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.)