For those who know me, you know I am not into show. What you see is what you get. No frill around here. Everything with me is pretty much black and white. Vince and I had not been married long when we were at either Walmart or a grocery store. Vince said “Come over here and look at cards.” I wondered why he wanted my opinion on a card but . . no . . he wanted to show me a card he had picked out for my upcoming birthday. I could stand there in the store and read it and he wouldn’t have to buy it. He saw nothing wrong with that. If he had bought it and I read it . . same thing as if I had read it in the store and put it back on the shelf. I guess Vince’s lack of pomp and circumstance has rubbed off on me. For Chad and Nicole’s birthdays, I transfer money into their checking account and tell them I did it. I should do better.
Addie’s other grandma does a lot of imaginative things. When Nicole was a kid, even on non-significant holidays, she would make them costumes and they would dress up and walk to the end of their long driveway to meet their dad after work. I thought that was so nice. That isn’t how it happened at our house!
When I go to see Addie, I always have all kinds of little surprises for her and I have them all in a bag or a tote and I hand her the bag and she goes through them. Nicole told me the other day that Addie told her other grandma “Granny always brings me toys but she never wraps anything!” What? I never knew I was supposed to wrap that stuff! If I had been there, I would have said “Be glad you’re getting a surprise and stop expecting so much!”
So, when I sent the advent gifts . . 24 little packages all wrapped, I sent her two hats and the nameplate that Vince had made her and I wrapped them since I had been chastised for not wrapping gifts. I asked Nicole if Addie was happy that I wrapped the gifts. She laughed and said “No, she couldn’t believe you sent three things for her to open and none of them were toys!”
The moral of this story I suppose . . is . . wrap the toys but the worthwhile stuff . . don’t wrap that.
Speaking of wrapping gifts, when you were a kid or for your kids, were the gifts from Santa wrapped? Ours were not. Gifts under the tree were wrapped but Santa left everything, unwrapped, in the middle of the living room . . we didn’t have a fireplace. I’ll be anxious to see Santa’s gifts for Addie are wrapped.
Carol H says
When we were kids, ALL gifts were wrapped and under the tree. We didn’t have a fireplace either… not sure I understand what that has to do with it.
Judy Laquidara says
Santa coming down the chimney. Stockings hung from the mantle!
Laura Haywood says
Because Santa comes down the chimney! 🙂
vivoaks says
Our Christmas as kids always had everything wrapped unless it was too big. One Christmas in particular I’ll never forget: one of us (5 kids) woke up at like 4:00 AM and went around to all the other kids rooms to let us know it was Christmas morning. There was a small bit of light in the living room – enough for us to see shapes, but that’s about it. One of the gifts looked like a hutch with dishes on it – big, but kind of strange for our ages. We just couldn’t figure out who it was for, and that, of course, is when mom got up and told us to get back to bed – it was the middle of the night!! LOL When we were finally allowed up several hours later, we found that the “hutch with dishes” turned out to be a shooting gallery for my brother. It was made of cardboard and I think the gun shot suction cups that were attached to 6″ pieces of plastic to fit the gun. Great fun! I got a Pike’s Peak race track with 4 cars to race. I had the most fun with that thing! Yes, I was quite the tomboy!!
My mom also wrote a poem in the vernacular of “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. It was a real hoot and I still enjoy reading it all these years later. Christmas memories…
marcille irwin says
When I was a kid, and when my children were young, everything was wrapped with the exception of the gifts from Santa. Santa did not have time to wrap the gifts for all of the children around the world…
justquiltin says
Santa left our gifts under the tree and always managed to find and fill our stockings even tho we had no fireplace to hang them on. The gifts from Santa were always wrapped in Santa print paper.
Judy H says
Our Santa gifts were not wrapped. The other gifts were wrapped, but not those from Santa. That’s the way it was for both myself and my husband growing up, and we continued that way with our children.
Liz says
When we were very young & still believed in Santa, we went to bed on Christmas Eve with a bare living room – no tree or anything. When my sister & I woke up the next morning, there was a lit tree, all decorated and wrapped presents under the tree. Of course, we had to rush to wake up Mom & Dad to tell them that Santa came. Even though they had just crawled into bed about an hour or so earlier, they got up and we all enjoyed the experience.
After a couple years, they told us that we needed to give Santa some help and we decorated the tree for him!
My Mom was Russian Orthodox, so she was used to celebrating Christmas on twelfth night (Feast of the Magi). We always kept the trees and lights up until after January 6th and I would call her and send a card, gift or flowers to her. I only got into putting up decorations early in December in my later years and I still do it slowly. Instead of a large tree, I use a bunch of smaller ones and they appear early – decoration comes bit by bit. And I have a small tree in my quilt room with quilt blocks and one in my kitchen decorated with small kitchen tools and colorful tea packets.
Wendy says
Santa presents always wrapped in paper with motifs Santa on the paper.
Frieda Z says
Our Santa packages were not wrapped. One year when I was around 3, I got up in the middle of the night and unwrapped all the packages fro me. I took them and the things Santa had left and put them in my bed. The next morning my parents thought it was hilarious. I still had a few things because I had missed Santa’s bag he had left.
Joyce says
At our house all the gifts were wrapped. Some of them would have a tag marked “from Santa” (even way after I knew Santa wasn’t real…LOL) and some would be marked “from Mom and Dad” or not marked at all. I absolutely knew that Santa was real for quite a while, because he came to our house when I was awake, and brought me extra gifts. When I got older I knew it was my Great-uncle John who made Santa visits to lots of his great-nieces and great-nephews and the children in the neighborhood around their house. He had a great time playing Santa!
Rebecca says
No!! With five kids, there was plenty of wrapping to be done, and Santa filled our stockings under the tree. Withou wrapping, a tangerine fit in the toe, an orange in the heel, and nuts in between.
We did a really nice job of wrapping, and everybody gave gifts to everybody. The little ones probably needed wrapping help for a while, so as I said…plenty of wrapping!
Dot says
As a child, my gift from Santa was never wrapped, and was put in my stocking. Only one gift came from Santa (it was during WWII). So my two kids got unwrapped gifts. But when we shared Christmas at Grandma’s with my husband’s brother’s family, their daughter’s Santa gifts were always wrapped in Santa paper. We had to scramble to explain this to our kids. Also, my niece was an only child, and always got LOTS of gifts from Santa, while ours got only a couple, and the rest from Mom and Dad.
Phyllis says
Judy, you must be the sister I never had. We are so much alike. Surely wish you lived closer to NC. Our Santa gifts were never wrapped and neither were the ones for our girls.
Pat says
I had to laugh at the birthday card story….when we were young and very poor (my husband was an airman in the Air Force and made less than I did at my minimum wage job!), we used to pick out cards for each other and say “if I could afford to buy you a card, this is the one I would buy.” After we each read our cards, we’d put them back and that was that.
Bon says
Gifts from Santa were never wrapped. The rest were.
Dottie says
Our presents from Santa were wrapped – DH’s family’s presents from Santa weren’t wrapped (I was told there was NO way that Santa had time to wrap all the presents for everyone, LOL).
Nelle Coursey says
I am happy for the other grandmother, but you are giving Addie something she can cherish forever! She can keep these things you made for her and hand them over to her own little girl some day. You do everything you can for that little girl and you should be proud of yourself! You are a great grandmother!! Toys are for birthdays and Christmas or a special time with just you two. One day she will realize what you have done for her. Plus you are helping her learn. You are teaching her things she can carry on for the rest of her life!! OK, so some presents should be wrapped, but not Santa’s! He has no time to giftwrap! He has to fly all over the world and leave those toys for good little boys and girls! Well I can’t forget us older kids!!! When I was a kid we got nuts, oranges, apples and things like that in our stocking and we loved it!! I guess that is why I love nuts (all kinds) now! Our family had very little when I was a kid. We got one present each.
VickiT says
Presents from Santa were never wrapped in our house while I was younger. I continued that tradition with my own children. I never thought to ask years later if that was a tradition from my German relatives, or British relatives. Truthfully, I just figured once I had my own children that my parents did that because knew anything that Santa brought to us would be unwrapped and fair game as long as we were quiet and let Mom and Dad sleep. Yea, I’m thinking that was their idea to sleep in on Christmas morning. LOL
Verna says
When we were kids, our parents wrapped Santa’s gifts. We didn’t have a fireplace, so our parents told us they left the door unlocked for him! When my boys were young, the Santa gifts were wrapped in Santa wrapping paper, and Santa even wrote the tags. When I was young, I thought Santa’s writing looked a lot like my dad’s. This year my boys are all adults, but Santa still brings them a little something.
dezertsuz says
All my gifts were wrapped, so when I had children, it never occurred to me not to wrap Santa’s gifts – but even though the gifts might say Santa, my children didn’t believe in Santa – long story. A gift might just as easily be from the current cat or Hobo John – who was not a real person – or Darth Vader. LOL I have pictures of them on Santa’s lap, just like other moms. =)
Marie says
My Santa gifts weren’t wrapped, but gifts from Mom and Dad were as were presents from siblings. Stockings always had orange and an apple with a couple pieces of ribbon candy and maybe some chocolate candy. My grandparents gave us a silver dollar every year. Wish I would have known back then just what that silver dollar meant. Found out years later that Grandpa only received about $40 a month for him and Grandma to live on.
Judy, you do whatever you want to do cause that little girl will remember more than you will ever know. Love grows in the heart and her little heart is just full of love.
carolyn says
In our house everything under the tree was wrapped, but nothing in the stockings. For our kids we wrapped everything, tree and stocking gifts…and still do now that they are adults, although there are a lot fewer presents!
amy makson says
Santa stuff was wrapped in “santa only” paper that was hidden in the attic or such afterwards. Not sure if the kids even noticed..lol LOVE reading your blog even when I don’t respond… thank you for a daily treat.