How do you open presents on Christmas?

[monkeypuzzlemaceplayce]

Is it complete chaos where everybody opens their presents all at once? Do you do stockings first or afterwards?

For us, we do stockings first and then have a nice breakfast and then sit down for presents. We then have each person open their gift one at a time and go round the family in order. It makes it last longer and it's much less chaos and less stress for me! But my friend thought that sounded too organised and rather boring

All pile onto our bed for stockings.
Breakfast.
Church.
Home - Grandparents and cousins arrive - load their presents to join ours under the tree with much surreptitious squeezing and shaking.
Anyone not on the cooking crew out for long appetite-inducing walk.
Home for smoked salmon, fizz and one round of presents (carefully fixed by the 3 mums so no electronics get opened at this point).
Lunch! Well, whatever you call it at about 3pm!
Another round of presents between courses.
All pile into sitting room and continue to dish out presents until they’re all gone.
Play silly games.
Dog walk in dusk with torches and any present that happens to light up.
Back home for cold turkey sandwiches.
Cousins and Grandparents leave.
Collapse.

Stockings opened once up . After breakfast we hand out a few presents to each person and all open together and carry on handing out .

We do children's stockings first thing in our bed. This year we are then getting dressed and going to church for breakfast and morning service. Presents opened when we get home, we keep back some for the afternoon. For me i just like to see children actually see what they have opened rather than a free for all so I have always discouraged presents first thing.

We don't do stockings anymore here.

For us its wake up straight downstairs, everyone's presents are sorted into piles and we go round in a circle opening one at a time to see what everyone's getting. Love it like this..it's too crazy if we all open at the same time and I need to sit with a black bag for all the paper!

We do stockings in the morning which are laid on the fireplace. We ooh and ah at the pile of presents under the tree but don't touch. Then we open a present here and there throughout the day as and when were feel like it DD usually wants one more frequently. There are always DD presents left that are opened throughout Boxing Day. Some Christmases they still have a few left for the day after that. It means that all presents are appreciated; no one feels deprived as they can open a present whenever they want, and the day doesn't feel like all the excitement has gone in a oner.

We do it exactly like the OP. Only stockings upstairs in bed and present opening one at a time

Stockings and then chaos. Everything is from Santa.

With our hands, believe it or not

So glad it’s not just us, I was getting worried reading the other posts 😂😂

Always with abandon.

We don't do either of the two extremes trotted out on MN (feral free for all where everyone tears paper with their teeth and flings presents everywhere, or sitting in a circle ooh-ing in unison while each person slowly unwraps each single gift). We do stockings first, then DH starts passing out the tree presents, he'll give everyone one and then try to keep a gentle flow going. Sometimes we pause for a bit if someone has something they're particularly thrilled with. We break for breakfast when people get hungry. It's very relaxed and angst-free, thank heaven.

There were 7 of us in my family growing up and we opened one by one. It took ages, and we'd have to pause for the Queen's speech and sometimes even so my parents could take a nap.
Still loved it though, loved seeing what everyone got and trying to guess it first.

Stockings and gifts between us and kids before breakfast in bed. Everything else after lunch.

Now the teenager and adult dc are older the adult dc will be opening theirs at their own homes before getting ready to come over. Teen dc 14 will open his when he gets up. His stockings and gifts are under the tree already and once hes opened his I open mine. Dh waits until evening to open his. Adult dc will come over with their gifts to us so they get opened when they arrive. I still get up stupidly early just to make sure the tree lights are switched on and get a coffee and sort my hair, makeup etc before the teen bounces down the stairs excited for xmas day.

When they were younger and believed in santa they always opened the santa gifts in the morning and gifts from family and friends were opened in the afternoon, and I found that worked as I knew who gave what for the thank you cards which has now evolved to texts, calls and emails to thank people.

Stockings in bed.

Then downstairs to do presents, taking it in turns to open one each. Just to give DS time to pause and appreciate each one and note who it's from rather than have a frenzy of wrapping paper.

The stocking gifts are wrapped so when the children wake at 5/6 am ISH 🙈 it takes a little while to get through everything upstairs. We aim to go downstairs 7.30/8am so they open everything under tree and other half gets cooking!

We don't have alot of space so we like to get the rubbish out of the way so they can sit and play happily whilst we wake up 😆

When the dcs were wee it was stockings in our bed then presents after church.

This year both Dd2 and Ds are away for Christmas. DD1 won't get up until lunchtime or later so presents will get done at some point,before or after lunch.

All at once. I hate opening presents in front of people so prefer it this way as no one’s watching me!

With young dc getting up early, it was stocking then tree. A few held back for the table presents.

Now my dc are 18 and 13, I think stocking when they wake up.
Some, tree presents and I'm going to hold some good ones back for the table.
Maybe even another wave!!

Kids used to bring their stockings onto our bed to open. We’d watch with a cup of tea.

Down for breakfast, then we’d all take the dogs for a long walk with friends and their dogs (Buck’s Fizz and mince pies at the top of the hill).

When we get back, a couple of tree presents before I start cooking, then the rest after lunch.

They liked it that way because it wasn’t all done with quickly.