How We Do Santa Claus In Our House

Disclaimer: This post is simply my own personal opinion on the Santa Claus thing. I respect that every family and household has differing opinions on Santa Claus, this is purely just my opinion. If you are a huge Santa lover in your house, AWESOME! If you're not, then we can form our own little support group in this little corner of the internet together. 

If I had it my way, my kids would not believe in Santa Claus. I've just always thought the entire thing was really dumb, and even from a young age, I never believed in Santa Claus. My mom loves to tell the story from when I was five, and she took my brother and I to the mall to get our picture taken with Santa. At some point in the adventure I turned to my brother who was a year older than me and said, "You idiot, Santa Claus isn't real!" So there you have it. My brother found out about Santa from his little sister. 

My thought process is that Derek and I work really hard for the things that we give to our kids. Why should we be giving all the credit to an imaginary person? I want my kids to know that we've worked hard to earn the things we have, and that they don't just magically appear one night in our house in the month of December. 

All that to say though, Derek really likes the idea of Santa Claus, so like all things in marriage, there has to be a compromise. This is what we've done: All the wrapped gifts under the tree, unless otherwise marked, are from Derek and I. This is a majority of the gifts given at Christmas. Anything that is unwrapped under the tree, along with the stockings are from Santa Claus. And the gift from Santa Claus is absolutely NOT the best present under the tree. 

This year the gift from Santa is a Paw Patrol stuffed animal, one for Jay, and one for Em, and then they each got a pair of slippers as well. That's it. Everything else, especially the big gifts like Em's BizyBeez Mag Stix, and Jay's large Lego set are from mom and dad.

I don't know where all my negativity about Santa Claus really stems from. As a child, I was just always very literal, and so I just knew that things like the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy couldn't possibly be real. As an adult, I guess it mostly just stems from the fact that I want our kids to appreciate the things that we do for them, and I don't want to hold over their heads all December long, "If you're not good, Santa won't come!", I just want them to behave well all the time, and I want them to be good for Derek and I, not for someone who doesn't exist. And yes, the second one of my children asks me if Santa is real or not, I will tell them the truth. 

So now that everyone thinks I'm a grinch... How do you handle Santa in your home?