When do you open prezzies?

[gills8752]

We were allowed our stockings when ever we woke up, normally around 8/9ish am. But presents had to wait till after Christmas dinner around 2pm. We all opened them one by one and watched each other open theirs, takes a few hours and makes sure everyone really appreciates their gifts and enjoys giving presents and the whole idea behind Christmas.
I often worry Christmas has turned into a totally commercial holiday of mayhem!
I was super ranty last xmas when all the xmas decorations were all related to yuletide and all the happy Christmas signs were replaced with happy holidays. Where did Christmas go? I'm not a church goer now but was brought up Christian and Christmas to me is still a religious celebration. if you want to celebrate yuletide - go ahead, just don't pretend it's Christmas!!

(god, I'm in a ranty mood today! I'm gonna make myself some enemies today! eeeeck!)

 

[NoSpringChick]

^ it's happy Holidays so as not to offend non christians... and they are festive lights and festive trees now- not christmas lights or trees.

I am not religious but they will always be christmas lights, christmas trees and happy christmas and if that offends anyone, well frankly, tough titty.

 

[Waiting4Bump]

When we were little, we used to stay up until like 10pm (waiting for Santa) & then go to bed. Me & my little brother would wake up at like 4am, normally with him jumping on me shouting "Shall we see if he has beeen?!" So we just to go into Mum and Dad and get them up. Basically, Mum used to make us go and sit with the presents (by the way, does anyone else ALWAYS shiver on Christmas Morning?), while she got a bin bag for the wrapping paper.

So for us, as kids it started about 4am, & we stayed up until like 11pm!

Now, My brother still wakes me up at 6, saying "Shall we see if he has been?" So we go downstairs, Mum hears us, and follows with a bin bag! We open presents, & then go back up to bed for a couple of hours with a new DVD and chocolates!

We are still like big kids! But the getting up early is part of Christmas! x

 

[tasha41]

Hmm we always had to wait until like 8am Christmas morning to open gifts, when my parents felt like getting up and my dad got his coffee! Before that we could just get our stockings.

This year.. we'll have to wait until OH comes over so definitely not 8am. Unless he stays overnight.

 

[gills8752]

^ it's happy Holidays so as not to offend non christians... and they are festive lights and festive trees now- not christmas lights or trees.

I am not religious but they will always be christmas lights, christmas trees and happy christmas and if that offends anyone, well frankly, tough titty.

That's what I hate about it. The UK's main religion is Christianity and even if you are not Christian we celebrate Christmas . i get soo annoyed we're trying to not offend other religions when this is our country. I have no problem with people celebrating their own religious customs, just don't take away our Christmas! Grrrr!

Sorry I'll stop stealing this thread!!

 

[NoSpringChick]

^I agree with you. We shoudl be able to keep it as Christmas. Not even sure if any other religions are offended or if it isnt a 'just incase' thing anyway so as not to offend.

It's about Santa anyway as far as I'm concerned.

...Eating treats, openeing presents and watching daft movies.

 

[gills8752]

Exactly.

 

[hexyewdancer]

When i lived at home my parents wouldnt allow me and brother to be up before 8am. Think it was due to my mum being up all night and she needed to sleep. We used to wake every hour and was dying to get up. Once we was up we had to eat something first .

I spent xmas last year in my own home with me and my husband and we got up about 10am and just lay in bed opening presents. Then went to both our parents homes.

This year we have LO and he will only be 6 months so we will just have to play it by ear and see when he wakes. He wont understand a thing this xmas so im not going to wake him to have him grumpy all day. Maybe me and hubby can open our presents before Roman wakes up. That way everything will be focused on him.

 

[AnnaHughes]

My sisters birthday is xmas day ( she is now 24 so not to bad!) and we lived on a farm growing up, so our day went something like below:

7am wake up,
8am, dad come in from milking, Sister would open 1 birthday pressie before breakfast
8:15am, family breakfast
8:45, dad back outside to do jobs
10:30am, Open xmas pressies
2pm, sister have 'birthday time' with pressies and cake before rest of day turns back to xmas

I personally dont see the point in getting up in the middle of the night, but as you can see, that is just what i was used to as a kid!

 

[NoSpringChick]

getting up in the middle of the night added to the excitement

 

[nataliecn]

When we were really young, it was so early. Like 5-6am. The last year I had with my mom and brothers, it wasn't til about 9am, because no one was as excited, and my brother decided to stay up til 4am playing video games and didn't want to get outta bed!

This year though, it'll be whatever time Grady gets up, and after having his breakfast! And then we'll let him at it!

 

[Nic1107]

We do Christmas Eve at Grandma's with my dad's family, where we all exchange our gifts after dinner. On Christmas morning we open the presents from Santa and our parents (and our parents open their gifts from each other) whenever we've all dragged ourselves out of bed, then my mom's side of the family comes over for dinner and we have our gift exchange with them after we eat.

 

[Jemma_x]

When i was a kid my mum and dad used to say to me and my sister were not getting up before 7am but me and my sis were always up about 5 so we'd go and change the clocks around the house so it looked like it was 7 but then they always realised so they'd let us open a couple of presents but then we had to go back to bed til 7

 

[Squidge]

I used to go running round the house at 4/5am waking everybody up so i could open my presents but my god i used to get a good telling off As the years passed, i had to make it later and later. Now we live on our own though, it's probably around 8am when we get up and make a start then

 

[Kate84]

We open at 5-6am I Love this moment

 

[NoSpringChick]

I've decided to just wait till she has her bottle etc so will be around 9am ish... how I will wait that long though I shall never know!!!
I wont get her dressed though, going to start the new pyjamas thing off on xmas eve so the video and photos look good

 

[Strawberries]

I was allowed to open my stocking whenever I woke up, but not allowed to get out of bed until mum woke up and came in to get me about 8ish. I could never wait til after dinner!

 

[massacubano]

I had one gift on the 24th and the morning of the 25th got to open all...

 

[minichicky]

ohh loved reading this thread!
Well when I was younger and me and my sis were at home we were allowed to open our stocking when we woke up which would normally involve us waking each other up and doing it together. Then we had to wait until our Mum was awake (or we woke her up!!!) take her a cup of tea and we would get into bed with her and show her all our stocking presents (we didnt know she had bought them!!!) then we all got up and opened our santa claus presents. Then after luch we opened the stack we already had under the tree from family friends etc. i think this worked really well and plan on doing the same with our LOs! However we also have OH daughter every other year and she dosnt get excited at all! (shell be 10 this xmas!0 she dosnt wake up early, we have to wake her and she dosnt really get excited about presents either! we try our hardest to make it magical for her but shes really just not interested!!