Christmas morning - DD and DSC

[Blixem]

My family is made up of me, DH, DSS 12, DSD 10 and DD 2.

We alternate Christmas with DSCs Mum. So one year we have my DSC Xmas eve and Xmas day until 11am and the next will be 11am Xmas day until Boxing day.

Last Christmas was the first that DD was aware of Father Christmas and presents etc. We had my DSC Xmas eve and Xmas morning so we all just got up together and opened presents.

This year we will be having DSC from 11am on Christmas morning.

What do other in this situation do about the timing of presents? I've got some ideas but I'd love feedback of what works best in practice!

And before I get people whining its only June, this is posted in the Christmas section.

As DD is still so young, I’d wait until DSC are there for the majority of presents.

if there are some people who buy just for DD but not DSC, open those ones before the older DSC get there, so it doesn’t seem like DD has more.

In my family we never did presents other than our stockings till the afternoon. So we would have stockings on waking then after lunch we did presents. Helped to spread things out.

I wouldn't worry about it while dad is 2, and when she is old enough to care the step children won't care.

Do a stocking from Father Christmas when Dd wakes up, plenty to keep her occupied, and then ‘tree presents’ for everyone at a time that suits you after the DSC arrive.

Stocking for DD as soon as she wakes up, then main presents after the DSC arrive.

I would open presents when your step children arrive, perhaps do the stocking if you do them with your dd in the morning. She still is only 2 so I doubt she will care and may not want to open them all regardless, my Ds is 4 and takes days to open his presents. He gets too overwhelmed opening all at once so will open a couple, play with them and open the rest as the days go on.

I'd do stocking and split your dd's presents between first thing and when the other dc arrive.

Us too. We always do stockings, then church (understand not everyone does that but can substitute this for a walk), lunch, Queen, then presents.

@Mariposista
Our tradition started when we went to church as kids and/or 1 parent had sometimes worked the night before and would be asleep in the morning.
We did stockings first thing then church if we were going, lunch- which for us is cold meats and cheese etc, then presents and games and have our main meal about 5pm.

That's nice! Ours is pretty much identical except the main meal is at lunchtime and the cheese/cold stuff in the evening.

We open ours independently. Although we're very different in the sense that we make clear which presents are from Santa and which ones aren't

@Mariposista I always loved it as it spreads things out.
But this year we are going to have a bit of a debate between my partner and I as we have our own child now and his family always did all presents first thing. They also all open at once and it's one big chaotic mess where as we hand presents out 1 at a time and watch people open them so we all see what people have got- and get to enjoy the giving part too

Oh gosh I would absolutely HATE that. I understand everyone has different traditions, but tearing open presents first thing all at once is my idea of hell. I love seeing everyone's face when they open their present, having the opportunity to thank the person who gave it. Can't stand chaos. Stand your ground!

Presumably at 10 and 12 the DSC are too old to believe in father christmas? I would do father christmas presents whenever your DD wants to, take her lead on it, and do family presents all together whenever DSC are with you. There's plenty of opportunity for christmas magic throughout the whole christmas time aside from opening presents, so no-one will miss out.

Like pp have said, I would let your DD do her stocking and then do the rest of the presents when DSC arrive. If she's like my DC, she'll have unwrapped around 2 presents by 11am, having started playing with them and forgotten about the rest.

Thank you for all the replies.

I think doing the Stocking and a Santa presents is a good idea.

Just to say, as an aside, we initially had stockings and presents from Father Christmas but as the children got older we regretted it. After reading comments on Mumsnet we changed it to stockings from Father Christmas and presents from us, family, etc.

Absolutely this.

As a side note we are a tear all presents apart as soon as the DCs are up, we don’t miss any excitement or seeing their faces, we video them walking in and my DH leaves his video running to capture it all. They love looking back on the videos and stills we capture. I use to make a gif every year but now my oldest has taken this on as she loves doing it.