Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls When do you open your Christmas presents?

Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat... Santa's coming with a sleigh full of toys for good little girls and boys...

Okay, okay. So you're starting to accumulate some presents. And there'll be more between now and December 25th. So are you good and patient... or are you bad and impatient?


Wendy

In my family we always opened presents on Christmas Day. But we never waited until afternoon. <g> The rule was that we could get up as early as we wanted, but we weren't allowed to go where the tree was. And we weren't allowed to wake our parents up (on purpose *or* on accident) until 7 am.

Then we had to wait the eternity it took them to get ready. <g>

Then we opened presents, sometimes stopping midway through for, oh, food or something.

We also opened one on Christmas Eve. Usually from the grandparents. And then got sent to bed at about 6 o'clock or so, while my parents stayed up watching old movies, drinking wine, and wrapping presents. We, on the other hand, got to stay up as late as we wanted -- *upstairs* -- and played with whatever present we opened. I still remember the year I got the board game "Careers for Girls" and my brother became a SuperMom. <g>

That tradition has mostly gone out the window, seeing as we're adults and, oh, lookie there, not at home anymore. But I still wait until Christmas Day.

It's tradition.

Bethy

I don't open presents until Christmas morning. My family's always had a set tradition: wake up, open stockings, eat breakfast, get dressed, and open presents. A few years, we were able to open one and only 1 present on Christmas Eve, but those years were few and far between.

Any present opened before Christmas Eve is a birthday present, of course. :-D Even then, most of the time, I want until my birthday, the 21st. Ah, anticipation! What a wonderful thing.

Christmas just isn't Christmas without all the presents under the tree. Once all the presents are unwrapped, and the space under the tree is empty, it means Christmas is gone, and I'll have to wait another 11 months to revel in the season again.

Noticed Bethy's comments on what time to get up.. it used to be that we weren't allowed to wake up the parents until 7am. But that was Mom's rule, not Dad's. After the divorce, it was usually just once everyone got up. Last year, everyone was at my Dad's, including my mom... Dad was the first one up, somewhere around 6am, and the rest of us followed soon after. I think my middle brother had to go wake up the other two around 7, because we couldn't wait any longer.

I'm all about opening presents Christmas day! I actually have about 4 Christmases. First with my friends, we open our gifts with each other. Then, there's one in Orlando where many of my dad's relatives live. Then the third one is in San Antonio where all of mom's relatives live and in the surrounding areas. Finally, we have a family Christmas with just my folks and my sometimes sister, depending on if she can get off work. I know this year she won't be able to, so I'll celebrate Christmas with her in San Antonio, and then she'll head back to Birmingham.

JD

We always wait until Christmas morning, but like Bethy, we were always allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve - usually mine to my brother and his to me. As adults, we've carried on that tradition with our kids.

When I was young, it wasn't unheard of for me to wake the entire house up at 5 am. Of course, that usually meant I'd fall asleep during Christmas Morning mass, something my mother wouldn't tolerate. I do remember the years, when my brother and I were teenagers, that it was my mother waking us up around 9 or 10 am to open gifts. Talk about jaded!

Something my husband does to our kids which his father did to him and his sisters - after waking up, the kids have to stay upstairs while dad goes down to check out if Santa made a visit or not. The poor kids are squirming at the top of the stairs, waiting for the go ahead to come on down. This year it will be to our advantage as we plan to give our kids a hamster, and we want to put it under the tree at the last possible minute (we have a cat).

Lynn

I'm with Bethy and Karen. Our family tradition has always been that the kids get to open their stockings as soon as they wake up, but the big presents have to wait until after breakfast. In the old days, Mum and Dad would carefully prepare the room before we were allowed in, organising the presents into a pile per person. Now, everyone brings their presents down during the evening of Christmas Eve and places them under the tree. Then on Christmas morning, someone sits and hands them out. When we've all got all our presents, the grand opening frenzy starts.

After presents, Dad goes off to church and Mum stays at home to tend the turkey and Christmas pud. The rest of us play with our presents <g>.

Then Christmas dinner at around 1pm and then the traditional walk. Traditionally, anyone under 20 and over about 10 stays at home (walking is for old fogies), and the oldies go out because they're desperate to shake all that food down somehow <g>.

Oh, forgot to say - usually, I'll open any presents from friends just before I leave to travel wherever Christmas is. Small or light-weight things I might take with me to open on the day.

Yvonne

Short answer - I'm schizophrenic.

I go to great lengths not to peek at the presents under the tree - and then generally succumb around about Christmas Eve. I've been known to consider one second past midnight well past time to stop waiting. But sometimes I don't even wait till then.

Don't ask me why I can succeed in resisting temptation until one day away from when I can legitimately open them. Maybe it's some kind of twisted inner rebellion thing.

LabRat

PS - Love those icons on the poll, Wendy. Cute!

I don't get a lot of presents from friends since most of my friends are not Christian -- that's what I get for going to a very multicultural university . My mom is pretty much the only person who gets me presents at all (and this year the only present i even want is for her to be on the road to recovery), but normally, she has a pile of presents that she puts in her room right next to her dresser that I generally snoop into. She even has me wrap all the family's presents for her, so I usually know what I am getting and opening the presents is just a formality. Like for my birthday this year, my mom took me to Circuit City about a month before my birthday and bought me a TV -- and then Shrek 2. My dad adn sister generally don't get me anything. So, come to think of it, opening presents has not been a big deal to me since I was a little kid and still believed in Santa Claus .

Actually, come to think of it, I can't stand Christmas. It starts with my dad and my sister fighting about him wanting to use the video camera. Then it continues Christmas mornnig when my mom and dad and I are all awake and my sister refuses to get up. Another fight ensues. Then while we are opening presents, my sister sulks on the couch hiding from the camera. Then when we are finished, I fight wiht my parents about having to go to Aunt Nancy's house for her get together. I have always hated my mom's family's get togethers. They are loud, boisterous, and annoying. My mom has 5 sisters. Then they all have kids and grandkids. It is chaos. And I dislike most of the people there. So Christmas has never been a happy holiday for me.

- Laura

I said it depends on rather my son is working or off for Christmas. In the last few years int's been several days after.

Most years we celebrate with my in-laws. My m-i-l is into Christmas in a *BIG* way, and loves giving presents. They've got the money to indulge themselves, too, so we get some pretty incredible presents. Last year, I opened a package in my stocking to find that it was a bottle of Woolite That was for the fancy dress she'd also bought for me, that I hadn't opened yet...

Anyway, we've got some traditions, starting Christmas Eve. My in-laws tend to have huge houses with lots of guest rooms (I can remember Christmases in Tennesee, New Jersey, Florida, and Georgia) so the four siblings, their spouses and children, and more far-flung relations and friends might be staying in the house. For Christmas Eve, instead of a regular dinner, she sets out a buffet... shrimp, crackers, oysters... my favorite is the cream cheese/crabmeat/cocktail sauce combo but there are a number of other things, too -- the same foods every year. Then, when we've eaten, we might open one present -- but only one. The gifts we kids are giving each other are under the tree, with a few from Grandma and Grandpa.

After the kids are in bed, we bring out all the hidden presents -- a closet or two full of wrapped boxes. Oh, and the wrapping paper is all color-coordinated <g> This doubles or triples the amount of packages under the tree for morning.

Is it any wonder my kids believe in Santa?

Anyway, on Christmas morning, my m-i-l, who's a light sleeper, starts rousting out everyone around 6 am... and it's a good idea to grab a snack, 'cause we won't be having breakfast til after 10. Afterwards, kids play with presents, and grown-ups try on their new outfits, and we're all on our own for food until about 6pm.

This year, we'll be staying home. We've gotten a few deliveries already. And I love Amazon, 'cause they do my shipping for me... but I love staying with my in-laws <g>

PJ
who is somewhat shocked to find herself saying that last line...

Well, since I am muslim I don't celebrate Christmas .

However... the 25th of December is my birthday . )

Then, we sing happy birthday together, cut the cake, and everybody gives me presents (only one because of my birthday) And then they start exchanging presents between themselves. So no. I don't see any of the presents before Christmas. They wouldn't let me.

To call it a night, we exchange secret santa presents. We all laugh about the weird speeches people give about others.

I might say that although I am not Christian anymore, I do have a lot of respect for this holiday, and I am very proud of being born on this special date. So...

Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

Talking about Christmas and exchanging of gifts... there's one aspect of the this gift culture that really puzzles me, and that is you *open* your presents in front of the people who gave it to you.

The first time this happened, I was taken aback. For the Chinese, it's extremely rude. The proper thing to do is to open it out of sight. In fact, if you can wait till the giver leaves, that's even better. *shrugs*

That said, I have a difficult time waiting to open my presents. In fact, one of the worst things you can do to me is to give me a birthday present early. But I digress.

I try really hard to wait till it's Christmas to open gifts. If the presents are out of sight, and if my siblings have to wait with me, I find the torture easier to bear.

Ah, but the best thing about opening it in front of the person who gave it to you (when that's possible; many of my present-giving friends are in different countries ) is that they get to see your reaction when you find out what they gave you. And that's the best part of all about giving someone a present.


Wendy

Reading all these replies has reminded me of something else -- at my house, it was never an opening 'frenzy.'

All the presents get mixed up under the tree. The kids took turns 'playing Santa,' as we called it -- delivering. So first kid goes up, gets a present for everyone else and one for him/herself. Then we take turns unwrapping.

The reason for this is twofold:

1. It makes it last longer. <g> Especially important as we got older and got fewer (but more expensive) gifts.

2. It allowed my mom to write a list of what we got from whom. So it was nice and handy when it came time to write thank-you cards. "What did I get from Grandma and Grandpa, again?!?"

And, metwin, I'd never known that about the Chinese culture -- not to open gifts in front of the giver. In my family at Christmas, all the extended relatives were long-distance, so the only ones we opened in front of the giver were the ones from siblings and my parents/"Santa." And, as Wendy said, we always had fun seeing the expressions on their faces when they opened things. Especially as they un*wrapped* things, seeing as my family likes to disguise/double wrap/use obscene amounts of tapet, etc.

Bethy

When I was a kid, before I stopped believing in Santa, I thought my parents had a list from Santa and were kind of like the elves helping him. So they left all the toys and stuff in the boot of the car, and Santa retrieved them on Christmas night, then climbed down the chimney, entered the sitting-room through the fireplace, and put presents under the tree or in my slippers (we used slippers instead of stockings).

Then, once I figured out that my parents were actually doing the chimney-climbing (so to speak ), it didn't take me long to realise that the best place to hide presents was my parents' closet (Pam, if I were you I'd find a less obvious hideout ), and so I peeked. Oh, all I could ever see before Christmas was wrapped packages of various shapes and forms, but that was something. I could shake and try to figure out what they were.

Back when I was a kid, we always opened our presents on Christmas morning, after my grandmother arrived at our place for breakfast. It was a magic moment. Then after my grandmother died, we started going to my mom's friends' place for Christmas Day, and so we switched to opening presents on Christmas Eve, after dinner. Last year, though we reverted back to Christmas morning, as there's more magic into it.

No clue how we're going to handle things this year, as it's the first time we're going to celebrate Christmas at my place, and we'll have two guests of honour: Bethy and her sister.

Kaethel

I voted for 'other'.

We don't have the tradition of Christmas presents in my place. My brothers and I never believed in Santa, so it kinda made no sense to buy presents and stock them up under the tree. Besides, the idea of our Christmas presents was going shopping all together and each one would choose what they would like to have.
When we got a present from uncles, aunts, grandparents, godparents, neighbours, whatever, we opened it at the moment we got it. And we still do

The December-January period is full of presents, though:
December 9th: Saint Anna's day. I celebrate my name, and so do grandma Anna and my cousin... Anna.
December 24th: My brother Thodoris's birthday.
December 25th: Christmas. My brother Christos celebrates his name, along with grandpa Christos.
January 1st: Saint Vasilios day. That's the Greek version of Santa Claus (so, technically, that's when the presents should be opened). My mother celebrates her name (Vasiliki).
January 22nd: Saint Anastasios's day. My father celebrates his name.

All five of us receive many gifts. Why wait for a specific day to open them?

See ya (and Merry Christmas),
AnnaBtG.

My mom always hid the presents in the very same place each year. When I was younger, it was a hard to reach space, but that was remedied by dragging a chair stacked with books to climb. When I was a bit taller, it was just a matter of tippy-toeing and stretching as far as I could.

When my mom got wise to what I was doing- really, it took her years to do so- she started wrapping all the gifts as soon as she bought them. Which saved me a lot of time. If I couldn't figure it out by shaking it or weighing it...I don't want to brag...but ok. I am unusually talented in this area!! Really! Say there was a Jeopardy category 'What's In the Box?' And they handed each contestant a package to shake, I would own it. Run the category.

But I digress...

If I couldn't tell by the shape or feel or noise- and my mom got creative and began wrapping things inside of things, once she just wrapped her suitcase which was packed full of my gifts- I just unwrapped them when no one was looking. I was good at not tearing the paper. Just lifting the seam and using a bit of glue to put it back. Tape was a give away. Mom counted how many pieces she used.

So, see, if all went well, when Christmas morning dawned and the family gathered to open their gifts carefully one by one, with lots of oohing and ahhing, I would know *exactly* what I was getting.

"Why spoil the fun??" I've been asked many times over the years. But, for me, that *was* the fun!

Still is, actually.

I think packages with "Do Not Open Until Christmas" on them are just...cute.

CC

CC!!! /me is shocked! Shocked, I says!

But...but...you mean when you said you knew exactly what I'd got you for Christmas but it was just an extremely lucky guess because, of course, you hadn't opened the package and were following orders....

...and when you said you'd been up half the night reading that novel I got you, but only by using your x-ray glasses through the wrapping paper..because, of course, you hadn't opened it yet...

...you...were...lying!!!!!!!!!!

I'm stunned.

Speechless.

Really.

LabRat

Oh, good heavens no, Lab!!

I wasn't speaking of your package.

Yours is under the tree still in its original paper. I was simply testing those x-ray vision goggles on it. In the interest of science. Greater good and all that.

Wouldn't want there to be any misunderstanding!

CC- who finished said novel last night, through the paper, of course...and wowza.

I never look forward to Christmas. It doesn't matter whether it's Christmas Eve or Christmas day. All I ever get in my stocking is a lump of coal... and I don't even have a coal-fired stove.

Tank (who says, Bah, Humbug!)