Why do people wait until Christmas Eve night to do the wrapping?

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So many people talk about having to get excited kids to sleep so they can do the wrapping.

Why leave it til then?

@pastaparadise

- Presents seem harder to store wrapped in case paper tears

• I'd forget what's in each one meaning more complicated labels
• I'm permanently busy so never seem to get round to it
• I want to feel christmassy while I'm doing it, and I wouldnt in October!

That said, I'm trying to be organised and do by 20th Dec this year!

Similar reasons here.

DH and I both work FT so it can't be done during the day when DS is at college.

We both love Christmas but not until about 20th December!

I don't find it at all stressful but we only have 1 DC at home and 1 adult DC plus a very small family so not mountains of presents to wrap so we're not up all night doing it.

We put some music on, crack out the gin and have a good old natter and a laugh while we do it. It's actually one of my favourite nights of the year!

@RancidOldHag

Because I am the Queen of Procrastination

No, that's me.

I did this once when I was 8 months pregnant and kids in bed.I couldn’t get comfy-dh was helping ! 😂 and he had to put together our DS’s 5000 piece with stickers toy 😂 I was ill Xmas day and too shattered to enjoy anything..It was theonly time I ever left it that late in my life! I start beginning of December as the first few are enjoyable and then after that I just lose the will to live 😂

we try to do before but we both work and get time off from the 23rd.So 23rd food shop and 24th prep day with takeout

Because they can ? 🤷‍♀️

It feels Christmassy
I don't buy big things until the last minute as it would spoil the surprise having them around the home.
It helps me balance the last minute gifts and get a good idea of what I've bought over the weeks.
Once wrapped up it takes over the lounge. There's no other room in the house to hold it all previously.

Rich MC with all their spare rooms can wrap in advance. Check your privilege.

I'd hate to wrap on Christmas Eve, too stressful. However I remember my in-laws wrapping at 5pm on Christmas eve, they dish out the presents about 6pm. They often ran out of wrapping paper or sticky tape, or both, before finishing. I think some people wrap that late because they have to wait for the Christmas paycheck to be able to afford to do the shopping.

I used to do it on christmas eve but stopped a few years ago. I tend to wait until the kids are at school and wrap and pop them back in the attic. I am getting quite organised now as I enjoy having a relaxing christmas eve

@Muddybanks I like to do the different wrap for different people too. And of course when ds was "a believer" different paper for Santa's gifts!!

And one thing I always remember was that Dad always did Mums presents after everyone else had finished, which often led to another family tradition of him wrapping things in newspaper as there wasn't enough giftwrap!

Fuck that. Takes me at least 3 days, on and off, to wrap everything. At the moment, my dreams frequently consist of it being Christmas Eve and I haven't bought anything. I couldn't imagine not having wrapped anything until bedtime.

I used to leave it until Christmas Eve, but after The Christmas Everyone Got Norovirus, never again. Frantically trying to wrap while dealing with vomiting kids (who were at peak ‘believing’ age) was not an experience I want to repeat.

We normally still end up with a bit of Christmas Eve wrapping (particularly bulky items that are hard to store) but I aim to have broken the back of it a good few days in advance.

I do buy some presents late too, as the DC’s are fickle with their obsessions and the thing that they desperately want one week can be old hat the next.

When I was a youngster, I'd finish work at lunchtime on Christmas Eve, Go into the body shop and buy for all the adults, Then over to the Disney shop which was directly opposite and buy for all the kids.
Take a taxi up to my friend's house, Where she would wrap them all for me 😍
Then I'd deliver them and go to the pub, Those were the days!

Now, Me and DP take annual leave on 30th November and 1st December to wrap the presents and decorate the house.
The kids presents are secured in their hidey hole (or at DP's work if they are large) and all the other presents are sent off to their respective recipients.

I did leave it to the last minute one year and it was okay but not how I like to spend Christmas Eve. (Drunk and watching die hard😃)

If it’s a big pressie no where to hide it so build and wrap Christmas Eve. Lots of people rely on on December wage (often paid 24 instead of 31) or bonus to buy last minute.

You might buy your Dad a book in January, and then he buys it himself in March

@Bagamoyo1 this would never happen for various reasons. Even if I weren't solely responsible for his library visits and shopping (he is disabled), I tend not to buy books as gifts when they are widely available. For example, in spring I was in a second hand specialist book shop many miles from where I live and saw a very old book about the language of flowers with beautiful illustrations. I've never seen a copy in a shop before and I bought it because I know it will be utterly loved by the recipient. I also found signed copies of a couple of rare books in the same shop which I know another family member will treasure and those books are like hen's teeth, let alone available signed. I'm not talking about Richard Osman's most recent book purchased from Tesco. And to be fair, you could buy a book at 10am on Dec 24th and the recipient buy it at 10.02am on the 24th. I suppose my point is that I know my family and I know how to shop for them. I buy thoughtful and meaningful gifts when I can and it works.

I have ADHD and I tend to put everything off until I absolutely have to do it under threat of dire consequences

It's not really funny, it's disabling, but you have to laugh or you'd cry.

It’s tradition in our house to do the wrapping on Christmas Eve along with a few drinks! We don’t usually have a huge number to wrap though so it’s not too arduous. If we had a large number to do I would start earlier as it would be too stressful.

Did the Christmas Eve wrapping once and hobbling to bed at 2am after being bent over for three hours (dcs never get to sleep on Xmas eve) was not good. Dh convinced me that we would sup champagne whilst picturesquely twirling ribbons. No, it’s fighting with big rolls of paper that keep tearing, losing the scissors, spending ten minutes out of every 30 finding the end of the sellotape, suddenly realising that one dc’s pile looks bigger than another’s… and that’s after trying to assemble a Sizzle Kitchen with most unfestive language flying around…

Many people don’t get pains until just before Xmas if they’re lucky and only have the last couple of days before Xmas to do it all. I thought that was obvious?

@QueenofLouisiana

I had an arrangement with another parent that we would take a day each of looking after the boys while the other one did whatever they needed to do- buying, wrapping, baking.... It was a Godsend to be honest. We are both teachers so couldn't do it while the children were at school.

That's a great idea, especially for single parents or those who would otherwise struggle to get the time without dc around.

I did my wrapping on Christmas Eve once, and would never do it again. The stress was unbelievable, and I actually enjoy wrapping presents. I like to get Christmas music on, a cup of tea and a mince pie and crack on while dc is out at school or elsewhere.

@AliceMcK could you put your presents in black bin liners and hide them in the loft? Assuming you have a loft...

I keep a written record of everything I've bought, and note the wrapping paper (all different) that each present is wrapped in. I'd never remember otherwise. (If I had more than one child, I'd also note how much each present had cost, to keep it even.)

I do wish though that I'd bought two of DS's Christmas stocking, to do the substituting the full stocking for the empty one instead of having to creep in to his room to snag it and replace full. Why did I not think of that?!

I once did that after working in a pub on Xmas eve, came home slightly tipsy and realised I hadn't wrapped my parent's presents so I used tin foil as mum used to keep all the wrapping paper in her wardrobe
Dad commented on how much the wrapping paper looked like tin foil and I assured him it was some new futuristic type wrapping paper..... then mum used it on the turkey!!

One of my silly happy memories of Xmas when I was younger, 19/20 and still living at home!

Now, with kids, I do it about 2 weeks before, all in 1 go so I don't have to worry about it.

@BertieBotts

I have ADHD and I tend to put everything off until I absolutely have to do it under threat of dire consequences

It's not really funny, it's disabling, but you have to laugh or you'd cry.

I don't have ADHD, and I do exactly the same.

I don't wrap most presents just the stuff under the tree from me, I buy stuff starting anywhere from April-July but don't wrap until December, presents appear under the tree throughout December as I wrap them but I wouldn't do xmas eve as we spend so much time setting up the open gifts ready to play with.

I imagine because it's difficult to store everything without being found and incase it gets ripped etc. Time as well it's difficult to find the time that the kids aren't around. Last yr we were lucky with where Xmas landed and the kids were at nursery a day where we had finished for Xmas so has time to built and wrap. I don't know what we are going to do this yr. I might take extra day holiday when they are at nursery and do as much as I can.

We left it to last minute first yr we had kids and were up to midnight building an wrapping.

Problem is now where to store the built up toys in advance. So last yr we had the integrated garage built the big toys up before and pulled them in Xmas eve. That garage has now been converted and is the kids playroom. So I don't know how we are going to store anything and hide it. Same with presents but if they are small enough I'll wrap and put in the loft.

@EveningOverRooftops

Many people don’t get pains until just before Xmas if they’re lucky and only have the last couple of days before Xmas to do it all. I thought that was obvious?

That's just terrible organization and money management - Xmas is the same day every year, you have 11 paydays before it to get what you need.

My DH does the leaving it to the last minute, its why people end up with unthoughtful crap under the 'I wanted to get you something better but it was sold out by them'.

If I do it too early either I forget what things are because the tags fall off, the paper gets ripped or my poncetastic wrapping gets crumpled.
When we were skint we used to wait for things to be reduced near Christmas so sometimes I was only getting round to buying stuff on Christmas Eve.