anything else from mom and dad but we did purchase reminder gifts (things to remind them of their big gifts from mom and dad) like souvniers and photo albums for the pics they took with their cameras. They are all set for only having the three Santa gifts under the tree so I think the three little reminder gifts from mom and dad will be a good surprise.

 

[ksl5f123]

Santa brings one unwrapped gift (usually a big one - this morning the girls got the Disney Parks Authentic Cinderella castle = awesome!! We travel out of state for Christmas so Santa comes early to our house) for each child plus stocking stuffers (really cheap). DH and I give them 3 gifts each - one clothes, one books, one toy. Santa doesn't wrap because my VERY observant 6 yo would certainly find/recognize the wrapping paper. As it is I have gift tags specific to Santa because I can't use the same kind.

 

[ripburn]

5-8 presents

 

[Tink561]

Santa brings most of the gifts. There will be one or two special things that are from mom & dad. On Christmas Eve we open family presents. Since our extended family are all over 800 miles away we have grandparent gifts to open on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning Santa leaves all of his goodies unwrapped and the few little things from mom & dad will be wrapped.

 

[kinntj]

Santa brings 1 gift to each child in our house. My 5 year old wanted 3, but I told her we don't do greed here. She's had a hard time deciding. She's also learned that you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit. She wants a Dsi, but DH and I don't think it's appropriate for her age, so we are making the decision to intercept and tell Santa to bring a DS Lite.

 

[Erica09M]

I voted 10+ and all of them.

They're so young that we just put everything from Santa. We don't need any credit. We know we're responsible for it. There will come a time down the road when they're older and don't believe in Santa anymore, and we can then start putting them from mom & dad (though I'm kinda tempted to just always do Santa, whether they believe or not )

Santa also does the stocking.

 

[jenseib]

all gifts are from Santa, typically 10 or more, plus stockings. Well I usually buy here something from me, and DH tends to usually get a little something from him too.

 

[jenseib]

I wanted to add we wrap as well. I think thats part of the fun, not knowing what under the tree and workingfor the prize.

Just a few gifts and something in stocking.

Santa 'communicates' with mommy and daddy about what is appropriate to buy, mommy & daddy have the final say and then Santa sends mommy & daddy a bill in the mail. Our kids have learned about boundaries and budgets - lifelong lessons that will carry them well into adulthood.

We don't do wish lists (I think it's very tacky) either - Santa leaves a few gifts if the kids have earned them. If not, no gifts from Santa.

Tiger

I have used this too. And my mom did as well. I would ask why she didn't buy us a bunch of gifts too. LOL! And She told me that most parents who can afford it pay Santa for the gifts he brings. She said not everyone could, but Santa needed help to be able to bring gifts to everyone in the world, and I accepted it....and then my 2 older kids have asked that question when they were growing up and I used that as well. It kind of gave them a lesson ...I feel...that nothing is really free, and of course you can't ask for unrealistic gifts either. And I also told htem that Sants has elves shopping for items that can't be made, and sometimes even the elves and Santa can't get some items that are very popular. Luckily we never really made lists for Santa, and they were happy with what they recieved. Lists were made for people who asked what to get them, like Grandmas or aunts and uncles.

 

[jenseib]

Santa brings everything here. Except for the presents the siblings get each other, and what they get us parents. Each child has their own special Christmas paper each year. It is usually a favorite character etc. The big presents like bikes, Doll houses don't get wrapped. Santa brings our Christmas tree and presents after everyone goes to sleep. I figure they have a lot of years in the future to know about budget and mortgage payments. They only have the "magic" for a couple of years. this was always my families tradition growing up, and we have gleefully continued with it. I don't have a set number of presents. The kids all get the same amount of presents, but not the same amount spent. That was too hard.

Santa brings your Christmas tree too? Wow. Santa has a busy night! LOL!
I think it kind of sounds neat, but I could never do it. I'm one of those people who would leave my tree up eyar round if I could. I have 3 trees, 2 fake and 1 real, and several small trees too. The fake ones go up right after Halloween and stay up thru January. The real one goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving and will usually stay in my house for about 2-4 weeks after Christmas. I jsut love my trees. LOL!
but still that is really cool to have that surprise on Christmas morning

 

[Grtoutdoors1]

Well in our house Santa brings 3 gifts.
As a child Santa brought lots of gifts, but my kids were going crazy with asking for stuff a couple of years ago (they were only 4 and 1) so at that time we entered a gift limit. I came up with 3 and told the girls "if it is good enough for Jesus then it is good enough for you."