We all know St. Nick has to use his Santa magic to accommodate many different homes and traditions. I posted a request on Facebook for folks to chime in with their family Santa traditions.
The questions? When Santa visits, does he deliver wrapped or unwrapped gifts? How does Santa’s loot compare to presents given to kiddies by Mom & Dad? What goes in the stockings?
I loved reading the responses:
- In our house, unwrapped from Santa… Santa gifts are the bigger ones (bikes, trains etc…)
- Unwrapped from Santa…wrapped from mommy/daddy
- Santa doesn’t wrap.
As the kids age, Mom & Dad’s gifts supersede Santa’s, thereby giving credit where credit is due. - Santa gifts came wrapped in our own special paper. All my gifts in one kind and my brothers in another, my mom said she started this when we still couldn’t read so we could distinguish whose was who!
- I never remember presents from my mom and dad, Santa brought it all!
Santa doesn’t have time to wrap - busy visiting houses all over the world and all. Santa loot - fun stuff. Mom and Dad loot - stuff you need anyway - We don’t wrap the presents. And I try to only get the gifts we hear them ask Santa for…more from mommy and daddy!
- Santa doesn’t wrap. He doesn’t bring the "best gifts" . He just brings 2 or 3 things plus stocking stuff. Mom and Dad deserve the credit for getting them the most wanted gift. Abbie asked for something very expensive and said Santa could bring it, I had to tell her Santa was on a budget this year.
- Santa didn’t wrap at our house. With 7 yrs. between my Brother and me, he was a BIG kid before he quit playing the game for me. Then for several years Mother would ask me if I wanted gifts from Santa, or just wrap them all under the tree. There was never a penalty for recognizing the truth–just a gradual easing into understanding that Santa was another expression of Parent’s love.
So, what’s your Santa Claus (or Papa Noel, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle) tradition? Click on the link below that says "No Comments" (or 1 comment, etc) to share your tradition.
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Sis responded on 15 Dec 2009 at 8:56 pm #
Oh dear! This response was even written about in several newspapers! As unPC as it is, we didn’t “do” santa with our children. They are now grown, have their own little ones, and have chosen not to do the santa thing with their children either!
They were instructed to never ruin the game for other little children, but I think they’ve always liked being on the inside track
Santa seems eerily parallel to God: he knows if you’ve been bad or good; he lives somewhere unreachable by meer mortals; he knows everything! I don’t know, he just seems to dilute the purpose of Christmas. It’s about Jesus, not a make believe good guy. Why isn’t the birth of our Savior enough?
We don’t do Easter bunnies either….we just rejoice that He rose!
I know, I know, let the hate mail begin. Just remember…I don’t care if you don’t tell your kids the truth, so why do people care SO much that we do? We are all free, well until the liberals take that freedom away too, to teach our children the way we see fit.