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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

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Original poster

Early morning stocking fiasco...

87 replies

BumbleyBum · 01/12/2018 08:43

Help I can’t take it anymore.
Every blinkin year, my two ds’s start waking about 2am on Xmas morning. They spot their stockings and start stage whispering to each other ‘he’s been! Has he been to you?! Mum... Dad... he’s been!!’ They’re then told ‘yes, but it’s too early go back to sleep’. They then toss and turn, get up for wees, call out that they can’t sleep, on and off until we get up at 6. It’s exhausting and ridiculous. They’re 13 and 10. I could put the stockings downstairs but I think they’ll still wake wanting to go downstairs to check if he’s been.
Oh and elf on the fucking shelf. They were awake at 5am banging on about going to find him. I finally said yes. 13 yeh runs like an elephant back up the stairs, bursting through my bedroom door to tell me where he’s found him. I couldn’t help myself, ‘I bloody know!! Obviously!! Now let me sleep!!’. They KNOW I move the elf. So, can’t we just stop this ridiculous game and throw I’ll throw the elf over the fence for next doors dog to ravage?!

OP posts:

Pannalash · 01/12/2018 15:16

Only on Mumsnet would you get a poster questioning whether children are ‘neurotypical’ because they get Christmas excitement

BrokenWing · 01/12/2018 16:25

Tell them that no presents will be opened until 6am and every time you hear them before opening time another 30 minutes will be added to the time and mean it. They'll only do it once.

fleshmarketclose · 01/12/2018 16:44

I thought you were going to say they were 4 or 5 not 13 and 10 . I'd be putting the stockings downstairs telling them that if they wake you before 7am then they will have to stay in their room until 8am. Really inconsiderate of them and ridiculous at that age. Ours don't get up before 9am now but even at half your children's age wouldn't have woken us before 7am.

IWantMyHatBack · 01/12/2018 16:44

Mine just open their stockings when they wake up. I wrap them in loads of paper with too much tape, it takes them ages

That keeps them occupied until about 6am when we get up and drive over to parents house

Original poster

BumbleyBum · 01/12/2018 17:51

They are such well behaved boys usually, honestly. No nonsense from them at all. Bedtimes is 8pm on s school night, they’re up at 7am, sleep through unless poorly. It’s just Xmas eve!

OP posts:

JeanMichelBisquiat · 01/12/2018 18:22

Ah, well if bedtime is usually 8, it's no surprise they're bonkers after going to bed at 11 - just completely overtired, which will make them more likely to wake up. Just send them to bed at normal-ish time and you'll probably be fine...and lock the stockings away

JemSynergy · 01/12/2018 18:24

They are excited kids, it happens at Christmas. I remember the feeling of excitement and not being able to sleep on Christmas eve well into my teens. My dad used to be the one who would always wake everyone up at the crack of dawn. I'd just move the stockings downstairs.

Strawberrybelly · 01/12/2018 18:32

I had this with my eldest 2. I would wait ages for the eldest one to go to sleep so I could put the stockings out. As soon as I had they opened them waking up the younger one who also opened theirs. All this before I'd even gone to sleep. Now the stockings are kept downstairs.

loopy42 · 01/12/2018 19:01

I'm 30 years old and still get super over excited by Xmas and so awake from about 4:00 and just waiting for everyone else to get up.

I have been the same since I was a little girl and didn't change during my teenage years.

My mum used to leave one present for me to open alone that was it then I had to wait until she was ready to get up, I was 11 when my sis was born and I remember waking her super early and getting her to go wake mum up because there was no way she could refuse a toddler

frippit · 01/12/2018 19:11

I used to take my 2 swimming on Xmas eve and let them stay in as long as they wanted. It was always lovely and quiet with xmas songs playing. Then we'd sample the mcdonalds xmas menu for a late lunch and head home. Seemed to work as they always slept til at least 7am. I was a little horror as a child tho, and had my parents up ridiculously early.

Nicknamesalltaken · 01/12/2018 19:58

Your 13 yo goes to be at 8?!?! How the bloody hell do you manage that?

Original poster

BumbleyBum · 01/12/2018 23:18

I know, it is rather early! But he does an awful lot of sport so flakes out after reading for half hour or so maybe I just need to accept the one night of broken sleep a year

OP posts:

Alanamackree · 01/12/2018 23:43

If you say nothing and put the stockings downstairs, then when they wake and find no stocking, they’ll think he hasn’t come yet and go back to sleep because, as they surely know, Santa only comes to children who are asleep. If you wake up and make noise he might have to skip your house.

Witchend · 01/12/2018 23:54

Alana they might. Otoh they might think he's forgotten and come rushing into parents upset.
I can remember waking up on Christmas morning, being convinced it was nearly time to get up and feeling out, and finding a flat stocking with nothing in. I was terribly upset. Turned out it was just that I'd woken up only a short time after and my parents hadn't gone to bed.

Better to tell them, but I'd put it in my room and say if they come in earlier than whenever you want then they don't get it until afternoon/tomorrow/next year (depending on how early)

Maryann1975 · 01/12/2018 23:58

I’m another one saying to just tell them not to disturb you until a certain time. We all go out on Christmas Eve and I tell the dc not to come in to us until 7.30-8. I leave stockings on the landing and they get a small box of Lego in there to build, so they have something to do.

As for waking you up about the elf, I’d be furious if this was an early wake up every day, especially if they don’t believe in ‘the magic’. The elf wouldn’t be moving anywhere the next night and would stay still until they realised I didn’t appreciate being woken up early.

Drogosnextwife · 02/12/2018 00:03

I usually have to wake my kids up on Christmas morning.
Buster them stay up really late then they might sleep longer

KC225 · 02/12/2018 05:41

It's only one day. Does it really matter? They are excited and you have stated they are well behaved the rest of the year. In the words of Elsa - let it go.

LooksBetterWithAFilter · 02/12/2018 13:27

The stockings here are always opened in their beds sometimes they wake each other up and do it together sometimes they do it alone. I did the same when I was small in fact I remember being awake at 2am and opening my stocking eating some of the chocolate and going back to sleep.
I use the stockings as a holding pattern really and if they are too excited to go back to sleep they can play with/read/eat whatever is in there until it’s time to get up. I have been known to wake up and get them all out of bed because I’m excited and find opened stockings and children sound asleep. I don’t think they’d contain themselves if they had to wait until morning for them as well. It’s a good way of keeping them at bay for a while.

CIT80 · 02/12/2018 13:29

I always remove their stockings from the end of their bed, fill them then put them in our bedroom so if they wake at stupid o’clock they don’t know if he’s been or not and go back to sleep.
Eldest is 15 now and we’ve never been up before 7am Christmas morning

Innocentconglomeration · 02/12/2018 13:29

13 year old goes to bed at 8?

DelurkingAJ · 02/12/2018 13:29

We used to have stockings in our bedrooms and could open them and there’s always be a book and an activity (quiet!) in there. I made a dolls house cross stitch bed cover one year at about 5am.

We will do the same when DSs are older. My DSis and I then used to repack up and do a full compare in her bedroom about 6am. Then another show and tell with DParents while they opened their stockings downstairs about 8am.

My DM said the year she had to get everyone in the house up was the year she realised she had a house full of adults 😀

DragonMamma · 02/12/2018 16:12

I never put the stockings out until around 5/6am, as I’m usually awake (excited!) and so if they wake too early and it’s not there they know to go back to sleep or else He can’t deliver. I don’t anticipate this being an issue this year though, they’ve turned in to lazy sods and sleep in as much as possible!

Nicknamesalltaken · 02/12/2018 17:29

The whole point of putting stockings in the bedroom is to keep them contained and quiet.

SoupDragon · 02/12/2018 17:35

Surely they're old enough to understand that they need to be quiet until a specified time??

My children are weird. I've always had to wake them on Christmas morning! They are teens now but it was the same when they were little.

MsAwesomeDragon · 02/12/2018 17:48

I think I've been very lucky with my dds. They were both a bit scared of Santa as toddlers so refused to have their stockings in their bedrooms. On the landing outside their bedroom door was as close as he was allowed to get.

They both love their sleep too. Dd1 is now 19, and dd2 is 8, but neither of them have ever woken me up before 8 on Christmas Day, because that's their wake up time when left to their own devices (dd1 would now happily stay in bed til lunchtime but is required to participate in family Christmas). Most years dd2 walks right past her stocking to come into our room for cuddles and has to be reminded to go get it.

I am so sorry your children don't respect your right to sleep op. I couldn't enjoy Christmas properly if I'd been woken at that time.

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