When does Santa come??? Dilema...

[whoopnshoot]

We will be at POP from Dec. 20 - 30. This is our first Christmas Disney trip, and I'm concerned about the whole "Santa is Coming"....How would you handle it? Our little ones are 3 & 5. We don't have room to bring gifts with us, so I was thinking that we would just wait and let Santa come the night we get back home. I just hope that friendly Disney folks don't ask my children about if Santa came, etc....Maybe I'm making too much out of this. One more thing to stress about, eh? I would love to hear your Santa plans during (or after) the trip!

 

[crisi]

My parents used to have the neighbors bring the gifts into our house while we travelled (we always went to visit relatives several states away over the holidays). So we'd walk in late around December 30th to find Santa had come and left all our presents under the tree.

Santa would also bring us an easily portable gift with a note that let us know the the remaining presents would be waiting for us at home.

 

[LPersio]

Can you possibly have a friend or relative come into the house while you are away and put out the presents? You can tell the kids that Santa will come, on Christmas eve to your house, then all the presents will be there when you get home.

 

[aanderson5]

You could take a picture of the wrapped presents and give the kids a card from Santa on Christmas morning saying he couldn't leave the presents at the hotel so he was going to drop them off at your house and they will be waiting for them. I would be great if someone could put them under the tree for you but if not maybe there is some way one of you could sneak in the house first and pull out all the gifts.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We did a trip 2 years ago and returned on Dec 25. Here's what I did: I had all the presents wrapped and in a downstairs closet. Right before we left for the airport, I quickly put the presents under the tree. I'm usually the last one out of the house so the boys didn't think it was suspicious. We told the boys Santa would come on Christmas Eve like he normally did and that he would leave the presents whether we were home or not. When we walked in the door on Christmas Day, the presents were there. It was easy and didn't generate any questions from the boys at all. I would suggest doing the same thing.

 

[LisaMommy]

My parents used to have the neighbors bring the gifts into our house while we travelled (we always went to visit relatives several states away over the holidays). So we'd walk in late around December 30th to find Santa had come and left all our presents under the tree.

Santa would also bring us an easily portable gift with a note that let us know the the remaining presents would be waiting for us at home.

This is what we do. We travel every year to England at Christmas time and we bring a little gift from Santa, and then have our friends drop the others off at our house whilst we're gone. Plus my kids usually get a bunch from my family when we're over there so they don't really feel too bad. I'm sure your kids will be too thrilled about being at Disney to really care if a CM says anything. Have fun!

 

[tzolkin]

Our kids only get one present from Santa. The rest are from us, so if we were going on a trip I would just bring each child a small present from Santa to open that morning. Or maybe you could even go out to one of the Disney shops without the kids and buy them each something that they really want. I would assume they could wrap it for you there. (Even if you haven't done only one present from Santa in the past, I think you could still do it. We changed when our oldest was about 4. We decided to do this because we didn't want our kids to wonder why Santa didn't bring a ton of gifts to poorer kids if he brought all their presents.)

Even though ours wouldn't be from Santa, I would still set the rest of the presents out before we left for our trip. I think that's part of the excitement of seeing all the presents under the tree. As another poster said, if you have everything wrapped and ready to go it should only take a minute to set everything up. You could just have your husband and the kids in the car and run back in to get something. They won't suspect and they'll have forgotten about it by the time you get back.

 

[Beachclubmama]

You could take a picture of the wrapped presents and give the kids a card from Santa on Christmas morning saying he couldn't leave the presents at the hotel so he was going to drop them off at your house and they will be waiting for them. I would be great if someone could put them under the tree for you but if not maybe there is some way one of you could sneak in the house first and pull out all the gifts.

I like this idea!(above) We are giving all clothing presents early in case they want to pack some of them.Toys will be wrapped and under the tree in our room on Christmas morning. They will still have some presents under the tree at home when we return.(We live 12 minutes from Disney) I told the kids I had to fill out a form for them to get some of their presents early. I made a video of their rooms and had each kid say of why they should be able to get some presents early because of vacation. I told them we have to wait and see because only a few kids are allowed to get presents early. We plan on leaving the presents out on 12/19 before we leave for the Very Merry Christmas Party and when we get home they will have their answer from Santa! Saturday they can add some things to their suitcases and Sunday we start vacation.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

My BIL dresses as Santa for our DD3, DS5 and DC 3. We are asking him to come a couple days before we go to WDW. He'll tell them that since he knew they were going, the toys (mainly clothes) were made, and it would lighten his sleigh Christmas Eve that he they are getting their presents before Christmas Day.

The big surprise (at least for our DD) will be a Cinderella dress that is being shipped to WDW along with some new pjs for DS.

 

[TinkerbellBlue]

We go away every year for Christmas. One gift each year is from Santa and that is packed away for Christmas morning. The rest of the gifts are opened before we go. My mom comes over the evening or two before we leave and we have a family Christmas. We have always done it this way and it is now a tradition for us.

 

[daisyduck123]

We spent last Christmas (Dec. 20-26) at AKV. We brought one duffel bag of gifts with us. In there, we had the gifts DD & DS had been hoping for the most....DS's Lego, DD's new laptop. The rest of the gifts were waiting for us at home.

 

[Liberty Belle]

If I were doing it, I'd bring the stockings for Santa to fill and then tell the kids you'll write a note to leave the big gifts at home.

 

[Magical09]

We went for x-mas last year and I have kids at a similar age. We told them we were going to Disney for x-mas and that we spoke to Santa and he was coming when we got back. I didn't have anyone to put presents under the tree so Santa came the night we came home. They were too young to question it ....Santa can do anything

 

[wdwluver]

Wow, Santa never brought a lot of gifts to our house. We would just have one unwrapped present under the tree from Santa and the rest from Mom and Dad.

If we were going to be out of town on Christmas day, "Santa" would just leave a note in our kids' stockings at our vacation location with a little trinket. The note would say he left their gift at the house. They would get it when we returned.

 

[mommyarewegoingback]

We're in the same same situation. My DH always checks the house to make sure everything is okay when we return, to make sure nothing "bad" has happened before me and the kids walk in. So our plan is the have everything ready in a closet near the tree and when he checks the house, it will be there when they walk in... We haven't told our kids about trip yet either and I'm totally so excited. Have a great trip!
-Virginia

 

[hopefor4]

We are leaving for the world Dec 23. This Sunday we are opening all of the presents except Santa of course! That way they have a little Christmas now, at Disney, and Santa when we get back.

Makes for an exciting couple of days!

Michelle

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

Growing up, we were always out of town visiting family on Christmas. My brother and I would write a letter to Santa, asking him to come another day. We would usually do it before our trip, but if you want, have the kids ask him to come New Year's Eve instead of Christmas Eve! Then you could do it right after you get back!