[wellnow]

I don't have children yet but growing up all of our presents were wrapped...but on Xmas eve, we were allowed to open ONE small gift per Santa's orders to get us through the night and to give my folks a break from the constant "can we open a gift?" question....

[binkybear]

Santa left both unwrapped and wrapped for a number of years...mostly unwrapped gifts near the empty cookie plate

I found out that Santa/St Nick was inspiring and "with" my mom during shopping for hard to find items (cabbage patch year for example) when I blurted out loud that Santa's handwritting "Love Santa" looked just like mommy's

I personally like gift bags and cheap-o tissue paper all scrunched on top. Gives the pretty picture essence of time cosuming paper wrap, but you can still fold away and reuse the bag the next year. Last year my niece was more into the paper than the gifts inside...whole you can give a baby the best gift and they want the box or your empty water bottle sitting next to it!! LOL

[SamIAm2]

Gifts from us and everyone else are wrapped, but Santa only puts a bow on his We also open all our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve and then Santa comes and we find gifts with only bows under the tree on Christmas morning. Hmmm....for some reason Santa always brings the stuff that's too large and/or too awkward to wrap

[Stormster]

Do you guys set the santa gifts up? Like the train set moving around the tree etc? (ok i saw that in a movie~)

[feelingreyt]

Originally Posted by MamaS

Wrapped, but in paper different from any other under the tree. Because Santa wouldn't have the same paper we do, would he?

This is what we do as well. Except for the stocking gifts, most are left unwrapped that go in there and one special gift sitting beside the stocking is left unwrapped.

Also with the big gift, we usually have a giant bow on it!

[feelingreyt]

Originally Posted by Stormster

Do you guys set the santa gifts up? Like the train set moving around the tree etc? (ok i saw that in a movie~)

Oh YES! Sometimes we are up half the night helping Santa get everything put together and the batteries charged, but it's worth it!
Last year Ds got a John Deer Gator from Santa and it would not have been the same if it was still was in pieces and not ready to ride.

A side note:
My sister is a single mom who struggles financially. She does the best she can and we try to help her as much as possible. So any way, she said just the other day that she is about ready to tell her girls the truth about Santa. She is getting tired of stressing over what to buy them, how to buy it, putting it together AND THEN Santa getting all the credit, LOL!

[nikkianni]

Originally Posted by Stormster

Do you guys set the santa gifts up? Like the train set moving around the tree etc? (ok i saw that in a movie~)

Yup, just like in the movie. One year Santa brought my brothers Castle Greyskull (Remember He-Man?), remote control cars and a car racing track. He brought me a doll house, She-Ra castle and cradle for my new doll.
We snuck out at about 3 a.m. and there it all was, assembled and waiting. My poor Dad was up all night, lol!
Oh, and when the boys were five, Santa did the train around the tree thing with a kitten for me. That was a very cool Christmas.

[Stormster]

Originally Posted by nikkianni

Yup, just like in the movie. One year Santa brought my brothers Castle Greyskull (Remember He-Man?), remote control cars and a car racing track. He brought me a doll house, She-Ra castle and cradle for my new doll.
We snuck out at about 3 a.m. and there it all was, assembled and waiting. My poor Dad was up all night, lol!
Oh, and when the boys were five, Santa did the train around the tree thing with a kitten for me. That was a very cool Christmas.

IS THIS REALITY? wow. I'm sooooooo jealous!

[lovemy2boys]

Ok - things like this SEEMED so normal to me until I type them out for the world to see...

Santa wraps all of our gifts...Each family member has a different colored paper...Each person's pile is in a different area of the living room with their stocking laying on top so you can "see" where your pile is (even though it's in the same place every year).

This way, you can wake up and run right to your pile...

This is how it was done when I was a child, and how we do it now...Just peeling back more layers to find what feeds into my OCD...Sigh - maybe Santa will send me to therapy for Christmas...

But is does have GOOD memories! Because every Christmas, I'd wake up very very early to "go to the bathroom" and I would sneak into the living room and spot my "pile"...then I would go back to my bedroom where my heart would almost explode with excitement!!!

[nikkianni]

Originally Posted by Stormster

IS THIS REALITY? wow. I'm sooooooo jealous!

Mom is a Christmas nut. Our house always looked a lot like the set of Babes in Toyland.
That Christmas spirit is a big deal in my family. When we were kids my uncle would dress up as Santa on Christmas Eve and visit all of our houses. It was great.
DH plays Santa now for the family and we all get together and bake, watch movies, etc.
DD will have the same Christmas mornings I did. In fact, next Christmas is kitten Christmas. DH and I decided last night.

[zxczxcasdasd]

I'm going to be the balloon grinch... SORRY! But just a friendly warning to be very careful with toddlers and latex balloons. A good mom friend of mine is a pediactric ER doc and she told me the #1 overlooked hazard that she sees kill children is latex balloons, because if a piece of one that gets popped gets inhaled (we generally inhale sharply from relex when surprised) or blocks the windpipe, it sticks to the sides and is very difficult to heimlich out or remove.

She recommends mylar balloons only for little ones.

Does Santa have access to mylar balloons?

okay...back to topic.

P.S. Are you kidding me with the train around the tree and the kitten? Pretty crummy childhood, huh?

[melissa_bear003]

Santa wraps EVERYTHING, unless its just too gosh darned big. Stocking stuff is ALWAYS wrapped, which is wonderful, because the kids get their stockings to work on while Mommy and Daddy wait for caffeine from the Coffee Gods to be able to function.

If the stockings weren't wrapped, the kids would be able to just dump 'em out, paw through, and be raring to go before the coffee maker finished making that precious, precious liquid.

Santa...he's one smart dude!

[binkybear]

Originally Posted by lovemy2boys

Ok - things like this SEEMED so normal to me until I type them out for the world to see...

Santa wraps all of our gifts...Each family member has a different colored paper...Each person's pile is in a different area of the living room with their stocking laying on top so you can "see" where your pile is (even though it's in the same place every year).

This way, you can wake up and run right to your pile...

This is how it was done when I was a child, and how we do it now...Just peeling back more layers to find what feeds into my OCD...Sigh - maybe Santa will send me to therapy for Christmas...

But is does have GOOD memories! Because every Christmas, I'd wake up very very early to "go to the bathroom" and I would sneak into the living room and spot my "pile"...then I would go back to my bedroom where my heart would almost explode with excitement!!!

We had and have the seperated piles too!! My hub use to say we were all so spolied...until he got a pile (LOL). Mom never did the different paper, but I do now when wrapping for others, just to keep it all straight for myself.

We could never peek...the family room was way behind the staircase, but we sat at the top of the steps like horses behind the starting gate! I love the pictures my dad always got of our faces coming around the corner. Man, that's the kind of awe and wonder I want more of now

[jp4ga]

Wrapped and NOT Tagged.

Each child gifts are wrapped in a specific paper or color scheme. Last year my Bio sons all had a green background. FC1 all had red, and FC2 all had silver. Prior to Christmas they had fun trying to figure out which gifts belonged to who.

The gifts Santa Leaves also have no names, but are color coded. Santa leaves a note with a clipping of each wrap and the childs name beside it so we will know who gets what. The kids love the note from Santa.

Of course big gifts (bikes doll houses) are unwrapped with a big bow.

This year we have not foster children so we will only have our 12 year old and our infant, so I think for the most part he will be able to figure out the color coding, since his gifts will tend to be smaller (electronics) but I will wrap a few in larger boxes to throw him off.

[binkybear]

Originally Posted by zxczxcasdasd

I'm going to be the balloon grinch... SORRY! But just a friendly warning to be very careful with toddlers and latex balloons. A good mom friend of mine is a pediactric ER doc and she told me the #1 overlooked hazard that she sees kill children is latex balloons, because if a piece of one that gets popped gets inhaled (we generally inhale sharply from relex when surprised) or blocks the windpipe, it sticks to the sides and is very difficult to heimlich out or remove.

She recommends mylar balloons only for little ones.

Does Santa have access to mylar balloons?

okay...back to topic.

P.S. Are you kidding me with the train around the tree and the kitten? Pretty crummy childhood, huh?

Oh , I second that and thought Santa would only do Mylar for purely Santa-ish reasons..shine factor and all