When You Open Your Christmas Presents...

[Fairy Dust]

...does one family member/friend give them out to everyone?

Or is it a free for all where everyone dives into the pile?

Maybe something else?

We have a family member give them out, they try to make sure everyone has a gift to open.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We have someone that plays "Santa" and that person makes sure everyone has at least 1 gift to open before we dig in. Funny, my dad's family and mom's family always did it that way and DH's family does, too! Must be a common way of doing it.

At my dad's family, we sort out all the gifts before opening.

 

[nordkin]

In our house everyone gets their gifts from under the tree and places them in a pile in front of what ever seat they are sitting in. We then start with the youngest who opens one gift of his choice, it them moves to the next oldest who does the same, and so on through everyone. We do this until all gifts are opend one at a time so everyone can see what everyone else received. It takes about an hour or so to open our gifts, but we enjoy every minute of it. This is the way we did it growing up and it is still done this way at my parents.

 

[Melisa1]

Someone usually passes out all the gifts, then we all take turns opening them 1 at a time - it lasts longer and you get to see what everyone gets. DH's family just all rips into them at the same time and its over in 20 minutes and you have no clue what they got!

 

[Lil_Tink]

It usually varies. But usually we alternate. One family member opens one. Another opens one. So on.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

At my house its basically a free for all. I am still at home with my parents for now so there are no kids to watch. My brother has no patience to sit and watch others. So he finds his (which in the morning he "magically" knows exactly where his gifts are. Noooo...he never peeked! ) He takes one of his, and either I grab one of mine or he hands it to me, and we begin to open. Even as kids we never watched while one person opened their gift. It's not like we dont see everyones gifts. But we sorta all open at once and then show them off in a way. It works for us.

 

[Philadisney]

In our house everyone gets their gifts from under the tree and places them in a pile in front of what ever seat they are sitting in. We then start with the youngest who opens one gift of his choice, it them moves to the next oldest who does the same, and so on through everyone. We do this until all gifts are opend one at a time so everyone can see what everyone else received. It takes about an hour or so to open our gifts, but we enjoy every minute of it. This is the way we did it growing up and it is still done this way at my parents.

That's pretty much how we do it. I like dragging it out, and I like being able to see people's reactions to the gifts I bought them.

 

[akhenaten]

It usually varies. But usually we alternate. One family member opens one. Another opens one. So on.

we alternate here too.........

 

[Makdyn]

At my moms house someone passes them out one at a time and it takes for ever cause there are billiob of presents for the girls. This is the first year that we are not sleeping at my moms christmas eve. So I will be the one passing them out since all the present under the tree are the kids. I think we will do one each.

 

[uratoon]

My daughter always passes out all the presents to everyone. Then we take turns. My daughter goes first, opens all her presents, then my hubby opens all his, then it's my turn. Now that Nick has come along, I think he will get to go first this year.

 

[hopemax]

At my parents, one person picks out gifts for everyone, and we open them, sort of at the same time, but still sort of staggered so that only one person is revealing at once (but it can be work to get into some things!). Then we dig out another bunch of gifts for everyone. Repeat until all the gifts are open, although it usually ends up that someone starts having to open two for everyone else's one.

At DH's Grammy's it's one gift at a time, and after you open your gift you dig out the next gift.

 

[AuntPatti]

The opening of presents was always something that drove me and my brothers crazy when we were growing up.

The presents were all arranged under the tree in separate piles for each of us (me, 3 younger brothers, mom and dad). Once my parents were up and ready with the camera on Christmas morning, we would come down the stairs in age order (youngest to oldest) and wait at the bottom of the stairs for my dad to take a picture or two. We would then proceed to determine what order we were going to open presents in. Oldest to youngest, youngest to oldest, kids first, parents first, etc. After determining the proper order for that year, we would proceed to watch as each one, in order, opened all of their presents before the next one could start. That way, there was no missing who got what from whom. It could be a painstakingly long process, especially if you were last that year.

My brothers and I laugh about this now, and none of us does it this way anymore! Now it's a free-for-all!!!

 

[HSMndLKfan92]

Well. Christmas Eve, everyone has their presents passed out by Santa and his helper. (Usually me.) When my Uncle gets back (he usually has a "stomach ache"), we all open our presents. Some of my family members open their presents as they recieve them.

Christmas day, its just me and my parents. I never really paid attention as to whom opens their presents when.

I just know I dive right in as soon as I see them.

 

[hlbtimes2]

At MIL's its a mad house. Everyone sort of dives in, grabs some and gives them to who ever they are for, th whole time searching for their own gifts. No one sees what anyone else gets, rarely does anyone say thank you. It drives me crazy.

Christmas morning my kids are given a stack of gifts, and I sort of monitor what they opening. Would hate for dd to open doll clothes for a doll she doesnt have, and that kind of thing.

Then we have Christmas with my family. We all give out the gifts we are giving. For example, I'll give my brother / SIL their gift and my sister her gift at the same time. Then one of them will do the same. Then my mom will give us her gifts. Etc. Its not exactly one at a time, but its pretty low key and somewhat organized.

 

[nja33]

The opening of presents was always something that drove me and my brothers crazy when we were growing up.

The presents were all arranged under the tree in separate piles for each of us (me, 3 younger brothers, mom and dad). Once my parents were up and ready with the camera on Christmas morning, we would come down the stairs in age order (youngest to oldest) and wait at the bottom of the stairs for my dad to take a picture or two. We would then proceed to determine what order we were going to open presents in. Oldest to youngest, youngest to oldest, kids first, parents first, etc. After determining the proper order for that year, we would proceed to watch as each one, in order, opened all of their presents before the next one could start. That way, there was no missing who got what from whom. It could be a painstakingly long process, especially if you were last that year.

My brothers and I laugh about this now, and none of us does it this way anymore! Now it's a free-for-all!!!

We did something similar except it was ALWAYS youngest to oldest with my parents being last. I was always first since I'm the youngest (except for that year the dog got her presents before me even though, in dog years, she was older). We actually still do it this way but it goes a lot quicker now with only 4 of us then it did when there were 9. My poor parents would be up at 6 and not get to open anything other than their stockings until nearly 9.

At my aunt's house it's pretty much a free for all. We used to do it by families. One at a time. Mostly so Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't get bombarded with so many presents at one time. Now that we're older someone usually decides it's time to open presents and we spend the next half hour screaming and trying to find the appropriate people to receive their gifts. I actually prefer this way just because the chaos can be fun.

 

[DaisyD]

We just kind of jump in. I sit on the floor with both DDs. DS, DH, and my mo usually are in chairs. As we come across gifts for them we hand them to them. I can't imagine opening one at a time and everyone watching. It would take us til NYE to open everything!

 

[AuntPatti]

Last year, thank god we did the free for all at DBF's house. His grandson had to take a nap half way through opening his presents. He was only 3 and must have had over 50 things to open. Of course as he opened each present he then had to take it all the way out of the box before he moved to the next gift. I hope we all bought him less things this year. He hasn't taken a nap in a while, but Christmas day may be the exception.

 

[Lassie Lynne]

At my parents house, we do have a tradition, now that we are all "grown up". The youngest person, who until my older brother had children was always my youngest brother, hands out the gifts and then we unwrap, one at a time and "admire" the gifts and say "thank you" to whomever gave it to us. We like this, especially when one of us is a little "naughty" and gives a funny gift.

Mom used to always get mad at younger brother and I because we are such children when it comes to Christmas. One year, she decided to trick us and not put names on the gifts for us kids. Well, of course, she forgot what was in some of the gifts and who they belong to..........that was the year I unwrapped guy socks and my brother got a fuzzy pink sweater .

 

[maslex]

I don't like doing the whole pile of gifts thing. I remember my MIL doing this and it just seemed odd to me.

But when my boys wake up, we go sit in the living room, get the camera ready and we toss a coin to see which boy goes first. Sometimes we either let them pick their own gift and open it or we'll have them get their brothers gift and have them hand it over to him. But it's always one boy opening one gift at a time. They open it, show it off, pose for a picture and says thanks. It usually takes us about an hour to finish everything up.

Stockings are always last. My dad always said, that after opening all your gifts, you still had a little something extra to open in your stockings (so I do the same with my boys)

And while the boys are looking under the tree, if they come across a gift for me or my DH, they will hand it over to us and we open it.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

Mom used to always get mad at younger brother and I because we are such children when it comes to Christmas. One year, she decided to trick us and not put names on the gifts for us kids. Well, of course, she forgot what was in some of the gifts and who they belong to..........that was the year I unwrapped guy socks and my brother got a fuzzy pink sweater .

My dad wrapped gifts one year and mislabled a couple. He mixed up mine and my brothers gifts. I accidentally opened up his gift (with my name on it), which, of course, was boxers! I promptly handed them over to him with a "Merry Christmas!" I think he opened up some girly sweater of mine that year. My dad has learned to be more careful.

We also always do our stockings last. Thats also when we give the dog her gifts. And then try to track down the 3 cats to give them their's.

It's kinda a tradition that my mom always buys me and my brother some sorta stuffed animal. It is always placed unwrapped on the mantel over your stocking by Santa. Well, my current dog decided that they are for her. So she hits into the stockings to try and knock them over. Her first year with us she successfully kept stealing my brothers. Now my mom has to wait until the end to bring them out of hiding so the dog doesn't steal them! Good thing she's a cute dog.