Different aged children on Christmas morning

[BoyGirlanddone]

Any suggestions as to how to handle Christmas morning with different aged cousins? My kids (DS9 and DD7) still very much believe in Father Christmas and have always opened their presents on Christmas morning (usually VERY early).
When we spend Christmas with their older cousins who always sleep in much later, it's always torturous to get our kids to hold back when they know "he's been" but noone else is awake yet.
My family is from Eastern Europe so when we grew up, we opened our presents on Christmas Eve and then all slept in on Christmas Day. My sister would like to start doing this again with our kids as it is infinitely more civilised, but my husband is dead against it as it's not his tradition. I totally get both their sides in this debate, so I feel totally stuck in the middle. Any ideas how we can keep everyone happy? My husband wants us to stay at our house on Christmas Eve rather than all together at my parents' to (totally understandably) avoid the early morning issue, but I really want to all be together. Any ideas gratefully recieved!

At 7 and 9, I would be giving serious thought to telling your children who Santa really is, the older one especially. When were you planning on telling them? Would you say many of their classmates still believe? Would you be sad if they came home from school after Christmas having been made fun of for earnestly asking what their mates got from Santa?

Most children I’ve known stop believing at around 8, some a little younger, some a little older. OPs kids are certainly within ‘norms’. I’d think it may well be the oldest last year believing.

Stay at home for morning. Far easier.

I think it’s better not to stay; it’s not fair to make your DC wait. We had this last year and by luck all the kids woke around the same time but it made me think how difficult it would be if they didn’t

I’ve kind of been hoping they figure it out for themselves, but maybe it is time to try and break it gently. I think the older one may have but is keeping quiet for fear of missing out on a good thing! A few of his friends at school are Muslim and don’t celebrate Christmas at all so I’m very impressed that they’ve never said anything!

Definitely do Christmas Eve at home , open presents and then go to your family for dinner and family presents .

We did this as kids. Christmas Eve with the family who celebrated then, opening gifts from them only. Then Christmas Day at home, opening presents from everyone else.

It's only 45 mins could you do some parent presents together on Christmas eve. Head home so Santa comes to yours and open Santa present & stockings in the morning and head back to your parents?

Alternatively I'm with your husband. Id give it a few more years and then go with the Christmas Eve tradition when the timeline is not so important
for your own younger kids.

Or cousins could do theirs on Christmas Eve and yours do theirs in the morning then meet for lunch.

Don't they know about the different ways Christmas is celebrated in your tradition/other countries? Its easy enough to explain - Father Christmas visits some countries earlier than others, which makes it easier for him to fit all the countries in.

And for children belonging to traditions of other countries, he can make special visits, or send his elves to make special visits, to get the presents on that country's time

I would do a mix. Presents from cousins Christmas Eve, presents from Father Christmas in the morning or whatever. My DC have always had one present in their room to open the second they wake up and they’re also allowed to do stockings and their main ‘Father Christmas’ present once they get downstairs (and I give them a time when they’re allowed to go downstairs). Stocking presents can keep little ones very busy if you’re clever what you put in there!

When I was a child I didn’t let on that I knew Father Christmas wasn’t real as I worried about my future presents 😂 So it may be that the older child does know.

We are German and opening presents on Christmas Eve is important to us to keep DD's German side alive and kicking.

But - we also acknowledge that we live here and some presents are brought by Santa instead of Weihnachtsmann.

So we do the main bit on Christmas Eve and DD then puts snack and drink out and we put a stocking (from us) and presents from British friends out to be open on Christmas Day.

You could do it the other way round. Celebrate with family presents with your parents and then have Santa presents on Christmas Day at home.

It's unfair to supress your traditions for your DH's sake, it's always a matter of mixing in my opinion.

Drove to theirs after presents