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

[DVCLiz]

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???

It depends entirely on the relationship you will have going forwqard with your ex, and how he wants to participate (or not.) Mine did not want to be a part of that, so he didn't. I did all of Christmas for my girls, and he would come over and "see what Santa brought." I think for a couple of years he gave them a gift or two, but not a big deal. When he remarried, they became part of his new family's Christmas, and they usually go over to his house after we have had our Christmas morning and open gifts and eat a Christmas brunch/lunch. Then, I go over to his house and see their gifts (some of which they bring back and some of which are for his house, like games for the PS2 they have at his house, etc.) We all come home together about 3:00pm and then we have our Christmas dinnner that night, just the 3 of us.

My girls are 14 and 19, so we have had many years to figure out what works, etc. And 4 years from now, when my youngest is 18, it might change completely.

 

[r4blessings]

In our house all the toys and gifts come from Santa! Mommy and Daddy give each child a new book (not always Christmas related, sometimes it reflects their interests that year). Most of Santa's gifts are wrapped, usually one big one is left unwrapped. And of course stockings are always unwrapped! And in our house, stockings are usually just fun Christmas candy, with the exception of dd3 who always gets the Christmas morning barbie in hers and ds2 who will be getting the die cast Christmas Thomas train in his.

I'm getting so excited....I love Christmas!

 

[jennyL]

At my parents house Santa always brought the big gift that doesn't get wrapped and maybe a couple other small things all unwrapped sitting with our stockings. All the other gifts are from mom and dad. They decided with all the kids it was easier to wrap the gifts and put them under the tree then try and hide everything from us. I plan to do the same thing when my little one gets old enough to really celebrate.

 

[starbox]

I've always had issues with Santa and global poverty/socio-economic inequality - even as a kid I remember wondering why they did Toys for Tots - did Santa not bring toys to poor kids?

Our kids are 9 and 11, and we told them early that Santa brings every child ONE gift. Everything else is from mom and dad/family. Also, Santa only brings toys to children - which we define as age 10 and under.

Oddly, the reasonable guidelines for Santa meant that our kids really, really believed in Santa for a looooooong time. I remember figuring out there was no Santa when I was really young - it just did not add up to me.

 

[cruizie]

Santa brings 3 gifts and the rest are from Mom & Dad. We do the 3 gifts to mirror the 3 Wisemen. This year, dd6 asked from Santa for the PP Jumbo Jet and a Just Like Me American Girl doll. The 3rd gift will probably either be Coconut (AG dog) or a Barbie. I really want the AG doll to be from us but since she asked Santa for it, I will make that from him. On a side note: we don't wrap Santa gifts but I might get some special paper this year and do that.

 

[puffkin]

Santa always brought all the gifts in our house and everything was wrapped except for big things like Bikes. We all figured out very early though the "truth" so I will probably have to change a bit for my son...probably as he gets older more and more will be from mom and dad and just the big things from Santa to keep it more realistic.

 

[CharmedLife]

We try to downplay the Santa aspects of Christmas so in our house Santa brings 1-2 gifts. Santa also fills a stocking with some little treats. Everything else is from Mom and Dad and gets opened the night before.

The gifts from Santa are wrapped in special paper that doesn't get used for anything else, the stuff in the stocking is not wrapped.

 

[EnchantedPrincess]

Santa brings each of our kids 3 gifts and this year, he will fill a stocking for each one of them as well, and the rest is from Mom and Dad. We wrapped all our gifts and on Christmas Eve, both kids get new pajamas.

 

[memobrien]

I forgot to mention that when i was a kid my mother accidently told me there was no Santa...it's a LONG story, but it was an accident. She to this day feels HORRIBLE about it. So even before my DD was born (she is the only grandchild) EVERYTHING STILL came form Santa.

Yup that's right...my sisters and I were ALL in our 20s and my mother and father INSIST that santa brings it all. You can NOT get her to say that there isn't Santa. Infact if you were to push she would say that you are like the adults from the Polar express and who sad that the bell has gone quiet for you. It's pretty cute actually!

maura

 

[irene_dsc]

Since I'm Jewish and dh is (nominally) Christian, I defer to him on the Christmas traditions. And in his family, Santa did stockings and one gift - the rest was from other people. The Santa gift was in front of the stocking, and unwrapped. The idea was that the kids could play with that one toy, without waking their parents, and then they could do everything else. The not waking parents part hasn't been carried over, however!

We need to figure out which are going to be the Santa gifts - it is relatively unequal this year, since ds is getting a Nintendo ds, plus a few minor gifts, and dd is getting a bunch of smaller things.

 

[earthfaries]

We NEVER give the kids clothes and DVDs for Christmas. The kids were not excited when they used to get clothes for Christmas so we stopped long ago. When they are older and want expensive clothing they don't need, then it could be a gift. As for DVDs, I personally have a collection and buy them at least 3 a month so getting them is not thrilling for them either.

We buy the kids a lot of toys they want and then Santa brings them the toys they really want that are hard to find or that they know we wouldn't buy.
He puts presents in the stockings and under the tree and his presents(and ours)are always wrapped. His are always wrapped in Santa paper, ours are never wrapped in paper with Santa on them, just other pretty Christmas paper.

We leave him rice milk and cookies and carrots for his reindeer. On Christmas morning there are TONS of presents not only under the tree but way out into the living room and they love to find Santas presents with the fun Santa paper and name tags signed by Santa.

Gosh, I sure can't wait for Christmas...they kids are going to be so happy and then it will only be 16 days till Disney World

 

[Along4theRide]

In our house my DH and I will give our kids (DD6 and DS4), a few gifts. It will be the things that they didn't specifically ask for from Santa and/or clothes. Then Santa brings the toys, the bigger (in size) gifts-this year it's scooters, and/or some of the items they asked for from Santa. Everything in our house is wrapped (other than the big items) and Santa always has special paper for each of the kids. For DS it's Transformers and for DD it's Hannah Montana this year. I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they see the packages!! Santa always leaves a stocking for them too. My dh and I do one for each other and the kids know that, they understand that adults don't get presents or stockings from the big man!!

 

[earthfaries]

One thing that makes our kids so happy is that Santa leaves us a gift also
It shows them you're never too old for the Christmas magic

Last year I was so happy~he left me a wonderful , beautiful stainless steel tea kettle which I had wanted and needed for along time.

This year we have asked Santa for a personalized license tag and I have a feeling we will get what we asked for It says..."DSNYWRLD"

 

[GoinToDisney]

At my house growing up, the gifts were from Santa, Mom, & Tommy (what I called my step-dad who raised me). My mom always told me that Santa is the spirit of giving. When you give a gift, you are Santa, when I give a gift, I am Santa, so I guess it goes along with that logic. I don't know what we are doing yet, but this is the year that it counts (dd is 3 1/2 now), and I better figure it out soon. Santa is treated like another Elmo at our house, so I feel like, if I take credit for some of the gifts, I am saying (lying) that Santa brought some and dh and I bought the others. I just don't know what to do. I won't just flat out tell her the whole truth, and I have a hard time lying... I'm running out of time to decide.

 

[earthfaries]

At my house growing up, the gifts were from Santa, Mom, & Tommy (what I called my step-dad who raised me). My mom always told me that Santa is the spirit of giving. When you give a gift, you are Santa, when I give a gift, I am Santa, so I guess it goes along with that logic. I don't know what we are doing yet, but this is the year that it counts (dd is 3 1/2 now), and I better figure it out soon. Santa is treated like another Elmo at our house, so I feel like, if I take credit for some of the gifts, I am saying (lying) that Santa brought some and dh and I bought the others. I just don't know what to do. I won't just flat out tell her the whole truth, and I have a hard time lying... I'm running out of time to decide.

I think what your mom says it great. My son asked me years ago if there was really a santa. I could not lie to him and say yes, santa really comes down your chimney and he is the only one who delivers to all the kids everywhere.

I told him the truth. There is a santa if you believe in him. If he didn't believe in santa or as you said, the magic of santa, he wouldn't be getting any presents!
When we give presents from santa to the kids, we are santa. We are aren't we? We sign his name, buy in his name, etc. WE ARE SANTA!
To us christmas is magic and believing in santa is part of the magic. I am 33 and I still believe in santa~the magic is still alive in me and my family.
I have never seen the "real" santa so I can't say he doesn't exist but all I know is that we are santa for our kids, and lots of people are santa for lots of poor families who wouldn't have christmas without kind donations from folks.
You are giving them that magic...you are giving them santa...you are santa...santa is real

 

[blana]

Admittedly, DS is only 2, so there is always a possibility that we'll work out a different arrangement with Santa later, but, our current rule is Santa brings 1 thing, the biggest thing, and fills the stocking. That way Mom and Dad still get some credit for bringing toys, and well, if DS or any other future DC want something that Santa & parents can't find, it'll be a little easier to explain. (ie, Santa brought you this other really nice thing, and then Mommy & Daddy couldn't find it. We'll try to get it for your birthday.) In my family growing up, Santa brought all the gifts & I remember thinking how weird it was that my parents never gave us gifts yet we had to give them something.

 

[DawnM]

Well, we don't do Santa, so everything comes from us. Santa is a fun tradition and we have a Santa up, but we are realists around here and I just can't do the Santa and tooth fairy thing. In fact, my 9 year old lost a tooth last Sunday and just told me I have forgotten now for several nights to give him his tooth money! Guess I better get on that!

Dawn

 

[Not so Dumbo]

Santa leaves the good stuff and we leave the pajamas, sweatshirts, socks, DVD's, ect.
They are still so excited about Santa that I let him have the good stuff so they aren't disappointed.

 

[mericletwins]

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.


Maura

We wrap everything including stocking stuffers. Everything from Santa comes in paper that has Santa Claus on it. This is paper that is not used for anything else. There have only been a couple exceptions to this. I did not wrap bikes. I didn't wrap a stroller and a crib for dolls. It blows my mind that people don't wrap stuff from Santa. That seems like it takes a lot of the fun out of it. Half the fun is unwrapping it. I think if it was just sitting out there,you would just look at it. I don't know. We have always had Santa stuff wrapped, so I don't know anything else.

 

[design_mom]

Santa brings 3 gifts and the rest are from Mom & Dad. We do the 3 gifts to mirror the 3 Wisemen.

We do the same, for several reasons:
1) reminding us of the true reason for the season
2) cuts down on greed. DS7 very carefully thinks about what he wants. I have been surprised by his choices. He's never asked Santa for expensive gifts. Last year his requests were the Wingo diecast car from the Cars movie (hard to find, but $2.99), the Cars DVD, and Pokemon cards. Grandma had already purchased him the Cars movie, so Santa brought a surprise instead. This year, he's asked for a Batman play set ($15), a book ($8) and he left the third option up to Santa. (He liked getting a surprise last year). Actually, Santa will bring two surprises this year, and the book will go in his stocking (Santa does stockings, too.)
3) We open gifts with my sister's family. They live down the street (we alternate houses.) We decided when the kids were babies that we'd do 3 gifts from Santa. That way, if one family spent more/less that the other family one year, the overage would be from the family -- Santa would treat the kids the same. My sister and I even coordinate wrapping paper so all Santa's gifts are wrapped in the same paper at both houses.