Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the idea of a christmas stocking is so parents can get an extra hour in bed??

136 replies

TheCunnyFunt · 10/12/2014 08:03

DP and I are disagreeing about this. DD (3.6yo) has a stocking which is currently hanging on the fireplace. DP thinks it should stay there and be opened just before the tree presents. This has been done every year since she was born and the first year she is really old enough to understand at least sort of properly! I think we should put it in DD's room on christmas eve after it gets filled so it's there when she wakes up.

His argument is that she always wakes up, gets out of bed, opens her door and stands at the safety gate shouting for us and would open her stocking or ignore it and then shout us straightaway anyway (sometimes saying her room is too dark). Plus there'll be chocolate in it.

My argument is that bed is where stockings are meant to be opened! DD gets excited at the sight of presents so if she woke up and saw her stocking she would open it (plus one of the presents for it is a torch!) and play with whatever is in it!

I hand it over to you MNetters, who is being unreasonable here? I KNOW it's not me

OP posts:
Original poster
TheCunnyFunt · 10/12/2014 08:04

Whoops, strikeout fail.

OP posts:
LittleBearPad · 10/12/2014 08:06

Stockings are for opening in bed. You're right. Smile

dexter73 · 10/12/2014 08:06

YANBU! We used to put dd's stocking in her room and make sure that everything was wrapped up very securely with lots of sellotape so that we could get a bit of extra lie-in before getting up for the day. Worked a treat!

AttitcusFinchIsMyFather · 10/12/2014 08:08

Stockings hang on the fireplace & stay there! we all come down in the morning & open them no extra time in bed!

ilovepowerhoop · 10/12/2014 08:08

my 2 always bring their stockings through to our bedroom and open them there - I wouldn't want them to open them without us. We stay in bed but get to see what they have got too.

AttitcusFinchIsMyFather · 10/12/2014 08:10

It does sound rather lonely :( we all take delight in seeing each others presents.

Minisoksmakehardwork · 10/12/2014 08:10

Stockings by the bed. Buys us a few more minutes where we can wake properly before being mobbed.

My parents did the same, probably for exactly the same reasons. Instead of us waking excitedly at silly o clock and begging to be allowed downstairs to see, stockings meant we knew he had and there was always something in there to occupy us straight away.

Susiesue61 · 10/12/2014 08:12

Mine have to wait till everyone is in our bed and then we all unwrap our stockings :) Getting tricky now 2 of them are teenagers!

Minisoksmakehardwork · 10/12/2014 08:12

It's not lonely. It's lovely hearing the excited chatter as they discuss who has got what and whether they got one of the presents they asked Santa for (one Santa present here, wrapped and left with stocking). They are still just as delighted when they bound in to show us what Santa brought.

skylark2 · 10/12/2014 08:12

My family always had stockings on the end of the bed, and looking back I was a total PITA for my parents as I wouldn't go to sleep until goodness knows when as I wanted to see Santa. But it's what you're "supposed" to do, right? So it was what we planned to do for our own DCs.

When DD was two and a half we talked to her about Santa. She was hysterical and terrified at the concept of a strange man coming into her room. We've left stockings downstairs in front of the fireplace ever since and they are opened as soon as everyone's downstairs (DH is banned from his usual habit of having a shower first). It works for us.

I think you're living in a dream world if you don't think she'll wake you up just as early anyway, to tell you all about her stocking...

Does she have her own en suite or something? A bit Shock at a kid who's three and a half being safety gated into her bedroom.

ohhhhpieceofcandy · 10/12/2014 08:13

When I was small we would take our stockings into our parents room and open them in their bed. Could that be a compromise? I don't think I'd want to miss any present opening myself and I love my sleep!

One year, when i was about 7, I was so excited I set my alarm for 3am. It did not go down well! My mum still tells that story!

weegiemum · 10/12/2014 08:13

Our dc bring them to our bed to open - they're 11, 12 and 14 and still all squash in!

HellKitty · 10/12/2014 08:13

My DCs used to bring their stockings onto my bed and open them there while I tried to snooze - especially the year DS3 woke up at 5:00am and decided to wake his siblings up so they all jumped on my bed screaming 'SANTAAAAAAAA!!!!'

gamerchick · 10/12/2014 08:15

Extra hour in bed? Hmm it's usually me up first waking the kids up. I love Christmas Grin

MrsPepperMintonCandyCane · 10/12/2014 08:15

Either me or DH goes and makes a drink and they sit on our bed to open them. They then colour or play and eat chocolate while we finish our drinks and then it's downstairs.

MehsMum · 10/12/2014 08:19

We used to do stockings by the bedroom fireplace. Then when DC1 was just into primary school, we moved to a house with NO bedroom fireplace - though there was one downstairs. This provided exactly the excuse I needed to transfer stockings downstairs - because I was getting sick of not getting to bed until midnight on Christmas Eve due to wakeful DC...

The rule is, no going down till 6a.m. (Well,they're older now, so they'll wait till 7). As son as I hear them, I trot down to watch.

To me, where the stocking goes has less to do with the morning, than with getting to bed the night before!

ArgyMargy · 10/12/2014 08:19

On the bed, obvs. Santa delivers them in the middle of the night. This is OK when the DC go to bed before you but nowadays I tend to sneak them in early morning as they are teenagers.

SunnaClausIsComingToTown · 10/12/2014 08:19

Stockings are for first thing Christmas morning. They are intended to occupy the DCs while everyone gets ready for the main event.

There were always books in DSs' stockings to keep them occupied while we all got ready.

Then downstairs to see if Santa has also left a big present.

No chance of staying in bed, though. DCs would shout, "He's been!" and bring the stockings into our room to open.

marne2 · 10/12/2014 08:21

Yes, we do it in hope to get some extra time in bed, sadly last year dd2 woke up just after midnight ( just after I filled the bloody stocking ), spent half an hour rummaging through it whilst squeezing with delight and then asked to go downstairs Sad, hopefully this year won't be as bad ( I can only hope ).

TarkaTheOtter · 10/12/2014 08:22

As a child we had no presents at all until AFTER BREAKFAST!

RedButtonhole · 10/12/2014 08:23

DB and I used to sneak into one another's rooms and open them together, we wouldn't go through to mum and dad until we had opened them.

It does seem a bit sad for her to open it on her own though.

WD41 · 10/12/2014 08:26

Stockings should be at the end of the bed but not for extra time in bed necessarily

That's just where they should be

Original poster
TheCunnyFunt · 10/12/2014 08:29

I knew someone would ask about the safety gate Xmas Grin

Where does it say she is gated into her bedroom? It doesn't, so please don't assume.

OP posts:
Trazzletoes · 10/12/2014 08:30

Tarka we didn't used to be allowed to open anything until 3pm... And even then one person handed out one present, we all watched it get opened, then the present for the next person, watch it get opened etc etc etc. freaking torture for a 5 year old.

5madthings · 10/12/2014 08:30

You are right, at the end of the bed so you get extra time in bed, though the madthings tend to come through to our room and yes chocolate is consumed before bfast, it's Xmas day!

Swipe left for the next trending thread