Santa!

[Ashley01]

Who still does Santa at home? What is your Santa tradition? What was it like when you were little?

For us we always got 3 presents from Santa so when we wrote our letters we'd choose our things. Then a stocking, Christmas morning we were allowed to go through our stockings and look at Santa stuff until everyone was up. For dd I'm doing the same thing 3 Santa presents and a stocking. She's not old enough to tell me what she wants other then dora stuff lol so she's getting an art table with coloring books, markers, crayons, Dora color wonder kit, a toddler lap top, a new sled and then her stocking. It will have things like tooth brush, underwear, socks, bath soap, bath toys, a DVD, some hair bows, some treats etc. Oh and none of the Santa stuff is wrapped! One of my friends when I was younger always got her stuff from Santa wrapped and I thought it was so weird!!
Can't wait to hear about everyone elses Santa experience!!

[McD]

We do Santa for Wesley and Maggie. On Christmas Eve, we exchange gifts from each other and that Sneaky Old Santa always leaves a package of new jammies for the kids to wear that night.

Christmas gifts are the next morning. We don't have any set number, we just buy within our budget and things that the kids will like. Stockings always consist of fun little toys, a small amount of candy, new toothbrush-that kind of thing.

Santa presents are wrapped. I stay up late on Christmas Eve wrapping presents. Which comes in handy because hubby and I always exchange our gifts to one another on Christmas Eve after the kids are in bed and since he works this year, I'll be up when he gets home.

[imagine]

Santa comes to our house

He leaves 1 present for each child and fills their stockings with three things: 1)a toothbrush. Santa leave cool brushes unlike the kind mommy buys LOL, 2) a candy bar ( or pack of gum or tick tacks) and a 3)small trinket surprise

The children make him cookies and leave them with a glass of milk.

Each child writes and leaves with the cookies a letter to Santa ( not asking for presents) just a friendly letter wishing Santa a Merry Christmas and asking questions. Hubby prints out a reply on the computer on the paper they ask the questions, using "special" cursive font. He (Hubby/Santa) also praises them for something he has noticed, generally character praise but Little Miss was once praised on how much she had grown up when she switched to cursive writing.
They tend to head straight over to these letter before the stocking and gift. I believe they still have all or at least most their Santa letters.

[Mrs.Mayhem]

Santa only brings 1 present (as he has millions of other little girls and boys). Everything in their stocking is wrapped. They are allowed to get up and open thier stocking only until the rest of the family gets up. This was also my tradition when I was a kid.

[JessieMom]

We still do Santa at our house although the kids are not "little" anymore. We do a stocking that always has candy & some small presents, we do wrap the presents so they can open them. We allow them to open their stockings when they get up while they are waiting for their siblings to get up (DS#1 likes to sleep in while DD would have him up at 4 if we let her, lol). We put things that are fun in them, when they were little it was things like art supplies, cars, legos now we do bigger kid toys like one year we did marshmellow shooters, one year we did these remote control bugs). Usually Santa brings the one big present that the kids have been wanting that Mommy & Daddy would say no to or that we tell them is too expensive. We wrap the santa presents in a different style of wrapping paper that I always hide until Christmas Eve, we never write the kids name on the packages - we pick the paper to match the kids personality & the stocking wrapping paper matches the ones under the tree so they kno whose is whose (we do it that way because I remember my younger sister asking me about the writing on the packages when we were growing up & how it looked like ou moms even though she tried to disguise it).
My parents did stockings for us until we moved out & even then if we came to visit Christmas morning we would have a stocking. My mom always put a cadbury candy bar - to this day I smile when I see these in the store:-), a piece of fruit, lipgloss/chapstick, and a small toy or book.

[Momto5RN]

i only have one that still believes
santa brings 3 gifts ( like the wisemen brought Jesus )
the rest come from my dh and i that way if we have a bad year and cant do as much as we would like they dont think santa is mad.

santa gifts are not wrapped ( from dhs family - i guess with 8 kids who had time fro wrapping LOL)

we leave cookies and milk out for santa and reindeer food for the reindeer tossed on the lawn.
usually someone leaves a letter for santa and he writes something back .

i didnt have christmas growing up so its manly adapted from dh and what i heard friends say and what i thought christmas was like when iw as growing up.

[wjcalderon]

When I was little, our Santa gifts were not wrapped - just stacked neatly.
The stockings were hung on various doorknobs because we didn't have a fireplace. The stockings contained an apple, a tangerine, a box of raisins and lots of unshelled walnuts.

My daughter and her husband made a HUGE Santa bag out of red fleece with white fur trim around the top.
All the granddaughters' Santa gifts are wrapped and put in the Santa bag, which is placed right in front of the fireplace.
Stocking contain candy, trinkets, DVD's, etc.

The girls think the Santa bag is mailed back to the North Pole for Santa to use the next year.

[Syn D]

I use to have separate wrapping paper for "Santa gifts" that the kids never saw.. I kept it stored in a box that was marked old clothes with the "Santa gifts" I bought through the year..

Stockings were pretty much, a little candy, small gifts, toothbrush, and for the girls ~ a hair brush..

The kids all got the same amount of gifts, in the same price range.. They wrote Santa a list every year.. The list was for us and my mom.. It could be long, but the price of the items were not expensive, stickers, matchbox cars, hair pretties, a doll, action figures, books, etc... They'd get everything on their list (thanks to the $ store carrying some of the stuff) and were very happy for that..

Due to cost of shipping, I send my daughter a gift card for my grandson and she does the shopping for me and I see (pix from cell) everything I bought him before it's wrapped. I did the same with my mom and her sending gifts to my kids.. What she was paying in shipping, she could of bought them at least 1 more present each..


I miss having little ones around this time of year...

[valerian]

Well, on Christmas Eve my dh reads the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible to the kids and we have a candle-lighting ceremony where everyone lights a candle and we light the one my Grandma lit before she died since she's no longer here to light it. The kids leave cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and one of the younger ones usually leaves Santa a friendly note. All of this is done after time spent at my parents' house watching a Christmas movie, playing games, eating dinner, and having special snacks, etc. Oh, and dh and the kids always track Santa online before bed.

Our kids' Santa gifts are left unwrapped as were mine and dh's when we were little. None of the kids can go down without everyone else so someone is usually an early bird and wakes everyone else up. Then I grab the camera while the kids wait impatiently on the stairs and then we all go in together for the "Wow!" effect. They look at their Santa stuff and open their stockings. Then we open our wrapped gifts to each other. During all this we usually have something special to eat or snack on and dh brings me a much needed cup of coffee or tea. Grandma comes over next to see what they got and we shower and dress and go to my parents' house for dinner and more gifts.

[Nishu]

Santa always came to our house, even when we were teenagers. When my oldes was about 2, I struggled with the santa thing because I thought it was goofy and deceitful, but my mom told me that if Santa didn't come to my house, he would come to her house and drop the presents off. Eventually I got over it and we do Santa here. My oldest is 9. Not sure if she still buys it because she doesn't really say.

[porembam]

This is a great post.
Santa always wrapped his presents.
Santa wraps his presents at our house but it is different now that both my kids are older 12 & 14.
there is still a filled stocking - my husband and I take care of each others stockings - even now I think the treats in the stocking are the best part because it is always filled of many small surprises ( all wrapped )
I know my kids love the stockings

[farmgirl_82]

Santa comes to our house. He gives 2-3 presents (3rd gift is usually big and all kids share) and Mom and Dad give 2 presents.

All presents are wrapped. Each family member also gets a stocking with small toys and a DVD. DH and I get a DVD and lotto tickets in ours.

Growing up, Santa came to my house on Christmas Eve after the church program. All presents were wrapped and laid under the tree. Mom alternated years with doing stockings when we were older, we never had a stocking as a young child. One year we would get a stocking, the next year we would get a gift box full of household supplies.

Now as full grown adults, my brothers and I each get a box of household supplies that includes stuff for everyone in our household. Mom has also started giving each of us a toy for Christmas.

[thesightofoneself]

all adults here. santa is written on some of the gifts just for show.

[pollypurebred39]

Years ago Santa used to come to our house for my Sister's kids. They always came over Christmas morning and the kids unwrapped their gifts and we had a huge Christmas brunch. It was something we LOVED to do. My Sister did not have the money to buy her kids much, but we did, so we would go all out for them. It was a great time. Times change and we don't get together for Christmas brunch, or hardly any other time of the year. I miss those Christmas mornings when Santa took a detour to our house.

[McD]

Something I forgot to mention is that Santa always uses 'fun' wrapping paper to wrap their Christmas presents. Wesley has had Disney Cars paper, Frosty the Snowman paper, etc. Maggie gets something girly and froofy.