We have a few from Santa and a few from us. All the presents are wrapped because especially when the kids are young that is one of the favorite things is unwrapping the presents. The Santa presents are always wrapped in Santa wrapping paper and the presents from us are wrapped in any other kind of paper with no Santas on them. That way the kids know right away if the present is from Santa or Mommy and Daddy.

one gift from us, the rest are from santa.
Santa brings gifts in special wrapping paper that only santa has (none of the other gifts wrapped to other family members and friends etc is using that paper)
Santa puts their names on the packages using little return address labels with their name on them. No bows, no ribbons... just wrapped with their name.
they each have their own pile on either side of the tree. their stockings are filled and laying in their respective piles.

the plate of cookies is eaten, the milk mostly drunk... the carrots left out back are gone.
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Oh yeah we do the milk and cookies and carrots too. One year (the first year we did the carrots) my DH just put the carrots back in the fridge not expecting the kids to notice but Kaylee who I think was about 5 at the time looked in the fridge and said "Mommy Santa didnt take the carrots". I said how do you know? She said cause last night there were only 6 carrots left and now there are 15 so he must have put them back. We told her maybe the neighbors left carrots too and so they were full and didnt need anymore. Needless to say we have never made that mistake again.

We're doing things slightly different from when I was a kid. A friend gave me the idea--- and I like it. Santa gets the kids a few gifts, and we get the rest. For one thing, if times were ever hard, we could buy less and the kids wouldn't think they were "bad." Also, as some of the ladies on here pointed out to me, I don't want the kids thinking that the gifts are "free" from Santa as they get older. All the gifts are wrapped, and we're doing the special Santa paper as well.

Thanks Jeanne! I'm going to tell that to my DH tonight. He's never been 100% on board with the one santa gift thing, but went along with it. We've had many very lean years and our kids would have never known it. Many yrs they got a present from Santa and 1 or 2 small things from us and they were thrilled. I'd never want my kids to feel like they were bad kids and therefore got less presents then the yr before! We don't even tell them about the good vs. bad thing, but they picked it up from somewhere. I don't like the anxiety surrounding some Christmas traditions!

Laura
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