'Is Santa hit by the Credit Crunch?' blog discussion

Former_MSE_Lawrence · 13 October 2008 at 5:25PM

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's 'Is Santa hit by the Credit Crunch?' Blog.

Click reply to discuss below.

badbunny42 · 13 October 2008 at 7:56PM

This is a real worry for us, our 7 year old really takes things to heart and is going to be hard hit by the Santa conversation. She was distraught enough when she lost a tooth down the sink while washing it (it turned out that the tooth fairy was small enough to fit through the plug hole and get it).
The trouble is, we will need to do it without shaking the christianity she is developing despite living in a house of athiests.

brightonman123 · 13 October 2008 at 8:15PM

say he got held up going through the chunnel..

lex · 13 October 2008 at 8:39PM

Father Christmas only brings a few small presents in our house. All the other presents do come from family and friends. Otherwise how do DChildren know who to thank?

Father Christmas tends to fill their small stockings with a few edible items, some stickers, few small crafty items, maybe some funky socks.

If the credit crunch hit father christmas it would be quite easy for him to choose cheaper alternatives for the elves to make. Also he wouldn't need to pack those items quite so tightly as he has done in previous years. (Stocking is fairly small)

Likewise if the credit crunch hits mummy and daddy at Christmas DChildren are already fairly aware that things like food and electricity cost alot of money...we'd have a chat about how we are saving up for x and will just be buying small presents.

lex

katiejones · 13 October 2008 at 9:28PM

lex wrote: »

Father Christmas only brings a few small presents in our house. All the other presents do come from family and friends. Otherwise how do DChildren know who to thank?

Father Christmas tends to fill their small stockings with a few edible items, some stickers, few small crafty items, maybe some funky socks.

lex

This is exactly like our house:beer:

Father Christmas can't afford all the presents in the world, so he buys a select few;)

Olliebeak · 14 October 2008 at 12:32AM

My 3 are all grown-up now (with little ones of their own) but when they were small my ex-OH was out of work. How could we let them think that Santa had his favourites - and it wasn't THEM?

We finally told them that mums and dads had to pay Santa for the presents that he brought because he was old and only had his pension

.

We even saw some families where presents were received on Christmas Day, showed off to friends and then disappeared never to be seen again. These we found out were sent back to the catalogue as 'damaged when received' or 'not suitable for child'. One child received a 'stack stereo system' as a personal gift - but it was placed in the family living room and used by the parents NOT the child.

CC_Bloom_2 · 14 October 2008 at 1:10AM

The Santa letter is written by end of October in our house and is only allowed to ask for one present but can give a few suggestions in case elves aren't able to make enough of one thing to go around. This gives us an opportunity to shop around and try to get some bargains. We also talk about not being greedy when we ask for something and say that Santa has to share out toys with children all over the world some of whom get nothing else, unlike our kids. I'm always shocked by how much my son's friends get and especially by so called "stocking fillers" many of which seem to be as expensive as his main present. I think this year many parents who have over indulged their kids previously may now have to be very creative in their explanations!!

oldhaggis · 14 October 2008 at 9:14AM

We always used to tell our children that mums and dads sent Father Christmas the money to pay for their presents. Fortunately for us they didn't ever request anything exceptionally expensive.

Some children at their school received very expensive items and we were able to explain it to them by saying that their parents were richer than we were.

jet64 · 14 October 2008 at 9:20AM

We were uncomfortable about lying to our kids so we told them from day 1 that Santa was a storybook person who was fun to believe in but wasn't a real person. They knew the presents came from real people. This horrified some of our friends but we didn't have to go to great lengths to keep the pretence up and it didn't stop us visiting Santa in many locations and enjoying the story (and presents). Children view the world differently from adults and have no difficulty living in a mix of fantasy/reality. Indeed one of my children at one point refused to believe Santa wasn't real! We could still do the fun things like leaving out a carrot for Rudolph etc - but we all knew it was make believe. We made sure they understood they needed to be tactful around other children! It worked for us - it's a bit like going to Disneyland - you know it's a fantasy but it's great all the same.

mini · 14 October 2008 at 9:50AM

My daughter came to tell me you were on TV, wanted to know why Santa is struggling with the credit crunch when we pay for their presents and we have been saving up!

We use emailsanta.com you get to ask for 3 things on there which I think is fair enough, youngest wanted an ipod, an expensive one so I explained that would mean not many other presents so she is going with surprises & saving up for her own ipod.

As a child we living in a very mixed area, with some very rich people, I never understood why they got so many presents when I tried to be sooooooooo good and didn't get much so it was important to me that my children didn't see presents as a measurement of how good they are.

mini

timnicebutdim_2 · 14 October 2008 at 11:00AM

Apparently a mate at work told me that due to the increased fuel prices and credit crunch Santa's elves are currently picketing the Lapland fuel depot as we speak so it's uncertain whether presents will be delivered on time (or even at all) this year

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