do you let you children open their presents as they see relatives? advice needed

[emily05]

all of dh relatives and a couple of mine want ds to open his presnts when we see them over christmas. Nobody ever bothers visiting us, so we have to ferry around. so ds will get the majority of his presents on the 26th, 27th and 28th of dec. He will have about 10 presents on christmas day (mainly from us)

How do I explain this with regards to father christmas? does father christmas leave presents at everybody elses house for ds? what do you all do with regards to presents? are the ones you get your children the only ones they open on christmas day?

Hope that this makes sense x

As I mentioned we wait until after lunch and also open one present each at a time. I think this started so that we could keep track of who bought what for the thank you letters. Due to divorced and remarried parents our family is large and we used to get LOTS of presents so I guess this was a way of making us 'appreciate' them all. I am nosy too and love to see who has bought what for others.
Incidentally I think children want to believe in FC and so won't get distracted by things being different in other families. I used to spend one Christmas with my Mum and the next with my Dad. Dad's FC always wrapped the presents, Mum's didn't. At Dads my grandpa used to put something under the tree from FC too (as well as his present to us,) Dad's was a stocking on the end of the bed, Mums a pillowcase outside the door etc etc. I don't remember ever questioning this and even remember telling someone off for not believing at school when I was about 8 (even though I knew they were right really.) I wanted to believe and also worried that if I didn't he would stop coming lol. I wouldn't worry about a few missing presents on the day. The children will be glad to get them whoever they are from and whenever they get them.

Tortoiseshell - if someone made that request to me then yes, I would make sure that their gift was handed over/opened in front of them, so long as it was AFTER Christmas, not before. And it wouldn't be Christmas day as that is just the 3 of us. No problems with sorting out someone's request. But just never had anyone ask or want that. Everyone in the family go about it in the same way.

Definitely after Christmas Hula - anything given before Christmas with us gets put under the tree. It is really interesting how differently everyone does it!

When I was growing up Father Christmas bought all the presents and I still wonder how the hell my Parents did it, we never saw a single present until Xmas morning. The drawing room door was always tied shut so no one could get in and everyone had to be up and get breakfast before we all lined up in age order to go into the present room, I will never forget the site of the drawing room on Xmas morning I loved it and still do, I am one of 7 children so you can just imagine how many presents there were. We then all sat down next to our pile of pressies and they were then opened in age order the whole unwrapping part could go on for over an hour by the time everyone is done.

I plan to keep this tradition up with my kids as it made me so so happy, seriously the drawing room on Xmas morning was like an Aladins cave, I think not seeing any pressies till Xmas morning is truly magical.

When giving gifts to any kids I always always make the effort to get the gifts there before Xmas and I never ever expect to see the child opening them I just don't feel the need to be congratulated for buying them such a great gift.

It amazes me how different everyone is and I think it's lovely, it just proves that Xmas is special to people because of the way they celebrate it and the things they do with there family and friends other people just don't matter.

O love the fact that everyone has such different ways of doing things, yet Christmas remains magical for each and every one of us. And I am amazed at how well the Father Christmas story, in all its forms, keeps going for so ong with children when there are so mnay different ways it is celebrated. Amazing!

Flutter - Errr I don't want to be congratulated for my present but don't feel a thank you is too much to ask .
I love the vision of your drawing room though and agree with your other points about Christmas being special because of the differences each family has.

SKYLERtnightholynight - we always phone people on the day (grandparents, great grandparents, aunties and uncles, close friends) where we can. We will send an e-mail to those onlone the next morning generally. And we send out proper thank you letters to EVERYONE who has sent DD a gift. No one doesn't get a thank you.

Oh I agree that everyone should be thanked for there pressies, would be very rude if they didn't get a thank-you. There is no excuse for rudeness no matter who brings rhe pressies I just don't think it matters whether you are there to see them open it or not thats all.

Hula - You do more than me, writing to everyone, but then we see a lot of the family over Christmas when the presents are given (at least that is my excuse ) I was just responding to this part of Flutters post:
"I just don't feel the need to be congratulated for buying them such a great gift."
Flutter - I agree that it doesn't matter if I see the unwrapping. We are in Cyprus and MIL insists on the webcam going into action on MSN EVERY time she sends dd1 anything (birthday, xmas, easter). This can be difficult due to the time difference and her working hours and can be a bit of a pain. I always make the effort though (even though dh actually says not to bother) as I know it means so much to her.

I dont' want to be 'congratulated' for the present - it's just nice to see the child's reaction when they open it, and also nice to make a connection with the child in that way, especially with littler ones.

Flutter - that sounds a bit like our living room - no presents at all on Xmas Eve and then stuffed full on Xmas day.