Santa's gifts
Our first Christmas with a child, we had a small disagreement about how we would handle the Santa/gift giving tradition in our new family. He thought that all presents under the tree Christmas morning would be from Santa. Growing up, when I got up, there would be unwrapped presents under the tree...those Santa brought, and he also filled my stocking. After checking out my stuff from Santa, we would have a gift exchange with my parents. Those were the wrapped presents under the tree. At first my husband thought it seemed silly for presents under the tree, but they weren't from Santa. My thought was, if the kids see us buying presents for grandmas, grandpas, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, etc, why don't we give gifts to each other? So it only made sense to buy a few gifts for each other...so they kids aren't confused by all the Christmas shopping, and then Santa brings some presents and fills the stockings. Santa doesn't wrap his presents, he just leaves them out under the tree. I figure this way I don't have to buy special paper that only Santa's gifts are wrapped in.
What is the Santa tradition in your house?
Santa gifts
We have always done a couple of presents wrapped under the tree for eachother and then Santa brings wrapped presents and leaves then under the tree in the "different" paper. As a parent now, having the Santa presents unwrapped sounds soooo much easier and less messy. Hmmmm....maybe Santa will try that this year in our house.
Santa
Well we are just starting the whole Santa thing but I think they should be wrapped it makes it much more fun and special. I buy different paper. and make everything but one from Santa.
wrapped
We always wrapped the presents. This year my son asked me if Santa brings the presents then why are we buying more. I told him that Santa only brings present for kids so we buy for the big people. It seemed to worked.....atleast for this year.
Santa wraps and leaves unwrapped gifts at our house
We leave just a few bigger items unwrapped from Santa, but most things are wrapped up. I probably do almost half from us and the rest from Santa, but we don't go out of the way to use different paper. The kids have never questioned it, but I just confirmed the Santa truth this year for my oldest. He pretty much had an idea anyway.
santa gifts
when I was little we would have our stockings hung on by the fireplace. Our gifts from santa would be under our stockings. some times there were wrapped and sometimes there were not. It just depended on how big they were. I remember one year we got a kitchen set and that was not wrapped because Mom and Dad put it together for us to play with then. Now with my son. My husband and I have decided to put our stockings on a window seal and we put the gifts from santa under his stockings. I make sure that I wrap them in different paper so that I know which ones are which.
santa tradition
we allow the kids to open one gift on Christmas eve and we tell them that gift is from mommy and daddy. They love it. Then the go to bed and we get out all the other gifts and then christmas morning they come down and unwrap all the gifts from santa. I have 3 Foster Kids in my home and until last year they did not knowanything about presents or santa nothing like thatso wefigured this is a good way to doit for them. So that they can Believe in things again.
gifts
i have to share this story, I was about 5 and i just moved up here from alabama. My dad and I were staying with my grandparents for the holidays. I was wondering how "santa" would find me, well I was told he knows everything.
I woke up in the morning, walked out, and saw all my presents under the tree, unwrapped! My grandma tells me i cried and ran back to my room I was sleeping in. i told them "santa" didn't bring those they were not wrapped!
My suggetion is wrap, you never know how they will take it. It takes hours to wrap them, I know, but to see them get so excited to unwrap is priceless!
we do both
Santa and mom and dad give gifts. It's such a short time for the experience, we wanted all we could get out of it. We don't wrap Santa's gifts either. He just pulls them out of his bag, already assembled and time for fun. Our oldest just discovered the "belief" this Feb. I cried.Lynn
We do both too.
When the kids believed in Santa (last year we found out what they truly believed in... and that is a whole another story)... we had one gift wrapped in different paper of course that was from Santa. We told the kids the gift they asked from Santa had to be less than $25 due to he had so many gifts to give to every good boy/girl that it was the respectful thing to do. To not be stingy. Then the rest was from mom and dad. Of course there was one from the other child as well. They do extra chores to earn enough money to purchase a gift for their brother. They can pick it out. And each year someone different gets to play Santa and hand out the gifts. My youngest loves to do this each year if we let him. We usually open gifts up on Christmas Day unless my youngest is at his real dad's for Christmas then we do it Christmas Eve. We usually make the kids wait until after breakfast if it's Christmas Eve. I have them come into the kitchen with me and help me make a big special Christmas Eve Breakfast. If it's Christmas Day we wait until after supper. Again they help with Christmas Day dinner as well. We talk about what they wished for, how good they have been, we talk about the things we did all year round (hiking, swimming, camping, the trip we took and the things we saw), we talk about what we will do the next year, etc... It's a great day to just reconnect with the kids and find out what they would like to see next.
Joni Lochtefeld
Unique Creations
Photos, Photo Montages,
Day Care Cameras
www.uniquecreationsvideo.com
wrapping/unwrapped
It may seem crazy and time consuming but the night before Christmas my husband and I open all the toys packages and put everything together and then wrap them. This way when she opens her presents Christmas morning they are all ready to play with and we don't have her unpatiently waiting to be able to enjoy them. As far as the from Santa/mom and dad thing we haven't had to experiance that yet as she is only 2.