Gift time! Is you family unwrap mania or calm one at a time?

[Boopuff]

Just curious how other people do their unwrapping. We have a family "elf" who sorts the gifts. We sit around the tree and each person takes a turn to unwrap, we all see what they got and who it was from. I must preface this with we have a small family of 9 total so this doesn't take a ton of time.

 

[ronandannette]

Just curious how other people do their unwrapping. We have a family "elf" who sorts the gifts. We sit around the tree and each person takes a turn to unwrap, we all see what they got and who it was from. I must preface this with we have a small family of 9 total so this doesn't take a ton of time.

It's pretty much this now that there are no small kids involved. It's been awhile, as I remember them, those days were much more energetic!

 

[hardcorestitch]

It has been a civil experience today. I usually try to go last… but mom was so pushy for me to go next.

 

[bettertheangel]

It's just my boyfriend and I, so we take turns and choose which present the other person opened. When I was a kid though, it was a free for all.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Just curious how other people do their unwrapping. We have a family "elf" who sorts the gifts. We sit around the tree and each person takes a turn to unwrap, we all see what they got and who it was from. I must preface this with we have a small family of 9 total so this doesn't take a ton of time.

When the kids were young, and we had lots of family for the day (around 20-30 of us) We'd usually have one or two of the kids distribute the packages and then it was "GO!" Everyone would open at the same time.

Now that we're down to only 4 of us, we each open one gift at a time.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Normally we do one at a time.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

All at once for the kids. Adults take more time.

 

[MamaMermaid]

We take turns over here but our son is an only child so it's a lot easier!

 

[disneychrista]

We no longer exchange gifts. When we did we took turns and did them one a time. If it was just a free for all it would have been done in less than 5 minutes. This way it slowed it down and we got to enjoy the moment longer.

 

[Meriweather]

Always one at a time......whether 2 of us or 7

 

[slo]

Just curious how other people do their unwrapping. We have a family "elf" who sorts the gifts. We sit around the tree and each person takes a turn to unwrap, we all see what they got and who it was from. I must preface this with we have a small family of 9 total so this doesn't take a ton of time.

Same for us

 

[5kidsmommy]

We have a large family and now partners have been added to the mix. We are a dive in but it's not chaos. It's just not one by one. Not sure if that makes sense. My husband and I tend to be the last ones to open gifts because the kids want to see us open stuff and I make sure to watch everyone, same with my husband. Our oldest FaceTimes us when he is ready to open gifts with his girlfriend since they live far away.

 

[Disneylover99]

It’s always been calm. Even when the kids were little.
But we like to take our time. Sometimes we pause for food, drinks, bathroom breaks, etc…

 

[BrianL]

We do basically what seems to be common practice. We're all adults - one at a time, and usually saving the best for last. When I was a kid, it was pretty much a free-for-all. We always had several wrapped gifts, but gifts from Santa were unwrapped and usually unpackaged and all set up, and those would get our attention first.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

When my mom's side did gifts it was pretty much unwrap at once but no one does gifts anymore (unless it's for my autistic aunt) and hasn't in a long time. At my father-in-law's it's unwrap at once. At my mother-in-law's it's one at a time (including cards where you're supposed to read aloud it). I think my husband is getting to the point where he really would rather not take 2-2 1/2 sometimes 3 hours on this process plus photos and videos, earlier this year he mentioned he would be completely fine with stopping doing gifts one at a time at his mom's when in prior years he was at least fine with it and after we got done with gifts yesterday (that took 2 1/2 hours for 7 people without a ton of gifts either) he was ready to leave earlier than we probably would have left too (we ended up having like 2 hours at our house before heading off to my mom's side of the family).

Truthfully time with my mom's side of the family has always felt so much more loving without the gifts and with the norm of generally at 18 you don't really get gifts (maybe one off random stuff once in a while we're talking like a tin of popcorn or nuts something like that), it's straight up just about the family time and catching up and I've always enjoyed that more than a laborious "look at me look at me" attitude of one gift at a time thing (that's specific to my experience with my husband's family not necessarily how it feels for others).

 

[NYCgrrl]

When my kids were younger it looked like a reenactment of “A Christmas Story” but things have calmed down since then

 

[EACarlson]

As a kid and even into my 30's it was a free for all at my grandparent's house. There were between 20-50 people there and when Grandma said to start opening, we started opening. Now that they're gone, my wife has imposed strict order on opening at our house.

 

[_19disnA]

Growing up when we used to have a large family gathering of aunts/uncles/cousins then everyone would open at the same time or else it would have gone on for a few hours. Generally small children are more wound up about the excitement of Christmas from all of the things their parents have said leading up to the holidays. If a gathering is mostly adults, we usually do one at a time and each person generally only gets one gift. We were just talking about that the other day and honestly, I doubt anyone can remember what others got last year, but to some it is the idea of seeing all the gifts that matters. Some large families I know of pick names and everyone only buys one gift they exchange at Christmas. That make sense for a lot of reasons. Buying gifts for everyone in large extended families can get expensive and not everyone might have the means to afford that.

 

[Kitty 34]

Back in the day..............DH's side of the family was pure chaos; my family was one at a time. Now when we do our little Christmases with each of our sons; it's one at a time.

But back when the kids saw Santa's unwrapped gifts under the tree it was a free for all!!