To think you shouldn't put presents under the tree before Christmas eve...

[tyler80]

...if you have small children who will open them when your back is turned.

A colleague is moaning that her son (3) has now opened 5 presents, why not move them out of reach? It's not rocket science!

If I put the Christmas tree in the playpen it would barely poke over the top! Do you have a very small/minimal playpen, or a huge tree? (Playpen is also an orange monstrosity so doesn't look very festive...)

Last time I put presents under the tree the cat pissed on them

DH and DS didn't really appreciate my suggestions to send the cat off to the North Pole.

Family presents go under our tree before christmas eve. My 3 year old wouldn't dare open them. She does know though that they are not for her so not worth opening.

DD (21mths) can't resist the mini parcel decorations on the tree there is no way she would resist actual gifts.

The cat with his wrapping paper obsession would be even worse!

It was a minimal wooden barred playpen, so they could see the tree through the bars, but not cause too much damage.

We've got LOADS of presents under the tree! All the presents I've wrapped up for other people (big family) plus any presents for us that people have dropped off to us.
DCs havent touched them (5yo and 2yo)

The presents father christmas will bring are hidden downstairs!

As we exchange presents with people the ones they have given us go straight under the tree. Lots of people seem to have used shiny red paper this year so it looks lovely and festive! All the pressies from us to each other and the children will come downstairs on Christmas eve after dcs are asleep so they will wake up to a much bigger pile.

We've always done this and never had a problem with the dcs fiddling with them, but then they are not the sort to search the house for hidden items either, which is lucky as we are not allowed to use our loft so it is the bottom of the wardrobe or nothing!

I put some under the tree yesterdy, some presents for the children from friends, plus some family ones which I wrapped last night. Ds' are 2 and 5 and are told not to touch, that they are for Christmas. Ds2 has picked them up once today, told firmly to put them back and not to touch and that is exactly what has happened. Took longer with the chocolate advent calendar mind! That was a mission for about 2 weeks, but I am stubborn and felt he needed to learn not to touch rather than have things moved out of his way. After all, we go round to other houses where there are no small children, so I find it best to teach not to do something rather than hide it away, that isn't rocket science in my opinion!