Presents from Santa: Wrapped or Unwrapped?

My mind was blown this morning when I learned there are a large number of families that put presents from Santa under the tree unwrapped! My family always had presents wrapped in special Santa paper so we knew they were from Mr. Claus. I don't understand how you keep the lingering excitement of the morning when all the gifts are unwrapped. How do you fine folks do it?

NorCalAngler said:

My mind was blown this morning when I learned there are a large number of families that put presents from Santa under the tree unwrapped! My family always had presents wrapped in special Santa paper so we knew they were from Mr. Claus. I don't understand how you keep the lingering excitement of the morning when all the gifts are unwrapped. How do you fine folks do it?

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Sounds like lazy parenting to me!! Ripping the paper off the toys to see what they are is almost as good as actually getting whats inside!

Unwrapped presents? Blasphemy!

And +1 on lazy parents.

DrinksWellWithOthers said:

Unwrapped presents? Blasphemy!

And +1 on lazy parents.

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I don't think the parents I have talked to are lazy. They truly believe that Santa's presents aren't wrapped because they come from the North Pole that way. They say they love the expressions on the children's faces when they enter the room and see all the presents in front of them.

Personally, I don't get it, but I don't think the parents' reason for leaving them unwrapped is laziness. It's just a family tradition passed down for who knows how long.

We've always wrapped. And to take it one step further, putting something in a gift bag does not constitute wrapping, it's laziness.

I can see how some people would rather not use so much paper, but in that case you could always use newspaper or somesuch.

Santas presents were unwrapped when I was a little tyke. Never seemed to bother me. All the others were wrapped.

Santa Wraps presents, and certain ones are already assembled by Santa and are unwrapped.

-=Jason=-

We always had wrapped presents from everybody but unwrapped gifts from Santa would appear in the morning. It was fun to enter the room and see everything laid out. My parents got pretty creative with it.

Ours were normally wrapped. If it's an awkward shaped item, I see no issue with a gift bag. If it's something like a fully assembled bicycle, you've got the Shooter seal of approval to just go ahead and slap a bow on that sucker!

The first year my wife and i discussed this was when my son was 3. I grew up with the presents wrapped, my wife grew up with them unwrapped. We did not agree. I took a poll at my work and the results were 50/50.

My wife said if I really wanted them wrapped, then I could do it. - Guess I am lazy - because they have not been wrapped for the last 8 years.

I always had them wrapped, and I wrap them for my kids. Every year, I get two or three new rolls of wrapping paper, these are from Santa. Then the following year, they just go into the general wrapping paper pool for use on any gifts. I figure the kids won't remember what Santa wrapped the gifts in last year. And by the time they figure it out, they're already old enough to know better.

Santa does not wrap his presents. All the paper would get torn off when he flies around the world anyways and do you really expect him to wrap each one personally, at your house?

Everybody else should wrap theirs though, methinks.

Oh, by the way, I live in North Pole so I am an authority on the subject.

All gifts should be wrapped. Its about presentation.
But if you want to blatantly lie to your children its up to you. Santa Claus/ Father Christmas doesnt exist. You know it, everyone else knows it, so why should you impress on your children that he does exist

My mom even, until a few years ago, not only wrapped them but put "From: Santa" on them too

johnnyboy1965 said:

All gifts should be wrapped. Its about presentation.
But if you want to blatantly lie to your children its up to you. Santa Claus/ Father Christmas doesnt exist. You know it, everyone else knows it, so why should you impress on your children that he does exist

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Sounds like someone needs a ride on the Polar Express.

NorCalAngler said:

Sounds like someone needs a ride on the Polar Express.

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I agree, way to suck the fun out of the party!!!

johnnyboy1965 said:

all gifts should be wrapped. Its about presentation.
But if you want to blatantly lie to your children its up to you. Santa claus/ father christmas doesnt exist. You know it, everyone else knows it, so why should you impress on your children that he does exist

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+1

My parents were lazy. Santa presents were left out by the fireplace, under each of our stockings unwrapped. These showed up "magically" on Christmas morning. The rest of the family presents were all wrapped and put under the tree as they were bought/wrapped. I'll add that our tree and fireplace were in different rooms, so the "logic" was that Santa left presents by the fireplace. We also did have some wrapped presents from Santa that got put under the tree. Guess those were the ones Mom forgot to wrap until Christmas Eve!

My wife on the other hand grew up with all Santa presents wrapped under the tree. I'm pretty easy going, so we'll probably end up going with that when we have kids.

It's not laziness.

#1: Santa doesn't wrap! Watch the Christmas specials I grew up with in the 60's and '70's.

#2: it a clear way of separating presents from your parents and from santa.

Lazy is a gift card.

jmendez29 said:

I always had them wrapped, and I wrap them for my kids. Every year, I get two or three new rolls of wrapping paper, these are from Santa. Then the following year, they just go into the general wrapping paper pool for use on any gifts. I figure the kids won't remember what Santa wrapped the gifts in last year. And by the time they figure it out, they're already old enough to know better.

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^^^
This.

johnnyboy1965 said:

But if you want to blatantly lie to your children its up to you. Santa Claus/ Father Christmas doesnt exist. You know it, everyone else knows it, so why should you impress on your children that he does exist

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Wow, who let Debbie Downer in? Bah humbug.

I tell my kids I believe in Santa. They have no yet idea it's the spirit of "Santa." Nothing wrong with setting a base for later in life.

Or are you just opposed to fun?

Santa wraps. Even the Grinch wrapped.

The differentiation between gifts from Santa and gifts from family members is simple in my house. All are wrapped, but only the ones from Santa appear overnight. They have different, previously unseen wrapping paper and gift tags that are clearly marked "From Santa."

To those who believe that Santa is a big lie - bah humbug! Fantasy is an excellent exercise for the imagination. Engaging in and encouraging fantasy does not make one a liar. It's fine to have differing traditions, but to put such a negative spin on a very positive concept is quite closed minded.

Santa is perhaps the least harmful of the MANY lies I plan to tell my children over the next few years. This, along with making them sleep overnight in the punishment box, is just one of the subtle methods I will use to sap their spirit, turning them into the emotionless automatons that will be vital to my master plan. Long live the fighters!!!!!

Oh, and before I forget, you all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

unwrapped presents = lazy parents. wrapped presents are the only way to go!

When I was a kid, Santa used to leave his gifts unwrapped. I think that was how they were to stand out from gifts from my parents. Then I mentioned it to my mom and she said she could pass word on to Santa if I wanted them to be wrapped so they'd be more exciting. She also said that since he doesn't always wrap the gifts that she'd tell him he's welcome to use our wrapping paper when he got here, so that explained why Santa's gifts had the same paper as some of the Mom and Dad gifts. BRILLIANT!

My daughter always got her Santa gifts wrapped and Santa used our paper as well.

Wow, im completely floored, i just always assumed all presents were wrapped!!

All the gifts were wrapped, except for the wooden one every year that was made special by Santa in his workshop.

My Dad spent his entire career as a High School woodshop teacher. For as long as I can remember, on Christmas morning, my brother, sister, and I would all have something special that was hand made out of wood appearing under the christmas tree. When I was younger, it was a truck, an airplane, etc. (still have the plane 30+ years later). As we got older it changed from toys to more useful things (my sister still has her jewelery box).

The tag was always "FROM: SANTA" (other than his signature, my dad still "letters" everything by printing in capital letters).

There were other gifts under the tree, all wraped with tags from Santa as well, but those tags were written by Mrs. Claus. That cursive handwritting looked very similar to my mom's handwritting, but we would never admit it (for fear of the gifts not being delivered the next year).

As for the existance of Santa? That was explained on September 21, 1897. Yes, Virgina, there is a Santa Claus.

Got this for the wife today....I pondered trying to wrap it with some cheap paper (just to be funny). I think it would be too much work.

KurtB said:

My Dad spent his entire career as a High School woodshop teacher. For as long as I can remember, on Christmas morning, my brother, sister, and I would all have something special that was hand made out of wood appearing under the christmas tree. When I was younger, it was a truck, an airplane, etc. (still have the plane 30+ years later). As we got older it changed from toys to more useful things (my sister still has her jewelery box).

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This. Awesome.

HoppyDaze said:

Got this for the wife today....I pondered trying to wrap it with some cheap paper (just to be funny). I think it would be too much work.

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You need to carefully wrap each part of it using small pieces of wrapping paper so it still looks exactly like a bicycle.

Santa for sure doesn't wrap, and it isn't laziness. In fact it is the opposite.

What's cooler:
1. Santa wraps your delux playset (think giant GI Joe fort with 10,000 pieces). You open it and then spend the next 4 hours trying to put it together.
2. Santa doesn't wrap and you wake up to find the perfect GI Joe playset laid out and ready to play with. Bonus, you can wake up in the middle of the night to sneak downstairs and play with it.

Presents from parents were always wrapped, but santas stuff was unwrapped and preassembled. Wake up on christmas morning and the hotwheels track or complicated toy was already put together and ready to go!

Once my dad found out I liked putting things together (and was actually better at it than he was), nothing ever came pre-assembled from Santa.

RogerMcAllen said:

Santa for sure doesn't wrap, and it isn't laziness. In fact it is the opposite.

What's cooler:
1. Santa wraps your delux playset (think giant GI Joe fort with 10,000 pieces). You open it and then spend the next 4 hours trying to put it together.
2. Santa doesn't wrap and you wake up to find the perfect GI Joe playset laid out and ready to play with. Bonus, you can wake up in the middle of the night to sneak downstairs and play with it.

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cyberwollf said:

Presents from parents were always wrapped, but santas stuff was unwrapped and preassembled. Wake up on christmas morning and the hotwheels track or complicated toy was already put together and ready to go!

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These two actually make the most sense. If Santa doesn't wrap, why would he bother putting it in a box marked Mattel?!?!?

Eight kids plus grandma plus mom and dad...those presents were wrapped. You do the math. There was always a mountain of wrapped gifts under the tree. Our presents from Santa were identified by our stocking taken down from the fireplace, filled with goodies, and then laid by our Santa stash. Eight piles of kids gifts were all around the living room. The wrapped gifts were a whole additional gift extravaganza!