From Santa vs. From Mommy and Daddy

Mrs.Greg · December 2012

So I may be overthinking this but hear me out. This is the first year that DD understands the concept of Santa. We've done all of our Christmas shopping (well, I might pick up a few more stocking stuffers but no more gifts to wrap). I was going to start wrapping gifts last night and I couldn't decide which ones to make from DH and I and which ones to make from Santa. I plan to wrap the one(s) from Santa in different wrapping paper and they will stay in the office closet until Christmas Eve, then I'll put them near the fireplace. If you do something similar, how do you decide which gifts are from Santa? We have one "big" gift (InnoTab 2) and a bunch of other toys and artsy stuff, like 9 or 10 gifts total. Oh, and a box that will have clothes. Again, I'm sure I'm overthinking it but I want to make it fun for her. What do you ladies do?

LoriLee14 · December 2012

Was any of these presents ones that she asked Santa for?

Other than that it will just be a decision you/dh have to make.Growing up, my family does more the toys from santa and stocking stufferswere from santa too.

Arnegard · December 2012

Each kid gets 1 gift from Santa that is unwrapped.

A- bike

T- Cinderella Carriage & doll

D- Princess Little People

CiderWench · December 2012

At our house Santa fills the stockings only. The presents under the tree are from mom and dad.

~Kat~ · December 2012

Growing up, our stockings were always from Santa and gifts from mom and dad.

With our sons, all gifts and stockings are from DH and I, except for whatever gift they asked for specifically.

LatteLady5 · December 2012

We will do the "big" gift from Santa and stockings stuffed with Santa presents. The rest of the gifts are from us or family members.

ETA: Santa gift is unwrapped.

AGagain · December 2012

scatteredtrees:
Santa brings the biggest gift. It is not wrapped, just set under the tree or in the case of last year, it was train table so it was all set up in the playroom on Christmas morning.nbsp;I figured out Santa wasn't real when I saw my neighbor's wrapping paper and tags were different with with different writing than ours. I'd like to avoid that with my own kids. nbsp;

yep all Santa gifts are unwrapped under the tree and we do one or two big gifts. For DD this year is the Barbie cruise ship and Barbie closet with clothes, for DS it is a fisher price basketball hoop and an imaginext toy. Plus stockings.

Mrs.Greg · December 2012

LoriLee14:
Was any of these presents ones that she asked Santa for?
Other than that it will just be a decision you/dh have to make.Growing up,nbsp;my family does more the toys from santa and stocking stufferswere from santa too.

Ugh! Yeah, she tells EVERYONE that asks that she wants a dr kit for Christmas. Well, my MIL asked if she could get it for her. I didn't think anything of it and told her to go ahead. Now I wish I hadn't. She has asked for other things too but says a dr kit first every time and that she hopes Santa bring it for her. Ok... should I ask my MIL to trade a gift with me so the dr kit can be from Santa??

LoriLee14 · December 2012

Mrs.Greg:
LoriLee14:
Was any of these presents ones that she asked Santa for? Other than that it will just be a decision you/dh have to make.Growing up,nbsp;my family does more the toys from santa and stocking stufferswere from santa too.
Ugh! Yeah, she tells EVERYONE that asks that she wants a dr kit for Christmas. Well, my MIL asked if she could get it for her. I didn't think anything of it and told her to go ahead. Now I wish I hadn't. She has asked for other things too but says a dr kit first every time and that she hopes Santa bring it for her. Ok... should I ask my MIL to trade a gift with me so the dr kit can be from Santa??

No, she is 3, she will be happy no matter who it came from. She probably won't even ask why granny got it for her and not santa but you can come up with they talked about it and granny really wanted to get it for you this year.

I was just asking to try and give you a direction to go in. She will be more amazed by the magic of it. also if you haven't already go to portablenorthpole.com and make her a video. She will love it, i promise.

memali26 · December 2012

scatteredtrees:
Santa brings the biggest gift. It is not wrapped, just set under the tree (or in the case of last year, it was train table so it was all set up in the playroom on Christmas morning).
I figured out Santa wasn't real when I saw my neighbor's wrapping paper and tags were different with with different writing than ours. I'd like to avoid that with my own kids. :-p

My mom got around that by telling us Santa dropped the gifts off and asked Mom and Dad to please wrap them for him

dairygirl19 · December 2012

I'm horrible. One bigger gift from us. One bigger gift from Santa.

The rest is whatever I feel like writing on the tag at the time.

MAprincess · December 2012

The one they asked Santa for is ALWAYS from Santa (and it's usually the big one). Generally, they get one gift from us just as we buy one gift for any other person. And then a few from Santa. Sometimes they get two from us if they are smaller gifts.

HarrietNJMommy · December 2012

Everything is from Santa.

lollitots · December 2012

We do one big gift from Santa and their stocking. When they were little it was the biggest gift and now it was what they ask Santa for. The rest if from us. It will be fun for her no matter what you do.

peacelove&mama · December 2012

The majority of the gifts are from Santa, as are stockings. A few toys are from us, as are any clothes or shoes.

eaglesfan700 · December 2012

We do pretty much everything from Santa

Ilumine · December 2012

St Nicholas brings the stockings stuffers. There will be a cool gift in the stocking amongst the toiletries and candies.

We only give three gifts at Christmas. Two of our kids were born w/in 10 days of Christmas. We cannot afford to go crazy for both. We chose birthdays over Christmas becuase our other child, born way outside the season, would seem to have more of a celebration. Plus, I do want to focus on the positive messages of the holidays, peace, love, sacrifice, good will towards your fellow man, vs the commercialization,

jenniann87 · December 2012

The "bigger" presents and most of the other ones, as well as the stockings are all from Santa. We pick out a few to be from Mom/Dad and then brothers.

jensriot · December 2012

Santa brings everything other than gifts from other family members. He even brings gifts to me and DH

My kids are so wrapped up in unwrapping that they don't really notice who the gift is from yet. Maybe next year we'll do it a little differently when C really may notice. I actually don't even write Santa in the "from:" part of the tag, I just leave it blank. My Mom always did that and we knew those were the gifts from Santa.

AimeeL85 · December 2012

We make everything from Santa. If we ever made anything from us, it would be just one, but I don't know if we even will.

b2b999 · December 2012

Our plan is to give one gift from Santa, and 2 gifts from Mom & Dad. Plus the items in the stocking will be from Santa.

One thing my mom use to do was set out plain paper (sometimes white sometimes just regular brown paper) and stamps & markers and ink pads and crayons. We would then decorate the paper for Santa. It gave us an activity to do while she was preparing Christmas eve dinner, and it answered the question as to where the wrapping paper came from.

notkateanymore · December 2012

Santa brings the majority of the stuff, including whatever she asked for and the other big stuff. We give clothes, other fun things and anything lame.

Santa does the stocking, with help from me.

AGagain · December 2012

Well we don't do Santa because I am a better mom than all of you, and we teach our kids about the true meaning of the season and don't buy into the commercialism. While you might be raising brats I am not

Sorry I had too, just couldn't resist.

notkateanymore · December 2012

Ilumine:
Plus, I do want to focus on the positive messages of the holidays, peace, love, sacrifice, good will towards your fellow man, vs the commercialization,

Yes, you've mentioned that...

notkateanymore · December 2012

Ilumine:
Plus, I do want to focus on the positive messages of the holidays, peace, love, sacrifice, good will towards your fellow man, vs the commercialization,

Yes, you've mentioned that...

notkateanymore · December 2012

Ilumine:
Plus, I do want to focus on the positive messages of the holidays, peace, love, sacrifice, good will towards your fellow man, vs the commercialization,

Yes, you've mentioned that...

Ilumine · December 2012

KateMW:
Ilumine:
Plus, I do want to focus on the positive messages of the holidays, peace, love, sacrifice, good will towards your fellow man, vs the commercialization,
Yes, you've mentioned that...

I find it interesting that this one reason, out of the three I posted, seems to irk you enough to quote me.

Given that even major anchor stores have promoted their lack of Christmas Decorations becuase of the "commercialism" I don't understand why not wanting to focus on the "gimmees" is wrong.

Nor do I understand why focusing on peace, love, good will and sacrifice (all the things Saint Nicholaus is known for) makes you so uncomfortable?

Because I am very sure that I did not judge you for your views/traditions/practices.

mrswright2006 · December 2012

Santa brings one gift and a stocking. DD saw Santa and asked for a Bat Girl costume, so that was what we are wrapping from Santa. With DS, we just picked one present, and made it from Santa. Honestly, until DD started asking for a specific gift from Santa, I generally picked the least likely to be a total hit, because I want the credit for the fun stuff ... yes, I realize that is crazy and lame, but it is just how I pick things.

From us, they both are getting 4 books, 1 movie, 1 pair of PJ's, and 1 toy. Oh wait, DD also is getting a doll bunk bed, and a whole bunch of homemade doll clothes I made for her new Bitty Babies.

jnksmom · December 2012

Santa brings one gift unwrapped and fills their stockings. Everything else is wrapped from me & H. They each asked Santa for one thing and that is what will be unwrapped and left under the tree from Santa. DS asked for a remote control race car and DD asked for a leap pad.

notkateanymore · December 2012

Ilumine:
KateMW:
Ilumine:
Plus, I do want to focus on the positive messages of the holidays, peace, love, sacrifice, good will towards your fellow man, vs the commercialization,
Yes, you've mentioned that...
I find it interesting that this one reason, out of the three I posted, seems to irk you enough to quote me.
Given that even major anchor stores have promoted their lack of Christmas Decorations becuase of the "commercialism" I don't understand why not wanting to focus on the "gimmees" is wrong.
Nor do I understand why focusing on peace, love, good will and sacrifice (all the things Saint Nicholaus is known for) makes you so uncomfortable?
Because I am very sure that I did not judge you for your views/traditions/practices.

@ It's sounds like a total crock of sh!t honestly and it gets old seeing you write the same answer to every question.

Mrs.Hizzo · December 2012

Someone needs to come up with a manual for parents and that all of us must follow. I remember being about 5 and we got one "Santa" gift, but my friend got everything from Santa. Which begged the question of why Santa liked him so much more than me. (At five it didn't occur to me to ask if he got gifts from his parents.) I was already on the fence about the whole Santa thing by then, but that pretty much clinched it.

notkateanymore · December 2012

Mrs.Hizzo:
Someone needs to come up with a manual for parents and that all of us must follow. I remember being about 5 and we got one "Santa" gift, but my friend got everything from Santa. Which begged the question of why Santa liked him so much more than me. (At five it didn't occur to me to ask if he got gifts from his parents.) I was already on the fence about the whole Santa thing by then, but that pretty much clinched it.

That's true for sure. It's like the damn Elf thing too...DD's elf doesn't talk in the strictest sense of the word...doesn't leave notes either {our printer isn't hooked up!} but all her other friends elves leave notes, so she is all bummed. Some elves leave gifts, some you can touch, others not. It gets a bit confusing.

lisamoe · December 2012

Most will be from Santa, only a few from us. Thats probably because thats what my parents did for us.

bumpuser8448316 · December 2012

I've done 1 gift from Santa and the rest from us. This year the gift that will be from Santa is the #1 thing that he asked for. Last year I just picked something random.