When the fucking fuck am I meant to wrap the presents

[Cryingatthegym]

Toddler DSs wake up at the arse crack of dawn (and sometimes through the night).

Tween DD still rattling around til nearly 11pm every night regardless of how early I send her up.

They're with me all day long. Single parent. Small house. Work full time. Am I meant to just wrap through the night or something? I'm shattered!

Aarrghhhh. Just needed a rant really. Feeling inwardly very unfestive towards poor DD right now as I listen to her traipse past my room to the toilet for the 50 millionth time tonight.

I have no helpful advice, but I feel you're frustration. It's my first year as a single parent, and trying to get all of the Christmas stuff done is so bloody tiring.
Luckily, mine are younger and will go to bed a bit earlier. But I've still had to pull some late nights wrapping followed by the youngest waking me ridiculously early.

On Xmas Eve, I plan to have a nap once the DCS are in bed (but not asleep yet) and set an alarm to wake me up around midnight when they should hopefully have fallen asleep so I can put out all the presents.

Santa presents. Everything else wrapped. You really wrap stocking fillers - chocolate coins, pencils, socks?? That is blowing my mind - I can see why you’re struggling 😂 life is too short & I hope the paper you use is recyclable!

Sorry but she should be in bed by 9 then. You are doing her absolutely no favours what so ever by not ensuring she’s in her room with lights off.

I’m with the OP, not wrapping the stocking presents??? 🤯 unwrapping is half the fun! Stocking presents all in the same paper, which is of course different to the paper used for under the tree, even though DS hasn’t believed in Santa for a couple of years now!

OP this year I smashed through almost all my wrapping when DS had a friend over for a play date last weekend. They played computer games together for 3 hours. I shut myself in the spare room and wrapped away. It was genius and I’ll definitely be inviting the friend back next year!

Next year you need to start much earlier and do a few presents a night. I've been wrapping since November and I'll still have to do a late night marathon.

Agreed! I've never heard of not wrapping presents.

Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one 🙏

For those that wrap Santa presents, (in our house Santa presents are the main big presents for context), how do you wrap a bicycle etc.? I just don't get why some people wrap the Santa presents. It makes no sense to me as every household would have different wrapping paper which isn't really conducive to Santa leaving them to every household. Am I overthinking this?? 🤔

I sent her up at 8pm. She drives me mad with it, she's always been the same. But I was exactly the same as a child (overactive mind, worrying about everything, terrible at falling asleep) so I try not to be too harsh with her about it.

Scrooge lol

Single mum. Up at 2am here till they were old enough not to believe in Santa. Which, given my brilliance in lying to them, was 13!!!!!!

I know it’s a bit late and I don’t mean to sound sanctimonious but this is why I buy early and try to wrap as I go. I know it’s not always that easy though. I’m a lot further behind this year than normal, it hasn’t helped being laid up with covid this week.

I did the remainder of my wrapping tonight which was more than I thought I had, but my own fault for twitching. I told all DDs 7, 10 (believers) & 12 ( knows the truth) to stay out of my room as I was wrapping presents from us. They loved trying to peek under the door but stayed out. Luckily everything was from us as I’d already done the Santa gifts and hidden them away.

i used gift bags and boxs for some things to reduce the wrapping. I also have a bunch of annoying small bits I’d usually wrap but have decided this year they are going to be thrown in sacks and stockings unwrapped.

@ReadingSoManyThreads that’s the opposite way round to most people, in this house Santa brings small presents that fit in a stocking (admittedly, a very large stocking and sometimes there’s some overspill!) A bike would be a gift from us.

That said, I did wrap DS’s first balance bike! He was only nearly 2. Not so much the one he got for his 8th birthday which I could probably ride 😂

You can’t see the presents in the stocking, so it’s no different than getting something in a gift bag. So you put your hand in the stocking and pull something out, how is that different than picking a wrapped present under the tree and unwrapping it.

Just remember our kids are going to be the ones living on the planet long after we have left, which we have helped destroy with our consumerism, including having to wrap every little item.

To be fair, I've got the younger two scooters as their main presents and I probably won't wrap those!

Also don't wrap stocking presents. But the rest of the presents still need to be wrapped, and I feel like it spoils the magic a bit if the kids are aware of it happening?

Next year: - giftbags!

I would wake your eldest up at 6am tomorrow no joke. Then send her to bed early tomorrow night. It's much kinder than taking away her last year of magic by telling her to go to bed because you need to wrap her presents.

I'm up wrapping now. Last year my mum had my children for four hours so I could wrap presents!

Agree - don’t understand why people are suggesting ‘Santa sacks’…. That’s just a wide stocking, so you can actually see into it easier and therefore see more of the unwrapped presents, surely. Unwrapped in stocking in our house!

Never wrapped stocking gifts. No need to.

I definitely need to be a lot more organised next year. But I've been hanging on by the skin of my teeth this year (divorce, house move, new job, health issues) so I'm just glad I've managed to get done what I have so far!

Could you set her up with a special Xmas movie night, fav snacks, fluffy blanket, hot choc. Tell her you have some jobs to do in your room and not to disturb you, and disappear and do your wrapping. Or allow unlimited screen time one eve and just crack on. Block your door and have a big blanket to hand to pull over everything if you are interrupted.

I'm very blunt with mine and tell them I'm wrapping presents (obviously not Santa presents as you know those don't get wrapped in our house), anyway, they get super excited knowing I'm wrapping and they leave me alone for HOURS. It's fucking bliss, as I spend most of the time watching youtube and drinking hot chocolate on my own with the door closed.

too late for this year, but maybe for next year - I save at least one day PTO and take a Friday off in December just for present wrapping. Stick on Christmas film and crack open the vino and it can get you in the Christmas spirit. One year though I got so excited about my upcoming Friday off that I got unexpectedly shit faced the night before and had a hangover all day instead of attending to the present wrapping.

I wrap mine in my bedroom in the evening and if people sound like they might come in I tell them not to!

I have a 9 year old, I’d say ‘hey babes! If you want a surprise at Christmas you need to buzz off so I can wrap these in peace’. Santa doesnt wrap gifts from you(/grandma/uncles/friends…) you do! You get some credit here. Santa brings stockings and maybe 1 bigger present from wish list/if they went to see Santa (in our house).