more questions about Santa...

[Tezzy]

following on from my last thread about Santa..

i spoke to colin about MIL booking that train ride with Santa and we are definetly going so it looks like we're having Santa around our house this year and presents from him etc..

so..

questions.. (bear with me because ive never done the santa thing before!)

does santa just do the stockings? like little presents?
how did you start explaining santa to your young children?
and at what age?
do you do the whole letter to santa thing?
and at what age did you start that?

(ive heard of a company that send letters back to your kids.. anybody know who they are?)

for those of you who are christians how do you balance santa/religion?

i know the whole cookies/mince pies thing on xmas eve.. any other traditions i need to be aware of?


i know all this sounds really pathetic but ive never done christmas with santa before.. i just want to get it right and be 'normal'

 

[mandaa1220]

at my house this is how it's done... might be different as i'm in the us.

santa fills stocking and leaves all of the gifts,
when i was younger i would write a letter to santa each year and leave it on the table christmas eve with cookies and milk

i know there are companies that send letters back to children, but i'm sure they are different here! sorry i can't be much help!

 

[Vickie]

does santa just do the stockings? like little presents? honestly I think this varies greatly from family to family and it's what you're most comfortable with really. Growing up we had an assortment of gifts from Santa, my parents, and other family members. Our big gifts and stockings were always from Santa but I've seen others do it with small gifts and stockings, just stockings etc. Also I have some family who now doesn't wrap the presents from Santa, they simply put them out opened and assembled around the tree for the kids to play with the next morning. I will be wrapping Hannah's as that's what I grew up with.
how did you start explaining santa to your young children? this year it will be really an introduction to Hannah, I'll talk about Santa and I'll put on the Christmas shows etc. but I really don't expect her to grasp the concept
and at what age? she'll be 15 months
do you do the whole letter to santa thing? not this year, I don't think Hannah's old enough
and at what age did you start that? maybe next year or even the year after when she's old enough to tell me what she wants and understands who Santa is

(ive heard of a company that send letters back to your kids.. anybody know who they are?) not in the UK

for those of you who are christians how do you balance santa/religion? We will have Santa but I will focus more on the giving aspect of it, Saint Nicholas etc.

i know the whole cookies/mince pies thing on xmas eve.. any other traditions i need to be aware of?
not in the UK so really not sure. We always left a treat out for Santa, cookies and milk or something that we'd baked the day before. I've also heard of people leaving out carrots for the reindeer but we never did

 

[amylw1]

when we get gifts from family/friends they go straight under the tree. any gifts we buy get put away "for santa to collect and return christmas eve".

santa leaves them a stocking, the rest of gifts are from me and OH and their siblings. they wrote a letter to santa when they were 3.

 

[welshcakes79]

we say that santa brings all the gifts
we leave the stocking on the bed and all the bigger gifts downstairs
we say bed early xmas eve so because santa wont bring gifts if boys and girls are awake

Ive started explaining santa to Rhiannon already, she has grasped it (kind of) because whenever she see's a red gnome she now goes "ho ho ho" lol

as for traditions hun, why not start some of your own, maybe rhys could leave a drawing out for santa along with maybe a biscuit of fruit (sports candy a la sporticus keep him going all night) or maybe get rhys and ffion to choose their own treat to give him, or keep the inside from a toilet roll give one each to rhys and ffion and help them decorate it into a cracker (minus bang lol) and get them to leave a letter to santa inside it??
maybe bath time earlier and then snuggle down and watch a xmasie dvd together on the couch under a blanket/duvet??

whatever you do im sure they'll love xxx

 

[Kitten]

In our house we wrote a xmas list but not to Santa cos mum & dad bought prezzies. The xmas prezzies would be under the tree when mum got round to wrapping them but on xmas eve we hung our stockings in our bedrooms or on our door handles and left sherry & a mince pie for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer. In the morning the food would be gone and our stockings would be full of little prezzies like toys, hair stuff, chocolate etc. and would keep us busy til mum & dad woke up and had brekkie and got dressed before present opening time.

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

In my house when I was younger all of the presents from my mum were from santa. Ones from grandparents and other family members were just from them. We aren't religious at all so that never really came into it for us. We would leave a mince pie and milk or something out for santa on christmas eve, we also put a carrot outside the back door for the reindeer (my mum used to have to bite a different carrot and put it outside so it had teethmarks and was mostly gone for when we got up the next day). We used to write letters for santa in early Dec, so mum had chance to pick what she was gonna buy from what we wanted. You could just pretend to post them and write your own letter back, just buy some sheets of coloured paper and write a letter saying "I am twinkletoes (or some other such name) one of santa's elves, santa is very busy but if you've been a good boy/girl he will try very hard to get you what you want" and put some glitter and little christmassey drawings on. We used to do those in high school for the kids from the primary schools near us. xx

 

[Floralaura]

The NSPCC do a letter they send to Little ones..i usually get Josh to write a letter then we post it in a post box with 'Santa, North Pole' on the front (I usually take the letter out the envelope so i can keep it lol)..then either got one like the one below sent out to him or i print one off the internet myself and post it to us..x

https://www.nspccwishes.org.uk/letter-from-santa

 

[Floralaura]

Oh and we usually get (either make ourselves with oats/glitter/confetti ect) reindeer food like this https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-x-Santas-C...ccasions_ET?hash=item1c0d3912a8#ht_3350wt_940 to sprinkle on the garden on Xmas eve for the reindeer to keep their magic..x

 

[Tezzy]

thanks girls!

 

[Cariad_bach]

Mine kinda think Santa works for God!

They write to Santa in December but they know that if they've been to naughty they wont get anything, God will tell Santa if he's to come to them or not lol.

Also all family members send stuff to Santa for them ... like I buy them a present and give it Santa ... he then brings it Christmas eve if they've been good etc,
He also fills stocking with little presents.

TBH i tell them as little as i can but explain that Santa does diffrent things for diffrent people, then make it up as you go along and see what 'stories' work for you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[Mrs R]

In our house when I was little, we hung our stockings up on Christmas Eve before bed. Santa then takes the stocking down and fills it with little wrapped presents, and then leaves the bigger ones on the sofa.

We still do this with my nephew (we all stay at my parents at xmas) and leave xmas pudding and beer (!!) out for Santa and we buy 'reindeer food' from our local hospice shop and sprinkle it on the front door step for Rudolph.

We have always gone to mass (church) on Christmas Eve, and continue to do so. It's a tradition now to get new clothes for Christmas Eve Mass and we all go together. The hymns and candles create a lovely atmosphere.

I think it's great you're doing Santa and baby Jesus. They can both fit into your christmas

 

[taperjeangirl]

Father Christmas does the stockings and the large pressies in our house,any other small things from him were put into a big sack, then the rest is from Mummy and Daddy.
The stockings were always left on the bottom of her bed.

We used to do the letter with Gemma, if you search online there is usually companies that send one back to them.
and we started that at around an age where she kind of understood, so about 3ish

I dont think there are any other traditions you have to stick to , but the mince pie thing is lovely and a carrot for rudolph! We used to have to leave a bag of carrots because Gemma felt bad that only Rudolph got one!

In most shops you can buy a special Key that you can leave for Father Christmas to use to get in if you dont have a fireplace.


__________________

 

[taperjeangirl]

You could also get Santa Claus the movie and watch it together

 

[staycutee]

when i was little my mum got me a book "from santa" and it was like a personalised book with a story about how my friends, sister and me all went around the world with him on christmas eve lol. i remember thinking it was amazing!

 

[Tegans Mama]

Does santa just do the stockings? like little presents? No, Santa doesn't buy or make any of the gifts, Childrens parents buy them, and then 'send' them to santa. Santa saves them for Mummy and brings them back at Christmas.

how did you start explaining santa to your young children? I will tell her there is a nice man who lives in the north pole, who Mummy sends presents to.

and at what age? Two

do you do the whole letter to santa thing? Yes we will. My sister and I used to send a letter to santa every year, and leave him one each year telling him where we wanted our presents (which chair/on the floor or under the tree)

and at what age did you start that? We will start at two

 

[Marg_27]

Hey, in regards to the letter from Santa, Royal Mail send one back to you, you jus post your letter adressed to santa in a normal post box and they send one back, I used to do this as a child, and Abbie has doen it every year since she was born (now 6) The only issue you may have is with the postal strikes atm...
Also, if you have a John Lewis nearby they usually do a letter from Santa, they have little post boxes instore for you to post yours into to which they send a reply xxx
HTH