I have to start out by confessing that Brad and I both believed in Santa for much longer than normal. Brad’s parents actually had to tell him the truth about Santa when he started middle school, so the big kids on the bus wouldn’t tease him. I think I believed in Santa for so long (and a tiny bit still!) because in Richmond we have the Legendary Santa, who know each child’s name. There is something very thrilling about hearing Santa say, “Hattie, Hannah, Caleb, and Jacob, come on over!”
Anyway, each year Brad and talk about our Christmas traditions growing up and get stuck on one little issue that we can’t seem to agree on – Does Santa gift wrap?
Hattie says: No Way! Santa and the elves make the toys at the North Pole! Santa brings them in his magic sack, and lays the presents for each child in a special place under the tree or around the living room. Most of the presents aren’t even in their original packaging (The North Pole is NOT a subsidiary of Mattel!) but are all set up and ready to play with. On Christmas morning the children all wait together to go downstairs, where everyone gets to see their Santa presents at one time. Santa brings a few big special Christmas presents every year. The other presents come from mom and dad and grandparents and siblings and are all wrapped under the tree with silly to: from: tags full of inside jokes. These presents are opened slowly and are often really meaningful gifts.
Brad says: Of course Santa gift wraps! Santa picks out special paper each year to wrap all of his gifts. He brings them in his sled and spreads them all out under the tree. Each child takes turns opening gifts, one at a time. Almost all the presents are from Santa, but one or two presents might be from mom and dad.
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The fact that Brad and I don’t agree on this detail isn’t a big deal right now because we don’t have any children yet. When we do have kids, I can tell we are going to have to duke this one out because neither of us plans to budge. Thankfully, we both agree that the most important Christmas tradition to pass onto our children is celebrating the birth of Jesus and holding in our hearts the truth that He is the best gift,
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So, in the spirit of a little holiday debate, what do you guys think? Does Santa gift wrap? Is there a compromise for this conundrum? What are your favorite Christmas traditions? Any Christmas conundrums at your house? Spill the holly jolly beans!
<3
Hattie
9 comments:
Ummm...this is kind of spooky to read because it is almost exactly what we are dealing with. In my house Santa always left the best present (drum set, 3 story Barbie House, enormous nerf guns) all set up in the living room. Each present had a note from Santa about something good we did that year, which he kept on his list. We all slept in my brother's room and at 3 am would go down to look at these presents. Then the rest of the smaller Santa presents were gift wrapped and would be opened after breakfast with all of us opening them one at a time.
For my husband his family opens almost all the presents Christmas Eve and they tear into them all at once so it is over in 5 minutes. Ugh! Then the only presents Christmas morning are wrapped by Santa. Hmmm...I may have to do a blog myself about this. Now that we have a little one I'm very reluctant to give up my childhood traditions!
Santa totally doesn't have time to gift wrap- hello, he's been checking up on children and the elves have been busy making the toys all year- do they have to wrap them for everyone too?! :) Hattie, you are totally correct on this one. Brad, I'm afraid you've been duped. It doesn't sound like Santa came to your house at all, but that your parents have been tricking you all these years. :(
I LOVE the idea that the Strand family mentioned where Santa leaves a note about something good that the kids did. That's brilliant!! I always got a note from Santa thanking me for milk and cookies (luckily, I was too naive at the time to make the connection between my mom's handwriting and Santa's... It was awfully pretty cursive to be a man's...) Great discussion!!
Oh. My mom wrote the notes with her left hand, which explains the very shaky serial killer looking santa notes! :)
HAHA!!! We have this conversation every year!! In my family, most of our gifts were opened Christmas eve, and were from my parents, Christmas morning we got one or two BIG gifts, and they were always gift wrapped. In hubby's family, they opened one gift Christmas Eve, and all other gifts were revealed Christmas morning NOT wrapped.
Sooooo, we go with hubby's style. Although we keep my family's tradition of getting one small thing in our stockings every day the week before Christmas:)
I'm sure it's the teacher in me, But I also love the idea of a note from Santa. Thanks for the idea, Strand Family. I'm loving hearing about all of your traditions, keep 'em coming!
Santa didn't gift wrap when I was growing up. There is something magical about racing to the Christmas tree and seeing presents spread out and set up from Santa. My aunt and uncle do really cool thing with my cousin who is 13 this year. From the time he was little, like maybe two, they has a special notebook where he would write a letter to Santa on Christmas Eve (before he could write he would color a picture) and then Santa would write back when he brought the gifts. It's really cool to look back now at all of the things my cousin wrote to Santa and it's neat because it's all in one notebook!
Santa wrapped our gifts growing up so we do the same now. But Santa has his own special wrapping paper different from mom's, and he doens't use tags...he just writes your name somewhere on the gift itself.
Santa wrapped our presents when we were growing up, Santa even wrapped the stuff in our stockings, right down to the toothbrush and chap stick. Santa doesn't have that much time these days, and wants the kids in our house to be able to play with their big present right away, so he doesn't wrap, just sets the present by who ever's stocking the present is for.
We don't think everything should come from Santa, so he just brings one bigger thing, everything else is from mom and dad. Also we get to open pajamas on Christmas Eve to wear to bed that night.
I am laughing out loud at the Strand Family, because Santa writes his notes with mom's left hand at our house too. Thus the crazy serial killer look note.
teri
Tracy's dad says that Brad loses on this one! Besides, how in the world do you gift wrap Barbie's dream house? Especially after you sat up until 3:00 a.m. assembling it? Whoops, sorry Tracy. I love this debate and actually we have it with Andrew now that he's older and he actually lets us know which way he prefers his gifts each year. He likes having the "big ticket" item out, and then some to unwrap as the morning progresses.
Now that I think about it, I usually received a note from Santa thanking me for being a thoughtful little girl and that did mean a lot to me.
Well Hattie, looks like you two might have to arm wrestle over this one.
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