How do you decide which gifts come from Santa vs from you?
This will be our first Christmas where LO will get gifts from Santa and I just realized that I have no strategy for this.
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Good question. I have no idea! Maybe I'll put all the hard to wrap stuff in a Santa bag we have from Santa and the stuff that is easier to wrap is from us! Haha
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Well, she asked both us and Santa for a baby doll and a big, big stroller. I think a family member is getting her the stroller so Santa can give her the baby doll. I'm cool with that. Santa can have that glory.
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She asked Santa for an Anna doll. We also got her a stroller and baby carrier (used) so those will be from Santa. The rest probably us. I grew up with all my gifts were from Santa and my parents bought us one together gift, but DH doesn't want to do it that way.
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We usually have Santa give the kids something small. I don't want them to have high expectations when they're older to request a gaming system or anything like that. This year LO1 is getting a stuffed apatosaurus, and LO2 is getting a wooden fishing toy set. We wrap it in kraft paper and use the printables found on Hellobee.
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At our house, Santa always does the stocking stuffers and some toys. We gave Santa a budget, so he's getting them a couple bigger gifts (train tracks and blocks).
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@yin: We're doing kraft paper from Santa too, plus these printables:
http://www.threelittlemonkeysstudio.com/santas-special-delivery-printable-gift-tags/
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We don't wrap Santa gifts so we usually choose the things that are difficult to wrap haha.
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@yin: @Adira: I can't use Kraft paper cause I use it for regular bday presents. Figure she will catch on as she gets older. I always buy a new roll just for Santa paper each year.
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@Smurfette: That's what my parents always did too - they just used different wrapping paper from Santa. They would also write out Santa's tags using a glittery silver or gold marker! We don't use kraft paper for anything else, so I'm going to use it for Santa's gifts.
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Our strategy this year is that Santa will be giving her the gifts she's asked for on her list, we are giving her other gifts. So far she has asked for "rings with jewels" and "a squishy my little pony named ___" (I can't remember the name), so Santa will be bringing those. We get credit for all the rest!
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@Adira: I started wrapping bday gifts in kraft paper cause 1)cheaper and 2) LO can color it.
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Santa does the stockings and then 1 or 2 bigger gifts. Like this year, Santa's giving him a balance bike and a light saber. On a normal year, the balance bike would be the only gift from Santa, but we got it for free from a friend, so it didn't count towards our "Santa budget." Plus, he won't remember getting 2 "big" gifts from Santa next year, so we figure we can let it slide this year.
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We're not sure what we will do yet, but right now my plan is to see what they officially ask for from Santa (and try to set up expectations that you only ask for one or two things from Santa).
I also like the idea of more homemade/handmade toys from Santa - i feel like it reinforces the idea of Santa's workshop. I'm pretty crafty and do a lot of homemade gifts.I also am making diy versions of a burlap Santa Sack - so ideally, any gifts from Santa would be wrapped and fit in a bag.
I've read a couple of articles emphasizing that Santa should bring the smaller gifts and parents should take credit for the larger, more expensive gifts. It makes sense to me, and I think I'll follow that advice.
http://www.babble.com/parenting/why-we-should-leave-the-smaller-gifts-to-santa/ -
@Smurfette: We use Kraft paper for birthday gifts too. He just thinks it's a type of wrapping paper and hasn't questioned why Santa has the same paper. I use different wrapping paper for the rest of the presents.
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@yin: I think mine is more that I grew up with Santa having special paper so I want to continue that. Your gifts look so cute though!
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I read something on Facebook that really resonated with me. It basically said have the big gifts like iPads, game consoles, etc. come from mom and dad and things like want, need, wear, read come from Santa because it's devastating to kids to think that their friends got an iPad from Santa and they got a couple of books and a coat. I think my LO is a couple years from discussing his presents with friends, but it really resonated with me.
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This is the first year my son cares about Santa, he's 5. He was very specific about what he asked for and I felt that if I could make it happen, I should. I didn't ask him what he wanted from Santa, he brought it up himself. We basically decided, since the gift is large, we'd make it a combination Christmas/birthday/Santa/Grandparents gift and my son has totally accepted that there might only be on thing and it's from everyone.
Let's see how it actually goes down.
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The only Santa gifts she's getting will come from Grandma & Papa.
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This never occurred to me! In my family as adults, we always say that the stockings are from Santa (leading to a lot of conversations like this:
Mom: Oh, shoot, I forgot to take the price tag off!
One of us: You mean SANTA forgot to take the price tag off.)But I think that as my son gets a big bigger and starts to understand, I'll make some of the things he asks Santa for from Santa. I read an interesting thing once about how Santa shouldn't give anything too too big in case they compare notes at school, it might be hard for one kid to have gotten a gaming system from Santa and another to have just gotten a shirt or something. I'll try to keep Santa's presents reasonable and the bigger things can come from us.
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@erinbaderin: Haha this is so my family about stockings too!
We are doing the smaller gifts from santa in his stocking. They will be wrapped in different paper to the rest - I have bought some cheap thin paper as he still struggles a little with unwrapping at 23mo!
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Santa usually gives just one or two cool gifts and the rest are from us. Last year, Santa brought them a rocking horse and a bouncy horse. This year, Santa is bringing DD1 a new bike and DD2 a scooter.
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I'm in the minority but it all comes from Santa.
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DH and I were just talking about this the other day. Growing up, I don't remember there ever being a distinction between what gifts were from Santa and what was from my parents. I believe everything was from Santa and it never occurred to me that it would be strange that we got nothing from my parents. And when I talked with other kids about what we got for Christmas, I don't think it was ever discussed what presents were from Santa vs our parents so that's not a huge concern of mine. DH couldn't remember how it was done in his house growing up. To be honest, I never thought about this
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Growing up, Santa gave all the presents. I don't really feel a need to get credit, I like the magic of Christmas and if Santa brings a few small negligible things, it's not very magical to me. But then, I only have a 2 year old, so I haven't had to deal with entitlement and demands yet.
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@Bao: ha! Us too - everything is from Santa!
Until this year when my 7 yr year said "well cant you buy us 1 thing, we've been good"
So I took them to the store and they each picked out 1 thing - we came home, wrapped it and its under the tree
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We do the big wow gifts from Santa and leave them unwrapped. I think the wow gifts coming from Santa adds to the magic. This year Santa is bringing a kitchen, shopping cart and food. The smaller gifts are from us. When she is older whatever she asks Santa for will be from him.
@Bao: We are more like you - Mom & Dad definitely take a major backseat.
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Santa usually brings her clothes. I think I will do a separate paper for our Santa present this year.
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Growing up the need/wear things were from my parents and the want/read things were from Santa. I made the girls some gifts this year, so those are from us. Their big toys are from Santa, (but our budget isn't crazy, so even the big gifts aren't over the top). We definitely have different paper and tags and fake handwriting from Santa.
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@yin: those look fantastic!
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Santa presents were always the big exciting presents in my house growing up and in DH's family too. They are usually unwrapped and have a big bow and can be found under the tree. Stockings are from Santa too and are full of little things.
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@yin: OMG those look so good. I had not even thought about doing special "Santa" wrapping paper - totally stealing those!
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Growing up, Santa gifts were the big gifts. We have decided that for our children the big gifts will be from us and Santa will do "supporting" gifts. This year we are getting her a play kitchen, and Santa is getting her some toy food and stuff to go with it.
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The super fun and exciting play-with-right-away gifts of course! Santa gets all the glory
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@yin: those wrapped gifts are beautiful!
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When I was little, my parents told me that gifts came from family members, then my mum would put them down the magic chute to Father Christmas - then he sprinkled them with magic dust (to make them Christmas presents), then delivered them on Christmas night.
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Growing up, we always got a couple of big gifts from Santa (plus the stockings). I think the bigger more exciting gifts coming from Santa adds to the magic. It isn't very exciting for Santa to come to the house if he only brings more negligible items.
My mom always used special wrapping paper for the Santa presents. It was usually more expensive shiny wrapping paper and was always different than anything else under the tree.
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The toys that we have to put together the night before and aren't wrapped are from Santa (so this year his tricycle and broom set).
Not that he knows or understands (he's 15months) but his Elmo and puzzle will be his gifts from us.
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I've always thought Santa could bring the large, coveted gifts but an IG post I saw this year really stuck with me. The gist was it doesn't make sense to give extravagant gifts from Santa to your son or daughter, whose friend at school might have only received a hat and mittens. We can explain the value of a dollar to our own kids but not Santa's discrimination. So now I'd like to do more modest gifts from Santa plus DH and I can now get credit for the "nicer" gifts.
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All the gifts come from Santa.
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