When do you open your presents?

[luvmyfam444]

WOW we must me the unusual family here! Our tradition has always been to open family presents Christmas Eve, after going to the candlelight service @ church & eating dinner. OUr family always opens presents @ the same time. DH's family opens 1 present @ a time while everyone else watches you open it (I HATE being watched like that!--so we do it their way when with them & our way when with us!)
On Christmas morning Santa has left all of our presents out in the open (NOT wrapped) Growing up we each had a seperate space---1 on couch -1 on fireplace 1 on loveseat so you knew who's toys where whose. All toys were assembled already & had batteries - Santa usually played w/them 1st! . Now dh's family opened Santa's gifts. BUt we have kept my families tradition for us & dont' wrap Santa's stuff.

Growing up after Santa came & we tried on our clothes we left to drive 3 hrs to grandparent's houses (they both lived in the same city). Spent lunch w/ dad's side, ate then opened presents w/cousins, etc...then left around 4 to go to other side of family & do the same thing there. Left around 8 or 9 I guess & traveled back home Christmas night. Very long day but got to spend it w/everyone.

Nowadays everyone is scattered & we usually have Christmas 2 or 3 different times. ! w/dh's fam & 1 w/my fam - but if my bro is out of town Christmas we may have to do my parents seperate from my bros family=3times of Christmas!~ My poor dd thinks it last FOREVER! ANd there's a b'day in there too!

Anyway-thats our different tradition

 

[MrsNick]

DH and I go to the candlelight midnight mass at the church we were married in. We don't always make it during the year, but we always make it for Jesus' day!

After mass, we'll hit a diner for a snack and maybe a milkshake, then we shoot home. And dang it, we haven't caught Santa yet!

Christmas morning, we have our coffee, and I usually make a quiche ahead of time and pop it in the oven. It's a nice easy brunch. Then we open presents, and get ready to visit DSD and bring her presents. We have dinner with DSD, and then back home to watch Christmas movies in bed. We like "It's a Wonderful Life," "The Bishop's Wife" and a few others that we have on VHS. There's usually something good on TCM, too.

During the week before Christmas, we put up the tree, enjoy the tree, drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies. If I'm not totally run ragged, I make Christmas cookies. It's such a special time of year.

 

[Stitchy_Baby_626]

It's my my birthday too on Christmas so I get double presents. Usually I open the ones in my stocking first, then birthday cards, then birthday presents and then Christmas presents

Donna
xxx

 

[supercarrie]

Normally the tradition is everything is opened Christmas morning, after my brother and sister-in-law arrive (very early in the morning though usually!) Until they arrive we are allowed to look through our stockings - my sister usually wakes me up several hours before they get here for this!) All the presents are wrapped but they are divided into separate areas in the living room. After present opening we have a big Christmas breakfast with everyone.

This year is the first Christmas without my family, so I am not sure what I will do. I am spending it with my best friend in Scotland, so it will be different I am sure. I am planning on keeping as many Christmas traditions as possible though, otherwise I would be too sad!

 

[golfgal]

We open gifts on Christmas Day in the morning. On Christmas Eve the kids get to pick one present to open, which is usually from a Grandparent since they are usually mailed. There aren't any other gifts under the tree until Santa comes.

When the kids were younger we would go to the children's service at church which was at 6:00 or so then we would drive around town and look at lights, come home and have some snacks, the kids would open their one present and then go to bed. Now we go to the "midnight" service which is at 10 PM. We have appetizers in the early evening, drive around and look at lights, come home and the kids can open their gift, then we get ready for Mass.

We do have strange kids though, they have NEVER woken up early on Christmas morning. DH and I are usually up at least an hour before they wake up. I make carmel rolls for breakfast and we sit around in our PJ's for most of the day. Dinner on Christmas Day is Prime Rib.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

We always go to a family party on Christmas Eve, then head to my parents.
Around 10pm, we open up champagne and start opening gifts.

Love it!

 

[debbiedoo]

We open one gift on Christmas Eve night. Then --- Every year we take turns on whose house we go to--but we have a large family gathering on Christmas Eve and a dinner. This is when we give out gifts to the other family members.(in-laws, grandparents, etc)Afterwords we go to midnight mass----my favorite service of the year go home and put the kids to bed---have hot chocolate and off to bed. Christmas morning we open all the gifts--very early at my house--who can sleep when you know Santa has come we have our Christmas breakfast and enjoy our day. Later in the day we have our Christmas dinner with my own family within the comforts of home.

Yes a very busy time of the year--but my favorite

 

[mickeyfan2]

DH believes in Christmas morning. When we got older, we always got one on Christmas eve and the rest on Christmas morning. I do get one on Christmas eve from DH, after a little annoying of him for it. I think that is now part of the ritual.

 

[minkydog]

We open one gift on Christmas eve--new PJs. Makes for giood pictures on Christmas morning. Then we open everything else on Christmas Day. The kids wake us up. I go down and light the candles and turn on the Christmas music. The tree is all lit and the coffee made. Then the kids come down. We all look in our stockings first and whatever Santa brought. After breakfast, we pass out the other gifts. In Dhs family they used to make it a long, drawn-out process--I've seen his father take 5 hours to open all his presents. Ridiculous(and one reason we stopped spending Christmas with them!) My only requirement for the kids is that they show what they got and who it's from; I keep a running list of all teh gifts, then after it's over I give each one their list and have them do thank you notes.

Last year I had to work on Christmas, so DH had teh kids save all the immediately family gifts for when I came home. It really worked out nicely and I didn't have to be left out of all the fun.

 

[eeyore kelly]

Kids get PJ's christmas night, and presents are opened christmas morning.

 

[Kande]

The kids get to open two presents on Christmas Eve, one is always new pj's, and something like a dvd . Then Santa comes and most of the presents are wraped. When the boys were smaller and there presents were bigger they were not wraped. Now they want things like video games and movies that are small, they get wrapped. I miss when they were younger and the living room was full of Little Tykes and Fisher Price stuff that was so big it really looked like Santa had been there. Now they want $50 games that take up no room under the tree.

 

[NMAmy]

Since my divorce, Christmas has become a little odd. If dd is with us for Christmas, then we open presents on Christmas morning. If she's with my ex for Christmas, we have Christmas a week early on a Saturday and I recreate the whole day as if it were Christmas Day.

Grandma comes over and DH, DD, and I open presents while the breakfast casserole I've made is in the oven. We eat breakfast and admire our gifts and watch Christmas movies in the morning. Then my sister, her grown children and THEIR kids come over and we open gifts again and have a nice family dinner together. My sister's kids love it when we have Christmas early because then they don't have so many people to see on Christmas Day.

ETA: When we have Christmas early, it's wonderful for DH and I when Christmas actually rolls around. We sleep late, he makes a wonderful breakfast, we either rent movies or go to a movie together, and I make a nice dinner. It's a wonderful, relaxing day. I kind of prefer it when it happens this way (which it will this year.)