When I was growing up our family would wake up and all six of us file down the staircase. Mom would cook breakfast, and one of us played santa and would hand out gifts one by one allowing each gift-receiver to thank the gift-giver. It was a pretty quiet time and didn’t last too long considering there were 4 kids to open their respective presents. Maybe that was part of it, we didn’t have much, so the joy lasted longer if we opened one by one.
In high school one of my boyfriends families separated all of the gifts in to piles by who they were for (there were piles, I couldn’t believe it!), and then there was great clamor and joyful noise as everyone opened at once and then several group hugs and kisses afterwards.
My husband’s family is kind of like that, but they just let the kids go find a present that’s theirs and open it like a treasure hunt saying thank you along the way before hunting for the next gift. Not quite a clamor, but not really as organized as Mom’s way either.
My mother takes issue with the other ways of opening the gifts. I can kind of see her point, in that she wants the grandkids to be able to say. “Oma gave me this for Christmas!” And I think she’s worried about them only thinking of the Holidays as a gift-day. But they’re a little young to remember who gave them what when they’re receiving about ten gifts anyway, (from the whole family combined).
But I also see it my husbands way: The point of giving the gift is that I wanted you to have something I knew you would love, not so that I can get recognition from you for having given it. Half the time they don’t put who the gift is from on the package or else they write ‘Santa’. He wants the kids to be able to come down the stairs and see all of these things sitting there and be excited and jump up and down, etc.
Our family has grown so large that it just would take hours to do it the way my mother would like, so this year I just held her presents for last and let her present them her way. I got so annoyed about the way the two were both getting annoyed over how to open the presents, that I put Mr. Mouse in charge and hid in the kitchen to make breakfast. Does anybody else have great differences in their familes in this respect? How do you guys open your gifts?
In my family, I (being the youngest) would climb into bed with Mom & Dad on Christmas morning about 4 a.m. Mom would force me to stay in bed until at least 7 a.m. (I remember many early Christmas mornings curled next to my mom in bed, just staring at the clock, waiting for it to be time). When it was finally time, she’d send me to the basement to wake up my brothers while she & dad got everything ready–put in the breakfast casserole, lit a fire in the fireplace, turned on the tree, got out donuts so we wouldn’t starve, started up the Christmas music, set up her camera etc. My brothers and I would wait on the stairs to the basement with the door closed until dad opened it. Then we’d walk into the living room and mom would snap pictures of us as we took in the tree and presents in all their glory. We have some fantastic Christmas pictures with wonderful looks on our faces.
Then we’d distribute gifts from under the tree–from eachother, grandparents, and Santa–and watch as we took turns opening one at a time. Usually took a couple of hours. When we were done, we’d open our stockings and then have breakfast and Mimosas in our p.j.'s. After that we had to clean up and bathe and help mom start fixing Christmas dinner for the party that afternoon.
Hubby’s family were allowed to open their stockings first, as soon as they got up, as a way to entertain themselves while waiting for everyone else to get up. They also opened one at a time but in age order. Plus it’s much more disorganized and chaotic than my family was–and no fire, christmas music or breakfast.
When I was a kid, it was a melee! As soon as we were allowed to go downstairs, we literally tore into our gifts. Once the dust settled, Dad would make breakfast (he only did this on Christmas and Easter).
My husband’s family does one gift at a time with everyone watching. It prolongs the fun, tho if my father-in-law decides to cut every taped joint with his pocket knife and fold every piece of wrapping paper, it becomes agonizing. He usually only does that with the first package to torment the grandkids.
Our little family group has adopted the one-at-a-time approach. My daughter still can’t get used to the melee when we go to see my sibs.
My younger brother and I would wake up early Christmas morning. We would play scratchy Christmas records, check out our stockings and eat candy while we waited for Mom and Dad to wake up. (When we were younger, Mom usually left one of our bigger presents unwrapped in the middle of the living room, tagged “From Santa”, but in recent years the stockings are the only thing we can open before the folks are up.) When we finally dragged Mom and Dad out of bed, we distributed all the presents, then opened them one at a time, taking turns in order from youngest person to oldest. This is still pretty much the routine we follow now that we’re supposedly grown up, except that we don’t get up quite as early anymore. The rotation system works pretty well with just four of us, but when we get together with Mom’s sister’s family later in the day, there are nine of us, and it can be torture. We still do it, though; it’s unthinkable to do Christmas presents any other way.
Step 1.: Put on “Sing Along with Mitch” Christmas record.
Step 2: Open the presents one at a time.
Step 3: Eat bagels and lox.
Yes, it takes a long time to open them one by one, but that’s the entertainment for the morning, right? Plus, it’s fun to see what everybody is getting, especially as we always throw some gag gifts into the mix.
Until just this past Christmas, as a matter of fact, the two youngest relatives at hand put the gifts in piles according to who they were for, and they were opened one by one in order of youngest to oldest. Being the youngest of 6, this worked out pretty good for me when I was a kid.
Now we’re “adults” and my sisters’ and my husbands get impatient with how long it takes, even though all of the siblings don’t always make it. Also these days there are no children running around. So this year, we proposed and did put all the packages in piles but then everyone opens one at the same time, thanks all around, then everyone opens another one, etc. It went much quicker and was just as fun. I think if I had/have kids I would do the open-one-at-a-time thing, though.
Thanks guys, I like the idea of separating by person and then youngest opens all his first. I think that’s what I’m gonna end up doing next year. This way the husband gets his hyperactive kid and the kid can run around and give out thank yous/kisses at the end of his turn to all.
I have a get-together with friends. We draw names for gift exchange, and everyone brings candy or stocking stuffers for everyone.
Rules of gifts: no gift certificates, and get as close to $20 as you can.
Everyone must be present and all gifts must be under the tree. Then I hand out gifts (hey, it’s my apartment) one at a time, people open them, we take pictures. Repeat until there are no presents under the tree.
Mr. Legend, the kids, and I go to his parents’ house on Christmas Eve and spend the night there. His brother is also there, visiting from out of town. My mom and brother come up for breakfast on Christmas morning, and the kids are always up and raring to go before they get to the house. So, we’ve come up with this system:
By tradition, the Santa presents (one per child, their “heart’s desire” present) are left unwrapped by the hearth, along with the stockings. The kids can play with these presents and dig through their stockings as soon as they get up in the morning. The adults start breakfast, everyone has to sit down at the table and eat like civilized people, and then we all go in to open presents, one by one. We have the kids take turns pulling presents out from under the tree at random and everyone watches as each person opens his or her present. Since there are nine of us, and each of us has given at least one present (and typically two or three) to each of the others, this takes forever. That’s a good thing, though, because we’re all stuffed from breakfast and we have to do something to while away the time before Christmas dinner, late that afternoon.
I like the idea of it taking forever to get through all the presents. There’s something a little deflating about preparing for a holiday for weeks and then watching people rip through it in minutes.