If you do your shopping early, when do you put the gifts under the tree?

[Inthetropics]

Have close to 80% of Christmas shopping done. Almost no storage space. We are putting our tree up tomorrow. Is it weird to wrap and put our gifts under it over a month before Christmas?

Not til maybe a week before Christmas. If we put them under now, they’d get all dusty and knocked by the hoover.

I wrap them the day they arrive and put them under the tree. It looks lovely.

I've put all ours under the tree . This year we have 2 non believers and 1 believer so we've kept his main ones in storage for Santa to bring Christmas Eve . The other 2 know all there presents are under there and are so far not really that bothered .

Ours go under the tree as they're wrapped after the 22nd. Or tree can't bee seen from the road. I'd be wary of putting anything before then if it is visible from the road.

Ours stay in the loft until Christmas Eve Night. They’d be dog eared and squashed if put out any sooner with the kids and the cat.

They start going under about a week before Christmas Day when the tree goes up and I’ve bought and wrapped something!
The dc have never opened anything before Christmas even when they were small, they must just be very obedient children
I don’t put all of them out, the main ones from us and Father Christmas go under the night before and they are a surprise on Christmas morning.
Part of the excitement is seeing and feeling the presents, they have a little rummage and put them back.
Our tree goes in the kitchen diner at the back of the house and can’t be seen from outside the front. To get round the back would be very difficult although certainly not impossible. We have cctv all around our house, garden and workshop at the back of the garden aswell as an alarm system (because of DH’s job he has a lot of valuable equipment) so I feel pretty well protected against potential intruders.

I like to save the wrapping for December it's a nice Christmas activity for me. So I'll do it a few days before Christmas. I find they get in they way otherwise.

We've always started putting presents under the tree from mid December when given them by friends and family in the run up to Christmas. This year however, with 1 year old DS in the mix, they will stay firmly hidden until he's in bed on Christmas Eve!

I don't put my tree up until about 10 days before Christmas. Presents go under the tree a few days before Christmas. I hate early Christmassing!

Christmas eve when everyone has gone to bed!

I put any gifts given by other people under as soon as I get them. I also buy everyone Xmas pyjamas and they also go under as soon as they are wrapped so they can be opened on Christmas Eve.

Friends without children put their gifts under the tree as soon as it goes up: gifts for each other, gifts received and gifts for others. So, when i visit before The Big Day she rootles around under the tree and finds my gift.

I have a very hairy dog, and the thought of having to dust presents everyday and de-hair them makes me shudder! Can't be arsed with extra work. So, for us, gifts from others go under the tree Christmas Eve in the evening, our 9yo can give them a squeeze, a shake and a smell! Then other gifts go out when he's in bed.

The gifts are currently unwrapped, in a couple of bags for life in the futility room. DS hasn't gone looking for them. I've told DH where they are so he doesn't accidently tip them out and use the bags for the weekly shop.

I have a huge pile of fabric bags and hemmed bolts of fabric, all in different sizes, with lots of ribbon and skinny rope, so wrapping will take 30 minutes max. We don't warp stocking gifts, the stocking is the wrapping.

I find good hiding/storage places to be:

In a bag hanging off a coathanger in the wardrobe.

At the back of a high cupboard in the kitchen that we use for things we don't often need (that super-sized salad bowl for dinner parties, the sandwich maker... etc).

In the sock drawer ain't no one going in there!

Behind books on teh bookcase (I have an Ikea Kallax bookcase that holds my books three-deep, i can move books around and create hidden spaces at the back).

At work (I don't WFH).

On top of the fridge behind my mixing bowls (nothing edible as it can get hot up there).

Anything random, like empty cereal boxes (they'll obviously feel heavy when you move them, so shouldn't be chucked out accidentally).

We move a lot, and I've kept boxes for things such as my sewing machine, blender etc that i used to re-pack, gifts can be stored in them.

Anything small can be put in a sandwich bag (to protect against dust and humidity) and slid under the sofa, or the bed, even if these are quite low to the ground.

I hope some of these help.

Just don't do what one MNer (or her partner, don't remember which) did one year: stored in the shed in binbags, threw them all out