For those of you who do "Santa"

CollinsMom

CollinsMom

Cathlete
Quick questions for all the parents on the boards who play up the idea of Santa Claus for their children..... What do you do? Do you have them write a letter, ring jingle bells or make noise of the roof, leave cookies for Santa/carrots for the reindeer, even have someone dress as Santa?

My DS is 3 1/2 and he is very into Santa this year. I had him write the letter to Santa, we did the Santa breakfast, and in a few days he is even going to get a small gift and note in the mail from Santa.

I just feel like there are only a few years where Santa feels really real for children, and I want to make it as magical for him as possible.

Any cool traditions that you care to share?? I'm looking for ideas!
 
We used to send the kids to bed, wait for them to get a little sleepy, dress Dad up as Santa, and have him "quietly" (meaning he pretends to be quiet but makes enough noise to get them out of bed to peek) come in the house and put presents under the tree.

The 2 girls would watch him from the balcony, excited and totally speechless. Although one year, my younger one yelled, "Thanks, Santa!" :D Then she ran to him and hugged him. <3

He would also eat the cookies they put out for him.
 
I don't have kids, but I was one! ;)

I fondly remember when "Santa" actually came to our house and brought me one of my presents (I don't even remember what day it was, probably not Christmas, but earlier?). I think it may have been some store employee who did that.

My parents would also drop little comments about seeing reindeer footprints on the roof (and from my parents' bedroom, you could see some kind of prints on the overhang of our front porch, and they'd point them out as 'reindeer' prints---they were actually squirrel prints!).
 
We lie under the tree (daugther and I) and hold hands and close our eyes. Then we pretend to fly to the north pole. We talk about what we see along the way and what is going on when we get there. We usually do this the night of the 23rd. Once we've "looked" around, we fly back home. It is a lot of fun and the imagination is an amazing thing! Santa always leaves a letter for her. We've made reindeer food to put outside before too. The one thing that meant the most to her that Santa did was last year, as he was coming down the chimney, he dropped one of her presents into the fireplace but hmmm, he didn't notice it so she found it there when she went to get her stocking. She was just absolutely amazed by that and still talks about it. We have a special plate that is just for Santa too and we put homemade Christmas cookies in it, along with a drink. Once (either last year or the year before), she put out a Diet Coke but Santa went into our fridge and switched it out for a caffiene free Diet Coke and left her a note to that effect - she was blown away that he had actually opened our fridge! She is 8 this year and Santa is excited about making his visit - as I write, she is getting ready to mail her letter.
 
My dad used to get one of his co-workers to dress up as Santa and come to our house. He would come on Christmas Eve. We weren't asleep but we were in our pajamas when he would come. One year he brought his wife and son. His wife was dressed as Mrs. Claus and his son was dressed as an elf. I have very fond memories of this time even though I was scared of Santa. It took me a couple of years to realize that he was good and brought presents! :eek:
 
oh, these are all too cute!

I don't have too much to add, but we always put out a bowl of carrots for the reindeer along with Santa's cookies.

anybody: How old were your kids when they stopped believing?
Our oldest is 6 and I dread the day when she knows we have to keep it a secret from the younger girls.....
 
What an endearing thread! I especially like the idea of lying under the tree, and talking about the journey to the North Pole! I may just borrow that idea! I was stressing about my crooked tree , the impending snowstorm , cleaning the house, bills, work, etc... I need to take time out for a magical moment with my daughter and enjoy this special time with her! So, when we are snowed in, perhaps we will lie under our lopsided tree and take an imaginary trip up North!! The rest can wait;)!! ~~Nancy J.~~
 
Our girls write a letter to Santa, leave it by the fireplace by our "Santa" plate filled with homemade cookies, and put out a glass of milk-and a bottle of beer;) They know Santa well, I think. They sprinkle reindeer food (oatmeal with glitter) on the lawn on Christmas Eve so the reindeer can see the house and leave carrots in the laundry room so they don't get the living room dirty! Santa writes back on the back of their letter, but our oldest who's 9 is getting suspicious of this. Last year she asked why Santa's writing looked like dad's! Time for word pad .

I remember looking out my window at night, waiting for Santa's sleigh to fly over the moon.

We see Santa at school and have been going to a brunch at a club my MIL belongs to for the past 8 years where we have our picture taken with Santa, Mrs. Claus passes out punch and cookies, and carolers dressed in Renaissance clothing sing. It's been the same Santa every year and they put it on a DVD and keep adding to it every year. This year they decided it was boring and too expensive:( It was, but I liked the tradition of it and I'm bummed. We're going to a Holiday Nights event at a local museum instead-live reindeer, costumed carolers ice skating, etc. Should be fun, too.
 
chefkate said:
anybody: How old were your kids when they stopped believing?
Click to expand...
I have forgotten how old they were, but it was indeed a bummer. I did tell them that the legend of Santa Claus started with a real man by the name of Saint Nicholas who was very kind and did his best to help those who were less fortunate ~ our gift-giving and acts of charity are inspired by him. That made them feel a little better.
 
I forgot these - Santa called my daughter and left a message on the answering machine (one year later, it is still on there!), and also, looks like Santa and elves must write with their left hands ;) The writing certainly is not neat and pretty!

Nancy - enjoy your journey - it is a special one!
 
My DD is 4 and DS is 18 months. DD has, just this year, started to understand the purpose of Santa Clause.

I plan to take her to see Santa this week. At preschool, with the help of her teachers, she put together a little baggy of "reindeer food." Basically just oatmeal with glitter. I thought it was cute. So I'm going to have her sprinkle that on our lawn on Christmas Eve. Other than that, I'm not sure what else we'll do. I'm new to this whole Santa thing since this is the first year she's really been into it.

One nugget of wisdom I have come across and something we plan to do at our house is have Santa only bring ONE gift. DD and DS will get gifts from my husband and me, grandparents, friends, other family.... in other words, TOO MUCH. So I figure Santa only needs to bring one gift. I've explained to her that Santa has to bring gifts to every boy and girl in the world. I hope this will cut down on a little bit of the materialism of Christmas, especially when it comes to asking Santa for anything and everything. (hmm, now if only I could talk the grandparents into toning it down. hahahahahaha) :D
 
DS is 7 this year and I think he's onto us, but we are still doing the Santa thing. He mailed his letter the 1st week in Dec. I fished it back out of the mailbox, because we've kept all of them. We will make cookies on Christmas Eve and leave those for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer. Normally, the cookies get eaten, and we toss the carrots to the dog or back in the fridge :D:eek::D. DS also has a tree in his room, and Santa leaves 1 small present under it every year, which gets trickier every year! Then he also gets presents under the tree and in his stocking. We put out the family presents earlier on Christmas Eve, that way you can tell which presents Santa brought. Santa also has his own wrapping paper, tags, and handwriting, so the presents look different than the others.

Nan
 
chefkate said:
oh, these are all too cute!


anybody: How old were your kids when they stopped believing?
Our oldest is 6 and I dread the day when she knows we have to keep it a secret from the younger girls.....
Click to expand...

I'm 45 and I haven't stopped believing.

As for DD, she was well into her teens before she gave in, but she is 21 now and still knows that if you don't believe, you don't get gifts from Santa, so it pays to believe. Here's how we kept her going. We would go to midnight mass. At our church you had to get there at least 1/2 hour before the service if you want a seat. We'd find seats and DH would excuse himself to the bathroom and then return some time before the service started. When service was over we would go home and Santa would have come while we were gone. I don't remember how we kept the fact that the car wasn't in the same spot. Other years, right when we left for church or to go look at Christmas lights, after getting in the car, one of us would run back into the house because we forgot something and set the presents out while everyone waited in the car. Then when we got home, Santa had been there.

Jean
 
kgalas said:
Our girls write a letter to Santa, leave it by the fireplace by our "Santa" plate filled with homemade cookies, and put out a glass of milk-and a bottle of beer;) They know Santa well, I think. They sprinkle reindeer food (oatmeal with glitter) on the lawn on Christmas Eve so the reindeer can see the house and leave carrots in the laundry room so they don't get the living room dirty! Santa writes back on the back of their letter, but our oldest who's 9 is getting suspicious of this. Last year she asked why Santa's writing looked like dad's! Time for word pad .
Click to expand...

This is adorable!! I had heard someone mention the thing about oatmeal and glitter before, but couldn't quite remember. We may do this.

Growing up, we would always go to the Christmas candlelight service at church, then drive around looking at christmas lights, then go home and play Monopoly or Clue until we couldn't keep our eyes open. As a newlywed, I am figuring out how to combine DH's traditions with my own.

These posts are helpful and really fun and heart warming to read!! Keep 'em coming!!
 
This is a really nice thread!

My sons are 10 and almost 13...I know they don't truly believe, but they play it up (yeah, I think mostly for the gift aspect lol). We still leave out carrots and cookies/milk. Their letters are getting more specific, though - like, leave something to know you were here, Santa. As in proof! I've saved all the letters along with all the letters to the tooth fairy as I know someday I'll cherish them.

My friend took some clay that we use for pawprint memorials at work and put her goats "hoof print" in it, baked it, and she left it under the tree for her DD saying it was Rudolph's paw - she was all over that! It looked great!

Our other tradition is reading the Polar Express - love that book.

Heidi
 
Ooo I remember the Santa days!! My dad used to to go up on the roof and make hoof noises. One time when we were small we went to a family Xmas eve party that lasted fairly late, so my mom and dad plotted to have my dad sneak back to the house and put out all the presents, so it looked like Santa had come by while we were out.

My parents did all kinds of stuff like that, from "guessing" presents to Christmas Eve notes from Santa under our pillows, giving us hints as to where super-special gifts were hidden in the house.

Great times!

Sparrow
 
Another thing that I realized earlier on with my DD, is that she noticed that Santa used the same wrapping paper that we used. She was 3 at the time and thought it cool. After that, Santa never had the same paper. He must have gotten a new distributor. Also Santa's helpers at my job would make out the Santa gift tags (because you know Santa is busy) and then DD could never say "hey your writing and Santa's writing in the same"

Jean
 
My DH's family has a big gtg on Christmas Eve and Santa comes to the house every year for the kids. He comes in and hands everyone their gifts. We take pics with him and then leaves. The kids get a big kick out of it. They pick a random and willing man in the family to don the suit every year. It's really cute. :)

That being said, I don't feel any need to do anything extravagent on Christmas Day. DS knows that Santa comes and he gets certain gifts (usually the "bigger" ones) from him every year and the rest are from mommy and daddy. When DS gets a little older we will start writing letters. Maybe this year I'll have him leave out cookies and milk and force DH to eat them after DS goes to bed! LOL
 
My boys outgrew Santa a long time ago, but I had to share.

For our first son, we made a huge deal out of Santa. There was a Santa at our local mall who had a real beard and a real elf(small person) that we went to see every year. It was a special night out with dinner, a visit to Santa, and a stroll through the toy stores.
We left cookies and milk out Christmas eve. A few times, we could hear Santa's sleigh in the air, and Rudolph's nose!! It was so exciting. My son truly believed.

Fast forward 5 years my son found out there wasn't a real Santa(at school). He asked me flat out if there was a real Santa, I explained he was not real all the gifts were placed by mom and dad. My son's response was, "You mean to tell me that you have been lying to me all these years?!"
I was shocked.:eek::eek: I didn't know what to say. I had been lying to him all those years. Try to explain that one away. Good lies, bad lies. Lies that are not harmful when all the time I stress the importance of honesty. :eek:

Ok, so my second child came along 6 years later. We played the Santa game, but we also let him know it was all pretend.:) My second child loved playing the imaginary game.


My brother is having a problem with his 12 year old daughter. She knows there is not a real Santa, but gets very upset if you say so:cool: She doesn't want to know the truth!
Kids, they need to come with their very own instructions!!!
 
I married and had an instant family. 1 of mine of 2 of his. DS was 16 and too old to believe but his DD was 9 and my DD was 6. His DD (DD19 now) had been told my her lovely *sarcastic* mom about Santa at an yearly age (like 5). The first year we were together she played along, then the second year she thought her sister should be clued in. I'll never forget that my DD (DD15 soon to be 16 :eek:) turned to her sister and said with absolute conviction, "But, if you don't believe, Santa won't come." Of course, then I had to deal with DD19's tears and I pulled her aside and explained that Santa did exist in our hearts and that if you believe in his spirit, magical things happen.

DD15 knows now, of course, but she still believes in Santa - understanding the magic. As do I, and oddly enough so does DD19.
 
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