Santa Gets The Good Gift. As He Should.
Thanks to the randomness that is the Internet, it has come to my attention that not everyone uses the same criteria for figuring out what gifts are from Santa and what gifts are from the parental-type units. I hadn't even thought about it. What Santa brings has always been sort of automatic around here.
It's simple, really. Since I start shopping for Christmas pretty much in January, anything that is acquired before Alexis answers the "What do you want?" question is automatically a parent gift. Once she has declared her every wish and desire, it pretty much comes down to figuring out the one thing she wants most. Santa is in charge of that one thing. No more, no less. He gets one thing...be it a $10 item or an obnoxious $100 doll that makes me want to stab myself in the face with a spork.
In my head, the magic of Santa is that he brings that magical thing that the kid asks him to bring. What about at your house?
(Last year's Santa gift--the Hannah guitar that is still going strong. Obviously.)
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Reader Comments (17)
As lovely as it would be to take the credit for the highly coveted BIG item on the list, Santa does get to claim that around here as well. Perhaps in a few years (or ten or whatever) she'll look back and connect the dots to how lucky she was thanks to her parents . . . and not just Santa. But the here and now is all about the magic of it.
Though, I'm not sure E reeeaallly gets this whole Santa/presents/list thing. She only nonchalantly mentioned two things that she liked. Which, uh, kinda makes it a little more difficult.
Santa has morphed for us. When the kids were little we had Christmas Eve at the in-laws. We'd open all our gifts to each other. Christmas morning, everything my Hunny and I got the kids was wrapped and from Santa.
Now that they're teens, they get the big ticket items Christmas Eve and the stockings are crammed with the little things Christmas morning.
So all the gifts from me are wrapped and under the tree, and the boys open them on Christmas morning. They wake up on Christmas Day and see their Santa presents, unwrapped, by the tree, usually HUGE items that are like, impossible to wrap, like a Thomas the train table or ride-on car. We assemble the toys, though, so they're ready to play with in the morning!
Love that picture of your little girl!
For us, Santa brings the toys and Mom and Dad bring the clothes LOL. As the kids get older, Santa brings the "good stuff" (video games, consoles, etc) and Mom and Dad still give the clothes, so as not to ruin it for the 7 y/o. I figure I only have 1-2 years left of that magic...then, I dunno how it will go LOL....
BTW....ALL presents are wrapped! HAHAHA.
We kind of go along the same lines as Clair. Santa gives the cool stuff, we give new pajamas, slippers, stuff like that. They open our gifts on Christmas eve night and usually stand in front of the tree so I can attempt a semi-decent picture.
This is the first year that EJ had something she wanted from Santa, so Santa came through with those items. And like you, anything else will be presented as gifts from mom and dad.
Interestig. We never bought a gift for our kids. It has always been Santa. We open tons of gifts with husband's family Christmas Eve and then my family Christmas Day afternoon - so between the eve the santa and the afternoon gift frenzy my kids have never asked us where our gift to them is. I guess that will all change though once Santa is not believed in anymore.
I started that last year when the Kid was 5. Santa would give the one special gift they ask for and maybe one or two more surprises. I also have seperate paper just for Santa. Luckily, this year the 'big' gift from Santa is the Bey Blade staduim thingy...that I got on Amazon weeks ago for only $20!! So I threw in the Guess Who electronic game from Santa too since his little brother destroyed his regular G.W. game.
I can't wait to see his face!! :D
In our house, Santa brings lots of unwrapped toys, games and books (probably 8-10 things/ kid) including 1 or 2 things that they asked him for. I kind of display the presents (with a separate pile for each kid and shared things in the middle) and try to have them ready to play if possible. But if the toy looks better in the box, we leave it in the box. There are usually 1-2 wrapped presents under the tree from us as parents.
This year is going to be a bit different because my daughter asked Santa for a Wii and a certain wii game. We decided to get the Wii for both kids as a present from us, so it will be wrapped under the tree. Santa is bringing her 2 other things she specifically asked for.
This was how we did it in my house growing up, so for me the wonder of Santa is finding what surprises he had left.
Our rule is that they can play with their unwrapped, Santa presents as soon as they wake up but have to wait until everyone is awake and ready (caffinated) to open the wrapped presents.
love the way you handle the santa issue. perfect.
p.s. my dogs don't believe in santa
Forgot to add above - Because Santa brings lots of things and only some were asked for, part of the magic of Santa to me was always him figuring out things you would like/ love without you telling him.
Being selfish, I want the credit for the big, or totally cool stuff. My Sweetie feels the same way.
The early warning system has alerted us to this being our last truly Santafied Christmas, and we're both kinda glad of it. Not that Santa hasn't freaked her out--in a bad way--for all of her life, no matter what we did.
We're not sorry to see that particular thing go. We're terrible parents.
We really didn't do Santa. I mean the girls got one special gift, but my Alexis was terrified of Santa from an early age and she didn't want him in our house. When we told her that would mean no presents from Santa she was totally okay with it...LOL.
It's exactly the opposite in my house...Santa brought me everything except for my big gift. When I got my American Girl doll (Samantha!) it was from my parents.
Well, I'm 19 and my siblings (twins) are 16, but around here, my parents always get the big item, and label everything else from Santa. Still. Even though it's been nearly a decade since anyone around here has believed in Santa.
I don't have any children yet but I like how you handle Santa. I may be using this in the future. Thanks!