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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to want to open xmas presents one at a time with lots of oohing and aahing rather than just diving in and having it over in 2 seconds

118 replies

morningpaper · 09/12/2008 17:27

DH's family just pile in and rip it all open

We have to open one present at a time and savour the moment

He says we are poncy and middle class

Who is right?

OP posts:

BabyBump2B · 09/12/2008 18:02

We've always done them one at a time and after dinner. One of the kids always gets to be "santa" and hand out the pressies. Its fab and makes the whole day lovely.

dingdongmerrilyonpie · 09/12/2008 18:03

Anyway, the present opening is never a surprise for me, I bought and wrapped the bloody things!

stealthsquiggle · 09/12/2008 18:03

Oh yes - stockings are for diving into before parents are concious - except DS has always insisted on bringing his down to our bed to open them all together

When I was 16 and DB was 6 I thought I was doing my parents a favour by not letting him wake them up - he was sleeping in my room as we had relatives staying, so he and I opened stockings together instead.

Mistake. My DM was so .

robinia · 09/12/2008 18:04

We open in rounds - so each person gets 1 present, we all open our 1 present, admire/thank/play with a bit, rinse and repeat until all presents gone. Some people (children) get more presents than others and can therefore occasionally have two presents in one round

Miggsie · 09/12/2008 18:05

dingdong...those children are now in their forties!

My mate round the corner has 4 kids and they open the presents BEFORE Christmas day!!!! She does try to stop them.

I told her to stop putting them round the tree until the day itself!

Lowfat · 09/12/2008 18:07

I come from a family where we had to wait until after lunch to open our under-the-tree presents. Where as DH was a pass it round and open politely.

So now we have stockings (niknaks and silly stuff) AM and bigger tree presents PM.

I love it because it makes th excitement last!

slayerette · 09/12/2008 18:19

Oh yes - we have stockings before breakfast! That's a 'dive in and rip open' experience!

Am thinking everything might be a bit more 'rip the paper' off this year with the new kittens

Ivykaty44 · 09/12/2008 18:20

Oh goodness when I was little I was so excited it was Christmas day I dont think I could have ever waited until after dinner for opening presents It was always done slowly but before breakfast My dc have always been excited plus I love to see them playing with their christmas presents, espicialy if it has been a bike or roller blades etc

I love the surpirse element aswell so no peeping beofre christmas day - even when I was little.

catweazle · 09/12/2008 18:30

We do it before breakfast but as soon as everyone is up. Some people take a lot of prodding these days. Like others we sit in a circle. Someone gives out one present to each person and they are all opened before we go onto the next one. It means we get a chance to note who gave what to whom.

thenewme · 09/12/2008 18:39

I really don't think it matters.

Open them all quickly and then sit back and enjoy or take your time. Same end result.

tiredsville · 09/12/2008 18:42

I always make DH open his last as I know it will be over in 5 seconds (wish it was like that in other areas of our life)

I just think for all the effort made, time should put aside to savour the presents. (even if most of them are tat.}

twentypence · 09/12/2008 18:45

We are a one at a time, taking turns (ds gets a lot more turns) having to video the whole thing for my mum and dad in the UK type family. We do it before breakfast though, or maybe straight after if ds manages to forget that it's the day and announces he is starving.

Dh's parents wait until after the meal, the coffee and the Christmas cake and then hand everyone a pair of scissors so they can reuse the wrapping paper. (which I generally recognise as the paper I wrapped their presents in last year).

I always laugh when the expect ds to do this. I think the wrapping paper is as much his as the present and he shouldn't be expected to hand it back. But he always carefully hands back the shredded remains.

ForeverOptimistic · 09/12/2008 18:45

Oh I hate the dive in mentality. Dh's family have always done that but then they think that I am a killjoy because I stagger ds's presents over the whole day, the thing is because I have such a huge extended family ds gets loads and it would be daft to get him to open pressies all at once just for the sake of it!

janeite · 09/12/2008 18:49

As children, we all piled in and let rip. Now I am a parent, we take it in turns and ooh and agh in exactly the way you describe. It's so much nicer and I think it helps children to value every item, rather than just focus on "what's next/what's next". Poncey and middle class it may be but I'm on your side, not your dh's!

migolapland · 09/12/2008 19:02

DH's family is poncy and middle class - they just dive in and rip
We are not, and we open them one at a time in turn, by age!

Yanda · 09/12/2008 19:04

We take turns, I would be devastated if it was all over in 2 seconds!

Original poster

morningpaper · 09/12/2008 19:04

I think my DH would agree with queribus - he thinks it is all a bit embarassing and painful!

OP posts:

TinselianAstra · 09/12/2008 19:05

One at a time, definitely. I want to see what my family have got, and see what they think about the presents I got for them.

It's not poncey. What else are you going to do all day if thepresents are done in 5 minutes? Play charades? That is poncey.

piscesmoon · 09/12/2008 19:12

In our house stockings are dive in. Everything else is one at a time. You want to see people's reaction, you need to make a list of everyone's presents for all the thank you letters and it makes it more fun. I suggest you don't argue-let DH rip them all open while you watch and then everyone else can do one at a time.

h0ney · 09/12/2008 19:15

We open our stockings together over breakfast, the children play with those smaller bits till lunch, then lunch then we open the under tree presents. Taking turns so it can all be appreciated. My h was a ripper but he has come round to my way now!

prettybutterfly · 09/12/2008 19:15

thenewme ... yep, same end result! You give fantastic fiction, Cath Kidston stationery, Accessorize 'gorgeous things', Molton Brown pampering stuff, silk scarves and ties and receive two identical Dove bath creme sets, despite hating Dove and never having bought it in your life before (ratio of total expenditure to total value of received goods something like 10 to 1).
The children's presents all need disentangling from thirty rolls of industrial strength wire (or actually unscrewing from their boxes!), everything needs batteries but nothing has them and the packaging is bulkier than the presents were.
I love Christmas!

prettybutterfly · 09/12/2008 19:16

OP - no right or wrong! If there are zillions of gifts it can all go on tooooo long, but then what else is there to do?!

TheVirginGoober · 09/12/2008 19:18

If you are poncey, so am I.
We have done this for years, tis much nicer, the kids have to also read their labels so they know who has given what.

UnquietDad · 09/12/2008 19:23

Of course you are right. Presents should be opened in sedate fashion, preferably over several glases of wine and taking AT LEAST as long as the start of the Queen's speech.

I have never forgotten the HORROR of the year when we had to go and see DW's brother and chavvy SIL on Xmas day and were forced to endure spectacle of their four spoilt brats tearing into huge pile of presents like wild animals. Shudder

ComeOVeneer · 09/12/2008 19:26

In answer to OP we are a bit of both, I expect the children to open one at a tine and actually take stock and appreciate what the gift is, but find the familys that dish out one present at a time and the entire family watch opening of said present and all take it in turns a bit odd. They is generally at least 10-12 of us on christmas morning, so that would be very tedious.

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