How quickly are all the presents open in your family?

hgotsparkle

When I was little it was presents from father christmas and parents, grandparents in the morning, then after lunch it would be presents from the rest of the family which was usually craft type gifts so it would give me something to do in the evening after having played with new dolls all morning.

Now as adult kids, we just rip them all open in the morning.

Rags2Riches_3

As children we had a stocking from Father Christmas (one of my dad's rugby socks) filled with little gifts, nuts, chocolate coins, satsuma, shiny penny (showing my age lol) which we opened at some ungodly hour of Christmas morning. Oh the excitement of kicking the end of the bed and hearing that rustling sound:j

Then we waited till after breakfast to open our other presents, (one by one) and on Boxing day it was over to my grandparents house for more pressies and jollifications.

Nowadays my stocking-filling days for my daughters are over what with them being grown up, and present opening happens after Christmas dinner. Have to say the family, both grown-ups and children, appreciate taking it in turns to open presents, when someone has taken the time and given thought to a present its nice for them to see the reaction of the person receiving it. Though sometimes a 'focus on so and so' call has to go out! This usually takes a couple of hours at least, then it's time to get tea ready.

In the evening we open 'tree presents' for everyone left on the Christmas tree by Father Christmas, aka ME, and if I'm lucky some kind soul leaves one on the tree for me:T

Crowdpleaser

When I was a kid: Woke early, looked at stocking on bed. Crept downstairs to look at tree. Crept back up (my mum has recently told me that she knew I did this LOL). Went into Bruv room, opened our stockings which was small toys, toiletries and always gold coins, played with a bit then went downstairs. Opened tree presents (bruv ripped all quickly, I opened each slowly to spread over day). Have dinner, play with toys.

Christmas now: Kids bring their stockings into our room to open (toys n chocs). Downstairs to go oooohhh at tree. Open some pressies, have break, open rest of pressies. Eat lunch. Spend afternoon trying to put the blinking things together. I used to get really stressed out about making sure pressies were spread over day. I don't now. LOL x

Sharon87

I forgot to add.

When we were teenagers (I was youngest) my mum just used to put the presents out days before Christmas! It was always hard to resist not feeling them and shaking them!

Also when I was younger we were allowed in the living room with all the presents, we never had stockings at the end of the bed, but had a big plastic stocking in the livingroom and a heap of presents.

lushlifesaver

As a child there were two ways we did Christmas; if we were at home it was stockings by the bedroom door, usually opened on mum and dad's bed, then breakfast whilst in awe of the tree then gradually presents. We opened them one at a time and everyone got a turn. On occasion it would be oldest first to open all of their gifts then the next person but not very often.
If we were at my paternal grandparents; stocking were by our beds then we had most of the day as family time and when my cousins got back from seeing their birth dad we would all open presents (all 10 of us!) one by one whilst cooing over them and saying lots of thank yous. The evening was spent watching lovely TV or family movies/photo slides and was interrupted part way through for ice cream sandwiches and treats! All grandchildren (4 of us) got a box of chocolates (heroes or celebrations) and a non-stop pencil as a given every year and a cheque from the grandparents plus one present - whatever you got from anyone else was a surprise.

Last year was my first away from my parents and it went like this:
Up with bf and pup at the crack of dawn as we're both massive children, light snacky breakfast and quick drink then presents from each other (about 45mins). Little play with all the nice things we got the got ready and drove to my family (about 25/30 minutes). Drinks, snacks and presents with them (again not too shy of 40 mins-ish but there wasn't too many this year ...no we're 'grown ups') then some relaxing and chatting plus playing with new gifts. I helped with their dinner. Bf's middle brother then called complaining he was hungry and telling us we had to hurry up back to bf's mum's (usually everything has to wait for his little brood!). Off we pootled, popping home to pick up their cake and presents then drove round to theirs (5mins). Straight in to Christmas dinner with barely time to get our coats and shoes off! Clear the table (well me and bf's mum(!) ) then presents (well over an hour) and moaning from little nephew and bf's middle brother. Games with nephew, cooing over 1month old niece then they left. Nice relaxing time with bf's parents watching telling/chatting. a tipple and before we left supper from bf's mum (amazing!)

Sorry! Didn't mean to that to turn in to an essay!

How I want this year to go (at 6 months pregnant!):
wake up at a reasonable time, hopefully bf will sleep a little longer
make a quick breakfast...now I want a proper breakfast but will settle for a compromise!
Presents! like I said we're massive kids so who knows what will be under our tree!
Pop round to bf's parent's house, drop their cake off and maybe presents...maybe not though. Not sure yet
Pootle to my folks, I'll help with Christmas dinner ...can't decide presents before or after eating...will discuss with my parents
I'll help clear the table (maybe try and get bf to nap for an hour so I can help wash up!)
Pootle home to drop off gifts etc!
drive round to bf's family; snacking...I love Christmas food - it's the only day I don't feel guilty for serious over indulgence all day! Presents for anyone who wasn't there earlier
Once the others have gone; relaxing time with bf's parents. Maybe a board game or just TV/ a film. And then the ultimate supper platter from his mum!

Next year will be our turn to host! Might give up and say to everyone to go out for Christmas dinner as we have no way of catering for 12 people in our tiny bungalow without a proper oven or enough space!

Not sure if everyone will come at once or in shifts as we do at the minute...I think I'd like for everyone to be around for a while for baby's first Christmas - come over around 11ish maybe with all their gifts then we could all open them together then head out at maybe 1ish to a local hotel for dinner. Hmm will have to take some time to figure out how I'd like it to go!

jackomdj

Our Christmas: Father Christmas stockings in/out children's rooms (dd2 doesn't like the thought of him going into her room, dd1 does not care) which they open when they wake up. They include a snack and drink, book, quiet games etc which they can play. We usually sneak downstairs about 5:30 and get the veg/turkey ready. Just after 6 the girls come down. We then take turns opening presents, reading the label so we can do thank you letters. We break for breakfast and if the girls want to play. It can take quite a while to open things, but I am happy for it to take all day.

Growing up my sister and I slept in sisters room on Christmas Eve. We would take turns staying awake, once mum and dad were in bed we would sneak into my room (where the presents were left) take one each into her room and open it, then rewrap. Usually managed a couple before my Dad would "catch" us and then we would go into their room and open up - this was usually about 3am. We would then stay up reading our annuals whilst my parents fell asleep!

Lobsta

As a kid we had a pillow case on the bed which had satsuma, apple, pens, books, one year a huge bubble blower and another our pillowcases were in sledges when we wokeup! We used to be up at 4 and wweren't allowed to wake mum and dad until at least 6. Went down stairs and helped dad do breakfast (always boiled eggs and soldiers) whilst it was cooking we were allowed to have a look through the lounge door but weren't allowed in until breakfast was done and washed up. Presents were handed out one at a time, my dad wanted to make it last. Then we had to phone everone to say merry xmas and thank you.

Now, the kids are only 3 and 5, they have a little stocking on their bed with little stocking filler toys which they bring through to our room and keeps them entertained until we're ready to get up then we go straight to the tree and we each pick a pressie and open. The kids are young enough that they play with each present for a while after they open it and its us trying to hurry them along. Then we have breakfast. Later we go to the in laws for lunch.
Boxing day is my little sisters birthday so is xmas part 2 with my family, big thing made of it as its the youngests (shes 19 now but tradition has been set) birthday and xmas.

Tiglath

DH and I don't wrap our presents. "I sent you an Amazon voucher." "That's funny, I sent you one too."

I remember when the stepkids were little - they were like horses champing at the bit; set them loose and they disappeared into a flurry of paper which the cats would 'ski' through. Then ended up playing with the boxes anyway ...

applecrumble24

When I was little we had a stocking on the bed (fruit, chocolate coins and a magazine), then santa presents as soon as we went downstairs and they were all ripped open before breakfast.
After dinner, we had our under the tree presents, which were from friends and family and they were all opened one at time.

My kids are still only babies but so far we've done the same with a christmas eve present thrown in

bethl79

Eeek! This thread has made me so excited for Christmas!

When I was little, Christmas always started at about 4am, when I would wake up, and try not to look at my stocking because it was too early lol. By about 5am I would go and wake my little sisters up and we would sit on one of our beds together and open our stockings. We were always allowed to go and wake our parents after 6am, my dad would go downstairs and make a cuppa, switch the Christmas tree lights on etc and then we were allowed downstairs. We all had our own pile of presents, which were usually opened by 7am! We then spent the rest of the day playing with our new toys.

Christmas now is still me waking up at 4am and not being able to go back to sleep (yes I am a big kid!). Hubby is a bit more strict than my parents were though lol, and I'm not allowed to wake him or our three girls (7, 5 and 4) up until at least 7am. I normally get up and go down to make us both a cuppa, which usually then wakes the kids up They then bring their stockings in to our bedroom to open. We all go downstairs usually around 8ish, and they open their santa presents (all wrapped). It normally takes them about 2 - 3 hours as they like to get things out of the box and have a little play with things as they go along. We then get dressed and have lunch, then we all open the family gifts in the afternoon. The rest of the day is spent playing with toys and ringing our families (as we're not close enough to be able to pop round to any of them), we usually have a walk to get some fresh air too.

I adore our Christmas day, and can't wait now!