Santa?
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive December 2004:
Santa?
So in your house, does Santa bring all the presents , or just one? Does he wrap them, or leave them unwrapped?
In our house, Santa brings one toy, and its unwrapped. We buy the rest and wrap it all. I figured I want to get credit for the majority of gifts 
Also what did you leave out for Santa? We leave Santas food outside on the front porch, Mainly because we dont have a fireplace, and 2nd the dogs would eat Santa snacks LOL
We left Santa 2 chocolate chip cookies, and a glass of eggnog. We left the reindeer a bowl of oats, as we didnt have any official reindeer food LOL
Thats a great idea Jackie Both of them .We leave cookies and milk for Santa ,and didn`t even think of the reindeer !
We don`t put any presents out until late Christmas eve and about 4-5 are from Santa and the rest from us.
I like the idea of only one from Santa ,less confusing.Meaning you don`t have to remember whom gave what .
I will have to try your idea`s next year
We wrap all of the gifts, though we use different wrapping paper for our gifts. We got the kids one big toy from us, and some smaller gifts plus stockings from Santa. I'm interested in everyone's traditions, since we are still trying to decide what we want to do for Santa gifts. We left cookies and milk on the counter for Santa, no reindeer food this year, but we'll leave carrots next year, when the kids understand more about Santa and his reindeer.
The kids all get one gift from Santa, and the rest from us. He leaves stockings for all of us, and this year left us all a Game Cube. :o)
We normally leave cookies and milk, but last night he got some squares and eggnog. The reindeer always get carrots.
Santa usually only brings one or two gifts here, and they are not wrapped. Santa brought the boys Nintendo DS's this year and that was supposed to be it. So dh and I set everything out last night after the boys were asleep and went to bed. At about 3am I woke up and realized we'd forgotten to put out belt racks, double short sticks and framed certificates (all karate stuff) and I'd even forgotten to wrap them. So we went down and just leaned them up against the bookcases. Well between those times, Robin had gotten up to use the bathroom and had only seen the DS's so he SWEARS Santa came twice! lol We didn't put any tags or anything on that stuff, so they thought Santa brought it. Dh told them that when Santa came the first time he must have noticed how clean their rooms were and decided to bring them something else. (keeping their rooms clean, especially for Robin, is a major thing!) I put some cookie crumbs on a plate and a little eggnog in the bottom of a glass out after the kids were in bed. I just really wonder, with Robin being 11yo and Randy being 9yo, how many more years we have of Santa left. He was asking this morning how Mema and Pepa (mil and fil) knew to get them DS games because Santa hadn't brought the DS's yet. He also asked why Santa didn't leave presents for dh, me and the cats and dog. I told him Santa had enough kids in the world to get presents for that he didn't need to get them for parents and animals, too. He said, "So when I get older, Santa won't bring me anything?" The boys do know the real meaning of Christmas, but I think for now they really want to believe. I'll let them for as long as they want.
Santa usually leaves one gift per child (plus stocking) and maybe one big one as well and doesn't wrap them though he will assemble and set up toys if they need it. However, he did get sneaky this year. He wrapped a 12 DVD Lord of the Rings trilogy set and hid it in behind the tree so we opened it last.
We did do something this year that really worked well. On the 24th we were at my DH's sister's house and exchanged and opened gifts. That evening we did the same thing at my brother's with him, my sister and my parents. We opened our family gifts on Christmas morning and later Christmas day we went to the in-laws and opened gifts there. It was great to spread it all out and to be able to open presents in front of the person who gave it to you. My sister got to see Catherine (6)nearly break down in tears from joy when she unwrapped her "Spirited Away" DVD. It also let them go at a slower pace and not be in a rush to get through the pile of stuff, which was good since Harry (just about 3) got a train set at almost evey stop and wasn't interested in anything else after those were put together. It also spread it out more and didn't make the wait so horrible for the kids. We might expand it to the include the great-grandparents as well next year and do some on the 23rd or Boxing day (26th).
Santa usually gives the kids the one or two toys that they asked Santa for. The rest are from us.
The kids made "magic reindeer food" at preschool. It consisted of oats, birdseed and sprinkles. I sprinkled it on the snowcovered lawn Christmas Eve night. The next morning there were all kinds of little footprints in the snow around where i sprinkled it. We also leave Santa a few cookies, milk and my dd drew him a picture.
Christmas morning, my 5 yr old dd lost her first tooth! Everyone that she told said to her "wow, Santa one night and the tooth fairy the next!" I think she got tired of hearing that.
Santa brings lots of gifts (all wrapped in separate "Santa" paper) and we give the kids one or two things from us.
Santa brought 3 gifts this year..just like the baby Jesus received from the wise men. This year we didn't wrap Santa's gifts as I didn't want to worry about the paper and dd is starting to get wiser...she even asked if I had a green marker because Santa had written their names on the gifts with a green marker.
For Santa we leave 2 cookies. He ate one and took a bit out of the other and a glass of milk. We usually leave out carrots for the reindeer but forgot this year. Last year we did this and when we went outside the next day, we found a piece of nibbled carrot in the yard!
We do all the gifts under the tree. Santa just does the stockings in our house!
We open all of our gifts on CHristmas Eve with all of our extended family. Santa fills stockings (some years wrapped, some not, depending on how tired he is!) and sets up all the toys that the kids got that evening. This way we don't have a million tiny pieces all over the floor when we are trying to open gifts and the kids wake up to toyland in our living room.
This year, my ds was given a bag of magic reindeer food (oats and silver glitter) with instructions to sprinkle this on the lawn. The sparkle of the glitter guides the reindeer to our home and the oats are a snack while they are waiting for Santa. He gets several cookies and milk with carrots to take out to the reindeer.
We did the reindeer food on the lawn too. Ds 4.5 thought that was pretty neat.
We do Christmas with my family the Saturday before Christmas. So the kids open alot of gifts before Christmas. We pass out all the gifts and go around the room taking turns watching each child open 1 gift at a time. It takes forever, but it gives parents the chance to take pic's and it gives the child the chance to look at who gave them each gift and tell them thank-you.
Then the older 2 go to their Dad's on Christmas Eve. They open gifts with him in the morning and then they go to his families that evening and open more gifts. He brings them home Christmas Eve night and they open one more gift here at home before going to bed.
Santa brings several gifts per child. Usually whatever they asked Santa for (well within reason! lol). He sets the toys up neatly arranged in seperate piles and then fills their stockings. He then lays their stocking amongst their *pile* so that when they get up in the morning they know which toys are theirs. We get up on Christmas morning and play with Santa toys, check out whats in stockings, etc... Then we have a big brunch tpye meal around 11am. After eating we go back in the living room and pass out gifts under the tree. We again go around the room taking turns watching each person open one gift at a time and really checking out the gift, taking pic's, videoing, saying thank you's, etc... Then we spend the rest of the day putting toys together, trying on clothes, playing games, watching new dvd's, etc... Then I cook another meal in the evening (usually a ham with our favorite sides).
I am so glad it is all over and I can relax and just enjoy the kids being out of school this week. I think today we will go to the movies.
Santa leaves one or two gifts, usually the one or two items that the children are really hoping for, and we leave the rest. All are wrapped although Santa doesn't put bows on his because they would probably fall off in his sack anyway. We leave milk and cookies and carrots unless one of the kids makes "reindeer food" at school.
Santa leaves one or two of the biggest gifts wrapped in unbeforeseen Santa wrapping paper and does the stockings.
DD who is terribly afraid of Santa would not leave Santa a treat but left apples for the reindeer. She did want to write Santa a note and I wrote it in her exact words. "Santa, I hope I'm on the nice list. Here are apples for the reindeer. I am ascared of you. But God bless you anyway. I love you. Katy Beth".
Santa left a very sweet note back to her which she put in her room beside her bed.
Santa leaves lots of gifts including a "main gift" for each child. All of them are wrapped in Santa paper.
We buy smaller gifts. Also all clothes and stuff like that is from us as well.
We leave milk and cookies for Santa in the house and "reindeer food" (glitter and oatmeal mix)for the reindeer outside.
We don't have a fireplace, but we know that Santa is magic and he can create a chimney and fireplace to come down. Just like in the Tim Allen movie "The Santa Claus"
My daughter is also very afraid of Santa at the mall, but she hasn't ever had a problem leaving him a treat.
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