When do you put the presents under the tree?

[Spaulding]

DS is almost 3 and this is the first year he understands Christmas. DP and I have decided to go down the route of "Santa brings the stocking and one main present" and all the others are from us/GPs/friends etc. So I'm just wondering when we put the non-Santa presents under the tree? DP and I were both brought up in our families believing Santa bought everything and all the presents appeared Christmas night. Now we're doing things differently I'm thinking it's perfectly fine to put the non-Santa presents under the tree before Christmas?

i put them under the tree on christmas eve. it;s just so lovely to see their faces when they come down and see it has all appeared.
plus it stops any "accidentally" getting opened in advance

Everything under the tree after kids in bed christmas eve nothing before hand. More exciting on christmas morning and no opportunity for cats/kids to damage the wrapping. Also grew up with stories in the paper of people breaking in and stealing pressies from under the tree.

Last thing at night on Christmas Eve.

Any from friends or family go straight under the tree but the rest get delivered by Father Christmas.

Non santa presents go under the tree as they are received, neither of my girls has ever tried unwrapping them. Santa presents get taken downstairs last thing before I go to bed. Dp is in charge of stocking exchange last off before he comes to bed

presents received from others before christmas can go under the tree but the vast majority goes under it on christmas eve when the kids are in bed

never - we have a dog.....

Last thing on Xmas eve. It's so fun arranging them. And they must be thoroughly mixed, NOT in piles according to who they're for. The latter is just WRONG and takes away the fun of reading each label :o

Some time on Christmas Eve. But as most presents come from people we'll go and visit there isn't that much under the tree.

When I was young we had a stray cat join our family and I was really excited at Xmas to get him one of those treat stockings from the supermarket. Wrapped it and put it under the tree immediately.

Mistake. Oh, the catnip-scented carnage.

We put them under the tree as and when we get them from friends/family and have always done so (DDs are 20, 10 and 5) - the ones from us go under the tree when they've gone to bed on Christmas Eve.

Stockings are filled as we go to bed, also then we add anything that they've asked for from Fr Christmas. (usually something like a board game, sewing kit, that sort of price range - we manage their expectations as "he has to go to every child, you know")

Can't wait

Interesting. DD is also almost three so we need to get our Santa story straight as there's been a few inconsistencies the last few days!

As a child, we were told everything came from Father Christmas but that our parents helped him by buying things and sending them to Santa up the chimney. Any gifts from friends or relatives also had the same fate and then he could decide whether to dish them out to us.

Xmas eve - I'm very paranoid of burglars before Xmas so everything is seriously hidden!

Last thing xmas eve, nothing until then. It all comes from FC, probably for the last time this year

The fuzzpig way (as always) - I think fuzzpig should write the Definitive Mumsnetters' Guide to Christmas.

Last thing on Christmas Eve here too, we have very little space and the tree goes on a table, it is in full view of the street so I worry about burglars too.

We've never really gone into detail as to what exactly Father Christmas brings, he does the stockings and all the other stuff from us is just labelled with the DC's name, they've never really asked whether it is from us or Father Christmas.

FC brings everything although he only actually provides the stocking and a small pressie or two.
All presents are hidden and put out under the tree (or in a pillowcase in DCs bedroom) after the DCs have gone to bed on Christmas Eve.

The only exceptions are gifts that the children have seen arrive, so if friends drop off a present while the children are home or if the DCs get given something by a schoolfriend. Then they get to put it under the tree as soon as it is received.

presents from everyone else go under the tree as received

presents from santa/us get set out in piles full floor for each of our 3 dds the night before. if we opened one each at a time we would still be unwrapping on boxing day. dh and myself open our before Christmas so it is solely about the dcs in our house.

Christmas Eve just before bed ,mainly to stop the dog eating them !

FC only gets credit for stockings in our house, but all other presents, including for me and DH, appear under the tree overnight anyway - as fuzzpig said, mixed up.

FC brings all the presents whilst we sleep.

However, the exception to this is if we see friends prior to xmas day - if they hand me presents for the DC I tend to just put them under the tree as they arrive.

Presents from other people as and when we get them, presents to give to other people when they get wrapped and presents from us aka Santa on Christmas Eve.

I was talking to DS about the presents we buy for other people/get from other people and he started talking about mummy and daddy's present. While frantically trying to rewrite how Santa works in my head he went on to announce that his present from us was all the lovely Christmassy things and days out we do in the run up to Christmas .

I always put the non-Santa presents under the tree whenever they arrive. We open them on Christmas Eve after dinner, and the floor is cleared for Santa things the next morning. Santa puts them under the tree very late as certain people have been known to 'sleepwalk'.

friends and family other than santa go under the tree.then from us/santa they get chrismtas eve after theyve gone to bed

Christmas eve. We have a cat that will open all of them otherwise.