uh oh! the piles are uneven

[lucysmam]

because of one gift....grrrr

& dd1 will notice because that gift is a scooter for number two that I'm now debating swapping for something in a smaller box and holding onto for her birthday...I just don't know what - I was going for one birthday present next week (already got some bargain bits put away)

What to swap for????

dd2 is nearly four btw

I don't put ours in piles. The gifts all get muddled up under the tree by Santa and by the time they're all rummaged through and opened, no-one can really tell if one pile has one gift more than the other or if the value of one pile is slightly less.

genius! We usually do piles but a free for all rummage could well be the way to go this year to avoid from our oldest! (will have to train neat tidy pile freak dp in the art of randomness though - he tends to make everything into neat piles)

Does DD1 want a scooter though?
It doesn't matter what the pile looks like it's what's inside that matters.

DS2 and 3 have massive presents their pile looks huge compared to DD and DS1 but DD and DS1 don't want an Imaginext castle, Bat cave and duplo, so they won't care.

She wanted a monster high build your own monster thingy (they were two for £30 in Argos).

I dithered for ages over getting the small one something in a smaller box.

They'll be very pleased with what they've got...it's just me I think

Don't stress about it lucysmam we all worry about things like this but the reality is our children don't care. They are too excited about Christmas.

Ds has one more gift to open than dd. Because she has a walking talking Pinkie Pie that was £20 and he has 2 playmobil sets that were £10 each. I should have wrapped his together. Dd definitely won't notice. I hope ds doesn't!!

This is why it's best to only have one child!

Knew there had to be a bonus!

I've never had neat piles. Everything is always totally scrambled under the tree. Surely half the fun is pulling stuff out from the tree excitedly and reading the label "oh wow bob this one is for YOU" cue excited shrieks from bob

A conveyor belt of present opening all in a neat pile sounds like less fun!

Putting the presents in piles is just WRONG :o

We mix them all up under the tree and then take turns opening them in any order, with someone reading labels and handing them out.

If you put presents under the tree where do you put family presents and do you have to write loads of gift tags in FC's handwriting?

FC puts all DC small presents in their stockings upstairs and big presents in their sacks downstairs. It works well because the sacks are then used for keeping all the opened presents, instructions and bits and bobs safe for the next few years.
Family presents are in a jumble under the tree and get handed out by the DC after dinner or on Boxing Day.

Few years I meant few days

No piles here, not even the same number of presents per child. No-one has noticed or complained yet.

Mine haven't got the same amount of presents this year for the first time, they will be 19&17.

I have always done it because my brother had loads more than my sister and I, she used to get a few more than me too. I hated sitting there watching them unwrapping when I had finished, every single year!

notsomuch well in our house we having stockings upstairs the same as you and then when the DC have gone to bed we put their big presents around the tree (the ones from us - which is most of them). Then FC comes along and adds a couple of big presents for each DC to the top of the pile - with his own labels on of course....

We don't have separate 'piles' either btw - one big one looks way nicer!

We usually have fc stockings on their beds, dp's organised piles of stuff from us and other people and then a couple of specific gifts from Santa in a sack (new elf mail sacks this year....to be filled with flippin' roller skates because I'm sick of being asked for the fuckers).

Maybe just a rummageable pile around the tree & dd1 could read labels....we'll see what dp says later on

Santa only does stockings in this house, big presents are from the gift giver. All presents are in a jumble under the tree. Half of the fun is handing them out! When my DSis and I were little, we had the task of handing all the presents out, so everyone ended up with a jumbled pile to open all together. It also meant that we were a bit out of puff after doing shuttle runs across the living room, so the excited shrieks weren't quite as loud, and we were happy to sit down and play quietly for a while. My parents were pretty clever!

I mean the FC presents, which he brings in a sack. So they aren't in a pile so it's not noticeable but I still hope they don't realise. The kids get each other a present and they go under the tree, as do theirs to me and dh, mine to dh and his to me, and any others that have come our way from relatives.

In our house Santa always had special paper and a Gold Pen which he used to write an initial on the package, he came down the chimney and scattered the presents under the tree on top of what was already there.

I don't think there was ever a year where the piles would have been the same size if measured, in general they were roughly the same value.

Stockings have always been left on the fireplace as the DC were prone to waking up frequently to see if it was morning yet and stockings would have made it much worse.

we take it in turns as i think seeing thier reaction is fun and it also slows it down a bit. mine are almost 5 and 8 so they would notice if one got more then the other..esp as they have near enough the same things.. so i do try to make it even.. if one was much older they would be able to understand that ther cost more so they g et less.

long as they have the same kibnd of value as each other i dont think it matter too much.

wondering my two have pretty much the same stuff this year too, I've hunted high and low for replacements for things that are broken that I know they will love and get a lot of use out of. There are a few individual gifts in there (monster high thing and scooter being two of them), just the scooter seems very big compared to the monster thingumy.

Then again, both have birthdays very soon after Christmas day anyway so if dd1 suddenly decides she needs a scooter I'm sure the birthday fairy could manage it.