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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:
velocityofrudolph · 10/12/2014 18:40

We used to put the stockings on the beds, until the year all 4 of them decided that 3.30am was an acceptable time to open them, no more sleep for anyone, including the NDN, unfortunately, as we found out months later. After that, they went on the landing, which delayed things slightly. Now they are adults, we don't do stockings anymore, and it's me waking them up. I miss the excitement they used to have, and am looking forward to next year when the expected GC will be here Grin

FTRsGotAShinyNewNN · 10/12/2014 18:41

Stocking is left at the bottom of the bed and then brought into mam and dads bed to be opened when DS wakes up.
That was the way it was done when I was a kid and up until the year before i had DS (at 23!!Grin)

listsandbudgets · 10/12/2014 20:55

Our stockings were always pillow cases. They always contained among other lovely things a minature packet of coco pops. I think Father Christmas intended that we should get our own breakfast Grin

We would open them on our parents bed though so no extra sleep for them until we stampeeded downstairs to make our breakfast when they rolled over for a bit longer

TiggyD · 10/12/2014 21:04

In bedroom as a distraction to excited children.

ThePinkOcelot · 10/12/2014 21:17

Stockings downstairs with the rest of the presents in this house.

Krytes42 · 10/12/2014 21:20

Stockings in the living room, near the fireplace. There was always a big Santa gift and a few small ones near the stocking that were left unwrapped, so if we got up early we could sneak into the living room and see what Santa had brought. Other than that, the rule was that we had to wait until 6 or 7 and present mom with fresh coffee before they would get up and come down with us to open presents.

Stockings at the foot of the bed was tried exactly once - one of us ended up waking the other three at about 4 am, honestly convinced that it was morning, and we all had a loud and noisy present-opening party in my bedroom until my rather pissed-off dad came downstairs and pointed out the time. Stockings in the bedroom never happened again.

apotatoprintinapeartree · 10/12/2014 21:25

We have always done what your dh suggests, all stockings hang in fireplace and are opened before the other presents.
FC hasn't time to go to bedrooms, its down the chimney and out to the next house, grabbing his mince pie and slurping whatever alcoholic drink has been left for him. Xmas Grin

Plus, we didn't want to weird the dc out suggesting he went into their rooms.

roundtable · 10/12/2014 21:26

Oh my goodness, I have nothing of value to add to this thread apart from to say it has made me really excited about Christmas morning! Xmas Grin

Original poster
TheCunnyFunt · 10/12/2014 21:30

IronLung if you have an Aldi, ours had animal torches (I think they're fisher price) in yesterday which is what we got DD, you squeeze the handle, the animals mouth opens, the torch comes on and it makes the appropriate noise (DD's is the dog and it barks). I just know she will love it!

Looks like the general consensus is stocking in bedroom to be opened in parents room...

OP posts:
IfAtFirstUDontSucceed · 10/12/2014 21:48

I have fond memories of my DB and I setting our alarm at silly o'clock to open one present from the stockings which were laid on our beds. We'd then set the alarm for an hour later to open another, and so on until it was 7am and time to wake the parents and godown stairs!

Thinking back it was very restrained of us!

2kidsintow · 10/12/2014 21:56

I never imagined that stockings were to be opened on parent's bed. As a child I woke and opened my stocking in my room - sometimes in the silly early hours before going back to sleep. My sisters and I would compare what we had and we'd play with stuff before waking my parents up.

The first year DD1 was old enough to have a stocking it was fab that she chose to bring it through to our bed. And she's carried on doing that each year, and now wakes her sister (or DD2 wakes her now that DD1 is a sleepy teen) and they still come through to open them with us. It's sweet and I love it.

DamselNotInHerDress · 10/12/2014 22:10

Stockings (pillowcases) on beds here to be dragged through to our bed for opening.
I put them on their beds at about 2am and then have to wake them at about 7:30 to get stockings opened and the day underway as we have a houseful and lots to do.
Never in a million years would I miss them opening their presents, we work hard all year round and this is one of my highlights, seeing their excitement.
Sounds horrible and lonely opening them alone in your bedroom to me.
Also, ds is 3 and would end up getting upset and frustrated at not being able to open things properly and not knowing how to play with them.
Each to their own of course though.

dexter73 · 10/12/2014 22:14

I love how 'each to their own' is put as a disclaimer when you type something a bit judgy about someone else's way of doing something!Grin

DamselNotInHerDress · 10/12/2014 22:19

Do you actually love it though? Confused or just picking holes in my post?

I didnt really realise how strongly i felt about while I was typing, so when I've said it sounds horrible and lonely, that really is just how i feel about it. Not being judgy or bitchy about anyone else's ways.

dexter73 · 10/12/2014 22:24

Bit odd to feel so strongly about how other people's children choose to open their stockings. And yes it does sound judgemental.

blacktreaclecat · 10/12/2014 22:26

Stockings on mummy and daddy's bed. Including one for mummy and one for daddy.
I did this as a child/ teenager/ adult - in fact until I started waking up in my own home on Christmas morning.

DamselNotInHerDress · 10/12/2014 22:26

Yes, but I was just imagining it being my children.
I don't know the op, and don't particularly care where her dd opens her presents, but it made me think of my own dc opening their presents alone and it seems horrible and lonely which is why we don't do it.
Anything else?Confused

dexter73 · 10/12/2014 22:27

No.

Deedeecupcake · 10/12/2014 22:29

Stockings go outside your bedroom door! Myself and DB would always open ours at some ridiculously early hour (5 am) and then go into each other and compare stockings. At around 7 we'd go into our parents room and watch them open their stockings and show them what we got. No one was allowed downstairs until 8am sharp!!!
My brother and I still go into each other's room now and is probably the only half an hour of the year that we get on!!!

BornToFolk · 10/12/2014 22:29

I'd love to put DS's stocking in his room but he has never wanted Father Christmas to go into his room so the stocking has to stay downstairs. I feel bad about it actually as my favourite part of Christmas was waking up with that lovely feeling of a full stocking on your bed - magical! But I can't persuade him. Sad He has agreed to having a piece of string in his room which "Father Christmas" will tie onto his stocking so he can tug that to see if he's been!

Anyway, stocking is then opened on my bed. Then we'll have breakfast and head round to my mum's for the rest of the presents which are opened at a leisurely pace and only when the dinner is fully prepped and in the oven (very strict rule from my childhood!)

Cockadoodledooo · 10/12/2014 22:34

Stockings are by the bed, but they bring them through to our bed to open them. After a good rummage, naturally.

WhoKnowsWhereTheMistletoes · 10/12/2014 22:35

I disagree Damsel. Mine bring theirs to our bedroom, but I can absolutely imagine them doing them in their own room, chattering away, comparing things, playing together, scoffing chocolate, it sounds absolutely delightful, it's just not the way we have normally done it.

Aherdofmims · 10/12/2014 22:39

We put it in dd's room but she brings it into our room to open.

Festiveredpriestandmozart · 10/12/2014 22:39

Our DC wake up and bring their stockings to our bed to open, they are 17 and 21 now and still do it but we have to waken them at about 9am to do it as sleep takes over! Savour the early years :)

Tobeemoree · 10/12/2014 22:41

Definitely stockings on the end of the bed; only daughter is 7 and it's ever been so. This year she'll be waking up (if she ever goes to bloody sleep) with her two cousins, so we expect a very early start. I'm the evil mother/aunty who is relied upon by the rest of the family to threaten them into a reasonable waking up time, but we'll see on that one.

Honestly, I'm really excited for her. There's nothing like stretching down your bed and heading the rustle of wrapping paper. And she's going to be sharing it with her two closest cousins, they all get on so well; it's a relationship my sister and I were lucky enough to have with our cousins too. Until now we've always been together when she opens the stocking, but she's getting older, and that's important too.