Santa can't do it all -- he's only one magic man -- so parents often supplement the surprises, going to great lengths to maintain the Santa mystique as long as possible. Here are a few more stories:

  • From Pat Gerard, Santa Clara

    "The grandparents lived in Napa, we lived in Santa Clara, we also had a Napa friend living in San Jose. So our Santa presents had to get from here to there without being seen. We bought Christmas paper that was different from what the rest of our packages were wrapped in, wrapped all the Santa gifts, told the kids they were from our San Jose friends and we were going to take them to Napa for them as they couldn't go for Christmas. Christmas Eve after the kids were in bed, we unwrapped all Santa's gifts, got rid of the paper and put the gifts under the tree. So Santa came, and the "Napa people" always came to collect their gifts after the kids went to bed. It worked until they made life easier for us and quit believing in Santa Claus. They told me the day after Christmas they didn't believe anymore. When I asked why they didn't tell me before Christmas they said they didn't want me to be sad.


  • From Lindy Pearring, Martinez


  • From Alma DeMange, Antioch.

    Every year we get to pick out a new ornament for the tree. My daughter, who is 9 -- two years ago, she picked out a gumdrop and a lollipop ornament, but I said she could only have one and that maybe we could find it the next year. Well, we couldn't find the gumdrop again. So she asked Santa for that particular ornament. Santa couldn't quite deliver either. The next year, she had still never forgotten this ornament. So Santa worked very hard to find it and finally found one in a different color. This was a white gumdrop, and it came with a note from Santa saying, "Oh sorry, we ran out of purple at the workshop. But this one's really special just for you."
