How do you open gifts in your house at Christmas? Do you open some on Christmas Eve? Do you open them all as soon as you wake up on CHristmas Day? Is it a made scramble to grab gifts and rip open the paper, barely stopping to check if it's the right persons gift? Or is it something completely different?
Every family has their own way of opening the gifts on Christmas Day and I'd love to hear your way.
I grew up in England, and when I was little, we had our stockings in our bedroom. We'd place them at the end of our bed, and when we woke up in the morning, they were on the floor FULL of surprises, with books etc beside them. Then we would wait for our parents to wake up and we'd show them our stocking fillers before going downstairs to see our main gift from 'Father Christmas'.
After our Christmas lunch, and after the dishes were washed and packed away, we would watch the Queens speech (this was at 3pm every year and lasted 10 LONG minutes...I swear those 10 minutes are the longest of a childs life!!!) we would all sit down beside the Christmas tree ready to open the gifts under the tree!!
My Dad would hand out one gift at a time so we could see each person open it. It was always my Dads job to hand them out.
Fast forward to now and life in Canada with my own children. Little has changed really except for the part with the Queens speech and the stockings!! My childrens stockings are now hung by the fire in the living room.....or rather placed around the tree in the living room....and they have to wait until 7am to wake us and come downstairs. (So I can be conscious and get a good picture of the look of surprise of them seeing their gifts lol)
The Queens speech is on at odd times over here because of the time difference, so we don't wait for that, but the children have their stockings, and their main gift from Santa (yep we're North American now, so no Father Christmas any more sadly).....but they don't get to open any gifts under the tree.
Luckily Santa makes sure that every child has plenty to 'do' in their stockings to pass away the morning....a book, candy....a toy or puzzle etc.....and their main gift of course.....and of course we all look longingly at the gifts under the tree and wonder at what is inside them! Because they do not appear under the tree until Christmas morning!!! This is the first time they have been seen :)
After our big dinner which we normally have around 3pm, we tidy up (yay for 2 dishwashers this year!!! woohoo!!) and then we all sit around the tree and Lloyd passes them out one at a time and we watch each person open their gifts :) He makes sure to alternate who opens a gift each time :)
I snap pictures of people with their gifts or the unwrapping and the chaos :) We DO have a sack for the paper as we go along but often people forget and the room ends up in a real mess but it's all part of the fun!!
I love that we wait until late afternoon to open our gifts - it makes the day last sooooo much longer - the excitement over the gift giving and getting - the children get just as excited at seeing their family open the gifts they have chosen for them as they do about the gifts they are getting....
It's sad to see the tree bare of gifts afterwards - it's over for another year.......so opening them later in the day at least lets it last that little bit longer.
When I talked to the children the other day about traditions, this was one of the traditions they said they liked the most!
It is something that Lloyd says he likes very much too. It is sometimes difficult when families merge - when couples blend into one - to mix their traditions - but Lloyd seems to love the way I do Christmas - and because I already had children when we met, it was more important for us to continue the way we did Christmas - but he says he loves Christmas more for the way I've introduced it to him.
And thats a VERY good thing :)
Edited to add: I DO still watch the Queens speech every year though - I make everyone be quiet for it...although this of course makes every get even louder because they all start teasing me for wanting to watch the Queens speech and start making rude comments about the Queen and Corgi's and various other comments about the Royal family.....sigh.....and I often surrender and pour myself another glass of wine or reach for another chocolate at this point ;)
Edited to add: I DO still watch the Queens speech every year though - I make everyone be quiet for it...although this of course makes every get even louder because they all start teasing me for wanting to watch the Queens speech and start making rude comments about the Queen and Corgi's and various other comments about the Royal family.....sigh.....and I often surrender and pour myself another glass of wine or reach for another chocolate at this point ;)
