Anyone NOT open presents on Christmas morning?

[KC's wifey]

My DH brought up the idea of opening presents on Christmas Eve. His reasoning is that he doesn't want the focus of Christmas to be about presents. Also, he pointed out the somewhat difficult mental transition of opening presents, and the kids wanting to play with their new stuff, but then having to get ready for church and focus on Christ. I totally understand where he is coming from on this, and since we don't do Santa, there isn't a "scheduling problem", lol.

I was just kind of thrown by the idea. We are already doing things so differently than the Christmas I grew up with, this is just another thing that feels foreign.

Just wondering if anyone else opens presents at a different time than Christmas morning?

[Mynar]

We do gifts on Christmas day. Why not open them after church?

[caligirl07]

We actually are not going to church on Sunday, we felt since we will have been there the night before that the time with extended family that we don't see often is more important this year (in our case anyway) We will still do gifts in the morning, and then a family gathering for an early lunch/dinner thing.

[beanpop]

We always opened gifts on Christmas Eve in my family. We don't go to church now but I did when I was a child and we never went on Christmas Day because our church didn't have services on Christmas Day, just Christmas Eve.

[beanpop]

Oh I'm so sorry I didn't realize this was in the Christian room.

[DucksLikeRain]

We do our main gift giving on Dec 5 with the Dutch/German tradition. Christmas Eve we do pajamas and a gift from my parents and Christmas evening the only gift they have is from my grandma. Christmas stockings aren't from Santa, they're from us purely as a tradition and they have socks, toothbrush, orange, juice box and cereal box to be eaten for breakfast. We don't have any extra church services outside of normal Sunday ones-none specifically on Christmas eve or Christmas unless they fall on Sunday like last year and this year.

[PreggoinWV]

We open on Christmas morning because we feel it is more fun and we also do Santa. We are to tired to go to church, although our church would only have services when Christmas falls on Sunday like this year.Also MIL is coming for a visit.

[KC's wifey]

Oh I'm so sorry I didn't realize this was in the Christian room.

No worries! Thanks for your input. I don't care who answers this. I posted it here because our situation has to do with our religious beliefs, but I'm interested to hear about anyone who opens presents at a different time.

[3andMe]

If you don't mind about answering in this room, I can tell you that we opened presents last week because my father was visiting from out of town so we could have more family around and because we'll be out of town on Christmas. When I was growing up, my father was never ready for presents on Christmas either, so I was used to opening presents in January or February. My children were fine with having our Christmas celebration a bit early - we did our whole traditional party, with food and family and presents. The drawback to opening presents that early is that they keep hearing about the impending gifts and Christmas celebration for the next several weeks. For example, since then we went to another Christmas party and they sat on Santa's lap and when he asked them what they wanted for Christmas they said they already had it and they'll be gone on Christmas anyway. Santa told them he would find them wherever they were, "Don't you worry!" I realized I should have done my best to steer them away, even though they don't really believe in Santa.

For what it's worth, my sister and I both do things differently than the Christmas we grew up with. We are diametrically opposed in what we consider a "proper" Christmas, but both of us want to be surrounded by love and family and happiness, whatever the traditions we aspire to create.

[katie]

We likely won't go to Church Christmas morning. We'll be there most of the afternoon Christmas eve as I'm working in the nursery for 3 of the 5 services. We will likely stream the service online to hear it but with no childcare that morning & having been there 4 hours the day before we'll enjoy family time at home.

[proudmommaof5]

We'll be going to Christmas Eve candle light service, then open gifts on Christmas morning, go to church. No more Santa, here...told Maddie and Logan about Santa yesterday.....it's a relief, really.

[Sakura]

We generally open gifts Christmas morning, but this year we're deciding whether or not to do the gifts Christmas Eve night or after church and lunch on Christmas day.

[AppleFan]

We don't do Santa so we usually open stockings on Christmas Eve and gifts Christmas morning. This year dh will be working nights (4:30 - 6:00) on Christmas Eve and Chritmas - so we will be doing our Christmas Eve on the 21st and our Christmas on the 22nd. This will also work great for our candle light services and Christmas morning services!

[Gwenn]

We don't have kids, but as a child our family always went to the Christmas Eve service. I don't believe our church had a service Christmas Day unless it was Sunday, and I don't recall going on a Sunday morning as we'd been out late at church the night before.

I think if I planned to attend a Sunday morning Christmas service with kids I would wait until after church to open presents. That way they have plenty of time to play.

[Mom22]

We would do Christmas Eve dinner and presents with my grandparents and then all go to midnight Mass. Christmas Day we would wake up late, open presents in our pajamas and then do the whole big extended family meal etc in the afternoon.

I would also wait to open presents Christmas Day until after church.

[hanvan2]

We aren't going to church on Christmas day either- our church doesn't have services. We will go on Friday! Anyway, we do gifts on Christmas morning, but we do Santa too

[misfit]

We do a gift from us Christmas Eve night (Pjs) and we open gifts with my father and stepmom and family and then with my MIL and her husband's family. Christmas Day we did the rest of our gifts and then the stockings and then our grandparents' Christmases later in the day.

[LuTruPeMo]

I always wanted to do a small gift on Christmas Eve night but my DH is opposed... so we don't. :/ I guess I wasn't that emphatic about it to begin with.

So generally we do Christmas presents and stockings on Christmas morning right when the kids get up.

However, this year it's on a Sunday, so we'll be attending church at 9:00 a.m. My kids usually sleep til 7:30 or 8, so we are only going to let them open their stockings in the morning. Then we'll go to church, and when we come home around 10:30 a.m., they will open presents. We have worked out family get-togethers so that we don't have to go anywhere else on Sunday and we can just stay home and enjoy the new stuff and each other, play games, watch movies, etc.

[AppleFan]

X

[Consensus]

I plan on us opening gifts on Christmas day. After DH reads the Christmas story from Luke. Apparently he hated this tradition growing up, having to sit and stare at the tree with presents while listening to dad read from the bible, but now he thinks it was good discipline for him.

I am intrigued by your DH's idea though. I haven't (and won't) put any presents under the tree until we are going to open them; I placed a nativity under the tree instead. I've done this the past couple years and think I will continue this. We'll also have a gift for Jesus wrapped under the tree.
Hmmm... you've given me more to think about for making traditions!

[KC's wifey]

I plan on us opening gifts on Christmas day. After DH reads the Christmas story from Luke. Apparently he hated this tradition growing up, having to sit and stare at the tree with presents while listening to dad read from the bible, but now he thinks it was good discipline for him.

I am intrigued by your DH's idea though. I haven't (and won't) put any presents under the tree until we are going to open them; I placed a nativity under the tree instead. I've done this the past couple years and think I will continue this. We'll also have a gift for Jesus wrapped under the tree.
Hmmm... you've given me more to think about for making traditions!

I love the idea of having the nativity under the tree! Doesn't your DD mess with it though? Is it one that is strong enough for her to play with?

Also, I am curious... what kind of gift for Jesus can you wrap and put under the tree? We are doing a gift for Christ as part of our new tradition also, but I always pictured it as more of a service or gift to others (which is what we are doing this year). Not really something you can put under a tree. Would love more ideas, though!

[Consensus]

I love the idea of having the nativity under the tree! Doesn't your DD mess with it though? Is it one that is strong enough for her to play with?

Also, I am curious... what kind of gift for Jesus can you wrap and put under the tree? We are doing a gift for Christ as part of our new tradition also, but I always pictured it as more of a service or gift to others (which is what we are doing this year). Not really something you can put under a tree. Would love more ideas, though!

The nativity under the tree is Mia-proof, a wal-mart special that's actually pretty cool - each piece has a bible verse on it. However, some wise-men did come with it I wasn't hot on the set when my MIL first gave it to us several years ago pre-dd since it's kind of cheesy, resin-based, but now I really appreciate having something she can be hands-on with, and we can talk about the pieces and she can play with them. After the first day, the novelty wore off and she hasn't touched it in 2 weeks.

We are signing up to sponsor a compassion international child, so I'm going to print out the information on the child with a picture, maybe a map of the americas, and wrap it up and let DD open it, and we'll talk about charity and helping and talk to her about him and talk to her about different countries. Maybe I'll buy a toy or inflatable globe. I think some of that kind of stuff goes way over her head, but she sometimes totally floors me with the information she retains so I figured it can't hurt. I have an astronomy book she absolutely loves to "read" and a baby einstein (galileo) dvd that had the different planets on it - and when someone gave her one of those gyro-bowl snack cups last week she saw it and said "Venus!"

[Palee]

Growing up, we always went to the candlelight service on Christmas Eve and opened one gift after having the neighbors over for dinner that night, and then did our "big" Christmas on Christmas Day. I think whatever works best for your family would be appropriate, because you have to remember that when Jesus was born, there was no Gregorian calendar and so the date of Christmas is a bit arbitrary (and many sources point to a spring birth). And though my family always celebrated Christmas as Jesus' birthday growing up, Christmas Eve is widely viewed around the world as the night he was born (instead of actually on Christmas Day). Oh, and then there are the "12 days of Christmas" with the 12th day being Epiphany (January 6th), so some households (especially Hispanic, from what I understand) more highly celebrate THAT day. And like Tif pointed out, December 5th is when St. Nick is celebrated, so...it's really your choice, I think, as to what tradition your family would like to hold.

[Cosmosmom]

We always did family presents from mom and dad (and when older my sister and I bought gifts) christmas eve. My dad didn't like to wait. Did stockings and Santa presents christmas morning.