What do you do if presents come late for Christmas [NSFSmallChildren]?

I prefer not to lie. So I would be honest with my children and they’d know right up Santa is fake.
I don’t need the Coca Cola Company to put magic in their lives.

We always had gifts that my mom lost until like two months later. Always. So we had some gifts from my folks and some from “Santa”. The lost ones came from the parents.

I would be straight with them, at his last stop a present go Frozen to the sleigh and he’s delayed!

Say hey look what santa hid in the cupboard : P

I guess I liked to keep the magic of Christmas…and all the “seasonal” holidays we celebrated alive as long as possible. I don’t consider it “lying”, I consider it allowing the imagination of a child to have free rein. (Real life sets in sooner every year anyway, which is a shame.)

If a gift was delayed…especially if it was from Santa…I would leave a letter addressed to my child…with a return address from the North Pole (and probably I would make some letterhead on the computer marked “Santa’s Workshop” because I am like that…)

Dear Liliboo (or whatever),

I hope you are having a Merry Christmas! I want you to know that there is still a special gift (gifts) that are coming to you. Unfortunately, when I was flying over Denmark, a few gifts fell out of my sleigh! And some of yours were in that bag. However, my elves are on top of it, they are busy making some new ones for you and they will be coming in the next few days (weeks). So, no naughtiness now because you still have gifts coming. One of my elves will come by and leave them when you least expect them, probably near the chimney, so you will have to keep checking, okay? Sorry about the delay….next time, I am going to have to strap the gifts in a lot tighter and tell Rudolf to take it easy around the higher clouds!

Lots of love, Santa

This gives Santa some time to make those extra gifts!

Tell them the truth. Santa got stuck in a snow storm…

I’d probably write out a letter in fancy writing with a wide tip fountain pen on clean yellow parchment and sign it from Santa. Saying that the elves were very busy this year, they had some back orders, and say that Santa would deliver the present very soon. But until then that they were to enjoy the presents that he did bring.

My children don’t believe in Santa. I wanted to spare them the disappointment when they found out we had lied to them. Christmas is still just as magical without the fat man breaking into our house in the middle of the night.

This did however happen to me for my sons birthday. I had an acoustic guitar en route. It wasn’t just a gift, it was THE gift. I printed out a picture of it and put it in a card. Children are adaptable. If they have other family, especially on christmas, they will get so much anyway. I remember when I was little and had holiday parties after christmas..I was always happy that I still had gifts out there waiting for me to open them.

I don’t ever remember believing in “Santa”, I always knew gifts were exchanged between family members and playing “Santa” was just some fun. I’d do the same with my own kids.

@Kelly_Obrien You beat me to it! Yes, be totally honest. Santa was stuck in a really bad snowstorm!

What do you all mean? There’s no Santa!?! Somebody owes me an explanation!

my entire world is. shaboopie, shattered!

Just tell the child that one of the elves must have misplaced it and ended up having to send it late. Also tell the kid that Santa should use Prority Mail® or Express Mail® from USPS next time instead of FedEx or UPS in order to ensure timely delivery.

@AstroChuck LOL!
@Blondesjon Sorry. You’re just SOL there, Grinchy baby, rolling around in your shaboopie world! (Love that word!)

I feel like a fraud about this whole thing that I’m going along with so I don’t know… I might do it different next year… I’m actually hoping the little guy is clever enough to figure it out for himself anyway….

The stuff from Santa should be planned out, we do our big stuff and it should be bought with enough time. I’d also be willing to pay a lot in shipping to ensure we got it on time.

I was able to get everything for my son, thankfully. I got a little worried around Thanksgiving when it was out of stock in all the stores and the internet.

@lynneblundell (He will…) Check this out should make you feel better and not feel it’s something you need to worry about…

My children and grandchildren have always know that the Giftmas spirit is not an actual person or time. It is a time we hope to see the best that humanity has to offer.

The present my daughter wanted MOST is on backorder until February. So “Santa” wrote her a letter saying she’ll get another gift this March and to watch out for a package from the North Pole.