Giving presents on Xmas eve anyone else?

lloydyd

Dear all of my MSE people....firstly a hapy and healthy Festive break to all.

I wanted to ask you all if anyone gives presents on Christmas eve? Basically, my familly live 50 miles away and me, OH DD x1 and DD x2 are making the trip on Christmas day at around 1pm. My OH has said that as the kids wont have that much time to play with thier new presents in the morning, that we should give all of "our presents" to them on the eve, and they can open all of "santa's" presents in the morning (they each have a massive stocking full of bits and pieces) while all of the main presents (of which there are quite a few) can be opened on the eve so they have more time to enjoy them.

Ive never done this before and have begrudgingly agreed (i like the excitement on the day)....

Does anyone else do or has done this?

Thanks all.

Abbafan1972

Yes, we "give" presents on Xmas eve, IE:- my Mom will usually come round and we will exchange presents, but they don't get opened until Xmas day.

This year I'm going to keep a couple of the kids' presents back, so they've got something to open in the afternoon.

podperson

Me and OH used to swop presents on Christmas Eve - for a similar reason, we would go to my mum's, his mum's and often his brother's as well on Christmas Day so we would be rushing round and have no time in the morning. It was quite nice to be able to open them and have time to enjoy them properly for a bit and not feel hurried in the morning and not having time to do more then glance at them.
When I was little me and brother were allowed to open one present each on Christmas Eve so we could play with it then and don't think it spoiled the day. Although I don't know how old your DDs are but we would usually be up about 7am on Christmas Day so would always have time to play with things a bit before we had to go for Xmas lunch

borokat

We exchange gifts with my grandma on Xmas Eve but have always done all other gifts on the day - but for us everything was from Father Christmas (weirdly we never ever wondered why our parents hadn't got us anything!)

balletshoes

no, have to say we've never opened kid's pressies on Christmas Eve. Our Christmas Day usually starts at around 8am when I wake my DD up, she opens her Santa sack and any pressies she's received from friends/at my house before Christmas Day. Then at around 9.30am we go to my sisters house where the whole family is assembled, to open pressies from each other (so loads more pressies for DD from the family). That usually lasts a couple of hours, then we cart all our opened pressies back to ours, and she can play with them etc until around 3pm, when we go to Mums for Christmas dinner.

She's allowed to take a pressie or 2 with her to Mums to play with, with her cousins etc.

It doesn't sound like your kids will have any less time to play with their pressies on Christmas Day than mine does - and theres always the rest of the school holidays to play with them .

I know friends who give out their pressies to their kids all through the day and evening, ie one an hour or so, so they sometimes aren't finished with the pressie opening until 7pm on Christmas Day.

If you give your kids several pressies on Christmas Eve, won't they want to play with them and not go to bed?

Emmarillo

I know everyone's different but I couldn't do it.

Your husband would probably be horrified to know that our kids don't get their presents from us until Boxing day!! They have their stockings first thing and then we go to my parents house where they have so, so many presents from their grand parents and the rest of our huge family. We get home late then Boxing Day is another Christmas day just for us when they have their presents (we do a treasure hunt) and go to football. We've asked if they want to do things differently but they like things the way they are.

I know this wouldn't be many peoples cup of tea either. I guess we all do different things.

lloydyd

oh what do to....thanks for all of your answers.....a lot to think about but still a few days to decide...

nikkiuk

I have to say, I don't like the idea of it, it just wouldn't be the same for me! I would open them as usual on Christmas morning and then let them choose their favourites to take with you! Good luck deciding!

mummyroysof3

this is the main reason that we stay home at christmas..not that it would make much difference as they normally get up at 6 am so have loads of time to play.

could you not hold a few things back till boxing day so they will have less to open and find time to enjoy before you go out? they have the rest of the hols with thier gifts so hopefully it wont be to much of an issue

carlamarie_2

mummyroysof3 wrote: »

this is the main reason that we stay home at christmas..not that it would make much difference as they normally get up at 6 am so have loads of time to play.

i agree! we also stay home all day, i wouldnt like my kids to have to leave their presents at home and go visiting. we see our family on xmas eve and boxing day.

different strokes for different folks, but i woudnt have my kids open their presents on xmas eve.
be aware if you do decide to do this, youre probaly gunna have to do it every year if your children are old enough to remember what you did this year, they will expect it.

can you not wake your children earlier, if they are late sleepers?
and as mentioned there is the rest of the year to play with their toys.
or you could possibly keep a couple of presents back to give them to open in the car, which would keep them entertained on the journey.

YORKSHIRELASS

My kids always have everything opened by lunchtime on Christmas Day but it takes them the rest of the holidays to look at things and play with them properly. They will have plenty of time to enjoy their presents and I think you might regret it if you let them open them all on Christmas Eve.

Then again I am a big believer in Christmas being what you want it to be and there is nothing wrong with having your own way of doing things.

My husband makes is always desperate for the kids to get their presents opened as quickly as possible where I would prefer to spread it out a bit but its Christmas and you have to go with the flow!