Opening presents. Early morning free for all or more reserved and spread throughout the day?

[ENormaSnob]

We normally have a mad hour of opening first thing.

With 3 dc it's difficult to see who got what from whom

what do you do?

What do you all mean by stockings?

DC wake us up and I go down first to make a brew put the tree lights on. They open their presents from Father Christmas, he brings everything here, DC don't get presents from us as long as they 'believe'.

The rest of the presents depends on what we are doing.

After breakfast PIL, SIL and boyf and BIL (without his wife they don't spend Christmas Day together [childish] emoticon) come round and we exchange presents, unless we are going to theirs for Dinner, then we open them the minute they/we get through the door.

If my family come here or we go there then presents are after dinner, though my Mum's got a bit soft in her old age and lets DC choose one before dinner.
If we are not seeing them on the day we exchange whenever we do meet up.

If it's just us the under the tree presents are mid afternoon.

Stockings. Lots of silly little things left by santa at the end of your bed?
To take some time up in bed at stupid o clock as you get used to being awake. To be fair most people say stocking is from santa, tree presents are from family but you've got round that.

When i was a kid we had no stockings and i felt like i missed out so i started them when i got married.

stockings on our bed, then dressed and down stairs for presents undertree, one at a time for dc's, but it don't take long about 30 secs per present to be ripped open, did spend one christmas at dp's parents house and had to do their rules which was nothing at all until after christmas dinner which ended at about 4pm but all the washing up had to be done first and then sat around as presents were handed out one by one and lots of talking inbetween [and thats how its always been and still is to this day], only had one dc at the time who was only a few months old, but never again!!! i was brought up with huge santa sack at the end of my bed, we dragged them through to the front room in our nighies and we just dived into our sacks opening at will, great fun

Exactly and the best tip i ever read on mumsnet. Have a duplicate stocking ready filled then swap empty for full to stop give away rustlings as you ahem santa fills them.

They put sacks near the fire place, used to be pillowcases but we upgraded. They get little silly things in with the good stuff and always a book, a jigsaw and some chocolate.

I saw my Dad delivering my pillowcase when I was four and vowed never to let my DC have anything in bed for this reason. Neither DH or I ever had just stockings then presents from parents though, we both had everything from Father Christmas.

We have stockings at the foot of the bed to buy a little time, and then an absolute free for all downstairs.

Free for all.

Dp's family does the sitting round and one person opening one thing at a time.

I cannot bear it, (I have a problem with gift giving, love to give, hate to get), I have asked them to please, please not get me anything and give an amount to charity instead, but they don't get it and won't. The last two years I have feigned illness to escape it.

We (DH and I) open our presents on Christmas eve. Then the morning is just for the DC. They open them all when coming downstairs. Presents from everyone are all there.

ds (7) brings his big stocking through to our bed and opens the presents in it (all well wrapped so takes a while, and we get to laze in bed a bit longer).

when he's finished unwrapping I go for a quick shower/get dressed while he plays with his stocking pressies in our bed with dh, then dh goes for a quick shower/gets dressed while I play with ds.

then we all go downstairs and open the presents Santa has left there (so far he loves playing in our bed with the stocking pressies and not noticed he has to wait to go downstairs)

then quick uncooked breakfast (usually pancakes/yogurt/fruit/smoothie so can eat and play) and we have the rest of the day to eat chocolate, play with pressies, have vistors/go visiting, etc

dont get many presents sent from gp's, aunts/uncles etc (they usually bring when they visit later that day or during the holidays), if there are any that have been sent they get opened later on so he's knows who they are from, then he gets made to phone to thank them.

xmas stocking when dd wakes up.

family after lunch, relaxed by the tree, with booze!!
i don't think i'd like it to be everyone opening in the morning, i'd miss out when preparing lunch stuff.

thats how we did it when i was little anyhow.

My parents never saw us open our presents when we were little. Usually Dsis would wake up about 3am, sneak downstairs open her presents, have a sneaky look what my brother and I got, then come and wake us up telling me I had a pram or whatever it was.

One year we both got roller boots. She hid mine and then spent an hour skating up and down the living room looking smug.

If DB woke first, he had the grace to wake us up first before sneaking downstairs although still early hours of the morning.

With my DCs I try to get up before them or we all go downstairs together. They can open stockings while we have a cuppa, then presents under the tree are given out by me. Not quite one as a time but everybody has something to open. Then its chocolate breakfast, dressed and church. About 12.00 we go to my mums. All presents are put under the tree from all my family, then we give them out in the same manner, whereas everybody has something to open. After all presents are opened, various things are passed round and admired or held up with shouts of who got dd this. To be fair, the dcs are very good at reading the gift tags and thanking people but with 10 people,it gets a bit hectic and I dont always see them opening them.

There is usually a present or two that the tag has fell off and we have to work out who it belongs to.

After lunch, we see dhs family who we hand presents over to personally.

A free for all! You only get a be a kid once so I say go for it!

Our stockings are on the fireplace, and the three of and the cat and dog, come into the livingroom, to the major toy store revamp the living room has went through during the night by Santa DS loved it last year and was only 2, this year he realllllly has a clue, so it's going to be fab!!!

DS opens presents first and the stockings, then Daddy and Mummy do it in turns to do theirs! Then Daddy does all the building/battery and recycling duties while mummy will attend to breakfast, then a quick sort of the livingroom, showers, dressed and visitors!!

Free for all!!! I get up around 5:30, and wait for the kids to get up to open their presents, while DH holds me back from going and waking them up.

Stockings in bed (PILs are always staying over so DCs normally go up to them) then once we're all awake and have had a cup of tea we get one present each - chosen to be the one which will keep them entertained all morning. Then presents are distributed one at a time after lunch.

In my defence we do the big meal on Christmas eve, so Christmas Day lunch is light, and normally over by 1pm. Also I do fun stockings with plenty of entertainment value, not socks, toothbrushes and bubble bath.

Then we go down to my DPs for Boxing Day lunch, and after lunch we sit down and do presents one at a time all over again.

We leave stockings on the bedroom door handle (so that Father Christmas doesn't wake them up putting it in their rooms, & also because DS1 was slightly scared last year at the thought of a big FC coming into his room in the night ). These get opened on our bed first thing. Then it's downstairs for a cuppa & sack presents which FC leaves in the living room. Other presents under the tree are then opened during the day whenever DS is starting to lose interest in his toys/gets tired/needs distracting (he's 4, so previous Christmases have been a bit overwhelming for him). DS2 is 18mths so still pretty clueless about the whole Christmas thing!

In DH's family they didn't get stockings as his mother thought they were only full of cheap rubbish & a waste of money so didn't do them - but that's exactly why kids love having a stocking! Also in their family FC delivered all the presents from all the family members. They were very skint when DH was growing up, so I guess this was a way of not having to buy much from FC. In our family on the other hand, my mum always used to get carried away with present buying so we would always get way too much stuff, and I seem to have inherited this trait!

Last year DH & I decided to not buy each other presents as he is such a tightarse & said it would all be half price after christmas anyway but then on Christmas Day he didn't have a single present to open (I had a couple from friends) & found it quite sad, so vowed that this year we would go back to doing each other a stocking

FC leaves the stockings (actually the size of a bin bag) by the front door ... FC in our house brings ALL the gifts except one from mum and dad that goes under the tree ...the sacks are brought upstairs and opened on the bed in a free for all. Mum and dad then get the gifts from each other (still in bed).

We then go to my parents at about 10am and someone is picked to 'play Santa' and hands the rest of the gifts out from under the tree (from family or friends and the one main prezzie from us) - usually one at a time.

yes stocking in our house also means bin bag size here too!! FC brings the lot, i (mum) give separately to dd either in the morning or after lunch, with the rest of the family gifts. gp's etc...

My chance to shine will come one day when she finds out it was me all along. For now I adore the magic xmas thing.

Kids bring stockings downstairs and open them in front room while adults drink copious amounts of bubbly tea. We go in for traditional sized stockings with little gifts.Then straight into main present opening. usually one of (um...me) starts breakfast while the presnet fest is going on.

We save one present each for after lunch. Don't know why but its tradition.

scooz typos

my kids (nor i) could stand all that waiting for one present at a time stuff!
but total respect to those with better manners than us!

our kids have average sized red stockings at end of their beds which are filled by santa with sweets, gold choc coins and usually the latest dvd for their age.
They open these as soon as they wake, whatever time that may be but they are NOT allowed downstairs or to wake us up before 7 (hasnt happened yet thankfully).
Then they come into us saying "he's been! he's been!" and we get up, brush the teeth, dressing gowns on and head downstairs to see whats been left in the livingroom.
They get to look for 5 mins while i quickly make coffee then it is an absolute free for all for about 10 mins!! Its wonderful. All presents left in room are from santa. presents under our tree are for family who visit later.

Then kids play with everything, eat some stocking stuff, watch new movie or whatever.
Hubby and i swap a gift or two and drink coffee for an hour or so and watch kids. Sometimes we sneak upstairs for a cuddle while they play away in living room - is that wrong? tee hee

Then its tidy up, showers, get dressed up, i cook, they play, family come, more gift swapping then my favourite part - champagne toast "merry christmas!! lets eat!!" no were not italian but it has that kind of vibe.

chill out for rest of evening/night, maybe get a bit tipsy and play a game or have a sing song. kids fall asleep in new pjs wherever they lay.
gosh i sound like mother of the year here, but just being honest.

ah, cant wait now! good thread!

Stockings on DC's door handles, open when they wake, having brought them into our room.

Santa leaves a trail of Smarties down the stairs to the big present he's left. They are allowed down after stockings to open their big present.

The rest get opened after breakfast. We used to space it throughout the day but it was just too stressful. They do open them one at a time, albeit quickly and I won't them just tear off the wrapping and discard before moving onto the next one, I find it too disrespectful.

GPs come for lunch and there will be presents to/from them after lunch. Then we'll see the other set of GPs Boxing Day and its the same again.