When I was in my 20's, I was amazed to discover folks had so many different Santa traditions. Yeah, I was naive enough to think all Santa's operated the same way!

For example, I couldn't believe most Santa's came ONLY on Christmas Eve! Wow, how boring! When I was a kid, our Santa dropped presents off little by little. We'd look out the window and there would be a pile of presents on the front porch, with footprints going to the window and a smear on the window to show he was looking inside to see if we were being good!

My mom got a lot of mileage out of one present, too. 'Coz when Santa saw that we didnt' clean our room, he'd come and take the present back. No, it wasn't cruel! It was part of our christmas tradition! But it sure got our room cleaned up, and lo and behold the present re-appeared under the tree!

I guess with 6 kids, there wasn't a lot of storage space to hide gifts until Christmas Eve!

Hubby's Santa never wrapped presents. Man, I thought that was pretty boring! You walk into the living room ... all the gifts are unwrapped, and boom, it's all over! Our santa wrapped everything except bicycles and wagons. Unwrapping the present was the best part! I couldn't imagine just seeing all the presents sitting there unwrapped. (So how do you explain all the picutres of santa's sleigh with WRAPPED presents in it? Hmmmm???? )

With our kids, we left Magic Santa Snow Footprints .... we took a pair of hubby's shoes or boots and sprinkled baking soda around them, making footprints from the fireplace to the Christmas tree. The reason it was still there in the morning is because it's MAGIC snow and doesn't melt!

We also made special reindeer food ... and my 16 year old still makes it for our 6 year old granddaughter. A combo of oatmeal, cornflakes and brown sugar that we put outside for Rudolph to eat while Santa is putting presents under the tree.

And the cookies and milk thing? As a kid, our mom suggested "....don't you think that santa gets tired of all of those cookies?" so OUR santa always had fried chicken and coffee with double cream .... Hmmmmm, whadda ya know? That's the same way dad drinks HIS coffee!!

Hubby's santa always had cookies and a bottle of beer! (Santa's a working guy and a workin' guy always needs a beer when he finishes a job!)

And in the electronic age, we love watching Santa's progress on the NORAD website ... we can see him traveling from Germany to England to Iceland to Canada to New York to Indiana .... a GREAT way to get the little kids into bed on time!

How was your santa different?

My Santa was alot like your's Debi, all present were wrapped!! We each, my sister an I, took turns opening a present, back an forth. I love the idea of him checking in on you, too cute!!!

I too was amazed that some Santa's didn't wrap anthing! I'm like you, it would be over way to soon!!

We don't really have anthing else..I sure did enjoy reading yours though...Come on lets hear some more!!

My Santa was alot like your's Debi, all present were wrapped!! We each, my sister an I, took turns opening a present, back an forth. I love the idea of him checking in on you, too cute!!!

I too was amazed that some Santa's didn't wrap anthing! I'm like you, it would be over way to soon!!

We don't really have anthing else..I sure did enjoy reading yours though...Come on lets hear some more!!

My father played Santa while he was alive so he is the only "real" Santa that my daughter knew. He passed away when she was 9. Up to and including that final year, she totally believed in Santa, even though her friends had started to have doubts. How can you not believe when Santa truly knows everything about you, but she kind of suspected that Santa looked a lot like Grandpa.
She's 15 now and "Santa" still leaves one present under the tree that is in her bedroom. We still put out cookies and milk on the special plate that she. Her "Santa" gifts still come wrapped in Santa paper.
She has a magic stocking during christmas day and a few days afterwards small presents magically appear in the stocking. It started when we forgot to put a present in her stocking and did it later in the day. She found it and was positive that her stocking was magic - to the point of boasting about it to her friends. The magic of it still works, but now the small gifts are gift cards and jewlery. When I put it away for the year, I stick a small present in the toe for her to find the following year as we are putting up decorations.

Santa stops by our house twice every December. The first time is for St Nick day when he leaves a little something in the boots. We picked that up when we were stationed in Germany, those of us in school heard about it from a teacher and rushed home to tell our mom.

Presents are wrapped unless it's very big, in different paper than the gifts already under the tree.

Santa does like his beer, sometimes pop or water. Milk is something that my husband doesn't drink and I've normally had wine at my MILs with dinner and milk doesn't mix well with that.

I've got to keep this up on top. Too cute!

My Santa was you did not open any presents till Christmas morning. I was the one in charge of waking everyone in the house that morning. So I would get a pot and a wooden spoon and head down the hall banging away yelling Merry Christmas Get up!!

Everything was wrapped or in a bag. Nothing was left unwrapped. We all got our own area on the floor and had to wait till we got all of our presents surrounding us before we could start opening them.

There was always a big present under the tree that had to sit there till we got everything cleaned up, and it was placed between my sister and I and we had to open it together.

We always had a special plate for Santa's cookies and milk, but today my kids leave hot chocolate with mini marshmallows

This year will be different for my kids. My sister will be buying them bicycles but they will be here the day after Christmas. so I'm going to get one of the guys at work to write a note ( they know my hand writing ) in a card letting my kids know there is going to be a surprise but it's going to be late. His sleigh was full but he will be making a special trip just to deliver it them.

When it comes to decorating the house, my 11 yr old puts the tree together by himself, ( does great job ) then we all decorate it, afterwards my oldest son and I decorate the outside. After the tree is up my village goes up, and I start spraying the pine scent all over the tree to get that wintery pine smell going.

I CAN'T WAIT TO DECORATE NOW!!!!

Our Santa only comes once, on Christmas Eve. We always have Christmas at my grandparents house (though that's about to change...they're moving into a condo ). The living room is huge, so all 15 of us fit perfectly and we all have our designated spots. All the stockings are laid out, with our names on them, so Santa knows where to put each gift.

All the kids sleep upstairs. We make them go up by 10 pm and they aren't allowed downstairs for any reason, otherwise Santa might not come. Santa only brings one gift, but it's the biggest, or most expensive, gift each kid has asked for. Santa even takes the time to put the toys together so you can play with them immediately, and he even takes the boxes with him. What a thoughtful guy. The terrible part is that we make the kids wait upstairs until EVERYONE is awake. Then they have to take the obligatory group photo on the stairs. THEN, they can come down and see what Santa left them.

Usually all the kids "ooh" and "ahh" over their Santa gift for about 20 minutes, then we dump out our stockings to see what other little gifts Santa left. After that, my grandpa dons his Santa hat and hands out the gifts. The pile usually takes about an hour to be handed out and those gifts are wrapped.

One Christmas, when two of my cousins had been particularly bad, Santa left coal in their stockings as a warning. It was pretty funny to see their faces.

Our Santa comes on Christmas Eve after all of the kids are asleep (and usually DH too). The presents are all wrapped and put under the tree for the kids to get to in the morning. Also we don't have a fire place to put our stockings on, so I use the removable hooks to put them on the wall by our tree. In our house Santa will leave mommy and daddy a stocking, but no presents. Also my DD is on the edge of believing in Santa. She's 9 and her friends at school don't believe anymore. Last year she asked me if Santa was real. I told her that only the kids who believe in Santa get presents from Santa and that we know he's real. I'm not sure if she still believes in Santa, but she will continue to get presents from him until she stops. Even if she's 32.

I forgot that the pets get something from Santa too. They have a stocking that they share. Last year we had some cat toys and a piece of fruit for the iguana. This year I'm stumped over the new pet because I can't put frozen mice in a stocking and what else do you give a snake?

Our Christmas morning was like most. Presents were wrapped of course! I don't understand why you wouldn't wrap them unless it was for a baby. We didn't take turns, but I loved to make mine last so I still had a few gifts to open when everyone else was done. I just hated it to end too soon. Santa got the traditional milk and cookies. Reindeer food only came along after I had grown up and my little brother spread that outside with glitter for Santa to find it. I had a chimney, so I knew how Santa got in. What did kids without a chimney think.

Unlike others, my Santa came to visit us every year at my Grandmother's house. He had the full uniform and a snow-white beard, which was his own painted white. I learned early that there was no Santa, so I was amazed that my cousins were really old before they knew that was their dad. We are talking 3rd grade!!!!!! And, when my Santa visited other childrens parties during the weeks that lead up to Christmas, he rode in a sleigh pulled by mules.............

this is awesome
great post idea
mbelgard, the snake could get a note saying the frozen mice is in the fridge attached to an "ice mice"- u know those candies from the harry potter books.

I grew up in Italy, so there we celebrate advent too.
We had this great calendar that we put up on the 1st of december (you get a new one every year) and every day you got to "open" one of the days on the calendar- they had little double flaps that you popped off like a window in a pop up book.

We also celebrated the three kings and befana- so we got presents throughout the month of december and into the first few weeks of january.

In italy you hang up the stocking for 'la befana' who comes after christmas, she generally only leaves candy or coal- depending on if you've been good.
Over there they even sell coal candy- basically pitch black rock candy that stains your mouth, teeth and tongue when you eat it- didn't taste that great.

We left letters for santa, and he always left signed notes back.

I believed in santa till I was about 11 or so.
I don't know how he did it but my dad always rigged it to make it sound like there were reindeer on our roof.

I wish I could put up my christmas tree already, however I'm moving in the middle of december so theres no point in putting it up to take it down pack it up and then put it back up a day later at the new apt.

i think it depends on each child's own imagination and willingness to believe.
i have a way overactive imagination even now at 27.
When I was little I used to pretend and get lost in my fantasies- I used to talk to flowers and plants and stuff. Strangely enough I always knew the difference between real and imagined though- i wasnt one of those kids that jumped off the balcony cause he believed he could fly.

Believing in Santa was a lot more fun than not .

I forgot, we left reindeer food too, we left some spongy green moss that grew in our yard

Oh yeah, I forgot about the special wrapping paper that only Santa used. One year, my mom messed up and I noticed santa used the same paper that she did. She said, "Oh he must have run out and borrowed some of mine! I WONDERED why that roll looked smaller!"

My kids hate it that I color code my gifts. One wrapping paper for gifts for my immediate family ... a different wrapping paper for when we go to hubby's family christmas. To me it's simple .... everyone knows that the green package with the gold stripe is from me! Plus it's easy to load up the car when we head out .... green with gold stripes go to daughter's house ..... red with blue stripes go to hubby's family party. No confusion! No forgetting a package!

My sister and I still believe in Santa!! Santa represents the magic of Christmas and if you don't believe in the magic ... the magic of a child's innocent belief, the magic of a child's smile at the wonder and the lights, the magic of the music and the decorations .... then it's just another day on the calendar.

WHAT?????? THERE'S NO SANTA???? Ok, i'm going to my corner to cry now!!!!

My two youngest still believe in Santa, and I think it's great. We also do reindeer food. I actually make it for there classes at school.

Growing up, our presents were always wrapped unless they were too big. MY DB and I would wake up our DS and get her to go into our parents room at 3:00 a.m. and see if we could get up. Of course, she was the one who always got told to go back to bed. She reminds us about it all the time!

We started about 10 years ago with Santa only bringing 3 presents. Our oldest DD wondered why she got all her gifts from Santa and we would only give her a couple. So we changed it. We told her that we talked to Santa and that 3 presents was good enough for Jesus so it should be good enough for her and that if her mom and dad wanted to buy more then they could. We have stuck to that tradition ever since and it helps bring the real meaning of Christmas back into the picture.

If we stay home over the holidays (which only happens every couple of years), we make a birthday cake for Jesus and sing Happy Birthday to him. We have advent calendars that they open the doors and they have candy behind each door.

I love Christmas - my DD who is in the 5th grade hasn't said anything to me about Santa not being real. I am holding out. My oldest DD finally asked me after Christmas when she was in 5th grade. I told her that now that she knew, she could help me play Santa!

This is fun!!

When I was little, we were SO POOR. We had stockings and "Santa" would put things in them, but Santa also grew up poor so he was pretty cheap (by necessity). Our stockings would have nuts in the shell, an orange, an apple, toothbrushes if we were lucky, and the funniest part - unwrapped hard candy. LOL My stepdad (oops, Santa) would buy a bag of hard candy like the pillow candy and ribbon candy, and put that in our stockings instead of in a bowl like it was designed to go in. The result was that by the morning, the candy would stick to the inside of the stocking and be all furry! LOL We would always think we wouldn't eat the furry candy, but as the day wore on and we realized that we did, indeed, have candy in our possession, we would either lick or rinse off the fuzz and ta-da! No more fuzzy candy! Just regular candy! And then we'd eat it. It's funny to me now.

Probably my favorite Santa story involves my father-in-law. When he was very very little, he got a train set for Christmas. Either his dad forgot to wrap the coal for the hopper or forgot to go ahead and put it in the hopper, I forget, but he put it in FIL's stocking. So he got up in the morning and opened his stocking before opening his presents, and burst into tears when he saw that Santa left him coal in his stocking!

Deanna

When I was growing up, we didn't got much stuff except on birthdays and Christmas and our Christmas' rocked! I think...no, I know...it's because both of my parents grew up very poor and had really bad Christmas'. They made up for it with us.

We were allowed to open 1 gift from the family on Christmas Eve (thanks to dad ) and Santa came that night. We were not allowed to go into the living room the next morning until we got our parents. Gifts from our parents were wrapped but Santa's presents weren't. We had a blast!

Santa continued to bring us presents until both my brother and I moved out on our own. I don't have kids so I don't get to share that tradition with kids of my own. It's interesting to hear how everyone's traditions are different.

We have Santa Sacks ( like pillowcases,only bigger & with xmas designs on them ) - they go on the end of your bed & when you wake up christmas morning, they are full of presents from Santa !! It's very rare to have presents under the tree from santa unless they're too big to fit in the sack !! Oh, the pressies in the sack aren't wrapped either ( it keeps the kids busy & relatively quiet early in the morning before they wake me up !!)

Growing up all our presents were wrapped, unless they were too big. I always got fruit and nut in my stocking. I pretended to believe in Santa for a long time for my parents. With my kids Santa leaves some of the presents unwrapped, sometimes set up if it's like a race track or something. Santa brings all his presents on Christmas eve and no opening til Christmas morning. Everyone gets to open one present on Christmas eve from mom and dad, and it's always pjs. It's funny, my kids are 23, 21, and 17 and they still pretend not to know whats in the present.
darandon, I love the idea of the magic stocking. What a good idea to leave a present in it to find while you decorating.

i started incorporating ELF TRAPS last year, and my 4 yr old loves it. the concept is that you set a trap with items that could make something you want...when the elves come in with santa to help distribute the presents, they'll be curious, check under the box, and it will fall down, catching them. once they use the items to make something, they can be magically released.

how we did it: 4 cardboard boxes are propped up in different spots in the living room with different things under them. one had needle and thread along with a tape measure. that one was for "clothes". 2nd one had scissors and construction paper for "crafts". 3rd was for candy and had powdered sugar, plate, and fork. 4th one was for "toys" and had a small hammer, some screws, some nails, and a screwdriver.

i also took some confetti and left little trails going from the fireplace to each box, along with the flour boot tracks from santa...my daughter went crazy the next morning!!!!!!!!!! i enjoyed it just as much, quite honestly!!!!!!!!

there is also a really cool book out right now called "elf on a shelf" that comes with a toy elf...apparently you stash it in different places around the house the whole month of december, and he'll tell mom if the kids have been good...i plan on buying that in the next few days.

One thing for sure is I believed in Santa a lot longer than kids nowadays do. I grew up in the 60's and back than ALL my friends still believed and I mean truly believed in Santa well into the 6th grade.
I guess life was a lot less complicated back than and we were allowed to just be a kid.

Growing up I was the youngest of 8 kids and my parents were pretty poor. But, my older siblings always made sure that the 3 youngest had plenty of presents to open on Christmas morning.
I always remember having snow on Christmas Eve and I found out when I grew up that my older brothers were the ones that had made "sleigh marks" and "reindeer prints" on our front lawn.

One thing I couldn't understand back then was why my parents never had presents to open. I just thought Santa didn't give to parents, now I realize just how much they had to sacrifice to raise all of us......I feel very blessed and I wouldn't trade my childhood Christmases for all the money in the world. I hope my kids will feel the same way someday.

Our Santa only brought one gift. It was always the best one. We don't wrap Santa's gift but we do wrap all the others. That way when the kids get up at 5 they can play with what ever Santa brought until everyone else is up. We knew no opening. On Christmas eve my parents would always make a big deal of well maybe we should let them open ONE present tonight. We would be so excited and they would look around trying to find the best one. Every year we would fall for it. Every year it would be new pajamas, slippers, and sometimes a robe. Still to this day I am a little dissappointed on Christmas eve when I don't get a new nightgown. lol They wanted us to look nice for the pictures the next morning. Sanata got cookies and milk and a carrot for Roudolph. I guess we didn't care about the other reindeer.

As a kid, my Santa didn't wrap. I figured he took so long to make the toys, there was no time to wrap them. DH's Santa did wrap (And I'm surprised he never figured out that Santa used the same paper as Mom and Dad) Our kids' Santa doesn't wrap. And Santa only brings one or two things for each kid. We don't let them ask for much since there are so many kids in the world.

Santa wrapped the things like clothes that he brough, and left the toys and big stuff unwrapped. We usually would get up at like 7:30, open presents, put them in our rooms, then go to Grandma's house for lunch and their Christmas. Then we hurry up and go to the other set of grandparents for dinner and presents. What a busy day!

Now that we are 1500 miles away from anyone, we are trying to come up with our own traditions.

when I was younger Santa came Christmas Eve and that was it .. of course, Christmas Eve was spent at the grandparent's house and gifts from aunts and uncles were all opened there .. then we would come home and force our eyes to close so Santa would get there ASAP! All the gifts were wrapped, unless to big, and stockings were packed as well .. one year I remember we must of been REALLY good because not only did Santa fill up under our Christmas tree, but he put up another tree in our basement and that was filled with gifts galore! Gifts were always handed out by my dad and it was usually all three of us kids opening one at the same time ..
Now that I'm older and married, with no kids, Christmas is still just as exciting for me! I love to wake up at 5 in the morning and go see what my Santa brought me .. I remember the first year I was married I opened my stocking and found at the toe an orange! I was like, what the heck is this for .. and my dh explained Santa ALWAYS brings an orange, and he has for the past five years as well ... when I told my mom what I found, she told me Santa always brought oranges in my stocking when I was younger to, but I just not must remember that gift!

My DD and I always set up the tree and put on the lights while DM decorated the house, then we all decorate the tree together, when we're done we eat cookies and drink eggnog around the tree, listen to carols, and just be together. My DB and DD lay on their backs and crawl under the tree to look up through and admire the ornaments. For this reason my DD always hides ornaments inside the tree. My DB is 28 and they still do this tradition, we all think they're crazy. We usually had the cardboard advent calendar and my DB and I took turns each day opening a window. We also had an advent wreath that we lit on Sundays.

My dad's family are all in WVa and we exchange names. After church on Christmas Eve we would beg to open just one gift and my parents would pretend to think about it and finally give in. They always got to pick and it was always our WVa gift, still the suspense was always terrible while they circled the tree. Santa always came Christmas Eve and unless they were to big they were wrapped. Stockings were always full and sometimes not everything in the stocking was wrapped. The usual milk and cookies with just a sip left in the glass and a couple of crumbs on the plate. I guess back then the reindeer were on their own. My DB being younger was usually the first up in the morning, if it was before 6:30-7:00 he had to go back to his room. Presents opened one at a time so everyone could enjoy what they and what others received.

I had the best stocking when I was a kid, when I was a teenager the loop broke and my DM threw it away. Well the following year I couldn't find my stocking and was sad when I found out it was gone. The scene on it was the old plastic stuff and it was a huge stocking hanging from a tree with a long note for Santa. Santa is looking up at the note reading it and the stocking area wasn't plastic it was part of my stocking. (Hope that made sense?) After several years of teasing and retelling the story of how my DM through away my FAVORITE stocking, she bought a plain stocking, painted a tree with a note and made a 3D Santa out of craft supplies. She did a great job recreating my old stocking and it is my new FAVORITE stocking and the best present I got that year, it brought me to tears.

To this day if you say anything about Santa not being real my DD will say, "You better not say that or Santa won't bring you any presents." My DH and I don't have any children yet and haven't exchanged gifts with each other the last 3 years, mainly money and we buy for others, so we don't have a lot of traditions of our own yet. However, every year I sit in front of the tree eating cookies and drinking milk before I go to bed, I always leave a sip in the cup and a few crumbs on the plate.

I have really enjoyed reading the different Santa traditions and have several I want to incorporate into my family when we are blessed.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE

He's a tricky one at this house. He operates differently every year.

Some years he drops off little pre wrapped presents, other times he just shows up out of no where after we are all asleep.

This year he might stand on the side of the house jingling bells and chanting ho ho ho.

I do know that Santa went over board with Kyle this year and is leaving Guitar Hero for him. Santa's in deep trouble with me this week because he won't be playing it post Christmas and I'll be stuck with the 7 year old playing it. I don't need anoter addicting game to play!!!!!

I see that lots of people leave a little snack for the reindeer. We always leave an apple or carrot for Rudolph with Santa's cookies. But Rudolph leaves a little something for us too. REINDEER POOP! I take bites off of the apple or carrot and place it on the ground right off the front porch. Then I put the "poop" about a reindeers length behind the apple. I use catfish bait that you can get from walmart. Stinks like all get out so its pretty convincing. The bad part is that my middle son asked last year if Santa ever poops at our house! I told him that he might, but if he doesn't flush Ill be leaving a nasty note for him the next year.

Santa passes on Christmas eve at our house and wraps all presents unless they are too big. This year I had to buy a seprate roll of wrapping paper for santa gifts because my 9 year old noticed that santa used the same kind of paper I did. Hmmmm.....Santa must shop at Walmart too!

We watch the Polar Express on Christmas Eve, then Santa comes Christmas Eve night, after the kids are asleep. We put out sugar cookies and milk... the main difference is that our Santa doesn't bring presents. Mama and Daddy give our guys (ages 2 and 4) presents because we love them. Santa brings a set of bells to put on our front door by the tree! We've done this since our oldest son was a year old. My husband's family never did "santa" bc his mom didnt want to lie to them. But my family always did, and I remember loving the magic of it all. So we came up with that compromise... and every Christmas morning our little guys wake up and run downstairs to see if Santa brought the bells! It's the sweetest thing!!