Let's talk about Santa Claus

MrsTucker2011

juliemay623 said:

Flutterby00 said:

I grew up not believing in Santa.  DH's side of the family celebrate the Santa way, and the kids run down the stairs and tear through all the presents so fast. Like Tasmanian devil fast.   And the entire living room floor was covered last year with presents. The first time I witnessed it, I was in such shock that it made me sick to my stomach.  

I HATE when people do this at Xmas. I know it's probably hard for the little ones to be patient, but I like to take turns and see what people got and see their reaction to what I got for them.

Same here. But then there's the other extreme on the other side. My aunt 1 year had everyone open one present at a time and had to take a picture with each one. With 20 people, mostly kids, this took forever.

Inn2

We grew up on the poorer side. We always got what we wanted because, we were taught even Santa has a budget and so we asked for reasonable items. Our tree always had equal Santa and parent items and the stocking was all Santa. We will do similar.

sfshorter

It was an obnoxious overboard tie between Santa and momma growing up. Santa's gifts weren't wrapped and were put in seperate areas of the living room for my brother and myself. I really think my mom developed a split personality and competed with her Santa self to see who could get more presents.

I'm ashamed to report Christmas is pretty obnoxious at our house as well.

StefMurph

Santa only brought the one unopened gift that sat in front of the tree and Santa filled the stockings. My husband's family did this also so we raised me stepson this way. Dh is an only child, but has step siblings from his dad's remarriage (divorced when my husband was 23). We began celebrating with DH's stepsister (out of state) who wrapped Santa paper gifts and her kids (5 of them) had about 30 gifts each so we had to try to make it where our kid opened an equivalent number of gifts. It was tough and I'm glad he's 18 now and we don't celebrate with them Christmas morning anymore. I'd like to start the tradition of 4 gifts and a Santa gift with this kid. One thing you want, one thing you need, one thing you wear, one thing you read. I'm essentially raising two only children. I managed to not spoil the first one and don't want dd spoiled either.

ajjf1026

Santa always brought the "bigger" gifts and the stocking and then our other gifts were from my parents. It'll be the same way in our house!

deedee1017

MosyMama I love the idea of getting gifts from Rudolph and the gang. You must have felt so special! 

Mae208

norbert5 said:

DH and I had very similiar Santa experiences so we continue with that.  One big gift and a stocking full of the necessities based on age (socks, undies, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair ties, vodka etc.).  Everything else is from us.  However we have a pretty small budget so the girls don't get a ton and most of it is still utilitarian. 

In reality St. Nicholas is kind of a bad ass and I want my girls to know about him.  My favorite non-religious story about Santa Claus is Yes, Virginia.

All of this!

Growing up my parents were on a strict budget, this is how we did Christmas, and it was still a very wonderful and magical time.

One 'big' gift from Santa, unwrapped, stocking from Santa, and 4 or 5 smaller gifts from mom and dad. Going over the top with gifts doesn't make Christmas 'better' by any means!

Also each set of grandparents gets one gift for each grandchild.