How does christmas work in your house

[starshaker]

was chatting to some friends and it turns out we all do christmas differently. They dont open presents till after dinner.

Our christmas goes like this

Christmas eve - we make biscuits for santa then have a takeaway. After food we all get to unwrap a present (i choose and its always pjs slippers and dressing gown), then its bathtime and i get the children ready for bed. We then have hot chocolate and 1 of the biscuits we made earlier. Stockings up, story then bedtime.
Christmas morning - dd1 will come into my room and wake me then we will go downstairs and there will be 3 small piles of presents on the sofa. Santa only leaves 2 or 3 presents and the stocking, the rest is under the tree. Santa presents are opened first then tree presents. Then its a bacon butty and the children play till their hungry and we have christmas dinner (ill have made most of it the night before).

So how do you do things?

It's changed every year for the past few years with being preg, then having young ds now this year ds is 17 months so hoping this will be the most enjoyable!

We're planning on putting presents under the tree on Xmas eve. Ds has new pjs to sleep in, I'll read him the night before Xmas before bed.

Xmas day we'll go in the lounge, make teas and coffees, sit on the floor and take turns opening all our presents.

Then I'll make a cooked breakfast and take our time getting washed and dressed and playing with our new things!

Then after ds' nap we're heading to FILs house for lunch where more family will be, after lunch we'll exchange more presents then spend the rest of the afternoon playing games and drinking too much!

Hang stockings (by fireplace or at end of beds) and get snacks ready for Santa - ginger wine and mince pie, and carrot for reindeer.

But he's never very hungry as he only eats a bit, and so does the reindeer. Although sometime he leaves muddy or snowy foot prints depending on how busy his helpers are.

In the morning everyone piles on to our bed to open stocking presents which are small things. (Any big presents deserve proper recognition of the gift giver!) That usually keeps them busy although this year we will also go to church if lunch is all under control. We have 12 arriving for lunch and will do other presents after lunch.