Another mom at playgroup mentioned that Santa doesn't wrap gifts at their house. Today I heard a DJs on a morning radio program say that Santa didn't wrap at his house...he put everything together so it was ready for play.
I had never head of this. Santa always left wrapped gifts at my house growing up.
Is this common? Have I been living in a cave all my life?
It mattered what it was. If it was something like a swing set... It was set up... Small enough it could go under the tree... It was wrapped.
Nope, not wrapped at my house. This year he's bringing a new train set for my 4 year old and it will be fully assembled on the train table for Christmas morning.
I think it's more common then most people would think. There was a post a week or two ago. No offense to anyone, but I don't get it. It would be very disappointing as part of the fun is opening the gifts.
Half of Santa's fun is the wrapping - the other half is watching the face of the one tearing the wrapping off! So yes, Santa wraps (and reuses/recycles!) at our house.
Santa always wraps the gifts-but he doesn't use ribbon-just press on bows!
Yes! Santa paper.. Even some of the gifts in the stockings are wrapped in Santa paper!
Always has, also my husbands family and my Brother in Laws family.. I had no idea Santa did not wrap for some families.. Of course the big Hobby Horse had a giant bow on his head and was not wrapped.
He doesn't wrap anything at our house. We leave out our stack of reusable large felt bags Xmas Eve and he fills those along with stockings and Thomas the Tank giftbags. The giftbags are a tradition in our house that started the year we moved a couple weeks before Xmas and could not find stockings or half our decorations. We got the tree up and that was mostly it because the tree and box of decorations are so large and bright green and red it was hard to miss LOL
It's better for the environment and it's faster clean up so they can get to the important business of playing with their new loot. It also makes it less likely small parts might accidently get thrown out with the wrapping paper.
The kids love it! I asked one of them and he said it was more fun the way we do it then to have everything all wrapped by itself ;)
We don't wrap Santa....He doesn't have time for that and it doesn't pack and travel well in his sleigh.....
It must be a big cave because I am in here too and I haven't seen anyone else.
Santa wraps all the presents he brings to our house. In different wrapping paper then ours and he signs the tags too. Although I have told my daughter that Santa gets wrapping paper at target too, because I messed up one year.
Sounds like Santa is getting lazy by the time he gets up your way, lol.
Santa used to wrap the gifts for the first 6 or 7 years then when the gifts got too big and required assembly he stopped wrapping them. He was happy to not have to wrap them in special paper anymore.
I've always had wrappped gifts. I think unwrapping the surprise is the best part!
Now the grandparents did get my son a trike. I think it will fit in a large black garbage bag with a big red bow. If it will fit, I will likelywrap that up. My son will want to guess what's inside, like my husband has taught him to feel he gifts and shake them to guess. If it doesn't fit, I guess I'll have one gift that won't need unwrapping.
Well, Santa has always wrapped at our house, but I'm loving the idea of him not having to be up late hours wrapping!!! Haha.
Santa wraps at out house!
In fact... he leaves the special Santa Paper (tied with a bow, so we can use it on presents next year), along with a new pair of scissors, and an empty plate that once held cookies by the stockings.
Biggish things (like a bike or TV) come reassembled and set up.
I'm so with Eliza on this. I totally get off on wrapping the presents (we have wrapping parties, me and 2 other friends, while the men watch the kids!). It's fun for me, part of the anticipation of what will happen on Christmas morning. And then there's Christmas morning, when WHO KNOWS what's out there? That way they can peek under the tree and we have a chance to get up and see their faces as they open the gifts and see what they've got. The exceptions: Victor's trike will be taken out of the box and put together, but "hidden", and Joseph's scooter will be out and "ready" as well.
My bff grew up with no wrapped gifts too. Out of ALL my friends, ALL my life, she was the only one that didn't have wrapped gifts back then. (There's always exceptions: the train tracks around the tree with the train running around is awesome, the bikes or some awesome castle, etc). I thought it was kinda strange as a kid (makes sense for their situation though----they had a boy and a girl, with a 5 year age difference, so the gifts didn't "need" tags on the wrap. And the parents both worked shift work and really just didn't have time/energy for it. My children are both boys and 3 year age difference....I dunno. I think the toys would get mixed up and who gets to be excited about what? (etc). I like watching the children open their gifts, but to each his own.
santa has always wrapped presents. this year he has decided to put everything together and leave his stuff, unwrapped, by the fireplace. i agree with him.
When I was growing up gifts from Santa were never wrapped but put together & set out ready to play. When my hubby was growing up Santa gifts were wrapped. With our kids gifts are not wrapped but they are put together set out & ready for play. Santa brings the bigger gifts such as bikes, push toys things that are seem too big or awkward for wrapping. We love seeing the look on their faces when they come out into the living room Christmas morning & see what Santa left for them. Family gifts are wrapped. This year my 3 yr old is getting a train table that comes w/train & airport so it will be all put together for him to see when he wakes up.
nothing from santa is wrapped, and it's assembled and has batteries, all ready to go
Santa wraps his gifts at the North Pole and then brings them to my house...if they are big stuff....they are there for the minute the child sees them they are ready to be played with.
Santa wraps at our house - I think the whole magic of the moment is seeing my daughter's face as she unwraps the gifts. We have many pictures of her Christmas after Christmas with a huge surprise on her face as she has unwrapped a special gift. If it's a big gift (like the Barbie Dream House that she received last year) we do assemble it and leave it unwrapped. Just think about the movie "The Christmas Story" and all the excitement the boys had unwrapping their gifts.
With that being said, I do know of one friend of mine who does leave out the gifts unopened. She said it's strange to her that Santa would wrap the gifts since she grew up with all her gifts unwrapped.
He wraps our stuff!
Here are some other answers I received when I asked this question:
http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/4476904705523646465
Santa never wrapped gifts when I was a kid and he doesn't for my kids either. He has enough to do with making all the gifts, and I don't want to deal with different wrapping paper and "isn't that Mom's handwriting on the gift tag?"
Santa wrapped our gifts growing up, but santa left presents ready for play at my husband's when he was a kid. And we lived in the same little town so I don't think it was a regional thing. Now that we had our own kids, we adopted my husband's way with non-wrapped santa gifts, and my tradition of filling each other's stockings. Being Santa is so much fun!!
Added: all other gifts from mom and dad are wrapped. Just the one big santa present that they asked santa for is set up. So they still get to unwrap several things.
Santa wraps all gifts in our house. I don't try being tricky like using different wrapping paper or anything though. I do try to make sure I have all the necessary tools and batteries handy so when the kids do open the gifts we can put them together to start using without having to search for what we need.
Santa always wraps the gifts he leaves here, same paper every year (metallic with his picture on it on it)
I think part of the magic is ripping open the paper.
we use a big red bag every year..... like they use for the bicycles.
Santa never wrapped gifts for us growing up and does not wrap for my daughter or nieces and nephews!
For me some of my best memories were walking up to the tree and seeing all these new toys shining and colorful under the tree... straight from the workshop and ready to play with :)
The only time I ever really got new toys was at Christmas and birthdays and they were always wrapped, so it was so unique and special to have these Santa toys sittiing out like you might see them as a kid at a toy store and want them... but here, in this case, they are out and they're yours for the taking! Too exciting!
Plus, it further separated the idea of Santa and parents being two totally separate things... bc of course Santa's gifts couldn't be from Mom and Dad-- they always wrap their gifts ;)
All the presents from my parents and from family members were always wrapped, so we definitely didn't miss out on the excitement of opening plenty of other gifts!!!
Santa does not wrap gifts at our house. (Hubby would like every gift to be from Santa so he doesn't have to wrap.) Everything is put together and ready for play. Growing up Santa only wrapped one special gift (that didn't need to be put together) and it was in different wrapping paper. On Christmas Eve after the kids are in bed Santa assembles and tests his presents and we wrap ours for the kids while watching "It's A Wonderful Life."
When I was growing up Santa wrapped our gifts. However when I started having kids the baby toys and things needed to be put together and then proved to be hard to wrap. So those didn't get wrapped and were out ready for play. This year I have a 5 yo, 3yo and 1 yo and the older one will have the most wrapped gifts and the 1yo probably won't have any except maybe clothes. Oh all of our relatives live far away so their gifts are always wrapped and under the tree (we don't open them as they arrive). So there is no missing out on opening wrapped gifts.
I hadn't heard of it until I was an adult either.
One thing we did to separate Santa and family, was to have two separate times.....
My husband grew up opening presents on Christmas eve, so we would do all family presents on Christmas eve....
Christmas morning was for Santa....
We didn't go overboard on Santa, either....just one or two items, trying to make sure that they got something they had mentioned on their list, or if they spoke to Santa.
Now that kids are grown, we open everything on Christmas Day.....
He did not in my house gowing up, so he doesn't for my kids now!
Santa wraps everything in my house.. Including stocking presents :)
YES!! The kids love ripping off the paper, and you can't beat the looks on their faces. I use dedicated Santa paper. My husband thinks I'm crazy and go to too much trouble. Leftover Santa paper is used the next year to wrap non-Santa gifts, and I get kinda worried that the kids will recognize the paper, but my husband assures me they don't remember. I really like the idea from another post of using the same paper for Santa every year.
We got gift bags from Pottery Barn Kids that look like a Santa hat with each kid's name. We put them out on Christmas Eve along with the cookies - they each lay out their bag, then it's full of presents on Christmas morning. (This helps keep the gifts straight since I use all the same wrapping paper and no gift tags.)
