Spill the beans... on your free Christmas magic for kids tips

lizchris101

My parents would hang homemade stockings over the fireplace for all nine children in age order on Christmas Eve. They would be filled by Santa and left on each child's bed. Even now I can remember waking when I rolled over onto it and heard it rustle. I do the same for my children now and they love it. They get to open a little present, have a treat to eat and a drink and it also gives us adults a little more time to wake up before we all go downstairs to find the main stash of presents, again lined up in age order.

Edinburghlass_2

rhyspaulburton wrote: »

My most magical memory of Christmas from my own childhood was writing a letter to Santa, putting it in an envelope, and posting it up the chimney to be magically delivered to Santa.

My parents used to let our coal fire burn down until there were no more flames, then we'd carefully hold the letter flat high above the hot coals, let go - and the heat from the coals would lift the letter up the chimney and out in to the night sky, on it's way to Santa in the north pole.

Much more magical than posting it in a letterbox, and no stamp required!! You need a real fire though... (It doesn't work so well with an electric fire)

A more modern twist my neighbours do with their kids is to send up their letters to Santa via a Chinese lantern, biodegradable of course.

hippygran

I think I was a bit demented over christmas when my boys were little (still am really).

I put soooo much effort into them 'believing' and having a 'magical' time.

They had stockings left on their beds full of really small, cheap stuff, and an apple, orange and nuts, and a selection pack. The rest was always pencils, small cars, bubble bath - all really cheap and cheerful. The remaining (usually bigger - but not always more expensive) stuff was left in the living room. Some years money was shorter than others (eldest once had to have a second hand bike - which he loved! - he never seemed to notice it wasn't new!). But everything had to be extravagantly wrapped and colourful, to add to the sense of occasion, no matter how big or awkward the shape!

We always left a mince pie and sherry for Santa, and a carrot for Rudolph. Of course Santa only had a small bite of mince pie, a small sip of sherry, and Rudolph a small nibble of carrot.

The fact that the food and drink was still there and had been partially eaten always seemed much more realistic than if we had removed them. And they thought it made perfect sense that it ALL couldn't be consumed or Santa would be drunk and too fat to fit down the chimneys, and Rudolph too full to pull the sleigh, bacause EVERYONE would be leaving treats.

Rather than running downstairs to open their bigger presents in the living room (having opened their stockings in our room), they first would run to the door step to see if Rudolph had nibbled his carrot! This was even more exciting the year it snowed and the could see Rudolph's hoof prints in the snow! Amazing what you could do with a bit of imagination, a pool cue tied to stick and a lump of plasticine!

Looking back I don't know HOW my two ever got off to sleep Christmas Eve, as I wound them up so much over Christmas from 1st December. They got letters of Santa - not just one - but several - praising them up for the good stuff they had done, and gently reminding them santa was watching if they had been naughty (but they had to be REALLY naughty to get one of them - I only sent one and the transgression involved a 999 call and my youngest telling them he was alone, and there was a fire in the living room - omitting to tell them the fire was one in the fireplace, and the baby sitter was on the loo!).

So I would have two hyper little boys almost wetting themselves with excitement, and would I stop there.........no I would spend half of the night Christmas Eve standing at the bottom of the stairs with sleigh bells, shouting up 'Can you hear him? He's coming, you had better get off to sleep now!'

One year they got so excited that they called me upstairs to tell me that they had actually seen Santa and his sleigh going over the estate opposite!

My son is in his mid 20's now, and only a couple of years ago he said
'Of course I know now that the letters and the hoof prints and the sleigh bells were you, but how on earth did you arrange for us to see that image of Santa?'

He thought I had done something really clever with mirrors or something!

I just put it down to the excitement and magic of the season! Oh how I wish my children were young enough to believe again!

thunderbird

I'm not religious - but churches can have a special feel at Christmas even to non-believers. Our village church has a Christmas tree festival every other year where it is crammed full with real trees each one sponsored by local organisations and individuals and it is a lovely sight.
My kids love going to the Christingle service on Christmas eve.

As for Santa - was never a huge part of my childhood Christmases. We have done things like leaving out food and drink for him with our kids, but I actually feel a little uncomfortable with, effectively, lying to them.

MaggieBaking

I knew someone who flung horse manure onto the roof of his bungalow so in the morning he could moan about the mess the reindeers made!! It apparently came at a time when his children were losing the magic of Christmas and he wanted them to have one more Christmas in full belief

moneybub

hippygran wrote: »

One year they got so excited that they called me upstairs to tell me that they had actually seen Santa and his sleigh going over the estate opposite!

My son is in his mid 20's now, and only a couple of years ago he said
'Of course I know now that the letters and the hoof prints and the sleigh bells were you, but how on earth did you arrange for us to see that image of Santa?'

He thought I had done something really clever with mirrors or something!

I just put it down to the excitement and magic of the season! Oh how I wish my children were young enough to believe again!

Love your post hippygran - I'm hoping that it snows now! I love how your son still remembers "seeing" Santa - that's fantastic! My two are 2 1/2 and 5 so having great fun this year and looking out for a few ideas to make it extra magical! My 5 year old loved PNP last year so definately making sure that happens again!

I would like to ask teddyco if they have children? I don't see anything wrong with letting children imagine and getting them to behave well at the same time! There's plenty of time for harsh realities later in life - let children be children I say.

lizchris101

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I wouldn't begrudge you your thoughts. I would only add that I don't know of many adults who look back on their childhoods and are angry, disappointed, upset or have any other negative feelings about being 'lied' to about this.

Most people I know have very fond and happy memories of Christmas, even of those years when they realized it wasn't quite as magical as they had been led to believe.

I personally don't feel that there is anything wrong in using imagination at one of the only times in a person's life when their imagination is at it's best. I wish my imagination were as vivid and real to me now as it was then! Maybe that's why I try to keep the magic alive for my children.

A little icing sugar sprinkled around shoes to make snowy footprints, a bite out of a carrot etc. all will make both me and my children more excited and happy this year as normal.

stampychan

My dad's really into astronomy, and has a brilliant telescope. Last year at Christmas we took my then 6-year-old nephew out on Christmas eve night (there was snow on the ground - very magical) to do some 'santa-spotting' through the telescope. There was some event occurring - either a pass of the International Space Station or a passing comet, I forget which - that he'd timed the viewing for. So we scanned the night sky, had a look at the moon, at Jupiter, and then - oh! Santa!

It was ace, and tiny nephew was very proud that he could tell his friends he'd seen Santa flying across the sky to deliver the presents

smashedcrab

I kept my two believing for as long as possible, in fact I had to tell my son the truth in the September just as he started secondary school in case he said something about santa to his schoolmates and got ridiculed for the rest of his schooldays!

But the most important thing to them was the stockings. When I suggested not giving them a couple of years ago my children moaned and said it was the one thing they really loved about Christmas morning.

The trouble is that my son uses the same stocking each year, and its quite big & takes a lot of filling!

This year my daughter's not getting one for the first time as she's moved out. My son's still getting his - my daughter is 22 and my son is 16!

I've now got two more children aged 1 and 2, so the magic begins again! Woohoo! :j

:xmassign:

babysteps24

My mum still gives us all stockings when we go to her house on christmas day, apple, tangerine, £1, chocolate coins etc and I am 36!!!:rotfl::T:j We used to put out letters to santa "up the lum" at our grans as she had a coal fire. My daughter sprinkles reindeer dust and put out a carrot and biscuit and milk for santa