They don't wrap Xmas presents???

[aprilgail2]

One thing that I had never heard of until a couple years ago (read it on the DIS) and I never understood is the whole.....Santa gifts vs Mom/Dad gifts? Why wouldn't Santa bring everything? Why does he only bring one gift in a different wrapping paper while other gifts are from the parents? I mean I've read posts where people say that, "Santa isn't getting credit for bringing the big gift" I guess since I grew up where all gifts were from Santa and they were all wrapped and I do the same with my boys (well, they're older now, so no Santa anymore) I just don't understand this. I'm not saying that it's wrong or anything (I know everyone does things differently) I'm just saying that I don't understand it. Can you explain WHY you do things the way you do?

LOL--- that was something I never heard of until I read it on here- "santa not getting credit for the gifts".... I have it the opposite way, santa gave ALL the gifts EXCEPT one which was from me. I didn't need the "credit" for the gifts LOL...I loved that santa brought them all. Once she stopped believing she knew who got "credit" for everything!

 

[disney1990]

Our girls are no longer at home, but this is what we did. We wrapped all of Santa's presents. Each person in the family had their presents wrapped in one Christmas paper and only their presents were in that paper.

The presents that the girls received from us (their parents) were wrapped in another paper -- because how could we have the same paper that Santa has?

 

[NewCrew42]

I'm all for "everyone does it their own way". What's normal for one might seem weird to another. LOL I'm sure it's all in how our own parents did things when we were little.

We grew up with EVERYTHING wrapped, sometimes even smaller things in the stockings. I do the same with my boys.

One thing that I had never heard of until a couple years ago (read it on the DIS) and I never understood is the whole.....Santa gifts vs Mom/Dad gifts? Why wouldn't Santa bring everything? Why does he only bring one gift in a different wrapping paper while other gifts are from the parents? I mean I've read posts where people say that, "Santa isn't getting credit for bringing the big gift" I guess since I grew up where all gifts were from Santa and they were all wrapped and I do the same with my boys (well, they're older now, so no Santa anymore) I just don't understand this. I'm not saying that it's wrong or anything (I know everyone does things differently) I'm just saying that I don't understand it. Can you explain WHY you do things the way you do?

We give gifts from Mom and Dad. It is usually stuff like socks and underwear, new clothes, etc. Santa brings fun stuff. Mom and Dad give things that are not as fun.

I did getaway with putting vitamins and band-aids in stockings for years. When the kids were little it was awesome. I could say, "Honey, take your vitamin Santa brought you! He wants you to be very healthy!!!"

 

[luvsJack]

Having kids different ages and "stages" we have done things several different ways.

When both my sons were young, we wrapped most and left a few big things unwrapped-things that needed put together, things that were for both of them, etc. (or anything not wrapped when I ran out of paper at 1am. ).

When they were teens, dd much younger; her "santa" gifts were unwrapped but each had the same number of wrapped gifts.

With one son married, one at home and dd got a bit older; the two at home would each get a big unwrapped gift and then the rest wrapped to open when older ds and dil got here for breakfast.

Now we get a "family" gift for dd, me and dh (last year was a Wii) that is unwrapped, and the remainder of everything is wrapped, sometimes dd will have a couple of other unwrapped items just depends. All of dgd's things are wrapped even anything "hard to wrap" because at her age that is what is most fun.

Excitement is the same regardless, but it does last a bit longer when things are wrapped.

 

[RitaE]

We do Mom and Dad wrap here.

Santa sets his presents up under the tree for immediate playability.

 

[disneyofcourse]

I wrap everything and so does my family. We all love ripping open gifts sitting next to the fire. To each his own but I'd be a little sad with seeing things unwrapped.

 

[klacey1]

I've learned many things I never knew on the Dis-- including that some people don't wrap Christmas presents! Growing up, all our presents were from Santa and they were all always wrapped, one color for me, one for my brother. His birthday presents (Dec 25) were from my parents, of course, and wrapped in a different paper.

 

[Northstar]

Growing up, our presents were always wrapped, but only because gift bags had not yet been invented.

Gift bags, yeah, great advance in Santa-ology! You can achieve good results with a whack of tissue paper and a few minutes of creative bagging.

I have the greatest admiration for those of you who go all out on the wrapping... but you get results I couldn't achieve if I spent all night struggling with the wrapping paper and the bows anyway. So I'd be leaving a whole lot more unwrapped under the tree if I hadn't discovered the gift bag!

 

[Mandychelle79]

Santa Brings all gifts. All gifts are wrapped using santa paper that the kids pick out and mommy takes to the post office to mail to santa ( aka, DH didnt hide the paper one year so this was the way around it) Kids love picking their paper.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

All gifts from Santa are put together but they are still wrapped. To us, thats part of Christmas. My kids love unwrapping.

 

[Shutterbug]

I had gf that was an artist when it came to wrapping gifts. Talk about presentation...almost too great looking to open them up....almost...lol

Yep all Christmas presents wrapped, even large boxes too.

 

[Anne34]

All gifts are wrapped here too. That is half the fun -- seeing the anticipation and the questioning of what is inside! Santa has his own paper (different for each child).

 

[RUDisney]

Mom and Dad leave their presents out for Santa to wrap in the paper he's used for the rest of his gifts. That way, the kids can't figure out what is from us and what is from Santa. We won't tell them.

Even now that my kids help me carry everything from the attic to the tree, it is still wrapped in "Santa's paper." Everything else, for everyone else, is wrapped in different paper.

In my sister's house, Santa makes a special trip to her house on Thanksgiving. He drops off paper that he'll use to wrap her kids' gifts. There is a different paper for each child. My sister has to leave it out for him to use on Christmas Eve. (This is her way of avoiding having to write their names on each package since their name both begin with the same letter and she can't just write an initial on them like I do for mine.)

 

[mickeymouseclubhouse]

All gifts are wrapped here, except stockings which are to be looked through first Each child has a different wrapping paper from Santa. They also get gifts from mom and dad.... separate wrapping paper, of course

I, too, was surprised the first time I learned that Santa leaves presents for some people unwrapped!

 

[cheermom1]

At our house all presents are wrapped unless it is something cool that we want the kids to see put together and then I'll do that. Santa brings one present that is wrapped in Santa paper. The rest of the gifts are from mom and dad. Oh and Santa never brings the expensive must haves. He usually brings a game for each kid. No way is Santa getting credit for bringing the good stuff!

This is what I have always done!!! WHY should santa get all that credit????

We wrap everything too. It unwrapping half the fun???

 

[bethy]

Santa doesn't wrap gifts but Mom and Dad do. But then Santa only brings one toy/gift for each child and fills the stockings. Mom and Dad get credit for all the rest of the Christmas Presents.

Edited: I just read the rest of the thread. Because a couple of posters asked: the reason that Santa does not bring all the gifts in our house is because we want to minimize the focus on him during Christmas. This way he remains a part of it - a fun, magical part. I like that my kids can listen for reindeer on the roof in the middle of the night, etc. Santa brings the kids each one special nice gift as a way to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

Two other minor reasons we do it this way: it's less painful for the child when/if they determine that Santa is not "real" in the way they might have envisioned. For us Christmas over the course of a lifetime is about so much more than a neat, jolly old elf bringing presents to children. And so we want the focus to be on relationships and family. Second, my kids have noticed that there are many kids in the world who only get one present from Santa, if any. I didn't want to have to explain to them or have them agonize over the fact that Santa brought them many gifts and someone else just one. It would kind of take that magic or specialness away. They do understand that some families have more money and means than others which is a different issue than Santa and his benevolent magic and love for children.

FTR, in my family growing up Santa did bring multiple gifts and he wrapped them all. In DH's family he JUST filled stockings and it was very, very low key.

 

[ajk912]

I can see not wrapping a few things, but I think not wrapping takes some of the joy out of Christmas morning.

 

[maslex]

Santa doesn't wrap gifts but Mom and Dad do. But then Santa only brings one toy/gift for each child and fills the stockings. Mom and Dad get credit for all the rest of the Christmas Presents.

Edited: I just read the rest of the thread. Because a couple of posters asked: the reason that Santa does not bring all the gifts in our house is because we want to minimize the focus on him during Christmas. This way he remains a part of it - a fun, magical part. I like that my kids can listen for reindeer on the roof in the middle of the night, etc. Santa brings the kids each one special nice gift as a way to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

Two other minor reasons we do it this way: it's less painful for the child when/if they determine that Santa is not "real" in the way they might have envisioned. For us Christmas over the course of a lifetime is about so much more than a neat, jolly old elf bringing presents to children. And so we want the focus to be on relationships and family. Second, my kids have noticed that there are many kids in the world who only get one present from Santa, if any. I didn't want to have to explain to them or have them agonize over the fact that Santa brought them many gifts and someone else just one. It would kind of take that magic or specialness away. They do understand that some families have more money and means than others which is a different issue than Santa and his benevolent magic and love for children.
FTR, in my family growing up Santa did bring multiple gifts and he wrapped them all. In DH's family he JUST filled stockings and it was very, very low key.

Thanks for explaining why you do one gift from Santa and the rest from you. I just never understood why people do this but it gives me a new perspective now. My boys are older now (13 and 15) so I don't have to worry about which ones are from Santa and which ones are from us. Thanks again!!!

 

[msjprincess]

I can see not wrapping a few things, but I think not wrapping takes some of the joy out of Christmas morning.

That's just sille especially if that's the way you've always done it. Like I said earlier my Santa presents were never wrapped and I don't think I missed out on any joy. We also opened our presents on Christmas Eve. I remember coming home after midnight and walking in and seeing everything under the tree. Believe me I wouldn't have been any more excited to see wrapped presents.

 

[design_mom]

Santa always used different paper. I accidentally used the same paper the following year and dd remembered so I told her Santa was being environmentally sound and left me the left over paper to use this year

So that became a new tradition!

We have the same tradition in our house. In fact, Santa always leaves "the rest of the roll" of gift wrap underneath my stocking!