To take DC's Christmas presents out of their packaging?

[PatheticParrot]

DH says fighting with packaging, wrestling with hard-to-assemble toys, searching for the right sized screwdriver and so on are an important part of a traditional family Christmas morning, and will teach DC patience and perseverance. He also says the gifts won't 'feel new' if they're out of their packaging.

I think it makes more sense to unpack/ assemble/ put batteries in/ charge up now, pre-wrapping, so that when they open a present on Christmas morning they can just crack on and play with it. I would also note that after the opening DH will be buggering off to work, so he won't actually have to do any of the aforementioned faffing. I'll be left dealing with the inevitable tears when I build one child's thing before the other, or can't actually clip the crucial part on...

Am I being unreasonable?

I agree with your DH.

But, given he will be going to work and leaving you to deal with the aftermath by yourself, I think you should do exactly as you want.

I assemble before (hence spending 2 bloody hours putting stickers on Barbies camper van😡) as i like her to open and be able to play (and the rest of us have some peace)

We check everything bought and if it has cable-ties then we snip those; but if it's held by short plastic screws we'll leave those in as they are easy to undo. I also snip seals on boxes so that they become easier to open. Wrapping can occasionally be fun when the toy is half-loose ...

I keep stuff in the packaging, but snip ties, insert batteries, charge up etc first, especially for young children. They just want to play with the toy. Although that goes for older kids too - DD got a phone (my old one) for her 11th birthday and i made sure it was charged, had her account set up, SD card in, connected to wi-fi so she could start using it rather than handing it straight over to be set up.

I’m with your husband on this one. We are all adults now but we have so many funny stories of how Christmas went wrong. It’s creating the memory that matters

I find wrapping stuff in a box hard enough there's no way I'd be attempting everything without boxes

Some things I've set up eg kindle. And stocking toys are small and unpackaged so they can play straight away. However most bigger toys I leave packaged. This is because they won't play with everything and I'd rather it stayed packed until then. There are enough adults to help with this on Xmas day.

Depends on what it is, my ds kitchen will be out and ready with a bow, but other bits nope haven't got time.

If it's a game console or similar definitely do the charging, updating and registering ahead of time.

Most of our kids gifts this year are second hand (Lego, duplo sets, playmobile etc) because we're struggling financially and can't overspend. Obviously most aren't in boxes but they are good quality and nicely wrapped. I'm now a bit worried that this won't be good enough. The kids are 2 and 4 so I didn't think they would really notice...

It sounds lovely, mistermagpie, the packaging isn't important.

mistermagpie honestly the kids wont care one bit, when mine were younger 90% of their presents were second hand and they didnt even notice. Now they were older I explain and they tend to oic second hand for more expensive things anyway. For example when DS wanted an xbox I said he could have an xbox only and no games or other presents but if he got a second hand one he could also have some games and other presents and he went for second hand. He now buys all his games,electronics from CEX.

Top idea! When our son was small we always did this - he didn't care if the new toy was in a plastic blister pack or not - he just wanted it open & ready to play with straight away!! I used to wrap everything 'unboxed' with batteries in & fully charged - he loved it!! Got rid of loads of packaging prior to the actual day, too - result all round!

My dd was a bit weird with new toys and would randomly choose some to leave in the packaging.... for months. She wouldn't open a full set of disney barbies for about 2 years once. No idea why..it would have spoiled some.things for her not to inbox them herself.

They're 2 & 5. I absolutely would make sure that stuff which needs charging is charged and those which require batteries have batteries in.

We have 4 dc. Imagine the faff if we'd left all the setting up to Xmas morning! Although our dc are pretty good and we can let them unwrap one then hand over something we know doesn't need setting up eg Lego, while we faff, our children have always wanted to play with the just opened item rather than reaching straight for another present.

2 and 5?! go with your plan 100% will make your morning much less stressful! He won’t be there to help anyway !

I remove as much packaging as possible without making the toy look like a found it down the back of the sofa 😂. This has the added benefit of being able to get rid of the recycling before the reduced Christmas collections kick in, so we are not overflowing with rubbish and recycling.

"DH says fighting with packaging, wrestling with hard-to-assemble toys, searching for the right sized screwdriver and so on are an important part of a traditional family Christmas morning, and will teach DC patience and perseverance. "

Sounds like he's signed up for assembly and dealing with kids all at the same time. Good man!

Giving you the opportunity to go to back to bed with a cuppa!

I've been doing this for a couple years now - it really makes the day go easier. No kids screaming at you while you're trying to work out how to unscrew a toy from a box (why the fuck do you have to unscrew toys from boxes???)

We used to do this when DDs were preschool aged - make it a lot easier on Christmas morning.

I used to when they were toddlers, but stopped as soon as they could understand "wait a minute"

I also used to wrap in tissue paper as it was easier than wrapping paper for toddlers to remove