I came across a post that was going around Facebook that had stirred up some controversy. The topic was Christmas morning and who gives the gifts. It said something along the lines of:
“Parents: when you give your kids Christmas gifts, you should make small things from Santa and have the bigger gifts from Mom and Dad. That way, kids whose parents can’t afford big gifts won’t think that Santa only brought them small things because they are bad kids.”
Personally, this is how I already do Christmas gifts although I hadn’t thought about it from that angle before. In our house the small gifts are from Santa because that’s what fits in the stocking. All the gifts under the tree are from Mom and Dad. I won’t lie, I do enjoy the glory of being the one to give the best gifts on Christmas morning. I know other families have ALL the presents from Santa, while others don’t do Santa gifts at all.
That Facebook post did tug on my heart strings a bit. It made me question if I would change our Christmas tradition if we had previously done big gifts from Santa. To be honest I’m not sure.
I would enjoy hearing everyone’s thoughts on it, and how your family does the gift giving.
So, my Mom Talk Monday question is:
Is there any particular reason for how you do your gift giving? Would you do it differently if your child had peers who won’t receive the same type of gifts from Santa? Let’s get the conversation started!
28 comments
Growing up my biggest gifts were always from Santa, as in the thing I was wishing for most! One year I got this giant Barbie house from Santa & I’ll never forget it. Then my mom and dad would give us littler gifts from them.
I can feel the excitement you got from that Barbie house! Isn’t it crazy how the memory of certain emotions just stay with us? Sounds like a great Christmas 🙂
This is an interesting topic that I haven’t thought about! My baby is 4 months so this is his first Christmas! We are doing presents from both Santa and us but I’m not sure who will give the bigger gift yet!
Aw, enjoy that special first Christmas! It’s a lot of fun deciding on what your family traditions will be.
This is a really interesting question. While I completely get the sentiment, I’m not sure that is a reasonable expectation. We actually don’t do Santa gifts at all but I feel like if we did, I would do small Santa gifts anyway because I would want the credit. haha
Lol, I’m the same as you. Why should the fat man get the glory? Mom works hard all year for those joyful hugs 😄
Very interesting! I never really thought about it from that perspective! My oldest will be 3 this Christmas and is just learning about Santa. I’ll have to keep this in mind when figuring out what presents under the tree are from who. I’d rather get the credit! Haha
At 3 I don’t think they care much who the gifts are from, but maybe by next year! Haha, enjoy!
As a child, I always received my biggest gifts from Santa! I plan on continuing that tradition with my family.
It is fun to continue the traditions we had as kids with our own families!
Santa gives the big gifts at grandma’s house because we don’t do Christmas at ours (we do Chanukah). I think it would be hard to switch it without explaining and that could get tricky.
I find all the Santa-related explanations to be quite tricky… I have always tried my absolute best never to lie to my children and the Santa topic can get a bit murky. If they come right out and ask I will not lie to keep the Santa thing going, but while they are little I do “play along”.
Interesting topic! While I don’t have kids, when my nieces were young we gave our gifts to them at an earlier or later date than Christmas. They ended up getting so many gifts, they had no idea what was from who, Santa or otherwise.
True, it may not matter much who you say the gifts are from! A lot of kids just want to open them!
I’m not sure it was planned, but Santa brings all the gifts in the stocking and under the tree and then my mom and dad (really just me since I do all the shopping-lol!) give the kids one big (often the priciest) and most begged for gift. It seems to have worked out and I cherish the magic of Santa that my kids still look forward to and believe in.
It makes sense to me to have at least one from Mom and Dad so the kids can’t say “wait, you didn’t get me ANYTHING for Christmas?” Haha this happened to my friend and she was furious!
We decided to do the big gifts from mom and dad and a few small things from santa. A big part of this is because I want to be mindful of those kids who don’t get extravagant gifts from santa. I don’t want my daughter to make anyone feel like they don’t deserve as many gifts or a huge one. And another part if because I want her to understand that mommy and daddy worked very hard to get her what she really wanted because she was a good girl and deserves it. I want her to be a “good girl” because she wants her parents to be proud of her and not a fictional character she eventually will discover is not real. I feel like this as she gets older she will realize she needs to be good because she just needs to be a good person to others and not to get stuff.
That’s another angle I hadn’t thought of, the fact that Mom and Dad had to work to get her the gifts. I’m still trying to teach my kids about money and how it isn’t just given out, it takes effort to earn it, etc. I still don’t think they are too clear on the whole concept so it’s something I need to focus more effort on.
My kids are still little but it is good to start thinking about this now! We just pick a few gifts that are from us and everything else is from Santa! But now you got me thinking 🙂
Sounds like you’ve got good representation from both gift-giving parties!
I have a 13-month-old, and I’m not exactly sure if he will grow up to be into the idea of Santa, simply because his dad isn’t. If he is, however, I think Santa should bring him the small gifts, and Mommy and Daddy give him the big gifts! I don’t want him thinking that an imaginary icon is who he acts well for.
Good point, I see where you’re coming from. Mom and Dad should be the bigger influence.
Never thought of this before ! We just do some from Santa some from us … but my son is also only 4 so can’t read yet and wouldn’t know what was from who anyways haha
Haha, it’s a moot point when the kiddo is little and just tearing through gifts!
Last year my son was only 3 months old so we didn’t really do anything special regarding gifts from us vs Santa. Our family got our son lots of gifts that were things we needed as well as cute clothes. This year he’s 15 months and honestly I haven’t thought about it since he’s still too young. Definitely a good thought provoker though!
xo, Laura
You’re in a good place to put some thought into your traditions and choose with intent while he’s too little to notice if you change anything up!
You’ve got me thinking now! We are at a crucial time ( 3 years old) where traditions are beginning to take place…. I didn’t even think of it from this perspective! I’m not sure what we’ll do yet but I’m kind of liking the idea you have of getting credit for the big item!
We usually have Santa give the gifts that are the hardest to wrap- and that way we get out of wrapping them 😉 But I like the idea of having Santa give the little stuff, because there can be SUCH a disparity between what kids get.