Open all presents then play with them, or open, play, open play etc?

[RessicaJabbit]

What is the norm on your house?

We're a open and play house. Get it out of the packaging etc. have a good look/little play and when ready open the next. This is mostly because my DD5 can't handle any kind of "chaotic" present opening. This also helps me, so I can write down the sender and gift for later when DD sends.a video thank you or writes a letter of thanks 😅 but downside is, can take FOREVER and we all get a bit bored, so spread out, do some after dinner, some on boxing day etc.

Completely different at my sister's, they open everything up, have a little glance, place it in a pile and go for the next one.

Other sister...they have a mad scramble to open everything as fast as possible. She has 3 kids, and they love having a mound of wrapping paper and rummaging back through it for presents etc. I have no idea how, but sister knows who got what present and who gave it to them 😂

The kids play with the toys later on and I've the next few days.

Nobody I know does "one person opens, everyone watches".

No judgement here, just curious.

I have 5 kids, i generally sit by the tree and hand them out one at a time, youngest to oldest, only time we might have 2 opening a present at the same time is if they both have the same thing for example last year our twins (10) got a tablet each so they opened them at the same time, what we generally do is when first child wakes they come in to our room with their stocking and opens them and has a play while they wait for siblings to wake up, once everyone is up we all head downstairs open presents for an hour or so and then break for everyone to have breakfast, open some more presents and break for Christmas lunch and then open some more presents, we will open a few boxes along the way for DS (10 autistic)and DD (22 months) as they are inpatient to play with them but generally we will open the other boxes in the evening and all have a look/play, we are always out all day boxing day at grannies so some boxes don’t even get opened till 27th lol xx

Our two have stockings first thing, their main present mid morning and then relatives presents after lunch. They don't get too much but spreading it out helps them to appreciate what they have been given.

First of all we do stockings in my room. Then we have breakfast. Then we take it turns opening a present each. Once opened then go into a pile until everything is opened. Then the children choose which they’d like to play with first etc. Kids are 16, 12 and 10 and we’ve always done this. The kids all get excited watching other people open gifts and seeing what they’ve had. We all get to enjoy the giving as well as the receiving then too

We open slowly.

We try to intersperse it as otherwise it becomes overwhelming

We take it in turns to open a present until they are all opened (partly so that I can see who each gift was from to help with thanking people later). Then once everything is opened the DC can play with whatever they want, when they want (with supervision when they were younger obviously). MIL very much favours each opening one present then playing with it (or trying it out etc for the adults) before moving on to the next person opening and trying a present. We did this the one year that she hosted Xmas day and it just didn't work for us- it took absolutely ages and meant we couldn't do anything else all day as she didn't want us to leave until they were all opened and tried/played with.

Stockings upstairs then we go downstairs and the DC open all their presents. DS is WAAAY faster than DD so he’ll whip through his quite quickly while DD likes to savour each one as she goes.

Opening one then playing with it before opening the rest would t have worked for us. Both DC are autistic and it helps them to know what’s what before they go on to enjoy the rest of the day/play with what they have.

Also though, we have always had a Boxing Day box. We started the tradition when they were tiny as they got overwhelmed so easily. So we split their gifts and on Boxing Day they both get a red postbox. It’s filled with smaller, useful gifts - cute pencils, bath bombs, fidget spinner, hair clips, etc. The DC LOVE opening a box full of smaller treats so we’ve stuck with it. At some point over the years my DM got a local carpenter to make two custom red boxes for Boxing Day.

Our Boxing Day box comes from our main Christmas budget - DD in particular never really wants much and it’s a struggle to find anything she wants of any significance. She loves the Boxing Day box though. And they open that in exactly the same way as their Christmas Day gifts - open them all first and then go back for a proper inspection after.

No rules here. Rip off the paper and marvel at everything and be delighted! Then spend all day opening the boxes, playing with things and having fun. No need to overthink it

Open them all as quickly as possible in our house! Mostly they are only from us though so don't need to keep track of who has given things. We see Grandparents later on or Boxing Day so have a second round of presents then.

We have stockings and presents downstairs and have one huge hurrah with the presents from me and Santa. Then the tree ones from friends/family a bit more slowly so I can write down who have what. Then breakfast while everyone has a good look/play with what they have. Grandparents arrive later and we start round 2!

We open all in one go, but the ones under the tree are just from us anyway. Then as and when we see family over the Christmas week they open the presents from those people so I always know who got them what present

We pace ourselves. Stockings before breakfast, then main presents after breakfast, then open a few ( strategic so they can call family to say thanks) throughout the morning, then the grandparents come with another set of presents before Christmas dinner so open them, then Christmas dinner and then free for all with any that's left. DH usually has a few left on boxing day as he tends to be a bit comatosed after all the food.

The kids come downstairs and they ransack the place.

My eldest has no patience so she cracks on and opens every single present, piles them up and then plays with them later.

My youngest takes her time and opens one, plays with it and then opens the next one.

I just let them do whatever makes them happy tbh.

When I was little my Nan would spend Christmas with us. I used to distribute the presents then we would all just open them at our own pace. My Nan used to love to watch everyone open their presents and would get completely distracted by it and not open hers. I thought this was really odd behaviour. Now I love watching my son and grandson open their presents and they have to prompt me. OMG I’ve turned into my Nan ( which actually as she was the best person in the world is not actually a bad thing❤️😀.

My dc are older now so it has changed over the years. When small it was pretty much a ‘open everything and then play’, our house is tiny and we would just want the wrapping paper out of the way so nothing got throw away accidentally. As they have got older it has calmed down a lot and we just open slowly and stop to look at things. There are less presents now so we try and make it last. They still have stocking which they open before breakfast, the main gifts opened slowly during the morning.

Open all, then play. If you’re going to play between each opening, you’ll be opening for hours.

We open one present at a time in age order (there is usually about 12 of us) so this takes a while. After you’ve opened, you then have the whole round to look at / play with what you’ve been given. There are longer pauses for dinner prep, getting drinks, etc. so children have longer to get things out of packaging and play properly.

When my parents in law get DD presents. They get a lot and try and disward her from playing straight away. But if she wants I let her open, and, when they got her a fiddly craft as a big sister gift, first visit with a newborn, I enlisted them as helpers. 😈

Whatever the children want to do here. If it’s gifts from others then I make sure I supervise the opening and take a quick photo of the gift and the card for thank yous to be written later.

We do one person at a time, everyone watches. Once everything opened then playing starts. Works for us

We space it out. When DD was 2 and 3 it took us multiple days to open all her presents! I'd much rather she got to look at them properly.

Now she's 6 it takes most of the day!

We always do one person open and everyone see. (Perhaps 2 at once to speed up) and spread it before and after meal. And then play games etc.

I never wrapped the presents from Santa. They were arranged in individual spots under the tree. They could all do with them whatever they wished. No stockings here either apart from tiny ones stuffed with chocolate coins, that had their names on them. The little stockings were placed with each child's Santa presents under the tree.

We opened wrapped gifts from extended family on Chriatmas Eve and I kept a list of who gave what so the DCs could write a thank you note.

Slowly and see what everybody has been given. Play later as it would hold everything up by hours otherwise.

A bit of both. Stockings first thing in our bed, we start off taking turns but it ends up with both DC opening at the same time, which is fine as they've got more than we do!

After breakfast we go into the living room and they get their "big" presents (normally unwrapped but hidden under a blanket), then we do the ones under the tree. They usually open at the same time, with DH and I opening a couple every now and then. The DC spend a bit of time looking at each present, some more than others, but we're normally done by 3pm.

When I was a child I had to wait until after Christmas dinner to open the tree presents. Quite a few times we didn't start until gone 4pm, which was actualy torture! I swore I'd never do that to my kids...