If you are all adults/non santa believers, when do you put presents under your tree?

[WaxOnFeckOff]

Just chatting (on-line) with friends who are doing some wrapping this weekend and I said that I was leaving my wrapping until the tree was up as it's easier just to wrap and then put straight under the tree and friends were surprised that I put the presents under the tree before Christmas Eve/Day.

My DC are adults, we know that Santa isn't coming so i don't see the problem? I've done this since DC have been teenagers.

To be fair it's not the way I grew up though i did leave home at 18 and I'm the youngest. Up until then all presents would "appear" on christmas morning.

AIBU? What happens in your house?

Presents for other people kept under the tree until they are delivered. We still put all of our presents out on Christmas eve. Still magic for kids (11 & 17) to wake up to a pile of surprises.

Presents that come in from people outside the family go under the tree. Presents to each other are hidden away until Christmas Day. Just because that's how we've always done it but I've no strong feeling either way.

I don’t put presents under the tree as burglaries are rife in the run up to Christmas and I don’t want to make it any easier for them to grab stuff.

What could possibly be unreasonable about putting presents under a tree?!

I put presents for wider family under the tree once it's up (they're wrapped and in bags in my wardrobe atm) but the children's presents don't go there (they're not little children, one teen, one preteen) . I get them out on Christmas Eve and put them in their sacks. They don't see them until the morning.

It's not how it was as a child. My Mum put everything under the tree and I loved having a feel and gazing at them. I think we do it differently because ds would not have coped with the temptation when younger. He gets very focused and obsessed and so I never put their presents under the tree. Now it's just the way it is. I shall ask them if they want me to put them under the tree early this year.

Our presents to others all get posted as we are not near family and DC have only ever had envelopes from everyone else and now that they are adults, really the only presents they get are from us.

To be honest they don't spend a lot of time in the room where the tree is and the presents are usually in boxes so not very identifiable.

I'm now not sure if i'm being lazy or just like looking at the pile under the tree for longer. :o

Even when we had believers in the house we still put presents under the tree - it was only stockings that appeared overnight Christmas Eve.

I like how it makes the tree look, it makes it must jollier.

I think i wouldn't do it with an 11 year old. probably started when mine were about 14/15.

Burglaries is a consideration but been living here 18 years and never heard one yet. Tree is also not very visible from outside.

I'd prefer it if I could put the presents under the tree - it would save me having to find hiding places for one thing! But my teenage kids still insist on them not appearing until Christmas.

On the advice of the Met Police who say the same thing every year, I don't keep them under the tree as if we were burgled, they're all there in a nice handy little pile.

Burglars could be in and out in less than a couple of minutes.

We put them under the tree late on Xmas eve and rely on the dogs to let us know if anyone dodgy comes to the door

I don't think there is a right or wrong really, I just felt the odd one out!

We did everything from Santa (apart from gifts from others) initially and then started doing main gift from us and rest from Santa as i think they thought it strange that we didn't give them anything. Then Santa was out the picture so pile is colour coded by wrapping and everything is under tree from when tree goes up or from when i've bought and wrapped if later.

Kids are little, so if I put anything under the tree the suspense would be too much and they would find a way to accidentally open them. With older kids I would put them put once wrapped as it looks good under the tree.

We still live in an area where you could probably leave your door unlocked (we have by accident a few times). Appreciate it could be a concern though.

Cat wouldn't be good at giving a warning.

We have a dog who likes to chew paper so gifts from family/friends are kept in my bedroom in giant gift bags until Christmas eve.

We are all adults in our house. I still sneak downstairs with sacks of presents to put under the tree late on Christmas Eve. Everyone else in the house pretends they haven't noticed

I think there is an element of laziness really, it saves me having to cart stuff upstairs and to try to hide it. A lot Some of the gifts are things like large packs of beer/cider and pepsi etc so are heavy and bulky and easier just to wrap and put under and also not that big a surprise either...

Santa only ever brought little things in stockings in this family anyway, so presents under the tree were always from family or friends (who needed to be thanked) and have always gone under the tree late on Christmas Eve. When there were young children involved, it stopped the poking and prying, not to mention ripping the paper a bit to try to see what was inside.

Each to their own, but I’ve never understood the ‘everything from Santa’ thing.

Christmas Eve when I bring my pot grown tree inside.

on christmas eve after the adult children have gone to bed. they add their gifts to others on christmas morning

I'm not sure that I might not do things differently now that I know others don't do the same as we did and what we grew up with. Where I grew up, everything from Santa was completely the norm in our circle. That was all pre internet and I guess even twenty years ago when I had my kids, it would still be unusual to know exactly what other people do.

Nowadays we have a lot more access to information that we simply didn't have before.

Yes, DC bring their presents to others down from their bedrooms on Christmas after I send the cat to wake them up.

if you are happy doing what you do then just keep doing it! i don't understand why you would consider changing because of what other people do

All presents are under the tree, even when the kids were little. They never bothered with them really.

All gifts from family and friends were under the tree from when they arrived.

Santa brings stockings. Even now as teens the stockings are filled and left by the fire place. Me and DH have them as well.

I don’t like the ‘everything’ from Santa because it isn’t. My children say thank you to those who brought gifts. They see us buy gifts for others. How else would they learn?

I didn't say I was going to change, I asked what other people do and basically if I was a complete outlier or if I was missing something basically. 🤷‍♀️

We put all presents under the tree, both this we are going to give and any we have already received. Under the tree at the moment are also my birthday presents ready for my birthday this week! They go under as they arrive or as they are bought and wrapped

To be clear, gifts, if any, from other people were always from them I wouldn't put gifts someone else bought as being from Santa. When they were small I guess it didn't really matter, on Christmas morning the Santa gifts would appear and be enjoyed. It was probably about age 5 that we realised that there was nothing from us, so after that, big gift would be from us.

I guess we all did childhood differently, I was more talking about older teens/adults. My DC are only a year apart so not like there was a younger believer to consider.