Christmas present traditions

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

Elsenet, some (mostly American) friends and I were discussing when to wrap presents and put them under the tree. I have started wrapping but due to life getting in the way, the tree isn't up yet.Anyway, this lead to the question of whether Santa presents under the tree get wrapped, and i was all 'What? Santa doesn't put presents under the tree, the point of Santa is that he leaves things for the children to do before the parents wake up!' Er, I mean, to show that sometimes the joy in the Incarnation is so great that it overflows in the form of chocolate and books and stuff given to strangers. But also the 'don't wake the parents!' thing.

I think it's probably that that's a thing that happens in the US, and here we do more just stockings? I remember that as being how it worked when I asked around on reading Little House in the Big Woods (where all the presents were Santa presents) but that's a while ago.

[Poll #2059182]

Comments

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

I'd like to augment my responses a bit.

Santa presents are strictly for kids. By the time I was a grown-up, no more presents from Santa, on the grounds that I was quite old enough to make my own entertainment. Also, once I was in my teens, my Santa presents usually consisted of a chocolate orange, and a book. (i.e. fuck off and keep out of the way of people doing Real Work.) When I was younger, there were some sweets, a book or two, and one Big Present to keep me fairly occupied. (It turns out that getting an actual telescope in your 'stocking' (pillowcase - stockings don't grow that big) is something that you can remember for the rest of your life.)

And then of course you open a few more things from parents, and the rest of the family, under the tree, after the Queen's Speech.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten the 'do adults get stockings'. I got one until I left home for university, and we plan to do the same with B. Like my last one, his will have lots of little 'leaving home' things in - a bottle opener, and tea balls, that kind of thing. And always a book.

One year I got a sewing machine in (or rather next to) my stocking but that was unusual, it was more often small toys, satsuma, chocolate, and the book.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

We still get stockings when we go to my parents for Christmas, but not if we're elsewhere. We had actual stockings with our initials on, and mine got updated when I changed my name, and there's an R for Ramesh as well.

Since we were about 8/10/12 my parents started getting a stocking from 'Santa's Elves', which is terribly misshapen, as though made by someone just learning to knit...

[naath.livejournal.com]

I made stockings for my parents... it's quite nice to get some sweets and fruit and stuff to wake up to I think.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Yes, I definitely like the idea, and sometimes I do St Nicholas for grown ups (we did this year), it's just not something in my tradition.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Until I was maybe 8 (so old enough to hear otherwise from schoolmates and potentially blab to younger brothers), nearly all presents under the tree and in the stockings were from Father Christmas. There were other presents from named relatives which were handed over in person, and there were specifically identified big presents from our parents (occasionally joint and expensive, like the year we got a slide; more often mid-range expensive like Lego sets, in which case we'd get one each). After that, the percentage of FC gifts decreased but it has always been tacitly there - nothing from my parents is labelled from them, and I've continued the same with smallclanger. Stockings were always full of stuff to keep us occupied, but all small things, plus a book if it fitted (we always used socks so it had to be things like puzzle books and joke books most years, though at least two years running as a teen I got a couple of small poetry books).

My mum bemoaned the lack of a stocking (because she was doing them all) when I was around 14 so for the next 10 years or so I made sure she got one; I passed that to my dad and I have no idea if he's still doing it but I hope so. (Anyone staying overnight with me on 24th-25th gets a stocking too.)

We celebrated at every available opportunity when I was small. St Nicholas, La Befana, Epiphany, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day... my (British) maternal grandparents both had their birthdays just after New Year's Day and so does a paternal uncle (hitting 60 in Jan 2017 so that party's planned already), and two aunts-in-law have birthdays between Christmas and New Year, so it's all a good excuse to have every party we can manage, really. :D Luckily none of us are Humbugs.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

THat sounds lovely :) I do enjoy an excuse to prolong celebrations.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

A pillowcase though, rather than a special stocking-shaped thingy, I suspect so it could be sent through a hot wash if the cat decided to add something dead to it in the night. We would get a satsuma, some nuts, a chocolate selection box, and some little things, one of which was usually a book.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

That sounds like what we had. Ours were made of dead sheets (I was very hard on sheets as a child, so we always had a stock of them) so very washable.

[aldabra]

Stocking. The bottom two things were a 2p (!) and a satsuma. The middle was entirely miscellaneous. At the top there would be a present with a star on it, typically a rolled up puzzle magazine. This one I was allowed to open when I woke up, and it was designed to keep me occupied. The rest had to wait until my Great Aunt got up for elevenses.

Then actual family presents waited until after lunch and the Queen's Speech.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Queen's Speech. Not really part of my traditions, I was a bit surprised later when I realised that other people had it as a focal point. Carols from Kings was an 'if we feel like having the radio on it's a nice backgroun noise' rather than a focal point too, that's a thing where Colin was rather shocked and read it as me disliking them rather than just not minding either way.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I had a stocking for a long time, a rugby sock containing a couple of oranges, some chocolate, and a selection of small secret-santa type presents, little puzzles or games and things.

Presents from people were under the tree. Sometimes there were some extra presents from santa, not the "big" present, but something interesting and more specific than the stocking presents. I can't remember if those were by the stocking, or under the tree, or if it varied.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Stockings were for immediately you woke up, everything else as soon as everyone was up. (Or after breakfast, sometimes.)

[hooloovoo_42]

Stockings (my tights until we had pillow cases) had things like a ball of string (always), set of coloured pencils, things to colour, some sweets, stapler (once), Lettraset, stickers, hankies and similar. They were opened once Santa had been and the adults had retired to bed as long as we didn't make too much noise and Grandpa told us to go to sleep. Presents from the family went under the tree.

By the time we were teenagers, we decided that Father Christmas should bring stockings for the adults, so we used my hockey socks and organised them for Ma, Pa & Granny. Granny's always had a packet of Rennies (manufactured by St Nicholas), as she ate them like they were going out of fashion.

"Stockings" became carrier bags and continued until after we left home. Now Ma & I don't bother with stockings, but put all the presents under the tree and open one each after midnight on Christmas Even before going to bed.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes, the one each on Christmas Eve was a thing we did when I got to be Practically Grown Up (probably the first year neither sibling came home).

[gerald_duck]

I never believed in Santa Claus. It was a story I was told, but I got told lots of stories, and I didn't realise some kids took Santa Claus any more seriously than the others.

Obviously, the stuff had to be put there by my parents; who else was in a position to?

So basically, a pillow case got hung on a door handle by my bed on Christmas Eve and in the morning it contained some bits and pieces too small to count as main presents. Normally, including a stash of sweet and savoury snacks the rate of consumption of which wouldn't be policed.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Ah, the no policing of rate of consumption is a big deal too. We had that too. We always got selection boxes (big stockings) and a satsuma and chocoalte coins and a chocolate santa, so there was quite a lot to consume.

[pling.livejournal.com]

Stockings were only for children and were small amusements, plus a satsuma and some chocolate coins, opened at the table at first breakfast. Presents (from people, never Father Christmas) were opened with all the family together taking turns after church and before second breakfast (which was a fry up and replaced lunch for Christmas Day - we had our Christmas dinner in the evening). It wasn't until I was an adult that I found out that other children got up earlier than their parents on Christmas Day - we got up in the normal routine and that meant that if by some rare chance you were awake before your turn in the bathroom you stayed in your room & read. I don't remember what happened when I was too little to read. I also don't remember ever believing in Father Christmas for real, it was a story we talked about but definitely fiction.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Ooh, multiple breakfasts, nice.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Stockings could be opened whenever you wanted once you were awake, and were entirely from Santa. They contained a mix of unwrapped things (nuts, satsumas, shiny pennies, apple, chocolate coins) and two or three wrapped things (always a book, often silly puzzle things, sometimes a chocolate orange)

Presents under the tree were mostly from named people (we definitely got presents from parents that were from parents, I have heard of English people where all the presents under the tree were from 'santa' or more distant present givers, and so technically they got things from everyone except their parents at Christmas which just seems really odd). But there would be about three or four from Santa, they would tend towards the slightly odd / joke / embarressing presents, things mum wanted to wrap up and give us but that weren't a Proper Present from them.

[alextfish.livejournal.com]

Very similar to my tradition. Stockings contained a mix of unwrapped edibles and a handful of smallish wrapped things. You can start the edibles and unwrap *one* wrapped present before Mum & Dad are awake, and you're not allowed to wake them before ?maybe 8? Maybe the time varied with our ages. Then the kids pile into Mum and Dad's bed and unwrap the rest of the stocking presents, while they open their own stocking presents which are mostly a mystery due to being from each other. Er, I mean, all the stocking contents were from Father Christmas, though it was a bit odd as a small kid to see Dad say something like "Ooh, Santa must have been paying attention when I said I wanted something like that two weeks ago".

Presents under the tree were from named people, several from "Mum & Dad" and the rest from other family or friends. You're allowed to open one tree present before Christmas Lunch.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I just dismissed anything people said that didn't make sense as one of those things that people say because it's the done thing to say. It was relatively recently, for example, that I realised that some children actually go to bed early o nChristmas Eve. I knew in theory that there were people who went to morning church or no church at all but celebrated Christmas - it hadn't quite entered my brain that some of those were children.

So 'Santa must have been paying attention' is just one of those 'Santa is all seeing' things or adults being weird.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I think we talk about traditions more now it's easy to have this kind of conversation with people around the world.

[rmc28]

We had stockings which were understood to be from Santa until we stopped believing in Santa, but which continue as long as we are under a parent's roof for Christmas Day. Those had food and probably a small toy or a book or a puzzle thing (i.e. "something to keep the children busy"). With my parents, we went to church in the morning, and then came home, messed about with stocking contents until food was ready, and after food we opened presents, which live under the tree. Sometimes this was hurried to finish before, or split over, the Big Christmas Day Film e.g. when we all wanted to watch Return of the Jedi.

Mostly presents were from named people, but my mother would sometimes slip in presents from "Father Christmas" which were usually small things she'd thought each person would like as well as "real" presents. All my memories of that are at times when it was understood Father Christmas was not really real, it was a jokey thing to allow extra presents. Sometimes I do that for presents for me and Tony.

From Tony's family we have adopted the tradition of bucks fizz and salmon-on-bread for elevenses, to keep people going while a giant bird cooks in the oven. Presents get opened with the bucks fizz, which feels very decadent to me, and probably frustratingly late to my children.

My ex-boyfriend's family had a lovely tradition of "the Panta Santa" who brought everyone a fresh set of pants and socks for the year. I aspire to be organised enough to be the Panta Santa.

Edit: I forgot to say that everyone who spends the night of Christmas Eve under my roof gets a stocking of some kind, contents vary according to age, how expected you were, how prepared I am that year, and how well I know your preferences, but generally include Things To Eat and Something To Read and/or Play With.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

If my children are up by 11, I consider it a marvel :) I mean nt on ordinary days, on Christmas Day. I've never done the Christmas-morning church thing, it's always Midnight for us.

[shermarama]

I've kind of got two sets of answers for this, which is what happened before my parents split up when I was 7 and what happened after that, except I don't quite remember the transition between the stages properly. Before 7, we definitely had stockings that appeared overnight and had things like sweets and small stuff in, and they were meant to keep us amused for a bit, but then the bigger presents under the tree came in a sack that also said they were from Santa (or via Santa in some way, given that we also knew who they were from as we wrote thank you letters for them?) and they were opened some time in the morning. I don't really remember when we stopped getting stockings but it might have been when Mum moved out of the big family house when I was 9, and the sack under the tree probably stopped at 7, or rather I had something under the tree at Mum's but then sometime in the morning I'd go to my dad's instead, visiting his parents / mother on the way, and then have more presents at Dad's. Any notion of long-standing family tradition kind of faltered in the face of all that, anyway.

[naath.livejournal.com]

So my parents are the sort of people who have too much money and also Guilt. So... we got a stocking full of small things (some wrapped, some not) on our bed to keep us occupied until they wanted to get up. And an armchair *full* of wrapped gifts "from santa" for after church and then presents under the tree "from actual people" (including parents, aunts etc.) for after lunch.

We early got used to "socks as gifts" but most of it was just toys and sweets and other ludicrous tat.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, no church on Christmas morning for us, so it's just 'whenever everyone's up and ready'. Which is usually late, because we only just got in from church at 2am.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Mum's in the church choir. Some years I had to do Christingle (for the kids on XMas eve), Midnight (fortunately never actually midnight) *and* XMas morning (10ish)... church overdose.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Wow! Even in the choir I've never had to do anything other than actual midnight. I'm not at the moment, although Colin has to stand at the front and wave his hands sometimes. This is a service to little old ladies (who like to look at something pretty) so I try not to gripe.

Our services now tend towards the long side - last year Tom commented that when he came past after GSM's Midnight service, we were still going strong. We get back about 1.30am, sometimes later; the children do not get up before 10am.

[lnr]

In my family you'd get one present from Santa, wrapped under the tree, and your other gifts were from family and friends. We didn't do stockings, and would wait until everyone got up to go and see what was under the tree, and open all our presents together before breakfast.

The one gift might be quite a large one, and wouldn't usually just be a stocking fillter. As we got older and no longer really believed Santa did keep coming, but these days he brings the family a DVD to watch. We still leave out sherry and a mince pie and a carrot, even if there are no children in the house.

Mike's family had stockings, and I'm not sure if they had a tree-gift from Santa too or not.

For Matthew we're starting a tradition of small gifts in his stocking, unwrapped (a book, something to play with and something to eat), and a bigger gift from Santa wrapped under the tree (something he's asked for).

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

oh, interesting. Yes, we do the 'whatever you ask Santa when you go to the grotto you'll probably get' but so far it's mostly fit in the stocking. This years, when Judith wants a particular kinetic sand set, it might have to go next to the stocking.

[juliet]

Father Christmas delivered both stockings and under-the-tree presents, but the presents (definitely under-the-tree ones, not sure about stockings) were *from* my parents, but *delivered* (and possibly sourced?) by Father Christmas.

My parents got up to open stockings with us which I gather is totally counter to many people's thoughts about the purpose of stockings, but I wouldn't like to miss L opening his stocking presents myself :)