Speaking of "early" Christmas..

C.Ann

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Joined
May 13, 2001
Messages
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Do you open your gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

Even after we no longer had children at home, my late DH & I opened them on Christmas Day.. :santa:
 
We open on Christmas Eve. Both DH (who grew up in COlorado) and I (who started in Texas and then moved to Colorado) grew uo doing so. Christmas morning the (one per person "big" item) gift from Santa is sitting unwrapped and set up under the tree. There are also stockings to go through Christmas morning.
 
DH and i usually do one from each other on Christmas Eve and then the rest on Christmas day. but we have family functions going on during Christmas Eve where we open other gifts as well.
 

We get a few ornaments on Christmas Eve, and everything else Christmas Day.
 
DH lets me open one on Christmas Eve. The rest on Christmas day. Santa brings all the kids gift so they are opened on Christmas Day.
 
/
DH is from Peru, and they grew up staying up late (after midnight) on Christmas Eve and opening the gifts then. I grew up (Ohio) opening them on Christmas Day. We compromise by doing the in-laws (on both sides) on Christmas Eve and ours on Christmas Day.
 
We usually get one small thing on Christmas Eve morning and then the rest we get on Christmas day.
 
We compromise by doing the in-laws (on both sides) on Christmas Eve and ours on Christmas Day.

That is pretty much how we did it (we are from Ohio, maybe it's a Buckeye thing). Growing up we lived within a mile of both grandparents so we went to each on Christmas eve and opened gifts there and then the next morning we opened our gifts at home.
 
When I was younger I would get a pair of pjs on Christmas Eve, but now we wait til Christmas morning for all the gifts.
 
We don't have a routine. Not for DH & I. This year will be the first year in who knows how long that we will open our gifts to each other on Christmas Day. We bought a house this year, so money for traveling. Although, we will be having Christmas with my parents on like the 20th, because they will be here the 15th-22nd.

It's a byproduct of our travel schedule. We are either with my parents, in which case Christmas is on Christmas Day. Or we are with DH's parents. Which means we have Christmas with them on Christmas Eve morning, or sometimes the day before. Christmas Eve is with DH's Grammy, Christmas Day is with DH's Grandpa. On years we aren't with my parents, it's hit or miss if their box will arrive before or after we leave for DH's family. We will either open them when DH & I are doing our Christmas prior to leaving, or we open them when we get home. My birthday is the 21st, so we try to avoid opening any Christmas presents on that day, but it doesn't always work out. Last year, I got to open presents every day for a week!
 
When both dh and I were growing up it was Christmas day, once we got married we changed it to Christmas Eve, have to have our own traditions as a family.
 
We open on Christmas Eve. Both DH (who grew up in COlorado) and I (who started in Texas and then moved to Colorado) grew uo doing so. Christmas morning the (one per person "big" item) gift from Santa is sitting unwrapped and set up under the tree. There are also stockings to go through Christmas morning.

This is exactly how we do it as well. When I was a child we only did Christmas Eve, but we added the Christmas morning Santa gift and stockings when DH's kids were finally allowed to to come to our place for Christmas.
 
We open one or two on Christmas eve, one of which is Christmas PJ's and the remainder on Christmas morning.
 
Kids open 1 gift on Christmas Eve after mass (usually something small or a relative gift).

The rest get opened in the morning.

Morning protocol is stockings before breakfast and then breakfast and then gifts. (Breakfast doesn't have to be anything substantial. This is a carryover rule/tradition from DH's b-day. It is usually something simple.)
 
We always have opened our presents on Christmas Day. Even though it is just DH and me, we wait until Christmas Eve to bring out each others wrapped presents and put them under the tree. We also fill each others stockings at the same time.
 
We do DH's side of the family Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve. He grew up doing everything on Christmas Eve. I grew up doing everything on Christmas morning, except for 1 gift on Eve and it was always something that we kids could wear to church service that night. When DH and I started dating, he got use to opening all our gifts Chirstmas morning and continue to do so.
 
DAY!

DH's fam opened stuff on Christmas Eve. I'm like whats the point of that! Then what do you do on Christmas morning?? LOL! he said it makes no difference to him now, so we do it Christmas day
 














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