So, does your family cheat and open your gifts on Christmas Eve or do you wait until the morning of?
My family, as you probably guessed, opens ours Christmas morning.
My family opens ONE gift each Christmas Eve, then waits to do the rest the next morning.
I think it started back when my mom would work really late, and my dad would let me stay up to wait for her–he’d let me open one gift before she got home to shut me up.
We get to open ONE present and our stockings before breakfast on Christmas. Then we have to chill for a while…eat …and then back to the presents.
Christmas Eve is reserved for church.
We open on Christmas morning, and make it last as long as possible.
First, stockings, but stockings cannot be opened until all ‘children’ are present in Grandma’s living room. I put ‘children’ in quotation marks since, as the ten of us cousins range in age from 16 to 30, few of us are actual children any more. But we still get stockings, as long as we claim to still believe in Santa.
Then, a hearty breakfast. Grandpa makes fried potatoes-and-eggs with giant, thick slices of bacon. And toast. And tea, with the kettle sitting on the cast-iron wood-burning stove that is the house’s main source of heat.
Then the presents proper. They are opened by only one person at a time, starting with the youngest family member and going toward the oldest. Each present is oohed and aahed appropriately, and thanks are directed toward the giver. There is some minor discussion of each gift and its merits. After your presents are opened, you return them to your pile under the tree to observe the opening of others’ presents. Playing with your presents before the Unwrapping is complete is permitted only for Very Small Children, and we don’t currently have any, though one of my cousins is now pregnant.
The process can take up to three hours, and we enjoy making it last.
Then, a hearty lunch. Generally involving ham. Ham is important.
Then, the afternoon is spent calling faraway relatives on speakerphone, playing with our presents (or reading them- somehow, nearly everyone always gets at least one book), or napping.
Incidentally, the Christmas tree lights are always plugged into the Clapper, for ease of turning on and off. But we’re a merry family, and our loud laughter frequently sets off the Clapper and makes the tree go dark, at which we laugh harder and clap until it comes back on.
Since we have two boys (ages 6 & 8) we open all presents except the “Santa” presents on Christmas Eve, and have a nice family dinner.
Santa doesn’t wrap, and they both write letters to him asking for one special gift. (Now that I think of it – where the heck is Santa’s letters back? We’ve always got them in previous years (a letter from Santa, with perhaps a puzzle or something) - is the postal service trying to save a few bucks? We want our Santa letters!!
We usually wait til the afternoon when all the family arrives, but then there aren’t any small kids living here. When I was small we opened one the night before and then the rest while mom chugged coffee to perk up from being woken at dawn.
We used to do one present Christmas Eve, the rest Christmas morning. Last year, we cheated and did them all Christmas Eve so we could sleep in. I’ve no idea what we’re doing this year.
Since we have two impatient boys (ages 6 & 8) we open all presents except the “Santa” presents on Christmas Eve, and have a nice family dinner.
Santa doesn’t wrap the gifts that appear under the tree on Christmas morning (they both write letters to him asking for one special gift.) Now that I think of it – where the heck is Santa’s letters back? We’ve always got them in previous years (a letter from Santa, with perhaps a puzzle or something) - is the postal service trying to save a few bucks? We want our Santa letters!!
In my family, we always opened gifts on Christmas morning, followed by a huge breakfast.
My in-laws, who are from South America, like to make a big production out of Christmas Eve. We’ll eat a late dinner, then open gifts at midnight. After that, we’ll carouse until at least 2 or 3 in the morning. It’s great fun.
My mother’s side of the family is French-Canadian, so we usually have the “Réveillon” on Christmas Eve. We’ll go to midnight mass, then come home, eat, open some presents, stay up till at least 3am and party.
The rest of the presents are for Christmas morning, along with the stockings. And tons and tons of food.
But then there’s my father’s side of the family! We used to go there for Christmas dinner, or have them over, and then there would be more presents and food. Now that my parents are divorced, I go visit my father’s side of the family on Boxing Day… it’s like Christmas never ends!
We do all the Christmas presents and Santa on Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas Day, we have birthday cake and open birthday presents (both me and one of my sisters have Christmas birthdays).
Unlike most Scandanavians we open on Christmas day. One present at a time starting with the youngest family member to the oldest. Since there are 17 of us, this takes a while. We eat “breakfast” (just coffee and cookies) during the three or so hours it takes to get through all the gifts.
Then we fondue.
We were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve, before Church. The rest are for Christmas morning.
We then eat sticky buns, chug coffee, and spend the rest of the day playing board games (and since we always get at least 1 new game per person, there’s lots to play).
Christmas morning is our tradition. Except that one year when I snuck out late in the evening Christmas Eve and opened the packages enough to see what was in them…
Until my sister was old enough not to believe in Santa, we opened them Xmas morning-and it sucked, because I could never get to sleep.
Now, we open them after church on Christmas Eve, usually around 8 pm. It’s nice. Then we can sleep in a little the next morning, before we eat breakfast.
Christmas Eve we have the Wry in-laws here and open gifts for about sixty hours - the Wry Guy comes from a family of very conspicuous consumers. Christmas morning it’s just the three of us (me, the WryGuy and the Terrible Teen) and we open our gifts to one another and Santa gifts (the Terrible Teen hasn’t yet admitted non-belief, but she’s beginning to slip up). Christmas afternoon it’s over to my Mom’s house for dinner and more conspicuous consumerism.
Both.
We go to Christmas Eve lunch with my father’s side of the family, then return home and open up gifts with my immediate family. Christmas Eve night we open gifts with the paternal side of the family. Christmas morning, when I was a kid, we opened Christmas stockings and Santa gifts, then Christmas afternoon we go to my maternal grandparents.
By tradition, the kids get to open one Christmas eve, which they still do, though they are now 17 and 22. We try to make it a trivial one.
On Christmas day, we start with butterhorns, a wonderful pastry, made the day before, and coffee, and open presents, then break for shrimp, cheese, crackers, meats and champagne, and open more presents, then break for prime rib, then open more presents if there are any left, which there usually are.
Usually, we go to my grandmother’s house on Christmas Eve night and eat lots of yummy food and open presents with the extended family. Depending on how impatient everyone is, we might all open one present when we get back home, but not always. Then on Christmas morning, the rest of the presents get opened and my mom bakes cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
Since my parents divorced, a new tradition has been tacked on. My dad comes and fetches the siblings and me bright and early Christmas morning and drags us over to his house to open presents and have a big lunch…and then go to the movies, because by noon, my dad is bored with sitting around the house looking at an empty tree. (Last year, I fell asleep in the middle of the Star Trek movie. This year, I’m picking the movie.)
Nobody heard of Boxing Day? Barbarians! 