What is your opinion on gifts?

cathys1_2

We have always done it that presents from us were from Santa, and that dd knew other people had let Santa deliver from them. Now that she's five we are doing a small sack in her bedroom of gifts from Santa (cost no more than £10 for the lot) and then about another £10 worth from Santa under the tree. All the rest are from Mummy and Daddy because we think she needs to learn why she isn't getting everything on her list - Mummy and Daddy only have a limited budget.
When i WAS LITTLE WE HAD ABOUT THREE PILLOWCASES OF THINGS FROM sANTA, AND THEN HAD TO WAIT UNTIL AFTER LUNCH FOR THE BIG PRESENTS. (sorry - didn't realise I had put caps lock on!)

stormbreaker

Our presents to the kids came from Santa! but Mum and Dad sent money to Santa to purchase the presents. This also explained why some children did not get as much or some children got more, as it depended on how much the Mums and Dads could afford.

When the kids were young, all our presents were delivered by Santa!! but they came from who ever had purchased them! There was always something magical about how all the presents were there on Christmas morning. We use to try our hardest to hide even the wrapping paper but would explain it away as it was for the presents we had purchased for others for Santa to uplift and deliver!

We ALWAYS had problems from the in laws who wanted to 'SEE' the children open their presents and was always the cause of arguement between my OH and me as he would need to tell his family that he was coming to deliver their presents and uplift the kids! This would always put a bit of a damper on things. I remember one year they refused the presents and brought them down on Boxing Day. I am sorry to say that I made a point in not being in!!

What I could not get my head round was that Christmas was for the children and should be magical. The in laws had had their time whilst bringing up their own so why could they not respect what we wanted for our kids?

My MIL attitude was that once they were at school they would know Santa did not exist anyway!

I might add one of my sisters was exactly the same until she had her first child and wanted everything there for Christmas morning!

This year my presents for the in laws are delivered. We are not getting ours til Boxing day but my sons are teenagers now and I dont mind!

bestpud

I have to say, just from reading this, I find it complicates things to have santa collect and then deliver all the presents!

A stocking worth of presents is easy enough to hide and I just buy a roll of 'FC' paper as DD1 remarked Santa must buy his wrapping paper from Tesco as well!

Another thought is when parents split up. My sister used to say everything from them was from Santa and this worked fine until they divorced!

All of a sudden, daddy was great as he bought loads of things while mummy didn't get anything (except all the stuff of FC of course!) :mad:

We had 2/3 bin liners from FC when we were children and our parents never watched us open them. We used to open them in her room or mine, or sometimes we shared a room on xmas eve, and had always opened the lot by about 4am!! :eek:

We'd then sit eating chocolate until we fell back asleep a couple of hours later.

We still had loads under the tree though as my parents ran a pub and we used to get gifts from most of the customers, and FC only brought presents from mum and dad, not other people.

I don't recall being bothered at the time but I couldn't let my children open their presents alone. They come into our room and open them on our bed.

Their presents from us go under the tree and they open them with us, after we've had chance to make a coffee!

lynnescomp

We do a few presents from FC and the rest from us. Dh and i had a disagreement about the stocking presents I always got them wrapped he didnt. He has now came around to my way of thinking.
We put all of the non FC presents under the tree and then the Fc ones come down on Christmas eve.
The children are aloud to open the stocking presents in the morning so make sure they have a decent present to keep them occupid but the main presents dont get opened until after dinner.
When i was a child my mum was always running in and out trying to cook dinner and the presents seemed a bit of an inconviniance. I love seeing the girls faces. So it isa tradition we have started. Sees to work well at the moment.

sunshine_shell

Santa 'delivered' our presents when we were little, Mum and Dad used to help him by buying them. I remember when i was little when we wrapped mums presents with dad we used to put them outside for the elves to collect them, we'd go back out later to check and they were gone.... never worked out how they made that happen but it did!!

boiler_man

Father Christmas just fills the stockings in our house (unwrapped gifts) and leaves at the end of the bed - everything else goes under the tree for Christmas morning to unwrap after everyone is up and dressed.

Becles

stormbreaker wrote: »

We ALWAYS had problems from the in laws who wanted to 'SEE' the children open their presents and was always the cause of arguement between my OH and me as he would need to tell his family that he was coming to deliver their presents and uplift the kids! This would always put a bit of a damper on things. I remember one year they refused the presents and brought them down on Boxing Day. I am sorry to say that I made a point in not being in!!

What I could not get my head round was that Christmas was for the children and should be magical. The in laws had had their time whilst bringing up their own so why could they not respect what we wanted for our kids?

Christmas isn't just for children.

When I give a gift, I've put thought and effort into getting them something I think they will like, so part of the gifting process for me is watching the expression on their face when they open it. I wouldn't like having my gifts for others taken away from me and opened when I wasn't there.

Hush-Puppy

stormbreaker wrote: »

We ALWAYS had problems from the in laws who wanted to 'SEE' the children open their presents and was always the cause of arguement between my OH and me as he would need to tell his family that he was coming to deliver their presents and uplift the kids! This would always put a bit of a damper on things. I remember one year they refused the presents and brought them down on Boxing Day. I am sorry to say that I made a point in not being in!!

.....

This year my presents for the in laws are delivered. We are not getting ours til Boxing day but my sons are teenagers now and I dont mind!

OMG - we had this too!

My IL's used to ask what was on the kids' Santa lists, then buy things from those lists. All the 'list' pressies were *from Santa* (as I said in my previous post) so they demanded that they were to come up with their gifts at 7am. Some years it was 6.30am. They would see the kids open everything then go home. It drove me mad, so we stopped it and told them to bring the pressies on Christmas Eve. They refused point blank. DH got a taxi to their and back on the first C. Eve of our new rules to beg them to at least give him 'the list' items, but he came home empty handed and £20 down on taxi fares.

Nowadays, we don't let them know what's on the kids Santa Lists, and if the kids mention something I say we've already bought it. . They arrive about 10am Christmas morning with their gifts and go about 11. PERFECT.

XX

FairyElephant_2

Becles wrote: »

Christmas isn't just for children.

When I give a gift, I've put thought and effort into getting them something I think they will like, so part of the gifting process for me is watching the expression on their face when they open it. I wouldn't like having my gifts for others taken away from me and opened when I wasn't there.

Hear hear!

DH has a big family, and have always got together at his parent's house (now sadly just his mum's) on Christmas afternoon for 'present opening'. Even when he had kids with his 1st wife & one bro also had kids, they would often have their Christmas lunch with their inlaws, but always come for the afternoon & tea at his mum's.
I thought this was great, but 3 years ago (the year that FiL died, so the first year for his mum on her own) youngest bro had a baby, and he & his wife decided that they would NEVER be going out on Christmas day, but would stay home. They invited her mum & dad to lunch, and MiL didn't get to see her littlest grandson on Christmas day, which made her sad. We thought it was a bit mean, as MiL doesn't drive, Bro & wife both do, and wife doesn't drink, so she could have popped the DGS over for an hour at least - it is only about 25mins drive!
But....they came to visit Boxing day and DGS got to open his pressies and play with his cousins, aunties & uncles which he loved.
Last year the older Bro's kids didn't come until boxing day either, but that was fine, 2nd 'present opening' day on Boxing day for most of the cousins.

This year, there is another baby grandson from youngest bro, and we all had what we thought was a very cheeky text message from him & wife, to the effect that they 'didn't want the boys to get used to having a second lot of presents on boxing day', so they would be a MiL's this Sunday just gone, and would we have the presents for their kids delivered there beforehand so they could collect them and put them under their tree for Christmas day!!!!!!!
Us an the 2 aunties got together on Sat and we agreed that we thought this was out of order! - not even a please or thankyou!

Apaprt from MiL, the Aunties & Uncles not seeing the children unwrap the gifts, we reckon it will be more confusing for the LO's to watch their cousins unwrap pressies on Boxing Day and not get any themselves....

Actually, I hadn't yet wrapped their boys' gifts, and didn't have time before Sunday, so they weren't there to be collected, and we shall give them on Boxing day when they come over (unless they want to accept one of our many invitations to visit us, which are always ignored!).

Sorry if this is a bit of a rant - but touched a nerve!

Racklen

as a child present from my aunts grandparents and even one or two from my mum and dad were under the tree then on xmas eve night santa would be bring some pressies if i had been good all year and put them where i always sat in the front room