Santa doesn't wrap gifts?

Mrs.Greg · December 2012

Not being snarky, just asking. A lot of you replied saying that Santa's gifts are unwrapped. I just assumed he'd wrap his gifts, he did when I was a kid :] Were your gifts from him not wrapped? I have friends with kids a little older than mine and they wrap his gifts, either with a different wrapping paper or with plain brown paper. This is our first year really playing Santa so I'd love to start a cute, fun tradition.

MAprincess · December 2012

Santa wraps gifts at our house- in special paper. Half the fun is opening them!

starswinger · December 2012

My parents always told us they left wrapping paper out for Santa to wrap our gifts.

Chapter79 · December 2012

starswinger:
My parents always told us they left wrapping paper out for Santa to wrap our gifts.

This is what we tell my daughter.

We wrap the Santa gift, always! My parents always wrapped ours, too. I tell my daughter he borrows our paper

chickaboo1974 · December 2012

Ours were never wrapped, they were set out near the tree with our stockings, that were also from Santa. It was no less exciting- plus we were excited to unwrap the gifts from our parents then also. I also think it was easier on my parents (less wrapping and remembering to use "special" paper- there were 5 of us and my mom liked to go over board on Christmas- It was not uncommon for each of us to get 20 gifts from our parents alone.

cactus5 · December 2012

We do not wrap Santa's gifts. I love seeing the kids faces as they walk into the room-complete shock!

joyfullyfound · December 2012

For the most part, our gifts from Santa weren't wrapped. They were usually cool stuff that were better to see set up then still in the box.... like a bike, or a train set, or a video game console. We'd come downstairs and they'd be all ready to play with already. That was cool.

DH's family always had his gifts from Santa wrapped in plain red paper, and the rest of the gifts were wrapped in different paper. He found out Santa wasn't real by discovering a massive roll of red paper at the back of his parents' closet, hahaha!

notkateanymore · December 2012

I can't imagine unwrapping Santa stuff. Takes all the fun out of it! The best part is seeing it in a big pile and diving in!

LoriLee14 · December 2012

mine were unwrapped too. i never felt that i missed out on unwrapping his. the ones from my family were wrapped (i was also spoiled and we opened the ones from each other on christmas eve after service.) DH's family wrapped all the gifts and opened them christmas day. Luckily for me, he is letting me continue doing it my way.

Santa also did everything in the stocking (also unwrapped)

roxy_jj · December 2012

Growing up, our Santa gifts were not wrapped. Last year, I wrapped the gifts in their stockings, but not the larger Santa gifts. This year I don't think I'm going to wrap any of the Santa gifts.

notkateanymore · December 2012

CnAmom:
KateMW:
I can't imagine unwrapping Santa stuff. Takes all the fun out of it! The best part is seeing it in a big pile and diving in!
You just don't want to wrap them. You don't have to lie to us.

Oh I don't...you would be shocked how many gifts became Santa gifts this week alone. LOL It's probably the same reason my Santa never wrapped...my mom was a single working mom and had zero time, so I can't imagine wrapping was high on the list!

LatteLady5 · December 2012

joyfullyfound:
For the most part, our gifts from Santa weren't wrapped. They were usually cool stuff that were better to see set up then still in the box.... like a bike, or a train set, or a video game console. We'd come downstairs and they'd be all ready to play with already. That was cool.

DH and I both grew up like this. We plan to continue this for DD. It would be a bummer to unwrap a toy that had assembly and have to wait for it to be set up. I wrapped the stocking gifts this year, I think I'll be sure to use special paper or just plain brown paper next year when DD will actually notice.

Rink08 · December 2012

Santa wraps everything under the tree except one large, in size not necessarily price, gift for each child. Even if there are multiple large gifts only one is left unwrapped. Stockings are a mix of wrapped and unwrapped based soley on shape.

It was the same for me growing up.

JCM · December 2012

KateMW:
I can't imagine unwrapping Santa stuff. Takes all the fun out of it! The best part is seeing it in a big pile and diving in!

This!

As a kid Santa gifts were also unwrapped & assembled if needed. It was so great walking into the living room and seeing all these amazing gifts out and ready to play with! When DH was little the only thing from Santa were the gifts in his stocking left at the end of his bed. Some were wrapped & some were not.

We're doing the unwrapped gifts under the tree from Santa & once she's old enough and a heavier sleeper we will sneak in and put the stocking from Santa at the end of the bed.

AimeeL85 · December 2012

They weren't wrapped when I was a kid, so that's how I like to do it for DS, too. We set them up around the tree for him so he can see them all at once and go at it. Last year we unboxed everything, put batteries in etc. This year we will do that with some things but other things will work better staying in the boxes at first.

When we were older we asked my mom to wrap the presents (after we stopped believing in Santa) so the excitement would last longer, so she did, but there were SO many it took her forever and I know it was a pain.

Also, especially this year, DS would have no interest in unwrapping gifts at all.

MrsBalletStar05 · December 2012

Huh, I'd actually never heard of people not wrapping Santa gifts! I always had special Santa paper that my gifts were wrapped in. We do the same for our kids, with exceptions. The big kitchen didn't get wrapped. This year, Santa is bringing a fish so that will remain unwrapped :P

shortstuff15 · December 2012

LatteLady5:
joyfullyfound:
For the most part, our gifts from Santa weren't wrapped. They were usually cool stuff that were better to see set up then still in the box.... like a bike, or a train set, or a video game console. We'd come downstairs and they'd be all ready to play with already. That was cool.
DH and I both grew up like this. We plan to continue this for DD. It would be a bummer to unwrap a toy that had assembly and have to wait for it to be set up. I wrapped the stocking gifts this year, I think I'll be sure to use special paper or just plain brown paper next year when DD will actually notice.

Would it really be that much of a bummer? Growing up we didn't do Santa so everything was wrapped and my husband, whose parents did Santa, also wrapped everything so here everything is wrapped. I never thought it was a bummer to have to wait to assemble things. To me it makes it more fun and the anticipation is more because you get to see how it goes together!

At any rate, we wrap everything in regular paper. We do Santa gifts but we don't hide that they are actually from us so paper doesn't really matter! The only thing not wrapped is stockings, but that's like candy, an orange and a couple of coloring books or similarily small. I'm not wrapping coloring books.

Andrewsgal · December 2012

cactus5:
We do not wrap Santa's gifts. I love seeing the kids faces as they walk into the roomcomplete shock!

This. I adore their faces coming down the stairs and seeing their Santa gifts. I still wrap some from us so they have something to unwrap.

shortstuff15 · December 2012

LalaMama81:
CnAmom:
Everything is wrapped, even stuff in their stockings. I feel like the wrapped presents would be ignored in favor of unwrapped presents if we did that.

Oh, and all of our presents were always wrapped growing up.
This exactly. Occasionally a big item like a bike or basketball hoop was unwrapped as kids, but my parents often did the, "Hmm, I thought there was one more thing...Oh, look what I found in the closet!"

My parents did the closet thing too. Except usually they pulled it in from the garage.

Mama-Bear · December 2012

We have special Santa paper.

MAprincess · December 2012

Andrewsgal:
cactus5:
We do not wrap Santa's gifts. I love seeing the kids faces as they walk into the roomcomplete shock!
This. I adore their faces coming down the stairs and seeing their Santa gifts. I still wrap some from us so they have something to unwrap.

Hmmm. . . I have to imagine their look is the same that my children have when they walk in and see all the wrapped gifts!

rylen1kobe · December 2012

Santa gifts always unwrapped at our house . It was that way for me growing up too. The excitement is still there! Just our tradition.

Temp174496125006552 · December 2012

All of my kids gifts are wrapped, including the ones from Santa. For the Santa gifts, I only use wrapping paper that has Santa Claus on it. The gifts from us are in other Christmas paper (snowmen, reindeer, etc).

peacelove&mama · December 2012

My parents always wrapped our Santa gifts, and DH and I wrap the kids too. Part of the fun is the unwrapping!

Andrewsgal · December 2012

I Honestly never heard of Santa gifts being wrapped. I can't imagine giving DD a bike, and DS a basketball hoop then say wait but your daddy has to put it together.

alli2672 · December 2012

Andrewsgal:
I Honestly never heard of Santa gifts being wrapped. I can't imagine giving DD a bike, and DS a basketball hoop then say wait but your daddy has to put it together.

Those things weren't wrapped. They were either under the tree, or a "clue" to find them was wrapped.

My brother and I used to wake up at 2am on Christmas morning and go downstairs to find our wrapped presents. We would count them, shake them, and try to guess what was in them. Then we would go watch Christmas movies on TV and eat the candy from our stockings until 5 or 6 when my parents would wake up, and we could finally open everything!!

eaglesfan700 · December 2012

MrsBalletStar05:
Huh, I'd actually never heard of people not wrapping Santa gifts! I always had special Santa paper that my gifts were wrapped in. We do the same for our kids, with exceptions. The big kitchen didn't get wrapped. This year, Santa is bringing a fish so that will remain unwrapped :P

I never heard of not-wrapping Santa gifts either! Except for something big, like a bike, kitchen or dollhouse

Last year we bought DS a bike from our local bike shop and they do Santa delivery on Christmas morning with any bike purchase. Talk about excited faces lol

MrsL1022 · December 2012

DH and I totally disagree on this. Growing up my Santa gifts were always wrapped in different paper and I thought it was awesome getting to open everything. Large items, like a doll house were not wrapped. I just think setting them out ruins the excitement and robs me from seeing the look on DS's face b/c you know they are going to get up and go peek before you get out of bed. I want to see every moment of his joy! DH says to just set out presents from Santa, unwrapped.

Arnegard · December 2012

What strikes me about this about this post most is that people choose not to give Santa gifts as soon as they have kids. I can gaurantee that we were doing Santa with our 2 month old DD back in 2005.

Only the stocking and Santa gifts are unwrapped and those are free to be played with before breakfast and before opening the rest of the presents.

Andrewsgal · December 2012

Arnegard:
What strikes me about this about this post most is that people choose not to give Santa gifts as soon as they have kids. I can gaurantee that we were doing Santa with our 2 month old DD back in 2005.

Only the stocking and Santa gifts are unwrapped and those are free to be played with before breakfast and before opening the rest of the presents.

You make your kids eat breakfast before opening gift? So the just sit there and look at the gifts while you make breakfast?

Mrs.Hizzo · December 2012

Santa doesn't wrap his gifts at our house. Just a ribbon. For one thing, so far they've been way too large to be wrapped (play kitchen, farm set, air hockey table, etc.). I guess I could wrap them while they're boxed, but we always make sure that there is no assembly required on Santa's gifts, they're just out and ready to be played with.

My mom always half-azzed Santa and used the same wrapping paper she used on out other gifts, same handwriting on the tag, etc. I could use different paper, but my oldest son is a snoop. I'm pretty sure he'd find it at some point in the year and remember.

Andrewsgal · December 2012

Mrs.Hizzo:
Santa doesn't wrap his gifts at our house. Just a ribbon. For one thing, so far they've been way too large to be wrapped (play kitchen, farm set, air hockey table, etc.). I guess I could wrap them while they're boxed, but we always make sure that there is no assembly required on Santa's gifts, they're just out and ready to be played with.
My mom always half-azzed Santa and used the same wrapping paper she used on out other gifts, same handwriting on the tag, etc. I could use different paper, but my oldest son is a snoop. I'm pretty sure he'd find it at some point in the year and remember.

My DD is too, she is already questioning Santa. It is hard enough to hide the gifts let alone make sure I don't mess up the wrapping part.

Did you figure out Santa early because of the wrapping paper and tags?

Mrs.Hizzo · December 2012

KateB1984:
We don't wrap the Santa gift, and my parents didn't when I was little. When I was older, sometimes my "Santa gift" was wrapped when it started being electronics and such, but by then I didn't believe in Santa.
On Christmas morning, I come down first, turn on the tree lights and take a picture of the kids' faces when they come downstairs and light up to see the big present there beside the tree. Most of the presents couldn't be wrapped (a tricycle, a play kitchen, an exersaucer for DS2, assembled Playmobil firetrucks, a Melissa and Doug shopping cart). Last year DS1 asked for one of those helium tanks, so I tied a big bouquet of helium Mylar balloons to it for him. The kids immediately play with their Santa gifts and everyone opens their stockings at their own pace. That lasts a while, while we make tea/coffee and relax. Then eventually we move on to opening gifts one at a time, taking turns.

Yes, exactly this. With Santa's gifts out and set up, ready to be played with, it buys me time to get some breakfast made. After we eat, we start opening the rest of it, and we usually do stockings at the end.

Of course, Santa only brings the two or three largest gifts, and they are always joint gifts given to the two of them, so it's not like there's a whole pile of stuff unwrapped.

Mrs.Hizzo · December 2012

Andrewsgal:
Mrs.Hizzo:
Santa doesn't wrap his gifts at our house. Just a ribbon. For one thing, so far they've been way too large to be wrapped (play kitchen, farm set, air hockey table, etc.). I guess I could wrap them while they're boxed, but we always make sure that there is no assembly required on Santa's gifts, they're just out and ready to be played with.
My mom always half-azzed Santa and used the same wrapping paper she used on out other gifts, same handwriting on the tag, etc. I could use different paper, but my oldest son is a snoop. I'm pretty sure he'd find it at some point in the year and remember.
My DD is too, she is already questioning Santa. It is hard enough to hide the gifts let alone make sure I don't mess up the wrapping part.
Did you figure out Santa early because of the wrapping paper and tags?

I don't remember ever actually believing in Santa. Isn't that sad? It was always sort of understood that he was a fairy tale. I was the youngest of 3, and my sister were six and nine years older than me, and my mom was really over the whole Santa thing by the time I came around. She went through the motions, but my sisters weren't trying very hard to keep up the fantasy, and between that and my mom being so lazy about the whole thing, I never really bought into it.

Andrewsgal · December 2012

Mrs.Hizzo:
Andrewsgal:
Mrs.Hizzo:
Santa doesn't wrap his gifts at our house. Just a ribbon. For one thing, so far they've been way too large to be wrapped (play kitchen, farm set, air hockey table, etc.). I guess I could wrap them while they're boxed, but we always make sure that there is no assembly required on Santa's gifts, they're just out and ready to be played with.
My mom always half-azzed Santa and used the same wrapping paper she used on out other gifts, same handwriting on the tag, etc. I could use different paper, but my oldest son is a snoop. I'm pretty sure he'd find it at some point in the year and remember.
My DD is too, she is already questioning Santa. It is hard enough to hide the gifts let alone make sure I don't mess up the wrapping part.
Did you figure out Santa early because of the wrapping paper and tags?
I don't remember ever actually believing in Santa. Isn't that sad? It was always sort of understood that he was a fairy tale. I was the youngest of 3, and my sister were six and nine years older than me, and my mom was really over the whole Santa thing by the time I came around. She went through the motions, but my sisters weren't trying very hard to keep up the fantasy, and between that and my mom being so lazy about the whole thing, I never really bought into it.

aw that is sad

khill86 · December 2012

Mrs.Hizzo:
Andrewsgal:
Mrs.Hizzo:
Santa doesn't wrap his gifts at our house. Just a ribbon. For one thing, so far they've been way too large to be wrapped (play kitchen, farm set, air hockey table, etc.). I guess I could wrap them while they're boxed, but we always make sure that there is no assembly required on Santa's gifts, they're just out and ready to be played with.
My mom always half-azzed Santa and used the same wrapping paper she used on out other gifts, same handwriting on the tag, etc. I could use different paper, but my oldest son is a snoop. I'm pretty sure he'd find it at some point in the year and remember. 
My DD is too, she is already questioning Santa. It is hard enough to hide the gifts let alone make sure I don't mess up the wrapping part.
Did you figure out Santa early because of the wrapping paper and tags? 
I don't remember ever actually believing in Santa. Isn't that sad? It was always sort of understood that he was a fairy tale. I was the youngest of 3, and my sister were six and nine years older than me, and my mom was really over the whole Santa thing by the time I came around. She went through the motions, but my sisters weren't trying very hard to keep up the fantasy, and between that and my mom being so lazy about the whole thing, I never really bought into it.

I had a similar experience. All the gifts were signed from mom and dad. It all went under the tree on Christmas Eve but there was nothing from Santa. We thanked our parents for the gifts and my mom always said, "you're welcome." There was no push that it was Santa, so I never "believed" I just thought of Santa as a Christmas character in stories and movies.

I never cared but now that we have DS and I hear about all the cool things other people do for their kids, I totally want in on it. DH, on the other hand, did have Santa gifts and they were unwrapped. But when we talk about what to do for Christmas, DH isn't interested in the whole Santa thing and says to just do what my parents did. Ha!! It didn't even occur to me that you would do different wrapping paper if you wrap the Santa gifts, or different tags, or assemble them and leave them out. I wish I had that experience! I don't know why my parents didn't try harder, but knowing my mom, it was probably because she wanted all the credit.

notkateanymore · December 2012

Mrs.Hizzo:
Andrewsgal:
Mrs.Hizzo:
Santa doesn't wrap his gifts at our house. Just a ribbon. For one thing, so far they've been way too large to be wrapped (play kitchen, farm set, air hockey table, etc.). I guess I could wrap them while they're boxed, but we always make sure that there is no assembly required on Santa's gifts, they're just out and ready to be played with.
My mom always half-azzed Santa and used the same wrapping paper she used on out other gifts, same handwriting on the tag, etc. I could use different paper, but my oldest son is a snoop. I'm pretty sure he'd find it at some point in the year and remember.
My DD is too, she is already questioning Santa. It is hard enough to hide the gifts let alone make sure I don't mess up the wrapping part.
Did you figure out Santa early because of the wrapping paper and tags?
I don't remember ever actually believing in Santa. Isn't that sad? It was always sort of understood that he was a fairy tale. I was the youngest of 3, and my sister were six and nine years older than me, and my mom was really over the whole Santa thing by the time I came around. She went through the motions, but my sisters weren't trying very hard to keep up the fantasy, and between that and my mom being so lazy about the whole thing, I never really bought into it.

That's kinda sad. I'm sorry! I believed in Santa until I was about 9 and even now my mom still gives me presents from SC. LOL

Mrs JillB · December 2012

dhviel:
LatteLady5:
joyfullyfound:
For the most part, our gifts from Santa weren't wrapped. They were usually cool stuff that were better to see set up then still in the box.... like a bike, or a train set, or a video game console. We'd come downstairs and they'd be all ready to play with already. That was cool.
DH and I both grew up like this. We plan to continue this for DD. It would be a bummer to unwrap a toy that had assembly and have to wait for it to be set up. I wrapped the stocking gifts this year, I think I'll be sure to use special paper or just plain brown paper next year when DD will actually notice.
Would it really be that much of a bummer? Growing up we didn't do Santa so everything was wrapped and my husband, whose parents did Santa, also wrapped everything so here everything is wrapped. I never thought it was a bummer to have to wait to assemble things. To me it makes it more fun and the anticipation is more because you get to see how it goes together!
At any rate, we wrap everything in regular paper. We do Santa gifts but we don't hide that they are actually from us so paper doesn't really matter! The only thing not wrapped is stockings, but that's like candy, an orange and a couple of coloring books or similarily small. I'm not wrapping coloring books.

Uh, no.

Mrs.Hizzo · December 2012

Mrs JillB:
dhviel:
LatteLady5:
joyfullyfound:
For the most part, our gifts from Santa weren't wrapped. They were usually cool stuff that were better to see set up then still in the box.... like a bike, or a train set, or a video game console. We'd come downstairs and they'd be all ready to play with already. That was cool.
DH and I both grew up like this. We plan to continue this for DD. It would be a bummer to unwrap a toy that had assembly and have to wait for it to be set up. I wrapped the stocking gifts this year, I think I'll be sure to use special paper or just plain brown paper next year when DD will actually notice.
Would it really be that much of a bummer? Growing up we didn't do Santa so everything was wrapped and my husband, whose parents did Santa, also wrapped everything so here everything is wrapped. I never thought it was a bummer to have to wait to assemble things. To me it makes it more fun and the anticipation is more because you get to see how it goes together!
At any rate, we wrap everything in regular paper. We do Santa gifts but we don't hide that they are actually from us so paper doesn't really matter! The only thing not wrapped is stockings, but that's like candy, an orange and a couple of coloring books or similarily small. I'm not wrapping coloring books.
Uh, no.

LOL...big "uh, no" from me, too. Not to mention I'd prefer not to spend Christmas morning hearing my DH mutter curse words under his breath for two hours. That's what Christmas Eve and a whole lot of egg-nog with brandy is for.

Andrewsgal · December 2012

Mrs JillB:
dhviel:
LatteLady5:
joyfullyfound:
For the most part, our gifts from Santa weren't wrapped. They were usually cool stuff that were better to see set up then still in the box.... like a bike, or a train set, or a video game console. We'd come downstairs and they'd be all ready to play with already. That was cool. 
DH and I both grew up like this. We plan to continue this for DD. It would be a bummer to unwrap a toy that had assembly and have to wait for it to be set up. I wrapped the stocking gifts this year, I think I'll be sure to use special paper or just plain brown paper next year when DD will actually notice.
Would it really be that much of a bummer?  Growing up we didn't do Santa so everything was wrapped and my husband, whose parents did Santa, also wrapped everything so here everything is wrapped.  I never thought it was a bummer to have to wait to assemble things.   To me it makes it more fun and the anticipation is more because you get to see how it goes together!
At any rate, we wrap everything in regular paper.  We do Santa gifts but we don't hide that they are actually from us so paper doesn't really matter!  The only thing not wrapped is stockings, but that's like candy, an orange and a couple of coloring books or similarily small.  I'm not wrapping coloring books.
Uh, no. 

how sad for your kids.

sbevmc09 · December 2012

Growing up our gifts from Santa were not wrapped. Now as a parent I totally see the genius in this - Santa gives all the hard to wrap stuff!

As I kid I loved it, it's fun seeing all the stuff sitting out. For us Santa would set up piles of presents with our stockings in front of them so we'd start out present opening by going through our stockings and looking at what Santa had set out along with them. Then we dove into the wrapped stuff. I don't remember one being more exciting than the other. I can see how a young child would be distracted by the stuff sitting out, but I think that would rectify itself after a Christmas or two.

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