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

[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.