we allow DS to open one gift on christmas eve. just something small. and then the rest are opened on christmas morning after santa has had a chance to visit.
DH's family comes up on Christmas Eve so we exchange with them then. On Christmas morning we open all our gifts from Santa then go to my dads and spend a good part of the day there. My DH works 11am-7pm that day so he will miss dinner. But he is going in later so he can be there when the boys open their gifts.
Christmas Morning with the exception of one gift. My sister was so impatient when we were little my parents started letting us open one gift Christmas Eve. And now that she is 36 we are still opening that one gift Christmas Eve!
We open ours on Christmas morning and can you believe that every year I have generally had to wake up dd to come down so we can get started....even when she was little!!!!! Blew my excitement to the ground....I think out of 13 years there has only been one year that she was up at 5am and then went back to bed because no one else was up!!!!! We finally had to wake her at 8!!!!!!
I have already started exchanging gifts. This Sunday will be our first formal exchange. As for Santa's gifts, he doesn't wrap at our house....they get them on Christmas day. The gifts we give to DDs are opened on Christmas day.
Christmas Eve for us. We have no "Santa" believers anymore , so this gives our daughter, husband and grandson a chance to be at home on Christmas morning and do the "Santa thing".
Christmas Eve is presents and appetizers - Christmas Day is lazy (for everyone but me ) and a mid-afternoon feast.
As a kid, we always opened our presents on Christmas Eve (Santa even came early just for us ). Now we do it on which ever day works best for all of us. This year we will do it on Christmas Eve. One of my favorite years though was when we went to midnight mass and then opened the gifts right after we got back.