When do Santa gifts stop?

Our DDs are 28 and 24. They still get stockings - as do DH and the dogs- and there are always a few presents wrapped and labeled from Santa.
Santa never wrapped their gifts when they were little, but now that they're adults he does.

The kids (dd 20, ds17) still have tags that say from Santa.

Dd knows it is dh and I. Not really sure what ds believes.

Even when I was an adult my parents still wrote from Santa.

It has more to do with fun than reality.

I didn’t stop receiving Santa gifts until I had my first child and he started receiving the Santa gifts.


Santa doesn’t wrap gifts.

Santa brings the big stuff that would have been impossible to wrap (like train tables and play kitchens and giant dollhouses) and fills stockings for everyone.

My DH and I still have stockings from Santa to open in front of the kids.


We don’t open household gifts in front of anyone else.
We open see Santa presents and open gifts from mom and dad to kids at home just us, then we get together with family to do grandparent gifts and cousin gifts, etc.

I wouldn’t let anyone else change how I want to do Santa and mom and dad gifts. If they want to be boring and not give the big wow presents, that’s on them.

My kids are in their 30s and still get Santa gifts, usually a game and a pair of jammies and their stockings. Santa never brought the big presents in our house - first, I am a selfish wench and I wanted some credit and second, I didn't want them disappointed once they stopped believing in Santa, that they wouldn't get something cool.

My adult kids and my husband still get gifts from Santa. I don’t plan on that changing. We all “know” but it’s fun.

I did gifts from Santa all the years that my son lived at home.  After he figured out there was no Santa, I still marked some gifts from him just to make him smile.  I stopped doing the snacks and the magic snow.  He also used to get new pjs that Santa dropped off at the foot of his bed while he was in the shower the night before.  He asked me to continue making those for him.

When he was a little guy still believing, we would put out the typical cookies (but no milk unless it was in a thermos because he knew how quickly milk began to spoil out of the refrigerator) and a plate of carrots for the reindeer before he went to bed.  Come Christmas morning, he would see those plates all empty and invariably some years a carrot would be accidentally left on our roof or in the driveway.  The roof was very slanted and could easily be seen from standing in the driveway.

I also used to do Santa footprints.  I would put baking soda and glitter onto a piece of newspaper and then stomp these large boots in this and put footprints and little dustings on the floor around the tree and on the brickwork in front of the fireplace.  Of course, it was magic snow because it never melted. 

Never. Santa is cool.

I have a really wide age-spread for my kids - my oldest turned 15 the month my youngest was born. So this was something we actually talked about and put some thought into. Our decision was that Santa (and the Easter Bunny and the Birthday Faery and St Nicholas) come to children (defined as under 18). Once you turn 18, you are an adult.

Santa doesn't wrap here so I did make more work for myself with that decision. For kids - Santa fills a stocking and leaves unwrapped gifts. The only wrapped gifts are if I or DH buy (or more commonly) make something that is specifically from us. Plus any gifts from siblings and extended family are wrapped. For adults -everything is wrapped, even in the stocking.

The gift budget works out roughly the same for each whether the majority are from Santa or from us - at this point in time. When I had littles and teens? The budget for teens was usually bigger but there were less gifts and the littles received more gifts of lesser value.

Right now we're going through our last Santa/Easter Bunny year and have already passed our last Birthday Faery and St Nicholas milestones as my youngest is 17 and there aren't any grandkids on the horizon at this point. I do think that the magic of unwrapped Santa gifts has well worn off by now - and DD17 is ready to transition to the adult gift giving traditions next year. My older two (23 and 32) don't live at home but they do share a house and they fill each others stockings at Christmas and shoes for St Nicholas etc... and I mail packages to them if they can't come home. I made St Nicholas gift bags this year - so that when I mail (or in this case give at Thanksgiving) the items are secret until St Nicholas Day. I wrap the stocking and under tree gifts and birthday gifts (or occasionally they get direct shipped to the other sibling -so DS will receive and wrap DD's gifts and vice versa). Easter I've usually just mailed a couple of bags of Easter candy for them to share.

We never opened presents with extended family - I decided a long time ago that I spent Christmas morning at home - we did local visiting on Christmas Eve or Boxing day. Now my kids are all grown - I'm fine with travelling to them -we had planned to this year but DH can't travel for medical reasons

We never did santa gifts/stockings for DH or me so there was already a precedent of no Santa for grownups.

There was a 10 year age gap so we all had Santa gifts until my little brother stopped believing. Then we moved to stockings and regular presents under the tree, everything usually wrapped. Now we set the stockings out and everyone contributes to them. Then we do breakfast/brunch/lunch and the. We open presents. 

Three years ago, we went to drawing names among the adults in the family so Santa only brings stockings to adults now. But with three grandbabies, he still visits with presents for them.

In fact, he's made multiple appearances because *we* do "family C'mas" off the actual dates so my two of my daughters-in-law can be with their families on those days. For example, this year everyone will be at our house for C'mas eve this year on the 22nd with C'mas day on the 23rd. It works for us! That may have to change though as the grandchildren get old enough to know he shouldn't be visiting multiple times! Lol.

Ds is almost 23, and he would not be happy if Santa didn't bring him a gift. Specifically a Lego set wrapped in white paper. He gets a small something from Santa Mouse too! Also wrapped in white paper, but with a yellow ribbon, and it's hidden up high in the Christmas tree. When he was little it was a matchbox car, as he got older it became a $5 gift card to In and Out.

Santa stopped when I moved out at 18.5