Saving presents till Boxing Day

[glitterglitters]

I don't think my oh is being totally u but he is in the sense he knows what my family are like.

Dh as a child would always have presents from aunt, uncle and extended family left to open, under the tree till Boxing Day. Justification is that Christmas Day itself is so fleeting and kids get so much that it keeps the magic going a bit longer and they don't get overwhelmed. We have two kids and the eldest is now, of an age, where she gets it enough. I'm totally getting it as a concept but I've got two concerns.

1. explaining to a 2 year old that although they've unwrapped all those presents today you cannot unwrap "these" ones. Bit tortuous if you ask me

2. explaining to all my relatives (sister, brother etc) on Christmas Day when they FaceTime that I'm not sure what my kids thought of the gifts picked out for them because they haven't opened them yet. My sister in particular will get her nose out of joint over this I think. She and dh clash on occasion. I will have to be the one to explain it

He's adamant that this is happening now but am I thinking he's being a bit... optimistic

@StarWarsFanatic I'd never heard of the sack thing before but he then in the same breath said his brother would literally tear off the paper in seconds in his room by 4am. Definitely not happening!!!

There's probably going to be about .... 10/15 presents left each so not a small amount really.

He sounds like he wants to suck all the joy out of it, really.

Holds some of background without dc seeing but don't show the hold back! That is torture.
No harm in a few being held back but does it have to be so
Formal!!

I keep extended family or friends presents until Boxing Day! Don’t see a problem with it. Especially after the year my 3 yr old opened every present going and didn’t care what was in it, only interested in ripping off paper. As DCs got older I’d let them open presents from friends on Christmas Eve so they had 3 days of fun.
Tbh I’d prefer my DC playing with the toys I bought them for Christmas than wanting to placate my sister, if she’s not there on the day then she shouldn’t comment on your parenting as none of her business!
You can always say the truth, it’s too overwhelming for a 2 yr old so they’re opening it on Boxing Day and keeping the fun going.

Och, hide the ones you're saving, stretch the fun!
We started doing this last year. My DD gets such a ridiculous amount of stuff every year that she doesn't notice on the day, it's a bit less overwhelming and I can actually encourage her to look at what she's opening, not just function as a human paper shredder.

It sounds as though his childhood Christmases were more frugal than yours. If they only got things they needed, rather than treats, maybe his experience is that Christmas Day wasn't that special. Opening gifts from other people in Boxing Day sounds as though that was the 'frivolous treats' day and he wants that for his children. I feel sad for him - sounds as though his family had to watch the pennies and that coloured his view of Christmas. If you've continued to maintain traditions from your childhood, it wouldn't hurt to continue this one from his.
FWIW, when I was a child, we had the sack of gifts in our bedroom. DH had stockings and a few gifts under the tree. Our Christmas decorations went up a couple of weeks before Christmas , dh parents put theirs up after the children had gone to bed on Christmas Eve. Our Christmas traditions are a mixture of some from each of our childhoods as well as some that have developed in our home. No real reason why you can't compromise on this, as he has on yours.

My sister does this - my brother in law's influence I assume. They live the other side of the World, and I must admit it's disappointing to speak to my nieces on Christmas Day to find they haven't had their gifts from me yet. Whatever works for your family though I guess, but I'd agree with removing the extra gifts from under the tree if you're going to do it.

When I was a child we always were away for Christmas and only got stocking and presents from df family (max 2) on Christmas day. We got the majority of presents a week later when we got back. It is quite nice having presents to come.

So now with my DC we do stocking first thing, own presents after lunch and then extended family on Boxing day. We also have tree presents which is one small present a day until New Year's Day.
The children are now older and really like that, as they say it's like having 2 Christmas days, but even as toddlers it was no issue as they had plenty.

DH finds this slightly odd as his family would have ripped everything open before 9am and then be feeling flat and argumentative by midday (that's my observation from being there)

We did it because first thing was Santa/our gifts then out to church then to in laws where they got more gifts and back late at night. I felt on Boxing Day they could acknowledge/distinguish those gifts were from people they needed to thank.

If you are home all day then I would look at splitting it into two different distinct sessions.

We do something similar. We live in a different country to a lot of my family and we open their presents they’ve posted on Xmas Eve. When they were little it spread out the presents a bit. Now it’s become a tradition. It’s also a great way to get the Xmas Eve prep done so we can sit down with nibbles & drinks to open presents.

Oh I would happily do it your OH’s way, if I wanted to hear “Mummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy is it time to open theeeeeeeeeeeeeesssseeeee presents now!” approx 928838390383 times on Christmas Day.

My DC are well mannered by the little ones would really struggle with being told they couldn’t open all the presents.

If you want to do it, simply don’t put all of them out at once.

My parents used to do this because we had such a massive family. Mum would get four of us a mountain of presents to open christmas day. Ripped open in minutes. Another mountain on boxing day from the 10 sets of Aunties and uncles.
However all presents were hidden until opening time because none of us my brother had any restraint.
Dh has a very small family so on christmas day they took turns carefully opening the presents, examining, noting who from, it was excruciatingly painful. We don'tsave any unless the relations are visiting themselves.

If you want to stretch out gift opening then it should really be presents from yourselves that get left. It's not fair to dictate how other people's gifts are given.

We keep back an extra gift (always a board game to play together) which is often opened on boxing day.