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poll about opening Christmas presents
How did your family open presents when you were a kid? Did your DH's family have a different method?
I ask b/c at Thanksgiving it came up that my family passes out one present to each person (somebody plays Santa each "round") and then we alternate who opens first in each round and generally we all comment on and admire each person's gift, unless its something very boring like socks, etc. We sometimes get up and personally kiss and thank the person that gave us a particularly thoughtful or expensive gift. It takes awhile to open presents this way, but its the way we've always done it.
DH's family is basically in a rush to open all the presents as quickly as possibly. So, you can freqently miss someone opening your gift or you really have to get someone's attention to thank them, etc. Each person goes and finds a gift to give someone and if you don't give them your gift, its rare that anyone else will. At the end, everyone sort of says a general thank you and "wow, this is all great, thanks so much, etc."
DH thought his family's way is the more common and was kind of laughing at my family for being so slow and formal, but then my BIL (who has a much larger family) told us that his family did it the same way and when he first started dating SIL, he was really surprised at how quickly they raced through opening presents.
How does your family open presents and has it changed alot over the years? Do you do differently in your own home now?
Re: poll about opening Christmas presents
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This exactly. I like seeing what everyone gets, it's not a race, it should be a relaxing time and I like thanking everyone for what they got me.
Honestly, I can't remember. Part of me thinks we ripped and roared through the gifts as kids, but part of me remembers one at a time (still ripping as fast as possible).
In my family at my parents house (sisters and families), the kids just rip rip rip. It actually sort of drives me nuts. From what i've seen, I thought that was normal. I just get irritated at the flying paper, the screams of excitement but the more more more. I get even more agitated at the "anymore/that's all" comments. Again, i'm SURE it's the age but still.
At my extended family, when we were kids, we'd all just open once given to us. However, you're talking a huge family so much more craziness. If the grandkids exchange (which they usually do), they also just rip open once they are given a gift. Though, it's typically only one gift from the secret santa partner.
I *hope* to teach DD to open and "enjoy" the gift before ripping the next one open. I'm not saying open and play with and then get the next gift. I'm talking open, actually see what it is, thank the giver (if applicable in that setting), and then go to the next gift. However, I'm sure that will come with age. I can't really expect a 2-6yr old (or whatever) to really "relish" and "enjoy" each gift. They love to open open open.
At the in laws we open a gift at a time and go around in the circle. Typically since most gifts are from in laws, we don't thank them every single time. If it's a special gift, we will get up and hug them and thank them, but usually our thanks is at the end to them. If I open something from SIL or BIL, yes we immediately thank and also thank at the end. I actually enjoy this. It takes FOREVER but it really does make it fun and it extends the time and allows everyone to see the fun gifts. The kids/grandkids go first and then at the end, in laws exchange with each other while we watch.
I plan to do it the same way when we have kids. DH and I haven't had a "real" Christmas since getting married so it has not been an issue. I know his family didn't really celebrate Christmas growing up so I'm sure he won't care how we handle Christmas once we have kids.
My family still opens presents the same way to this day.
Stockings first, we all open at the same time
Oldest sister opens a gift, we all ohhh and ahhhh
I open a gift, more ohhh'ing and ahhh'ing
Younger sister opens, ohhh ahhh
Younest sister, ohhhh ahhhh
After that it's sort of a free for all. There are 6 people in my family and my mom always goes all out at Christmas so it would take FOREVER to open all of them. It's not that we don't care or are tearing through the gifts, we just don't continue to rotate. While we're opening, we're all aware of what the other people are opening so it's not like we're just driving through gifts with no idea what everyone is doing.
After we open gifts from Santa/my parents we then open gifts from each other and the finally my parents open their gifts. When everyone is done we all get up and share hugs and kisses and say how much we loved everything.
DH's family likes to take turns and stare at you while you open gifts and I find the whole thing incredibly awkward. I'm very thankful, but I just hate having everyone stop and stare at me because I'm nervous about having the appropriate reaction and being sure to show enough gratitude.
We used to open gifts one at a time and go in a circle. But that took FOREVER so we changed to everyone opening one together, collective ohhing and ahhing, then opening another one together. We do this Christmas morning. Oh and when we used to get stockings (which I think stopped when I was 22 and my sis was 19) we'd open those first.
In DH's family, we open gifts one at a time in a circle, but there are fewer people and fewer gifts, so it doesn't take that long.
As kids, my mom wrote down every gift we got and who it was from so we could write TY cards later. We never did the furious ripping into gifts because of that (which is fine with me and I think was a good idea).
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I understand about appropriate reactions. Thankfully, i'm close enough to inlaws that I don't have to worry too much anymore. Their own kids act like brats sometimes about items so i'm allowed to every now and then, HA!
DH's family does this and with 8+ people it takes HOURS.
With my family, we don't take turns but there are only 4 (now 5 with DH) of us so we can still kind of see what other people are opening, pause when someone is opening something special from you, spend more time on the memento than the socks, etc. We never really ripped them open like crazy people.
Side note: my mom has a friend who never wrapped her kids gifts from Santa... it was just piles of toys sitting under the tree.
my parents did this - it was awesome, so you could immediately play w/ whatever Santa got you.
My family opens gifts like Kathryn's : slow and methodical with appropriate thank you's, kisses and hugs.
DH's family is one big free for all everyone gets a stack of gifts and you open at the same time as everyone else. The first time I did Christmas with his family, I just sat there, staring at them all in disbelief, while they tore through their gifts. My pile sat untouched until my MIL urged me to start opening them.
DH and I are both only children and we came from families where you open each gift one at a time and ooh & aah so we kept the tradition when we got married. The only difference being with my family, someone would play "Santa" (usually me) and hunt for a gift under the tree to pass out to each person and in DH's family, my MIL will pile presents in front of each person to open. Personally, I like my way better!
This year will be different because it'll be very kid-focused, DH and I aren't even exchanging and the adults are getting smallish-presents or gift cards. And we'll be up late the night before putting toys together too but it'll be SO worth it in the morning, I'm sure!
At home with my family on Christmas morning, I always was the one to hand out the gifts. We open one at a time so everyone gets to see everything and we go pretty slowly. I try to make sure that we spread out the gifts so everyone gets to open one every so often. I've always liked that way. We used to do the same with my grandparents.
On the other hand, at my aunt's house for extended family, it's crazy and they pass out everything at once and people just rip in. I don't like it at all because you don't really get to see anything.
My family always went around and took turns. The little kids would open first, then the adults would take turns.
DH's family is a free for all. There's no order and it drives me nuts!
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My mother organizes all the presents, so each person has their own row with their stocking at the beginning of it. My sister, brother and I would all open our presents at the same time, stopping to thank each other as we went along. My parents would open their presents one at a time at the end.
Last Christmas, was a little crazy, because there were so many more of us, but we still did it about the same way
I have never been @ DH's family's house for Christmas- so I really have no idea how they do it, but at this point I would probably disagree w/ it because I just would want to rebel against anything my MIL suggests.
My mom's family and therefore in my family growning up the youngest person opened all of his or her presents first. Stockings in the family room where the fireplace is. Then move to the living room where the tree is and proceed again starting w/ the youngest.
Also Santa is too busy to wrap - and Santa almost always only gives toys and stockings, so no unwrapping there.