Morning, friends. It’s your turn to talk!
I was going to open this conversation to ANY topic from sleep training to dealing with in-laws, but decided to narrow in on one that may be weighing on some of the newer moms: What are the rules of engagement for Santa Claus?
If the Man in Red comes to your house, does he bring all kinds of gifts or just stocking stuffers? Does he wrap or not wrap? If your kids are in school, are you preserving Santa’s rep against all odds, or do you think the believers are deaf to the naysayers at school? Is the guy at the mall actually Santa or just a helper? Do you and your partner agree on all these issues?
What’s on your mind when it comes to Santa?
(photo courtesy SF Gate)
My son is only 2.5 this Christmas but in my family, Santa didn’t wrap gifts. I’m sure my parents didn’t put a much effort into it as it seemed, but when we got up in the morning and went in the living room, there was just this amazing display of our gifts from Santa. I specifically remember the year I received Molly, my American Girl doll. Molly and some outfits and accessories were there waiting for me like open arms and Molly was the source of so many happy hours of play and wonderful memories. So although my husband’s family always wrapped all gifts, all from Santa, I have insisted on doing it the same way my parents did. I also want my kids to understand that momma and daddy buy gifts as well, and appreciate and thank us. I’ve known other people who recieved lots of gifts but all were from Santa and I feel like that makes it too easy to take for granted. But stockings (who’s contents should always be wrapped! How else to use the scraps?) are from us, mostly because my mom insists on doing one for our son as well (and daughter, now, too, but she’s only a month old) and it seems a better way to explain why he gets two.
Jennifer, I share the same memory of unwrapped Santa gifts, though they were sort of overflowing out of the stocking, which was also from him, also unwrapped. Like you, I have insisted that my husband conform to my Santa rules. Technically, I am Jewish, but not so much on Christmas.
When I was a kid (and what I do for my own kids), Santa would bring one big, unwrapped present. There is a red string that you have to follow around the house to find your specific present. And the presents in the stocking are wrapped in tissue paper without tape, I always thought they didn’t have tape at the North Pole. One tradition that I like from my husbands family, is to put out all the presents at one time. So the kids go to bed with no presents and come out in the morning with tons of presents waiting for everyone. We also have presents that specifically come from Mom and Dad and one of my pet peeves is when other people sign their gift tags ‘Santa’, without considering the whole wrapping paper consistency thing.
Deia, I love that red string idea! Sounds like so much fun!
We’re still sorting all this out. We have a 3yo and a 15mo. Sharing has been an issue lately so Santa is bringing the kids stockings with gifts wrapped in tissue paper and then putting a few items under the tree that are for both kids. In our house, Santa is a little bit of a tightwad and very old school. He’s picked out crayons, jump ropes, balls, etc. Our families have bought plenty of noisy, electronic, flashy plastic toys, so no need for Santa to pile it on.
But like I said, sharing is a big issue in this house so the whole “communal toy pile” thing might not go over well. I just can’t stand my 3yo thinking every toy belongs to her and not allowing her brother to touch anything.
JJ, my in-laws did grab bag gifts for the adult children for a stretch of years. It’s almost the opposite of what you’re describing. A set of gifts would be opened and whoever wanted it most could have it. They would be things that are good for any adult, like a nice spatula, a set of earbuds, etc. mostly stuff from The Container Store or Crate and Barrel. It was fun, but eventually it was decided that we all had all the kitchen gadgets we could handle.
Ooh, it is so interesting to read others’ traditions!
I have a 3 yo and a 17 month old so this is our first Christmas that my husband and I have really discussed and come up with a plan. All gifts are wrapped, including Santa’s. At first I was being specific about which wrapping paper was from us vs. Santa but then I realized that my daughter is 3 and isn’t yet to the stage where she’s looking to doubt or question the existance of Santa. So I’m just oging with whatever. We do one big present from Santa for both girls (this year, an indoor trampoline) plus one individual for each. Santa does stockings but so do Mom and Dad – I guess its a free for all! My husband and I do each others stockings (unwrapped) so we figured we would let Santa do the stockings but it isn’t off limits for the parents to put something in there too. I also like the idea of all the gifts showing up overnight. It adds an element of “wow” in the morning when we wake up. Plus, wrapped gifts under the tree prior to Christmas are just BEGGING to be messed with by the kids!
When I was a kid, we opened gifts from “people” (not Santa), including my parents, on Christmas Eve, then Santa came overnight and left gifts and a stocking, which was pretty much just stuffed with candy. When we were little, Santa didn’t wrap anything, but as I got bigger (and knew, but we still got gifts) I asked that “he” wrap things, to prolong the suspense a bit.
The “big” gifts were from Santa, and the “boring” things were always from parents, but also lots of toys from parents, too.
After Santa stuff was opened, we ate brunch (which went by the wayside as we started sleeping in, rather than getting up at 4 am!) and then had the big Christmas turkey dinner (menu was identical to Thanksgiving) at noon / afternoon / evening (depending on when/if the Cowboys played 🙂 ).
My partner’s family had the big dinner (shrimp) on Christmas Eve and opened all gifts – people and Santa – on Christmas Day.
So, pretty much the total opposite!
Her now-extended family has sort of settled into Christmas Dinner (still shrimp, seafood casserole, dressings, etc) on Christmas Eve at her sister & partner’s house, followed by church all together at their church ( a UU).
Christmas Day, we generally have a light, late lunch at her parents’ house and open gifts from people.
As for our little family – our daughter is three – last year, we opened gifts from each other on Christmas Eve and I think we’re doing at least some of them tomorrow, again, and of course, Santa gifts on Christmas morning.
Sometimes people have to work Christmas Day and things get moved around. Last year, the big family gift thing was on the 26th and it was SO nice to have Christmas Day at home, able to let our daughter open as slowly or quickly as she wanted.
My Gramma inadvertently started a Christmas eve tradition of us receiving and then wearing new panamas. Now that we live 700 miles away from all of the familly, we’ve decided to continue the tradition. One gift opened on Christmas eve and then all the rest in the morning. Santa doesn’t wrap gifts and more often than not, the gift is something for the family or all 3 kiddos. This year its a giant tub of playdoh and accessories. He also stuffs the kids stockings but dh and i do each others. And stocking stutters aren’t wrapped either.
We always do Xmas jammies on the Eve, too, a tradition I grew up with, but this year I used them for the photo, so we opened them early.
I too love reading all the different traditions! We’re just establishing ours with our 2.5 year old this year, and are trying to incorporate some of my husband’s favorites and mine. From my family- stockings always have your favorite piece of fruit (orange, apple, in my case a grapefruit!) in the toe! I think this was somewhat an attempt to stem the sugar overload, but those round fruits just fit perfectly into the toe and I loved that Santa knew which fruit I wanted! We always had unwrapped stocking stuffers, but we’re going with my husband’s tradition of wrapping them. We decided to have the smaller gifts from Santa and the big gift (we got him an Alphie robot computer thing) from us. Another tradition we’re starting is we picked an ornament from the YMCA needy families tree that was for a child close to his age, and picked that present out. He didn’t really get that this year, but I hope he’ll understand that more in the future. Speaking of ornaments, my Dad & Stepmom have started a tradition of gifting each grandchild a special ornament, marked with their name & the year on the back/bottom of it.
Also from my family, church on Christmas eve, and from my husband’s egg casserole on Christmas morning for breakfast!
We’re Christmas tradition junkies. We start by the day after Thanksgiving by putting our tree up together and then watching the animated grinch movie when we’re done.
Our daughter is 2, so this is the first year she’s really going to understand Santa. Santa fills her stocking and gives her gifts wrapped in special Santa paper (with Santas on it). We also wear christmas jammies to bed on Christmas eve.
Our son is only 3 months old so reading all these comments is giving me lots of ideas for how our family will celebrate in years to come! One neat thing my husband’s family did was that there would be a gift from Santa and also one from Mrs. Claus under the tree.
My husband doesn’t really believe in traditions or celebrating or really holidays in general, although he is fine with going through the motions to some degree for our children.
Currently we have a 4 month old, and I think the plan is to tell him the truth, but ask him to let the other kids (cousins, classmates, friends) enjoy the fantasy. I personally think that mall Santa is one of the creepiest ‘traditions’ people go along with – scary old man holding screaming young children all day? Hmmm…
I love the Christmas pajama idea!
This year we did a Christmas scavenger hunt for my 4-year old to find Santa’s present. At first he was cranky about having to read on Christmas, but once he realized they were clues he had a lot of fun following them and finding his present. He asked if we could write a letter to Santa to ask him to do that again next year.