What does Santa bring Vs. Mom and/or Dad??

[Grendalynn]

Happy Holidays!! I am curious to know who brings what on Christmas Morning? What kinds of gifts does Santa bring compared to the (type of) gifts Mom and/or Dad brings? Usually Santa will bring all or most of the toys and gadgets to our house and then DH and I will give the remainder. Things like cloths, new ski coat/jacket, hats and mittens... I am curious to know who brings what at you house!!??

 

[DVCLiz]

Santa brings everything at our house!!! No gifts from Mom (I am a single parent household.) My mom was also a single mom, and our growing up Christmases always had all presents come from Santa. I odn't know why she chose to do it that way - we never once questioned it, so it must have suited us! I do it that way for my girls, too. We all love to see the big pile on the hearth, wrapped in a special paper!!!

They do get "family" presents - from their grandparents when they were alive, and now a pile under the tree from an uncle and various friends. They also get another set of gifts later on Christmas Day from their dad and stepmom - I don't know if they exchange from Santa only or if they give to each other by name.

Yeah! Santa is almost here!!!!

 

[foltzy]

Santa bring 2 or 3 gifts to our house. The big gift and usually a smaller gift comes from mom and dad. Our kids are still young (2 and 7 1/2 months) so we're still working it out. We decided that some had to come from mom and dad because why wouldn't mom and dad give the kids a gift. My kids even got each other a gift this year (My daughter was so thrilled to pick it out for her little brother). My husband and I will have a gift from each other and a gift from Santa.

They only get 5 gifts from here because they get a heap load of stuff from other family members (My parents, my husband's mom and step-dad, my husband's dad, his grandmother, my sister, his brother). They get so much from everyone that we keep it to a minimum from us.

 

[Kim1964]

Mom and Dad get credit for the most expensive gift....Santa gets credit for everything else.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

The kids open their gifts from Mom and Dad Christmas eve and Santa brings their big gift and a huge stocking the next morning.

 

[memobrien]

in our family we got everything from Santa growing up. So that is just what we have done with our DD.

I have a follow up question to this....do you wrap or not? We have always wrapped everything. the exception to this is the stockings and anything that might be too large. Like this year DD will be getting an easel...there is no WAY I am attempting to wrap that one.

It never occurred to me to not wrap things. But some of my friends don't wrap the santa gifts, but do wrap the gifts from mom and dad. interesting to hear other peoples traditions.

Maura

 

[foltzy]

We wrap everything, unless it's too big to wrap (like my daughter's kitchen this year). I had never heard that people didn't wrap gifts from Santa until this year. One of the great joys of Christmas for us as kids was ripping into that paper. We thought about doing a seperate paper from Santa but have decided that we didn't really want to go that route.

 

[gower525]

I never got gifts from my parents, only from Santa. That is just the way it was. That is how we do it for my kids too! It does seem kind of odd, but Oh well. Santa doesn't wrap the gifts either. Each child just has their own area of the living room. All the toys are laid out ready to see.

DH has moved out and filed for divorce, I am trying to figure out how divorced/ separated people do Christmas. He is leaving me some gifts to put out for Santa and he is coming over early to see the kids as they wake up. How do you do it???

 

[lclark0621]

Santa brings just about everything here!

On Christmas Eve we open gifts with family. DS does get a set of new PJs from Mommy & Daddy. This year he is getting a rugby jersy from his favorite player from DH & from Mommy he is getting the Land Before Time board game.

Christmas morning is the mountain from Santa.

And Santa's elves wrap everything they possibly can.

 

[tjlovespooh]

Mom and Dad each give a gift and the rest comes from Santa. Santa never wraps gifts, he sets them all up and they're ready to play upon awakening! That's the way it was for me as a child. DH's Santa used to wrap EVERYTHING. He says it was fun to have to open all the gifts on Christmas morning. I say it was MORE fun to just play with all those toys! I guess it just depends on how you were brought up - there's no right or wrong way to do it. I convinced DH that it was far easier to not wrap those gifts and set them all up the night before so that Christmas morning could be slightly more relaxing for us (toys are already out of the boxes and have whatever they need to be in proper working order, AKA batteries). It gives us a minute to waken and maybe make a cup of tea while DS plays with his Santa toys. Works well enough for us.

 

[memobrien]

We wrap everything, unless it's too big to wrap (like my daughter's kitchen this year). I had never heard that people didn't wrap gifts from Santa until this year. One of the great joys of Christmas for us as kids was ripping into that paper. We thought about doing a seperate paper from Santa but have decided that we didn't really want to go that route.

I have to say i get a kick out of see DD in the middle of a HUGE pile of ripped up wrapping paper. Last year she was so into it and the paper really went flying. Later in the morning when we went to clean up the paper we found a few small gifts that had been buried in the fray.

Maura

 

[Rylee]

Their absolutely must have gifts always come from Mom & Dad, along with very personal gifts and collectibles.

The children open one gift on Christmas Eve... surprise, surprise... it's always new pajamas, and somehow , the man in the red suit always manages to drop a gift for each of the children, somewhere along his route. These gifts are "discovered" by Mom or Dad after the kids are ready for bed on Christmas night. It's a nice little surprise for them as an exciting day is coming to an end.

(Since this is a Disney board -
One year a Snow White doll (Barbie doll size) was stuck IN the back side of our tree. Another year, my daughter wanted stuffed animals of all the Pooh characters, and somehow, poor Eeyore was left out on the front porch!)

Yes, we wrap everything with the exception of large items that we have already put together, we just put a bow on top of those.

 

[nikkistevej]

We do a couple of things and a stocking(unwrapped) from Santa. Everything else is wrapped from me and DH. Why should Santa get all of the credit?

 

[rwrocksme]

We do a mix. However, Santa isn't the only person who leaves gifts in the middle of the night...as I remember, Harry Potter left a Sorting Hat last year!

Also, we don't wrap the big stuff. That comes from something when DD was two. She wanted a plastic medical trolley from the JC Penny catalouge so badly she couldn't stand it. We put it out in the middle of the night, and when she came out on Christmas morning and saw it, she had this look on her face of such bliss that was totally priceless. So we don't wrap her big gift, so we can see her face.

 

[Grendalynn]

They only get 5 gifts from here because they get a heap load of stuff from other family members (My parents, my husband's mom and step-dad, my husband's dad, his grandmother, my sister, his brother). They get so much from everyone that we keep it to a minimum from us.

SO TRUE!! Its overwhelming almost, just how much stuff the kids are given!! I am the practical one in the family, DH... eh, not so much. he kids are really only interested in a few of their gifts and the rest are broken or tossed to the side within a few weeks. I was/am trying for a crap free holiday - don't get me wrong, i love and appreciate what my kids are given, that they are given soemthing, but I sometimes feel like is a waste of $$ on our family' part. Don't give them a toy just for the sake of giving something, give a ski ticket, a savings bond, good warm gloves, money toward DS8s guitar lessons.... I hate to see money wasted and with today's economy, I'd rather see my faily financia stable (whatever that is ) than givingmy kids gift. I mean really - are they going to know if they are missing a gift?? Sorry for the rant...

I have a follow up question to this....do you wrap or not? We have always wrapped everything. the exception to this is the stockings and anything that might be too large. Like this year DD will be getting an easel...there is no WAY I am attempting to wrap that one.

It never occurred to me to not wrap things. But some of my friends don't wrap the santa gifts, but do wrap the gifts from mom and dad. interesting to hear other peoples traditions.

Maura

Great Question!!! In my family it was 1/2 and 1/2. The big stuff Santa was nice enough to put together and add batteries to so it was ready to go Christmas Morning. - unwrapped. However, there were many years where our Barbie houses were missing small parts and stickers because Santa and Uncle Clause had too many egg nogs or Hot Cocoa (with baileys) and tossed/burned the boxes to hide any traces.... Stickers included !! Such fond memories and still gets a chuckle to this day fromour family!! Then Santa would wrap some of the smaller toys in wrapping paper designated for each girl, there was 5 o us. I guess that way when we couldnt read, we just tsuck to our own particular paper. No tag reading needed. And less aruments on *****ally got what!! So cretive by Mrs. Clause and something I have tried to continue, but somwehat time consuming!

Mom and Dad each give a gift and the rest comes from Santa. Santa never wraps gifts, he sets them all up and they're ready to play upon awakening! That's the way it was for me as a child. DH's Santa used to wrap EVERYTHING. He says it was fun to have to open all the gifts on Christmas morning. I say it was MORE fun to just play with all those toys! I guess it just depends on how you were brought up - there's no right or wrong way to do it. I convinced DH that it was far easier to not wrap those gifts and set them all up the night before so that Christmas morning could be slightly more relaxing for us (toys are already out of the boxes and have whatever they need to be in proper working order, AKA batteries). It gives us a minute to waken and maybe make a cup of tea while DS plays with his Santa toys. Works well enough for us.

Exactly, 1/2 will be unwarpped for that WOW factor and instant gratification. The rest wrapped to drag it all out.... Santa put a lot of TIME and EFFORT into picking and choosing and wrapping and hiding and stuffing and ...... ... .... It cant all go up in a ball of paper in 3.6 seconds forall that work that went into those short moments. i Digress. We open all presents that Santa brought and Family draw/Swap Gifts. Then after dinner we will open the gifts from teh rest of the family. Kind of given the kids something to look forward to and my parents get to see their faces on the stuff they give my kids. Thanks for letting me share and take a trip down memorie lane!! I hop my kids have just as many fond memories!!

SO SORRY FOR ALL THE TYPOS! I am alittle punchy - Its 11 PM now and I am still recovering from my 1:30 AM bedtime last night after deciding at 8:30PM to make CHRISTMAS COOKIES!!?? I had it in my head that I absolutly COULD NOT send my inlaws presents to Sunny Florida without Christmas cookies from the kids. Well SURPRISE , SURPRISE!! - The kids didnt make them, but it certainly looks like they did! I put Rachel Ray to shame with my 30-minute Cookiebonanza! :ROFL:

 

[tmonferdini]

The more expensive gifts are always from Santa. The kids know that if we could afford to buy it for them, we would, but money doesn't grow on trees. My DS9 now just tells me that ALL of the video game consoles he wants, he will just ask Santa for, cause Santa doesn't have to pay for them. The elves just make it and he gets to deliver it to whoever wants it.

Anyway, the big items (size-wise) are always from Santa so he doesn't have to wrap them if he doesn't want. This year, my twins are each getting a very awquard shaped video-game type chair (from Santa). How do you wrap that? Also, DD9 will be getting a Nintendo DS that will be plugged in ready to go on Christmas morning. We have already explained to her that if mom & dad got her that, that would be the only thing she would get from us, as it is too expensive. She honestly has no clue it's coming. I CAN'T WAIT to see the look on her face.

 

[Crazy4Disney72]

When I was a kid, just about everything came from Santa. Mom and Dad might give us 'boring' presents like robes or slippers or something, but anything remotely fun came from Santa. DH and I did that with our first DS when he was little, just about everything from Santa and only a couple things from us, but we changed that by the time our second DS was born. We decided we didn't want the focus to be as much on Santa and getting lots of 'stuff' so we changed over to one present from Santa and everything else from us, and we have significantly cut down on what we give. When I look back at the pictures from oldest DS's first couple holidays, it's absurd how many presents he had. Now we try to stick to 5-8 gifts per child total, with one of those coming from Santa. Santa gifts are generally wrapped, but this year DD's Santa gift is a scooter, so that will just have a bow on it.

 

[Aliceacc]

A few years ago, we started getting one or two good gifts from Mom and Dad. (It started the year my husband spent 25 hours putting together a rod hockey table for my son. One or two hours into it, we realized that there was no way we could pretend that Santa was down there doing it.)

We came to realize that it's important that the kids get something nice from us. They see all the shopping; they know that we're getting something nice for their cousins and grandparents. I would hate for them to think that they're a lower priority to us than everyone else. And they put such care into what they've chosen for us, I want them to know that we've taken the same amount of care into getting the right gifts for them.

This year, my older 2 are getting IPOD shuffles along with some CDs, some PJs, and some toys my husband picked up. (I haven't gotten to wrapping them yet, so I'm not sure what they are. But it's one per child; probably a board game or something.)

Everything else is from Santa.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Ds is now 15 1/2 so we have done the same thing for 16 Christmas's. Santa brings toys, only toys (though those toys have became things like ipods etc at 16). Mom and dad buy clothes and books and things like watches. EVERYTHING gets wrapped. Makes Christmas last longer. Pj's are from mom and dad and gets opened Christmas eve as well as one or two other clothes items now that he is older.

 

[WantToGoNow]

Most of the kids gifts come from mom/dad and big sister (other than that we really only have one set of grandparents that buy for them and they get 2 gifts - one clothing and one toy). They are wrapped and under the tree. Santa will bring each child 3 gifts -- their "big" gift and two others. I never wrapped until last year when my ds6 commented that all the gifts were wrapped on Polar Express. He was already starting to have his doubts, so we bought red/white striped paper like they use on the show (we bought enough for several years) and all the gifts from Santa get that special paper with ribbons and bows (or present toppers per my dd4). He hasn't once asked this year about the truth of Santa so I don't know if he were convinced or if he's playing along - but atleast if he knows the truth he isn't telling his sister.