Do you wrap little children’s gifts?

[totsalot]

We were discussing Christmas this morning at the office (Smyths toy sale) and a few colleagues said that they don’t wrap the gifts from Santa to the children, they just pop them into their sacks/put them out on the sofa. Apparently it has stopped their little ones getting overwhelmed by it all and getting fed up of the unwrapping.

DD will be three at Christmas and I can’t decide if this is a genius time saver or if it takes a bit of the magic away? I’m all for her not getting overwhelmed but is walking into a room with new presents is surely overwhelming either way when you’re little.

What do you all do?

I think unwrapping is part of the fun. At 3 I made it very easy to unwrap. At 10 unwrapping is a bigger challenge.

I’ve found it helpful to have different colours of wrapping paper to distinguish children’s presents.

In terms of overwhelming children, I’d just advise less gifts.

In our house, Santa fills stockings and doesn't wrap. Everything else is wrapped. At 3, DD was as excited about the unwrapping as she was about the presents.

Maybe for babies (under 1) or younger toddlers (under 18 months) but from them on my children have always had fun unwrapping. We did do tissue paper last year which they had lots and lots of fun unwrapping.

My daughter is 3 and we will definitely be wrapping. Unwrapping is half the fun and I love doing the wrapping up! I think the way to make it less overwhelming is not to have millions of presents.

I think unwrapping is part of the excitement. I do sometimes keep hold of some things for Boxing Day though if they have been given a lot, to stop them being overwhelmed. This has worked out well.

Definitely wrap!
DS would spend hours playing with the paper. The toys were just a bonus.

I agree with pp - unwrapping is part of the fun. Make it easy to unwrap.

Also fewer presents or more spread out throughout the day to stop being overwhelmed. We do Santa presents as soon as we wake up, the rest come later.

absoultley. usually more fun playing with the paper than the actual present.

Wrapped presents it is! I love it wrapping them so I’m glad to be swayed in the right direction

Santa brings the stockings which are unwrapped. I use a few bags (paper) which last multiple christmasses and some wrapping paper although I'm trying to cut down. My dm wraps everything in either fabric or jute bags but she's way more organised than me.

My parents would wrap the presents from them, but the ones from santa were unwrapped. Genius idea from them as it means they didn't need to get different wrapping paper from santa.
I've followed the same theme but DH wanted us to use brown paper instead of wrapping paper. So for this year I've bought Christmas themed stencils to decorate the brown paper.
Santa brings a single present and the stocking now in our house.

I wrap, I think it is far more magical.

Yes! If they are overwhelmed it is because there are too many gifts.

Use masking tape instead of celotape to make them easier to unwrap.

Def wrap, it adds to the the excitement! We use a different colour paper for both kids so there's no confusion.

I always wrapped, but different (cheaper!) paper for the stocking things, than the rest, which were always from family.

We are non-wrappers - all toys and play sets are assembled as necessary with batteries in, Xbox games updated - box and toys displayed beautifully on sofas to give wow factor - then we enjoy coffee whilst they play an explore - happy Christmas

In our house Father Christmas wraps stocking gifts with red tissue paper and has North Pole stamped paper for the one gift he delivered. We wrap in different paper.

Same as @Pixie2015 we assemble everything and it all goes in a stocking. I feel like it's a waste of paper and DS seemed to get frustrated /overwhelmed unwrapping things.

Don’t wrap stocking presents, the stocking is the wrapping.

Do wrap presents from us, although last year I got them each a box instead to reuse every year- hoping to cut down on waste.

We wrap everything. The anticipation and unwrapping is part of the magic!