I have been giving gifts for several hundred years now, over 1600 years actually! When I first started I would leave coins inside the shoes of people who would leave them out for me. When I did that I only gave them to people within walking distance of my house (Which wasn’t at the North Pole yet.) As the years went on I began to expand and travel. I got a small group of helpers together who later became my elves and we were able to travel to different cities to give as well. My gathering got bigger and soon my elves were unable to keep up.
They thought horses would make things easier. However for some reason they could not find any horses but instead found eight beautiful reindeer. They caught them and had them pull my wagon and we were able to travel into nearby countries and spread gifts. The idea caught on and I got very popular. People called me a Saint because I was so kind and giving.
Eventually my elves figured out how to make a reindeer fly and they attached my wagon. When I started out for the first time the reindeer couldn’t go very far because my wagon was so heavy. They spent a long time thinking and came up with a slimmer lighter design and called it my sleigh because It didn’t have any wheels. This was much better and I was able to fly around and deliver presents for several hundred years. As I became more popular the lists began to pile up and I had a hard time going through them all at one time. My head inventor couldn’t think of any way to make me faster so he gave me this option instead.
He said: “If you deliver some of the presents early, you will be able to get through all your lists on time.” This was genius! But I couldn’t have some children getting presents early and not others, so I held another meeting and invited parents along. This time we came up with a new rule: “If a parent gets a present early they are not allowed to give it to the child until Christmas.” This also saved me a lot of time at the workshop because some parents said that they would wrap the presents themselves! All they had to do was hide them, in the closet, in the attic, in a super secret hiding place that you shouldn’t find them. This was a wonderful breakthrough and Christmas was popular as ever! More and more lists came in and I still got presents in on time.
You may come downstairs for something in the middle of the night and see your parents putting my presents for you under the tree. DON’T WORRY! I had to deliver those presents early and they are simply moving them from the place that I had them hide them, to under the tree. It’s that simple! They aren’t trying to fool you or anything, they are making my job easier so I can make many more children happy each year.
Because I can not stop by I also asked them to eat the cookies that you made for me and drink the milk. It’s nothing personal, I just don’t want those cookies to go to waste and what better way than to reward your parents for doing such a wonderful job at hiding the presents until Christmas!
I knew the day would come though, and eventually it did. Even delivering presents early wasn’t enough to get everything delivered on time. Sometimes I ran out of parts for one toy or another and wasn’t going to be able to make it right away. So when the parts did get made I delivered the remaining presents, even if it was a little after Christmas when they got there. (I think it is more fun to get my presents spaced out anyways)
I hope this has helped you understand why there are some presents in your parents closet from me, and why some are late and why you might see them eating my milk and cookie.
~Santa