How Do You Open?

Fun!

When I was a kid:

Nothing gets opened until Mom & Dad are up. Since they spent half the night wrapping and assembling, and we were up at oh-dark-thirty raring to go, I remember a lot of prodding and pushing and c'mon!!!!

Santa presents first. Then break for brunch. Then tree presents. We lived thousands of miles away from family, so all our presents got shipped to us.

As an adult... the FUNNIEST year (looking back) was when my son was 3. We woke up to him at bouncing us awake. with. an. un. wrapped. present. in. hand. at. 530. He'd gone in and unwrapped everything. Headsmack. Kiddo! (and yes. Even our presents. Nary a shred of paper was on a gift)

How we actually do things, however, is a day early.

New PJ's get unwrapped on xmas Eve (the 23rd in our house). We see Santa (in PJs). Get pictures. Go for a drive and look at lights. Come back. Shoehorn kiddo into bed (the one day a year we ALLOW him to pee out his window. Long suffering sigh. Boys! I'm raising Calvin over here!). My husband goes to bed. I wrap everything and get stockings set up. Kiddo wakes up, and we spend all day unwrapping presents. He REALLY likes to play with each thing he gets as he opens it. So it's a prolonged process. We have an open house / visit other people in the evening depending on the year.

The next morning (25th) we head over to my mum's. SAME pattern as before, but none of us get there until 11/noon and my dad has been up since 5am phoning (in payback, I think) wanting to open presents. Santa gifts. Brunch. Tree presents. Lounging. Dinner. Birthday cake (we have 3 bdays on 12/25 at her house every year... even more people were BORN on xmas, but that's who is over at her house)

We moved things a day early, because it wasn't fun having to rush through OUR christmas to get to theirs. This way we have a relaxed christmas we can actually enjoy at OUR house, and then the next day head over for 'round 2'.

Growing up, stockings always hung on the mantle and no gift inside was wrapped.
We divvied out the gifts and opened in a circle, one at a time.
At my husband's house (where we spend our Christmases these days) Stockings are hung and you don't get them until you come into the main room. No wrapped gifts in the stockings. No wrapped Santa gifts either. they are just sitting in the floor how Santa left them there:)
Kids get to play with santa gifts a while while adults get coffee, sausage balls and mimosas :)
Then someone is in charge of sorting and making individual piles of gifts for each person (12 of us!) and then it is a free for all! (I miss seeing people's reactions, so I usually wait and am on-hand to help my kids with anything they can't open). there is a lot of breaking and kids play with gifts as they open them - so it can literally take all morning , three pots of coffee and we don't rush it. Most of us are dressed by 2 pm that day, though - ha!

Stockings go last!! Once everyone is up and the coffee is flowing, my husband and I sit around and help the kids open their stuff. I'm kind of a nazi about keeping everyone's stuff in their own piles, LOL... once the kids are down to their stocking, my husband and I open our gifts. I usually end up going last because I'm too busy helping and taking pictures ;)

Bear with me... We do a lot of Christmas!

Christmas Eve (my extended family) - pretty much a free-for-all. All of my aunts, uncles, cousins and their children come, so there's usually close to 40 people there. If we did one at a time, we'd be there for days! Names get read off of presents, passed to the recipient, and opened while more are being passed and opened. After you open your present, you have to look around, find the person who gave it to you, try to get their attention and thank them. Lol. It's borderline complete and total chaos, but it's a blast.

Christmas (Our house!) - Opened one at a time, and stockings get done first. :)

sometime around Christmas (my mom's house) - Presents get opened one at a time, unless people get similar/identical items. Stockings are done first thing in the morning. Nothing in the stockings are wrapped, they're just shoved down there pretty far. :)

sometime around Christmas (my ILs) - Things get opened more or less all at once which is a little weird to me because there are so few people. FIL, MIL, BIL, SIL, my husband, me, and our two kids. Oh well!

Christmas Eve or day after Christmas (IL extended family) - Very few people (the last time we went, my husband and I were the only ones who went up there), so there's not even a formal sitting down and opening of presents. Last time, my husband's aunt and I sat down to have my daughter open her presents, and that was it.

Growing up, my brother and I would get to open one gift Christmas morning at o dark 30. Mom and/or Dad generally got to choose it. We would then do breakfast and Mass. After mass, we would come home and do the rest of the presents. About 2:00 we would have family/friends over for a big dinner. Presents were divided, mine on one side of the tree, brother's on the other. Stockings usually were in front of them with nothing inside wrapped.

With our 2 kids: We do Mass Christmas Eve since the kids are young, and church is far away. After Mass (4:00 Kids' Mass) we go to my parents for dinner and opening presents. Get the kids into bed after the hour and a half drive home. I stay up and put the rest of the presents under the tree. Each child gets their own "favorite" wrapping paper. All gifts from Santa are in Santa paper with their name. I take pictures before the kids get up so I can get the before and after shots LOL! Once the kids are up and husband has his coffee, we dig in. The kids take turns so everyone can see. Then the kids give Mom and Dad their presents. My MIL will sometimes come over (if my husband goes to pick her up after we finish presents) for dinner and do her gifts with the kids.

The Day after Christmas is my Dad's birthday, so go back over to celebrate his birthday with him. If we didn't do Christmas Eve at their house (and did Mass Christmas morning), we do Christmas with them. Usually my brother is there on Dad's birthday, and the kids get their stuff from him.

LOTS of running back and forth. We are trying to figure a way to get everyone to come to us so that the kids aren't so worn out and grumpy after traveling so much!

DH's family always did the opening on Christmas eve, so we go to their house and do gifts from them on Xmas eve. They open free for all style, which I hate and tried to change, but it still ends up a free for all. Then on Christmas morning we do our own at home. Everyone goes downstairs at the same time. Kids open stockings after I get myself a cup of coffee. Then the kids do gifts one at a time taking turns. After the kids DH and I do ours. I put the gifts for the kids in their own separate piles on Xmas eve and the stocking is layed in front of the pile so they know who has what pile. Makes it easier to see when you are at your last present to mentally prepare yourself LOL

Then we spend 2 hours sweating and swearing through trying to open all the darn toys from their twist ties and plastic boxes. That's the sucky part. The rest of the day is food, staying home and praying for a nap. :)

Everything is wrapped with your name. It is pretty much a free for all at that point. :)

I hate when people do the one at a time so everyone can see!! Takes too much time, maybe it is the ADD but that just doesn't fly in our family.

We buy the kids gifts that go under the tree and all are wrapped. Santa brings the stocking gifts and it's anything that can fit in the stocking so small things and those are not wrapped (Santa is too busy LOL). I fill the stocking once they're in bed on Christmas Eve and hang the stocking up again full and Christmas morning the first thing they do is check the stocking. They both take stuff out and we take pictures. Then we give the pets their presents (usually a toy or treat). Then we ask them if they want to take turns and that's what we usually do. My kids are 4 & 7. Then after presents we eat breakfast. Then play with toys or put together things we received. Then lunch at grandparents and gift opening. Since there are so many of us (8 adults & 5 kids) we just all open at once. It's so crazy and wrapping paper everywhere!

We open our gifts on Xmas morning. My family always did the 1 gift opened per person and you go around the room so everyone can see what you got. We didn't dawdle though - it was tear in, show everyone, thank the person who gave it to you and move on so the next person could open their gift! I loved it b/c you got to see what everyone got (I'm nosey that way) and while others were opening their gifts and you waited your turn, you got to really check out what you just opened. We also had a small family so that helped. But my husband's family thinks that takes too long and that you can't hold the kids back so they rip into everything all at once. I really hate it b/c I feel like the kids just move from gift to gift without even really glancing at the one they just opened! I always end up sitting without opening my gifts (drives them nuts) b/c I want to see what everyone else gets and I want to see the expressions people have when they open the gift I gave them. I spend a lot of time and effort picking things out so I want to know if I hit the mark or not! Maybe I am weird - LOL! I have tried to get them to slow down at least but I have been out voted even when I pointed out that several items have been thrown in the trash b/c they got lost in the shuffle! Oh well. I did finally put my foot down over the stockings though. One year they opened them while I was going to the bathroom and I was ticked b/c when I grew up the stockings are where the really fun, interesting, "I really know you" stuff always was and I do the same for my husband and sons so I INSIST on seeing them opened!

My parents give my kids almost as much as we do, some years more. The tradition is that Christmas Eve is for my parents (gift wise) and Christmas Day is for us and Santa. Lately my parents have been coming to our house (along with my siblings and niece) and we open the family gifts. We also make taco's for dinner. That's been tradition since I was born. Christmas Day is normally at our house too - for now - and everyone comes over around 2 so the people who don't have kids can sleep in and take their time, and those of us that do can still take our time getting ready.

So Christmas Eve is almost the same as Christmas, just the Eve gifts are from extended family that lives near us. My MIL gifts are opened on Christmas morning with ours :).

Great question!

We open our gifts on xmas eve. We take turns and go around a circle and everyone opens one at a time. (we have a small family) That way everyone can see what everyone got. On xmas morning, santa has come and filled our stocking. He and the elves are very busy making the toys so they don't wrap them. =) Santa brings one "big" gift and several little ones. Santa brings the best gift too. =)

Thanks for asking this, it takes me back to such fond memories of when my boys were little.
The weeks prior to Christmas were filled with evenings of watching every Christmas cartoon and movie there is out there.
Christmas Eve always ended with the reading of the Gospels of the birth of Christ followed by The Night Before Christmas.
Surprisingly enough I would always wake up before my kids, I was just as giddy about the whole thing as they were, and honestly would look out the window in the middle of the night hoping to see the sleigh flashing through the sky. I still DO THAT, lol. I always had lots of stashed presents that didnt make it under the tree until the kids were in bed, it was fun to watch their eyes get all big when they would see all the new, added stuff that wasnt there before they had gone to bed.
I would get up about an hour before I knew the boys would be up. Start my coffee, turn on the oven to heat the cinnamon rolls, make hot chocolate for the boys, check the spread of gifts under the tree to try and make it looked like more---I love seeing lots of presents under the tree, it's just so colorful and fun looking. Once the coffee was ready I'd go wake up Dad and tell him it was time to assume the position. I'd get the camera handy and then go wake up the kiddos.
They would already be wearing the new PJ's they got to open on Christmas Eve, so we sort of all matched for the Kodak moments of the morning.
The boys would ooh and ahh and then they would start finding whose gift was whose and make piles for each of us. All the while the camera is going, snapping pics of floofie hair and the swollen, not quite awake yet faces.
We would open one gift at a time so a picture could be taken, the boys were good at taking turns (they were such sweet boys, I so love them!) I DID always make sure that they both had exactly the same amount of gifts to open to make it all fair. If there were shared gifts they would tear into it together or one would give permission to the other to be the opener.
When it was all said and done they would put all the opened gifts back under the tree while we cleaned up the paper mess, have some breakfast, and then the rest of the day was theirs to enjoy. Usually would end up outside seeing who got what in the neighborhood. Most parents were outside in robes and sweats donned with cameras while kids are riding new bikes or running their new RC cars.
Dad and I would get on the "nog", call family on the phone and have a relaxing day.
Fun times.
And even after about ages 5 and 6 when the kids knew there wasnt Santa, we still did the same tradition. Santa came until they were 18.

We leave the gifts from Santa unwrapped so my daughter is so caught up in those that we have to make her open gifts. I usually let my daughter open her gifts first because I have to keep up with what she is opening and the presents. After that she helps us open our gifts because she likes to unwrap. I wrap the gifts in the stockings so to have something to open before going to bed we unwrap those.

My Godchildren (3 of them) and their parents come for breakfast and to bring my daughter more gifts. My cousin and I take turns having dinner every other year and this is year is my turn so after my Godchildren leave we prepare dinner. When my cousins come there are more gifts to unwrap and then we have dinner.

As a kid, my brother and I were allowed to get our stockings and open them before Mom and Dad got up. I'm with you, I like to see my kiddos open theirs so I put them in the living room and they open their presents first, then stockings. And, no I don't wrap the stocking presents.

They take turns opening one present, then the other one opens one. We go to my Mom and Dad's on Christmas Eve so they open up all the family presents there. Christmas morning is reserved for just me and my kids.

We leave milk and buckeyes for Santa Claus and carrots for the reindeer. Santa always leaves a thank you note.

I make a special breakfast while they play with all their new toys. We eat and then they just chill with all their loot for a while. In the afternoon, we go to my Mom and Dad's for dinner or they come to my house.

My two boys are with thier dad on Christmas Eve. So we let the other 3 open 1 gift on Christmas Eve ( we buy them 1 extra gift since they know the other two are opening gifts on that night, my oldest was feeling left out)

The boys get home between 7-8. Then we call my parents to come over and they each take turns opening one gift at a time. Then while they are opening thier stockings, I make breakfast for everyone. Then we get dressed and head over to my parents house, my brother and his family joins us around noon and we open gifts in the same manner there then all the adults start dinner and the older kids set the table to eat. Around 5-6 the kids are worn out so we come home and eat left overs and go to bed early :)

Christmas Eve is usually with my mom and we open all of our presents there.
We ALWAYS leave cookies and milk for Santa, with a note, and carrots for the reindeer (O. year we had to run to the neighbors across the street to get some borrowed baby cut carrots--bad mommy!).
I make sure to be up first, and the three of us open. Mostly my son, who seems to get SO many more presents than mom or dad.
Stocking is last!
Then we head to my in-laws where, depending on who is there, it can be a free for all, but they like to see the kids open O. at a time. Then them, then my husband & I.
I am a "package Nazi as well...making sure gift receipts stay in the box or bag with each item.
We do a lot of 'schlepping of gifts' from house to house, and if I'm not careful, it's a nightmare!