What do you tell your LO's?

[jools221181]

I know Brody is far too young to understand about Father Christmas etc yet but I've just been working out in my head what to tell him when he is old enough to understand!
I can't remember what we were told other than the obvious he brings all the presents!

So.... does Santa make all the toys or does he get his elves to go shopping for him?!
How come if the presents are under the tree already, how does Santa bring them on christmas eve????
How did Santa get a present to Nana's house early (he will be opening nana's present at her house on xmas eve!!)
How can the presents be from Mummy&Daddy, Grandad etc if santa brought them?
erm I'm sure there are more things that I can't think of!

Blimey - reading that back I think I'm cracking up

 

[Squiglet]

DO NOT I repeat... DO NOT ever leave the presents under the tree... because as they get older you will find they are no longer wrapped

Dunno... I just told Tia that we sent money to Father Christmas and his elves brought the pressies.. I'd hide them in the house or at Grandma's till xmas, smuggle them in after Tia had gone to bed... so they magically appeared in the morning.

 

[Potbelijo]

We always got presents from the family and from Santa. Santa brought some and family gave each other gifts too

 

[Bloom]

My plan when the time comes is

I will tell LO that the presents in her santa sack (or under the tree if thats what you do) are from santa and then she will get a main present from mummy & daddy (this will usually be a bigger more expensive pressent) then there will be family presents.

 

[Becky]

In our house (controversially with the In-Laws) Presents in the stocking are from Santa and are not wrapped. Presents under the tree are from family and friends. Santa brings a few smallish items (book/sweets/small toy etc.) and the main presents are from us, usually 2 or 3 things and hopefully only 1 or 2 toys from relatives. I keep trying to tell the in-laws that we need somewhere to store all the crap that DD gets bought so 1 or 2 thoughtful gifts are more appreciated.

Oh and I had to argue that Santa does not leave presents for the children at any other house. This did not go well.

 

[maybebaby]

Presents in the stocking are from Santa and are not wrapped. Presents under the tree are from family and friends.

That's what we do too, it makes more sense to me if Santa only brings stocking presents.

 

[jools221181]

Ooooh good ideas everyone I may have to steal some

 

[helsekia]

we always told kiara that she writes her letter to santa and then he decides what on her list she can have depending on how good shes been.after christmas santa sends mummy the bill which is why the presents are from mummy and daddy.

we never put presents under the tree until shes in bed xmas eve and we make sure all presents are well hidden

kiara still believes in santa but at 7 years old she probably wont next year

 

[Red_Fairy]

when i was a kid the presents were NEVER under the tree, it made it that much more amazing on xmas day. (even then they were put in a sack or two at the end of my bed - and we'd go nuts and take them into mums n dads room, and open them with them in bed) LOVEELLLY... i hope to do the same with my girls as they get older.

also, we got presents of 'mum and dad' - quite a few of them, but they were only little presents, always the main one (like dolls house/bike/sega mega drive ) was from Father Christmas

 

[Becky]

Presents in the stocking are from Santa and are not wrapped. Presents under the tree are from family and friends.

That's what we do too, it makes more sense to me if Santa only brings stocking presents.

I just hate the idea that this man who comes to the house once a year gives the best presents when it's the family and friends who love the children all year round. I guess my reasoning comes from my when we were little and we used to get a massive sack of presents from Santa and one or two things from our parents. One year my brother says to my mum "Look at all the great stuff Santa got us, and we only got x from you".

From that day on Santa was not the most generous person at Christmas.

I don't know why but I kinda feel like Santa is magical enough without being the one to give all the best pressies! Plus, we see some relatives days, sometimes weeks after Christmas day so it makes sense for the children to know that presents from relatives are just that, from relatives.

Thankfully our situation is quite simple as my niece gets presents from Santa delivered to her mum's, dad's AND grandma's so she has to write 3 different letters to Santa!

 

[jools221181]

kiara still believes in santa but at 7 years old she probably wont next year

My nephew will be 11!! in January and he has only just this year said to his mum so what's the deal with this father christmas then??

 

[jools221181]

We always got presents from the family and from Santa. Santa brought some and family gave each other gifts too

I think this is what we will do too.

I'm not going to put any presents under the tree either going to keep them hidden! I remember we never saw any presents until Christmas morning either

 

[mary70]

we have never had prezzies under the tree and we have never let they kids have any prezzies before christmas, they go to nans on boxing day and have prezzies there but nan always rings to say santa has been so they know they were there christmas day.It started getting a bit sad before Hannah was born because obviously kieron didnt belive anymore but Hannah has brought the sparkle back again

 

[*Star*]

i was told that it was my mum and dad that have bought the presents and then we send them to santa to bring them at christmas.

becuase my brother was 5 when my eldest was born and only 6/7 when we started to tell benjamin about father christmas it was easier to say the same thing as my parents so that the two didn't conflict!!!

plus, it was what i knew growing up too.

christmas is such a magical time - i love it! it's almost time for me to be playing xmas songs during the day!!!

we have presents under the tree that the children have helped to buy, and presents from to each other and to grandparents and siblings. also presents to parents too. we've said that santa doesn't have enough space in his sleigh to fit adults presents on too!

 

[kelsey]

With ours - they know that we give gifts and santa does too.

 

[SarahH]

You would think, the way you are all speaking that Santa isnt real......
















Arianna gets gifts from us and from Santa. What is in her stocking is from Santa - I buy a different wrapping paper for all the stocking stuff - christmas is all about unwrapping fun!
Once she is asleep we hang the stocking on her bedroom door - last year when we were in the states, we were soken up to her saying "Wow" as she threw one of the stocking goodies off my head in bed

As for how Santa gets in, we are going to make a special key together for Santa to get in as we are on the ground floor apartments so have no chimney - I know she wont understand it yet, but next year she will prob ask questions (if we are still in this place, which hopefully we arent!) I have kept a box that I had some of my xmas shopping delivered in and I am going to cut out a big key shape, then let Arianna paint it and stick some glitter on etc

 

[aramintalovegrove]

we have other peoples prezzies under the tree as I think it looks pretty then as we see those people and exchange gifts they change to our gifts from other people.

santa gets some of the gifts but we pay towards them, he tries to give DS what he wants but only if I have enough warning to tell santa what it is he is after before christmas day.

on xmas morning we all go downstais together to see what santa has left and its all under the tree sometimes he leaves a treasure hunt for some gifts to amuse the kids.

We always leave dirty beer and a carrot for rudolph you cant be drunk in charge of a sleigh you see

I am getting lots of questions about the validity of certain characters involved in distribution of prezzies but im trying to keep hold of the magic, I can remember being privvy to the fact that a certain man may be a fabrication but still held hope this was somehow flawed information, TBH I still do!!!

 

[Ladybird]

My brother & sister and I do what we did as children.

Tree goes up Dec 15th ish and as presents from friends and family arrive, they go under the tree.

On Christmas Eve children write letter to Father Christmas and put it in fire so the burnt paper goes up the chimney. Father Christmas is able to magically read it on the roof top! Without fireplace, anything will do. Candle, BBQ (yes, we did!) or just leave letter on harth. Also leave carrot, mulled wine/sherry/beer/coca cola, mince pie, and of course, stocking!

Father Christmas fills stocking, eats mince pie, drinks sherry and takes carrot for Rudolph. Fills stocking with presents, (wraped in different paper) and satsuma! Very important!

Christmas morning, stocking opened, after breakfast presents from family opened incl main presents from mum and dad, after lunch presents from other people opened.

Father Christmas fills a stocking. All other presents come from friends and family.

Now, How many sleeps until Christmas???

 

[lea m]

Well tell them that we go buy the pressies that they want, then send them to Santa who then decides if he thinks they are good enough and adds a few of his own! lol
It makes it a bit easier to explain if they see us hiding things etc!
We have a special key for Santa that we hang on the door on Christmas Eve! (we dont have a chimney lol!)

 

[Babylicious]

We tell paris that santa brings one gift and we bring the rest so we put one under the tree from santa