Question about Santa and gifts

[Freyja]

I´m curious and have some questions (there´s a "big" cultural gap here )

See, here in Iceland we have 13 Santas

The last 13 nights before Christmas the children put one of their shoes out in the window and each and every Santa brings a small gift. Usually the gifts are something like stickers, candy, a pair of socks, etc. although on Christmas morning there´s usually something a little bit bigger waiting for them. However, it´s not a "big ticket item" as per your definition. It´s usually maybe a book, dvd, pj´s, etc.

I know how your Santa works but I´m curious to know how it affects children when Santa brings one friend from class a laptop, another friend a flatscreen tv, and then the third friend maybe "only" a small toy (because that´s all Santas helpers could afford this year).

Obviously, children come from different families who are differently set, money wise (and priorities wise). However, I imagine it must be easier for children to understand that mom and dad couldn´t afford something, then for them to understand why Santa didn´t bring them the one thing they wished for the most, but did bring it to the kids next door.

 

[mtemm]

santa brings all the gifts for the kids, except for those from grandparents/aunts. that's how it was growing up for both my dh and I, too.

love reading all the different traditions.

 

[kldmom2000]

In our house, Santa fills their stockings and brings a few gifts-usually the most desired ones The rest are from Mom & Dad

 

[disykat]

Santa brings 1-2 big gifts and fills the stockings. Everything else is from mom and dad here.

That's the way we did it too. Though Santa really didn't bring the "big" gifts at our house - he brought the most "fun" gift.

I had a neighbor who said every single gift was from Santa. Even presents that arrived from family and friends were put away and they were ALL from Santa. I thought it was really odd.

 

[inkedupmomma]

Santa is the man in the big cheese in this house! Although they get special things like ornaments, and x-mas pj's, etc... from us

 

[LuvBaloo]

Santa does stockings for everybody in the house.
Santa brings something for outside the stocking.
The rest from Mom & Dad. The kids also get to pick out something to give each other. And they get to pick presents to give to Mom & Dad.
We tend to do the bigger ticket item from Mom & Dad.

I think that by the time kids are starting to question why Santa does more at one house than he does for another, they are already figuring out the truth.
Young children really seem to just know they got presents and forget who got them what.

I think my oldest DD wants to believe so she isn't asking questions because she doesn't want to find out the truth.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I´m curious and have some questions (there´s a "big" cultural gap here )

See, here in Iceland we have 13 Santas

The last 13 nights before Christmas the children put one of their shoes out in the window and each and every Santa brings a small gift. Usually the gifts are something like stickers, candy, a pair of socks, etc. although on Christmas morning there´s usually something a little bit bigger waiting for them. However, it´s not a "big ticket item" as per your definition. It´s usually maybe a book, dvd, pj´s, etc.

I know how your Santa works but I´m curious to know how it affects children when Santa brings one friend from class a laptop, another friend a flatscreen tv, and then the third friend maybe "only" a small toy (because that´s all Santas helpers could afford this year).

Obviously, children come from different families who are differently set, money wise (and priorities wise). However, I imagine it must be easier for children to understand that mom and dad couldn´t afford something, then for them to understand why Santa didn´t bring them the one thing they wished for the most, but did bring it to the kids next door.

Freyja that's a good question. I know our Santa tends to give less than some other Santas--and it was a lot less the two years DH had been laid off close to Christmas. However, I don't think the kids ever noticed the gap--DD12 believed until 10ish and DS10 (wil be 11 Christmas week) seems to still believe (DD thinks he still does too). I think the kids tend to compare what they got for Christmas with their friends, not what Santa brought them. I guess they always jsut assume parents or other relatives brought the big ticet items or something. By the time they start to truly notice the differences then they are probably doubting the Santa story anyway.

 

[clovergirl5]

Santa always brought everything when I was a little girl, so Santa brings everything for dc now. Mama and Dada do the stockings.

 

[CharityLynn]

Santa does everything here too. It was that way for me growing up I didn't know there were other ways to do it honestly. But my husband's family always opened a buncg of gifts on christmas Eve from mom and dad then Christmas morning there was a stocking and 1 present from Santa.

 

[quentina]

Santa brings everything here....at least for my 2 small ones, older one gets from mom and dad.

 

[quentina]

I´m curious and have some questions (there´s a "big" cultural gap here )

See, here in Iceland we have 13 Santas

The last 13 nights before Christmas the children put one of their shoes out in the window and each and every Santa brings a small gift. Usually the gifts are something like stickers, candy, a pair of socks, etc. although on Christmas morning there´s usually something a little bit bigger waiting for them. However, it´s not a "big ticket item" as per your definition. It´s usually maybe a book, dvd, pj´s, etc.

I know how your Santa works but I´m curious to know how it affects children when Santa brings one friend from class a laptop, another friend a flatscreen tv, and then the third friend maybe "only" a small toy (because that´s all Santas helpers could afford this year).

Obviously, children come from different families who are differently set, money wise (and priorities wise). However, I imagine it must be easier for children to understand that mom and dad couldn´t afford something, then for them to understand why Santa didn´t bring them the one thing they wished for the most, but did bring it to the kids next door.

I noticed that they tend to avoid holiday talk at schools. Too many different beliefs etc. For the past 7 years, my son has always said that they don't talk about gifts in school. Now, if someone was coming over to play, that would be different.

 

[Katie's Butterflies]

How we got away with going lean this year... our kids have always been told Mommy and Daddy have to pay Santa for the gifts. OH and we have to ship the wrapping paper since DH cant seem to hide it very well

Smart!

The last 13 nights before Christmas the children put one of their shoes out in the window and each and every Santa brings a small gift. Usually the gifts are something like stickers, candy, a pair of socks, etc. although on Christmas morning there´s usually something a little bit bigger waiting for them. However, it´s not a "big ticket item" as per your definition. It´s usually maybe a book, dvd, pj´s, etc.

That’s really interesting! I’m afraid I’m rather ignorant of most other Christmas traditions (I'm trying to learn though!). However, your Santas remind me of St. Nicholas day in early December. (My elementary school celebrated it) Each year, children would put out a shoe (into the hallway) and it was filled with candy. I wonder if it is based off of your traditions?

I know how your Santa works but I´m curious to know how it affects children when Santa brings one friend from class a laptop, another friend a flatscreen tv, and then the third friend maybe "only" a small toy (because that´s all Santas helpers could afford this year).

Obviously, children come from different families who are differently set, money wise (and priorities wise). However, I imagine it must be easier for children to understand that mom and dad couldn´t afford something, then for them to understand why Santa didn´t bring them the one thing they wished for the most, but did bring it to the kids next door.

Yes, that can become an issue especially when there are children who like to compare notes and ask why child A didn’t get the latest gizmo while everyone else in the circle of friends did.

I remember one way I heard a teacher explain it back when I was in elementary school was that “Santa doesn’t like to give more than what the child’s parents can afford because he doesn’t like to embarrass the parents. What if the parents had saved up for a new pair of shoes and Santa brought a gaming system. The parents would feel kind of bad about that, so Santa brings what the parents might have bought if they had the time etc.”

Unfortunately, I have also heard it explained “I guess you were extra good this year, that’s why you got xyz and Davy didn’t”

 

[Katie's Butterflies]

Wow, there are several different variations of gift giving posted. Awesome! Thanks for posting your traditions!

For those of you who have Santa bring all of the gifts, what happens once Santa no longer visits? Do the gifts just switch from “from Santa” to “love your parents” or do the gift exchange shrink down to a minimum?

I love learning how different people celebrate the holidays. It is so interesting!

 

[NAB]

Wow, there are several different variations of gift giving posted. Awesome! Thanks for posting your traditions!

For those of you who have Santa bring all of the gifts, what happens once Santa no longer visits? Do the gifts just switch from “from Santa” to “love your parents” or do the gift exchange shrink down to a minimum?

I love learning how different people celebrate the holidays. It is so interesting!

Well since we have one that believes and one that doesn't we still use Santa.

I think we will always have Santa. I write that on my gift to DH sometimes too.

Santa will always take into consideration what is on their wish list so the giving part won't change unless our finances do. But I think if they know it is us they won't be asking for a car or something.

 

[maslex]

It's interesting in hearing so many different ways people celebrate. When we were kids Santa always brought everything....all the gifts (not including the extended family--granparents, aunts/uncles, neighbors, etc), always filled the stockings and the tags always read...from "Santa" Once we got a little older and didn't believe anymore, the tags either still said Santa or just had our name on it. We also always got a gag gift. Those, I must say, were the best. My sister would always get a big ole (think BJ's sized) jar of dill pickles, I think my brother would get peanuts and I always got the huge BJ sized box of Peppermint Patties. LOL

For my kids now (12 and 14) Santa ALWAYS brought everything, filled the stockings, EVERYTHING. Like a PP said, I've never heard of "mom & dad" giving certain things. To me that's weird, but I'm sure it's weird what we've done, to other people. And that's okay. The world is a better place when there's different cultures and ways of doing things.

And even though they don't believe anymore, we still wait until they go to bed on Christmas Eve to put out the gifts. I think it's more exciting for the kids to walk into the living room Christmas morning and see the tree all filled up with gifts. We also have always wrapped stuff. There was only 1 time we had 1 gift unwrapped. I had bought a toy kitchen (those huge ones with all the plastic food and stuff) I thought it would be cool to have it all set up and ready to go when they woke up. Other than that, everything is wrapped. Sometimes even stocking stuff. And speaking of stockings, I know a lot of people put only little trinkets in there (the orange, candy, stickers, etc) But in my house, if it fits, it goes into the stocking. LOL I don't care how much it costs. It truly could be a $60 PS3 game. If I know it's one they REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted, I would put it in the stocking because we always open our stockings last in our house, so they would open all the gifts and kind of wonder...."did I get my most favorite game in the stocking" and yep, it would be there. LOL

 

[Kirby]

Growing up we received one unwrapped gift from Santa, the rest were wrapped and given by mom and dad. It was so cool to run in and look under the tree to see what Santa brought.

I did the same with my kids. Fortunately for us, they never asked for the latest and greatest toy/gizmo on the market, so Santa was able to provide the one gift they wanted from him.

We also never flooded the tree with gifts either. We usually put about five wrapped ones each. I just don't believe in giving tons of presents at Christmas.

I started the tradition of filling stockings with my kids. I did not have them growing up. It's been fun filling them over the years. When my kids believed, it was Santa but now they know it's me. Maybe I'll get mine filled this year.

 

[aprilgail2]

I know how your Santa works but I´m curious to know how it affects children when Santa brings one friend from class a laptop, another friend a flatscreen tv, and then the third friend maybe "only" a small toy (because that´s all Santas helpers could afford this year).

Obviously, children come from different families who are differently set, money wise (and priorities wise). However, I imagine it must be easier for children to understand that mom and dad couldn´t afford something, then for them to understand why Santa didn´t bring them the one thing they wished for the most, but did bring it to the kids next door.

My daughters friend had that issue with my daughter- santa only brought 3 gifts to her and the rest were from the parents...my daughter everything except one gift is from santa so the kid went home crying to her parents saying "I was good all year how come santa only brought me 3 gifts and my friend got 15"...and then there is the issue that we work for a toy drive collecting toys for kids who wouldotherwise get nothing at christmas..my daughter asked me when she was very little "why does santa hate poor children"....so there is issues with the whole santa thing no matter what you do!

 

[Kirby]

Obviously, children come from different families who are differently set, money wise (and priorities wise). However, I imagine it must be easier for children to understand that mom and dad couldn´t afford something, then for them to understand why Santa didn´t bring them the one thing they wished for the most, but did bring it to the kids next door.

We got around that by only letting our kids ask for one thing from Santa. I think I vaguely remember them asking that question and my response was that we only ask for one gift from Santa and the other kids must have been allowed to ask for more. That response satisfied them.

 

[Mandychelle79]

Wow, there are several different variations of gift giving posted. Awesome! Thanks for posting your traditions!

For those of you who have Santa bring all of the gifts, what happens once Santa no longer visits? Do the gifts just switch from “from Santa” to “love your parents” or do the gift exchange shrink down to a minimum?

I love learning how different people celebrate the holidays. It is so interesting!

We actually dont write on the gift from anyone. Each kiddo has their own paper or two, but since I have a boy and a girl its obvious which are for each, so we dont put names on them. My mom did the same thing, when we believed one gift would have our name on it so we knew which paper was ours if it wasnt easy to tell.