im doing one big thing from us which is there bikes then a $30 from santa otherwise would do afew small things from us,i also got them a 8ft trampoline with net but gave that to hunter for his nday last month coz i dont want them expecting so much at xmas cos it will only get worse as theyre naughty
Growing up we always hung our stockings on the doorknob and in the morning we could get up and empty them out in our rooms and play with them as much as we liked until our parents got up. In the stocking were lots of little things and usually one major present (I'm talking a dolls pram, or a little electronic piano - not super expensive, but more special than the usual socks and jocks type thing.) Then when our parents got up at the more reasonable hour of 8.00ish we would have breakfast and then gather around the tree. There were usually a couple of presents from Santa, but always one from Mum & Dad too. And then the rest were from family and friends. And we also would sit and watch each other unwrap their presents so that everyone got the joy and excitement and got to appreciate the gifts at the same time.
We will be following the same tradition, because I really loved waking up at stupid o'clock (but not before 6am!! That was the rule!) and going through my stocking by myself... then gathering it all up and taking it in to my brothers room and looking at what we each got. And then going to the tree after breakfast and really appreciating the 'gift of giving' with each other. I remember being just as excited to give my presents as I was to receive them. And I think if there wasn't a present from Mum and Dad, the people that cared about us the most we might have felt a little disappointed. Admittedly I probably wouldn't have questioned it at all when I was 3, but I think by 4 I would have wondered why!
We still do the stocking thing too as adults - my brother and I still use the same ones we had as children.... way back in the 70s!!
I've been wondering about this dilema. Growing up it was always 'some from Santa, some from mum and dad' and that;s they way I'm doing it this year too (not that DS gets it at all).
But a part of our Christmas tradition each year is to go shopping and buy a whole bunch of toys to give away to salvo's or whatever for kids who's parents can't afford presents for them. My DH received presents from the salvos when he was young, so this is important to us. But then I was thinking, well, if we tell DS that chrissie presents come from Santa, won't he eventually wonder why we need to buy presents for other kids? We can hardly tell him that Santa doesn't give presents to poorer kids! Maybe he won't make the link....not sure!!
As kids, we always got 1 present each from Santa (as Santa only has room in his sleigh for 1 present for each child in the world) and the rest from mum, dad, brothers & sisters and the dogs!
In our house the presents were all from Santa, and that's what we do here. In fact I never really thought about doing it any different. I don't think I need to take any of the credit, they will only be little enough to believe in the magic for such a short time.
I too go with DS to buy a present for the wishing tree. We did too when I was little. I don't think I actually put two and two together on that until I didn't believe in Santa any more, although I did question why Santa didn't come to poor people.
Have not really decided yet how it is going to be divided up. At the moment it probably does not really matter. Growing up we all used to get our own box of chocolates from Santa, it stopped us arguing over them and I got a Santa stocking as I was the youngest. I also used to get a present from the cats.
With my family the giver gave the present to the receiver and we all watched. It was usually done in our pj's before breakfast. I used to really like it. When mum remarried, my step family had the tradition of the youngest handing out the presents and everyone opening together. It was also done after my SD had breakfast (which of course he took forever having that one morning as he was extremely passive aggressive). I hated it, I did know who got what from whom and if they liked it. It was part of the reason that I hated Christmas for many years.
Our kids have a santa sack which Santa fills up with pressies (I usually buy way too many so they flow over onto the floor around it too, LOL!) and we give them one present each.
I love the magic of the presents being from Santa. When they get older the presents are from us and they only have Santa for a few years so I want it mainly about Santa while I can.
My mum still gave us presents from Santa, even when we were teenagers and knew better...was fun though!
I remember figuring out the hand writing on all the tags was Mums before I figured out the truth about Santa - she reckoned that Santa was so busy he didn't have time to wrap all of the presents, so sent them to her to wrap for him...gotta love the way that Mums can think of things on their feet!
It will be our first daughters first xmas this year, so she wont really know what is going on but we have decided that she will get some presents from santa but most will come from mum and dad. I agree with others on this topic. We do all the hard work, only fair we get the credit!
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we would have breakfast and then gather around the tree. There were usually a couple of presents from Santa, but always one from Mum & Dad too. And then the rest were from family and friends. And we also would sit and watch each other unwrap their presents so that everyone got the joy and excitement and got to appreciate the gifts at the same time.
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