Before you wrap up toys...

[TheHouseofMirth]

I may be pointing out the bleeding obvious to most of you but, especially if this is your first toy-filled Christmas, I really recommend taking all those infuriating twisty ties off before you wrap them up so the children can get at them straightaway. Same goes for putting in batteries. Will save you a lot of stress!

Yes! I second that. Those blooming ties are a nightmare, take ages to get off and then end up all over the floor on Christmas morning.

I was in that mess last year (DD was 1.9yo) as I had not encountered the twisty ties to such a degree before and did not anticipate the trauma they would cause!

And charge things up! I charged DD1's DS last year before wrapping it up, so she could play straight away [smug emoticon]

Was about to post the same Poledra.

Definately. I took out one of ds3 presents to remove ties and insert batteries. Had a quick go to ensure all working/make sure I could do it, so that I could tell him, rather than faffing about trying to read instruction & work it out during a wild rumpus of 4 over-excited kids. Am I glad I did, cos have decided it is miles too difficult for him, he'll never be able to do it and will be very disappointed with it, so it's now going to be ds2's birthday present (2nd January) and need to rush out tomorrow to buy something else. SO glad I checked.

It does look fun though (Bop it 2 extreme case anyone's interested)

and check they work!

i like to get rid of half the packaging so its tidier on the day.....with 5 dc its mad enough!!

Great advice thank you!! Seems obvious now its been pointed out to me but hadn't thought of it myself.........

Genius! Of course, I have already wrapped DS's presents...

Oh well, will get him to remove the tags himself as an exercise in indepedence and fine motor skills.

Have strong scissors and teeny screwdrivers handy on Christmas morning when unrapping too, finding more and more little toys not only covered in wire ties, but also head in place with tiny Philips screw fgs.

Need handy for unwrapping on Christmas morning

Scissors
screw driver
batteries
paper recycling bag
bin bag
neurofen

I've bought mine walkie-talkies for Christmas. I so want to test them out beforehand to make sure they work, but it is hard to test them by yourself. Dh is either never here, or the older kids are around.... We might have to get up at 3 in the morning some time this week just to try them out!

It has just taken me 25 minutes to wrestle a Fisher Price Imaginext Firestation from its packaging...

Oh no, just wrapped mine WITH twisty ties Will do better for Christmas 2010, thanks for the tip

Good idea. Will be wrapping at the last minute again tomorrow.

I hate that you need a screwdriver to get the toys out of the box.

Oh bugger, its too late. Mine are already wrapped and now I wish they weren't!! Will remember for next year...

I'm sure toys didn't come wrapped so strangley when I was little.

When dd was 18mo she was given a beautiful wooden trike - in a small rectangular box. We knew what it was and should have been suspicious. Of course, what she took out of the wrapping paper was several pieces of painted wood, a packet of screws and some wood glue (that needed 24hrs to dry).

We learnt our lesson. Next year when grandma sent a wooden doll's highchair in a small rectangular box, I unwrapped it, assembled it, and re-wrapped.

Those metal ties are murder though.

I submitted the gist of the OP as a 'tip of the day' thingy a couple of weeks ago and they didn't chose it. See, if they'd only chosen it people wouldn't now be reading this and looking at a pile of wrapped presents wishing they'd thought of it!

ANd don't leave it too late.

I assembled 2 yo ds's little tykes car on Christmas eve to find the roof section did not fit

I do that too and the great thing is all that packaging they come in is recycled a week or two earlier so it's not cluttering up the recyccle bin. Those twisty ties are just manageable ( but they seem to place them in really awkward parts but I hate the screws they use to fix cars to the box most, you need a little screw driver to get those out.

Naah! Leave the twisty ties in, and insist that each toy is removed from box and played with for at least five minutes before they get another. It slows them down and delays claims of boredom before lunch is even served.

[Mean Mummy emoticon]

Putting batteries in is a kind thing to do, though!

I'm only an auntie and I've learnt the value of this!

Yes don't do it if you have a small pre verbal child or indeed a verbal one, that may completely ignore some of the gifts.

If you watch carefully you can see which ones are not going to be a big hit, silently remove them and use them for friends' children's birthdays later...or take them abck to the shop.

Or buy second hand off e-bay, then there isn't any packaging at all

The twisty ties are bad enough but the screws that go though into the bottom of the toy ?

I make sure I charge up any items and last year DS1 seemed to be a little disapointed with his camera. I asked him in the afternoon if he was going use it and he said forlornly he needed a battery. I HAD told him the battery was upstairs but he thought for some reason I was holding it back

He was so excited when he realised it had been charged