Please tell me how you organise the opening of presents on Christmas Day....

[PinkPaeonies]

Every year we have the same fiasco. The whole extended family - about a dozen of us - gather around the Christmas tree for the grand ceremony of present opening, some time between breakfast and lunch, and usually after a few too many bucks fizzes have been consumed. It starts off ok. I will find and distribute 1 present from the mountain to each family member, we all open them at once and lots of thanks and hugs and kisses ensue.... then, as I try to continue the good work, everyone gets impatient and it all descends into carnage, with everyone delving in at once. Paper flying everywhere and I can't keep up with it all. By the end I am exhausted and not sure who has given me what and also whether others realise what I have given them! There has to be a better way.... please share!!

Stockings upstairs, then one present then breakfast. We open a few more over the course of the morning but take it slow and kids play with toys they've opened. Then Christmas dinner and after that kids go on present distribution duty. I like it because the presents last all day and we have time to enjoy them.

When kids wake up (if it's a reasonable time ) we go down and they open stockings. Everyone has a quick breakfast and then my eldest hands out presents . I wrote down who gets my daughters what inbetween opening mine . They get a lot more than me do not too tricky.

Stockings upstairs all together at about 7am. Tree presents after the Queen’s Speech. Divide into piles for each person and we take it in turns to unwrap stuff. We’ve always done it this way so the kids don’t mind waiting until the afternoon - horses for courses though.

We don't think Christmas should be all about getting loads of presents so we do other stuff in between. That's the rationale behind waiting and so far it's worked.

Stockings in the morning, play a board game, watch a film, do the family secret Santa, prepare lunch and table, eat lunch, presents, more games, Doctor Who, granny visits, watch rubbish and chat.

Oh to answer the question, I hand out all presents from X, then all presents from Y and so on. Sometimes we have to watch someone get a present from Z and no one else does, but that's part of life. I keep a list and then the dc have to write thank yous (as do I) a few days later.

Opening present on Christmas Day?

We all do ours on Boxing Day. With really small kids I think this is a stretch, but as everyone is an adult now, we wait until my cousins little ones come round for the big family Boxing Day celebrations at my parents as it's more fun with kids.

When I was little we had a stocking on our door handle that Father Christmas left for us that we could open that had a toy, satsuma and a tube of sweets inside and then when my parents couldn't handle us anymore we got up and opened the presens from them and others with my mum writing a thank you list and furiously taking photos.

FC fills the girls Christmas sacks, hung in the drawing room. Presents from me and others go under the tree before the 25th, usually in the few days before as they arrive or are wrapped.

The girls will wake around 8am. One year DD1, aged 4, had a bath and had to be reminded that it was Christmas Day! Downstairs, check he’s been and open a handful of stocking fillers, breakfast, another couple from the sack, back upstairs to get dressed. The rest of the morning is opening pressies from FC, and if you’re DD1 examining each pressie in minute detail (DD2 learnt the hard way that rip and unwrap means watching DD1 slowly unwrapping for a long while once you’ve finished!). Lunch aimed for oneish, too full to eat pudding, watch The Queen and then onto the presents under the tree.

That’s what usually happens, but with one big electronic gaming system between them this year I think we might reverse it, Big pressie in the morning and then everything else after lunch?

Dcs get up pretty early anyway so it's not unusual to be up at 6 an Christmas Day. We head downstairs where their sacks have been filled by Santa and they open them. They contain toys, books, chocolate, clothes.

Then we have breakfast and get dressed. Once everyone is ready, probably about 10am, we open the presents under the tree. And that's it until we see the rest of our family. Then it's presents as and when they arrive or we see people.

As s child it was stockings in our bedrooms when we woke up, then everyone downstairs together. Me and my sister would hand out gifts one at a time youngest to oldest. It was only us and my parents so not too chaotic

When I was younger Father Christmas gave each of us our presents on an armchair or sofa. It was meant to be alternated each year but got stuck with my little brother having the sofa after he got a huge ride on tractor one year. Mum and dad had presents in piles under the tree.

I think pre-made piles work best. Any sort of system tends to be a bit strained. I like to open slowly and ooh and ahh. DH (and my older brother) like to get it over and done with. They get impatient waiting for me.

This reminds me of when we had Christmas at my SIL's house and were forced to endure hours and hours of present opening in a regimented - the last person to open a present gets a present for the next person - manner. They had piles and piles of tat to open - it went on for hours - our kids had a joint present waiting for them at home (a Wii) and just a few bits and pieces. DH and I had a couple of gifts each. It was an experience my son - who was seven at the time - never forgot. We still joke about it every Christmas. It taught them both that having an enormous quantity of presents is not all it's cracked up to be - as my son whispered to me at the time "They've got loads of stuff - but we've got the best present." The experience has enabled us to have more restrained Christmases - quality over quantity - it has also taught me that sharing Christmas with people who have a totally different tradition to you can be a bit strained.

I'm feeling bad as we've never done stockings
This thread shows how father Christmas is done in so many different ways. He brings all the childrens presents from dh and I so we don't make lists.

It’s just a big game and you can play it however you like millimat. Everyone remembers the magic of how their Christmas was. I didn’t have a stocking as such growing up, but my dh made me one our first Christmas together so we started it together then carried on for the kids. I love doing them, but don’t see my childhood Christmases as “worse”.

After weeks off build up why make the poor kids wait?!

Dc usually miss stocking, race down stairs, wow, amazed and start to open,. When their desire to open is saited we suggest holding some back for later and some are tucked behind trees... They get lost in newly opened gifts.. Later on during meal, we hand round more to spread out meal times... And if anyone comes over after or during we sit after meal and open any gifts they have brought.

Mikmimat

The stocking was a huge part of my Xmas growing up, I did have the excitement of leaving it out the night before and that amazing feeling of kicking the heavy stocking in bed! Hear it crackle with bounty.

However I must admit I kind of buggered it up with dc 1, I had it down stairs and of course, who cares about a stocking when you have a lovely pile of presents next to it! I am trying ti get it right for dc 2 though. It just means nerve wracking leaving it in bed at night.

We are a small family, so it's a bit simpler. DS brings his stocking in to us and opens it on our bed, at whatever time he wakes, probably 7 or 8. Then we have fancy breakfast, go to church, then a walk on the beach. Come back to the house, get a pot of tea on, probably some biscuits or cake, and finally start opening presents about 1pm. The waiting works for us, makes it more exciting for DS as an only child. FWIW, in my house as a child, we opened them early with breakfast sat round the tree, which later included champagne. But DH's family always waited till after Christmas lunch, so this is our compromise. We have our dinner at about 3-4 pm, I think. Then the boys play with the new tech, and then I send them upstairs while I watch some fabulous Christmas Drama on tv, with a sherry and cheese twist tray

In our home, DH and I organise presents into piles on Christmas Eve ready for the carnage of Christmas morning. On the actual morning, I go downstairs first to 'check' Santa has been - at this point I'll light lots of candles and pop the tree lights on, then have Carols from Kings playing quietly in the background to set the scene.

DD and DH will then come down. DD will open all of her presents (the only ones out are from FC - we don't give any from 'us'. She thinks they're all from him.) and DH and I take it in turns to open ours from one another. We then have breakfast, get dressed etc and start to get ready for lunch. Depending on who joins us at lunchtime, we exchange gifts with those newcomers before we eat and usually open them at the same time. My extended family usually then come over for tea - again, we exchange gifts and open them at the same time before tucking into a buffet. It's organised chaos at this point as there are usually about 20 people sitting in the lounge.

I'm really happy with our routine. I wouldn't dream of asking DD to wait until after lunch to open her presents from Father Christmas, or to have a long drawn out event. I get joy from seeing her excitedly work her way through her main present pile before we eat and start the day. Each to their own though x

I have to wake the dc up at about 8 because we have a load of guests coming at midday so we need to get started!
They bring their sacks and their one main present from FC on to our bed and open them all together. Dp and I sit in bed bleary eyed! Then he has a shower, I make him a cup of tea, we go down for breakfast.
Then open our tree presents to and from each other and from family we won't be seeing over Christmas (my brother, my dad, a few others).
The rest of the presents are opened with my family later on when they arrive.
Round 2 is at MILS on Boxing Day, lunch, pud, into the front room for mass present opening, about 4pm.
Both times, presents are all mixed together under the tree, someone gives them out and they are opened as and when they are received.
I (and this is not intended as a goady critisicm) don't like the one at a time with everyone watching approach, I find it really embarrassing being watched opening presents and much more enjoyable just to get on and do it while everyone else is opening theirs!
Although I do watch the dc, but they all open at the same time so it's not like all eyes on them in an intense way.

Cake - that’s really interesting that you don’t like the present opening spotlight on you. I’d not really thought about it like that before.

I wake the kids up at 9.30, im.blessed with great sleepers 7.30pm till 10am.(i have to wake them everyday for school)

Then we all go down, the presants are already sorted in to piles so kids find theirs and start to open.

Us adults open once kids hsve finished.