How do you open presents on Christmas morning?

[pinkfluffybunny]

We have 4 children. Christmas morning is a blur of wrapping paper and excitement and joy.

However, I obviously miss some of my children opening special presents which I know they will love and their reactions to them, as I am watching others opening theirs.

I had a thought of one child opening their presents, and then the next child, but that wouldn't be much fun for my other children who would no doubt be itching to open their own presents.

How do you all do it? Do I just have to accept that I will miss some children's reactions, and be content with knowing they will love whatever they receive? After all, it's not about me.....

4 children, we take it in turns to open a present unless there's a gift which is the same for say the 2 older children then they open together. We've always taken it in turns like that, we appreciate being able to enjoy the giving and being happy for other people as part of the enjoyment. It can take quite a while, but what's the hurry? I also think it encourages gratitude and time to enjoy a gift before flinging it aside for the next thing.

On their door handle or propped by the door if they're too heavy. I absolutely love hearing them wake up and hunt for their stocking/wake eachother up. Pure magic.

Take it turns - I'm the allocated picker (ie the one who has to sit on the floor!) And I search out gifts to hand in the right order. We then take the time to read the label out loud (we often write short notes like "know you've been wanting one of these for a while" etc or make silly guesses about what could be inside). We've done this since my DB and I were children and now my DH and SIL get involved too which is lovely.
I hate the idea of everyone just opening all their gifts all at once. Part if it is a 'lesson' - waiting your turn, other people are important too, but also that giving is also a gift in itself. They've been involved from a young age in the buying process (we're not big on Santa, he does a few gifts but most are from family) and so they get swept up in the excitement of "ooh dad is opening my gift now, I hope you like it".
It also means my DF can get all the wrapping paper as it comes off into his rubbish sack (X2 now so he can separate recycling from rubbish)....

Ha, that sounds very different to us, tiny house and living room here rather than cascades of presents.

Stockings always on the bed here, there is nothing as exciting as waking up and feeling a full stocking by your feet, I still love it even as an adult (DH and I do each others).

This is what we do.

Stockings opened on our bed (one teenager still does this, the other doesn’t)

get dressed and eat breakfast

Presents are all mixed up under the tree and handed out and opened one at a time

I put them separately, some in a sack and some not, in piles. Then they take turns.

We don't open them all in the morning either, just the ones under the tree which are ones from family, anything too big to wrap or fit into the father christmas sack. I used to do a treasure hunt for DD to do first thing in the morning (first clue in her stocking) to keep busy while I made breakfast but haven't done that in a while, instead I do a treasure hunt later for that point in the afternoon when the children are starting to get a bit antsy waiting for dinner and the rest of the presents so they do a treasure hunt for a present. The rest of the presents are delivered by Joulupukki (father christmas) and he hands them out one by one (though we wait until he's gone to open them so he can get on to the next family) and once again take turns.

We take turns, the youngest family member is in charge of dishing out the presents (keeps them entertained when they’re little and it’s not their turn to open a present- although my sister was still doing this as her job when she was 17 lol)

We go in a circle.... When I was young it was a pile you just dived into.

Stocking presents get opened usually on mummy and daddy's bed (I thought our teenager would be too big for this but he appeared last year even though he's now bigger than me!)
Tree presents we do a few after breakfast then take a break and sort lunch stuff out / getting up etc and then a few more, then a few more after dinner.
It depends on whose here as to how we open stuff.
My family we go one at a time opening presents, DSs parents we all get one present each at a time and open them together and SIL & the cousins it's a bit more of a free for all / mad dash and I tend to have to be the meany who slows it all down a bit as I can't cope with the mayhem.

We grew up like that but I started wrapping some 'from us' under the tree and honestly unwrapping seems to be my kids 'favorite' bit.

Unwrapped gifts are WAY easier though as

A) no wrapping
and
B) they are set up ready to play with so no yelling at impossible plastic ties (like why do they make kids toys IMPOSSIBLE to open), searching for pliers/screwdrivers/allan keys while still half asleep and cursing that your an AA battery short on the actual day lol.

We open presents one at a time. As a child I did this and it’s what I have taught my children . They don’t know any different so they don’t complain. I loved seeing what everyone got as a child and I love it even more as an adult. It feels more meaningful.

Someone (an adult) plays “Santa” and hands out the presents wearing a Santa hat. It’s usually me but and when I was younger it was usually my dad . “Santa” hands the presents one at a time and we all open and watch .

Stockings however get opened at the same time .

This is pretty much what we have always done and what my parents did. There were five dc growing up so took a while!

Also four children, they take one at a time from the sack. And enjoy watching each other open one. Often a child gets engrossed in a toy and doesn't open more for hours, but we like that and encourage appreciation of each gift.

Stockings are downstairs and can be opened when the DC want. They only contain little presents and are always wrapped. My DC would empty them out and see if it looked like they had any matching presents, and they always open them together so not as to spoil it for the other. The main Christmas present from us or presents from and to grandparents are around the tree, along with adult presents. Everyone has to be up and ready before we start opening those. They are opened in turn but not in any order. Only one person opens at a time.

We pretty much do the same thing. Christmas stockings are downstairs by the fireplace (after all - "their stockings were hung by the chimney with care" ya know 😆)

We do stockings all together sat down on the floor by the tree and then move onto gifts. We try to stick to one at a time with each child getting a chance to choose a gift at random and deliver it to the recipient whose sat waiting.

Mumsnet is a whole other world sometimes...

I agree! I can’t imagine my parents forcing me (as a child) to wait until after Christmas dinner to open presents, only to make me watch my brother open all of his before I could open mine. Imagine only getting a present every hour to open. You wouldn’t have time to do anything else on Christmas.

Who said anything about one child opening all their presents before another child? Or only opening one every hour?

Why wouldn't you have time to do anything else? We manage to go to church, go for a walk in the afternoon, cook dinner, play games, watch some TV in-between opening presents.
They certainly aren't the main focus of the day.

When nobody's looking and like I'm unwrapping a potential bomb.

@TeenDivided some people said they open them throughout the day. Obviously opening grandparents’ presents when you see them later on is different, but some said they have a pile of presents for their dc and they open them throughout the day and the siblings take in turns.

We spread it out over the day. Stockings first thing. Presents from the kids to each other (4 kids) after breakfast. Presents from us after they have got dressed and from extended family after lunch.

As a child I only got a stocking with little bits in the morning and then had to wait until after lunch for everything else. It was torture as a small child. I can remember bouncing around wondering why it was taking them all soooo long to do the bloody washing up!

We save ours until after Christmas dinner. Kids get stockings from Santa in the morning. Then after dinner we all sit down and open our pressies with a drunk, 'tis lovely!