101 Days of Christmas: Gift-Opening Traditions

by Mandi on December 21, 2011

source: Mandi Ehman

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If you hadn’t already guessed, I love all things Christmas! Although gifts are not the focus of our Christmas celebration, they certainly play a part in it, and one thing I wanted to avoid as our kids got older was the mad dash down the stairs to tear through all of the gifts in 2.3 minutes.

We look for ways to stretch our Christmas celebration throughout the day and prioritize people over gifts, and there are lots of different ways to accomplish this. If you’re looking for a new approach to Christmas morning, here are some ideas to get you started:

Do stockings or just one gift before breakfast and save the rest until after you eat.

If you’re attending church on Christmas morning, consider waiting until afterward to open gifts so that you’re not rushing to get through the gifts before you need to leave.

Hand out gifts and take turns opening them so that everybody can celebrate with each person before moving on to the next gift. This works much better when the kids have the same number of gifts but can result in hurt feelings with younger kids when the number of gifts varies.

Hide the gifts and have a family scavenger hunt to find them.

Open presents one person at a time, starting with the youngest child and going in age order.

What does your Christmas morning celebration look like? Or do you open gifts on a different day?

Join us as we celebrate 101 Days of Christmas with new DIY projects, gift ideas, traditions and more every day from now through Christmas!

	Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Jackie French

We have everyone wait till all the presents are passed out. Then everyone opens gifts. My kids are slow present openers. They open one at a time, taking time to check it out before moving to the next. We have to urge them on, at times, because they’ll stop to open and play with the gift ignoring the others. I pass out stockings very last, after the mess from opening presents has been cleared out, so that the small things in them don’t get lost in the chaos.
- http://lifeyourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way
  
  Hehe — I had a bit of a proud moment this year when the grownups were more interested in opening presents than the kids! Our girls were perfectly content with their stockings, and we had to remind them there was more to open at about 10am!
http://www.liverenewed.com/ Emily @ Live Renewed

In my family growing up, we always opened stockings first in my parent’s bed – we would bring them their stocking and wake them up – even when we were in college! Then we would read and act out the Christmas story (complete with costumes!) so that we were focused on the real meaning of Christmas before the presents. Then we passed out gifts and opened them one at a time, from youngest to oldest, while breakfast cooked, and would eat breakfast after the present were opened. Now we do pretty much the same routine with our kids, and we all really enjoy it!
- http://lifeyourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way
  
  I love this, Emily — so sweet!
Everydaybest

We open gifts one gift at a time, but in a slightly random order to take into account different numbers of gifts. We try to show our kids that gifts (and treats) even out over time. One son is getting a $500 drum set this Christmas, and we have not spent equally on the others. We fully expect that this will not cause issues!
- http://lifeyourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way
  
  It sounds like you share my motto: “Fair does not mean equal!” My kids are going to put that on my tombstone one day, I think, LOL!
Stace94

LOVE these ideas. I think it would be fun to hide several gifts and then when they think they are “done” tell them they have to find the others. :-)
http://www.techgeekgirl.com/ Michelle Mista

We split Christmas up into Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My daughter opens most of her gifts on Christmas Eve while we visit her grandparents for our Filipino Nochebuena celebration. On Christmas, she gets only a few presents that she gets to open as soon as she wakes up :)
Jennifer

This year we’ll be exchanging gifts with my parents on Christmas Eve morning. That way we can have a leisurely brunch, open gifts, and have time to just enjoy each other. We’ll go to church on Christmas morning, and then we’ll let our daughter open her gifts from us and Santa after that. I think extending it over two days like that will give her time to appreciate each of the gifts and have time to play with things without us urging her to open the next one.
Selene

We’ve always opened present one at a time in our family. This lets everyone, especially parents and grandparents see the process, and it teaches the kids patience and time-sharing….not bad lessons to learn even at an early age. Because it was our tradition, the kids never questioned it.
http://joyceandnorm.wordpress.com Joyce and Norm

I wish we could do the opening gifts after church this year so we don’t have to rush, but we will be doing gifts with my sister, and they have to be at their church quite early and then off to BIL’s family’s after that. My sister always got more gifts than the rest of us. In case of some kids with more gifts than others, maybe just have one person open all the gifts until everyone has a turn? That’s tough if you have a big family though, for the little ones to wait their turn. =p I like the scavenger hunt idea.
Lori

Growing up we did family gifts on Christmas Eve night. Each person got a gift and we all opened it at once. We kept this rotation till we ran out. Gifts were never equal but it never mattered. On Christmas Day we opened Santa gifts and stockings.

Now that we have kids of our own and have to juggle the holiday around several families, we’ve had to adjust. We visit my husband’s family on Christmas Eve, and it’s a free for all mad house. I hate it. People, presents, and paper everywhere. You’re lucky if you get to say thank you to anyone. Christmas Morning we do Santa and our gifts to each other. Christmas Day is my family. We still keep our one present all at once routine, but usually start with stockings now since Santa still fills them at my parents’ house instead of ours for some reason!
http://www.makermama.com Maker Mama

Christmas morning is a little different for us every year. My husband is a firefighter and works on a rotating schedule, so sometimes he works on Christmas. This here he’ll be off and coming home around 9am–a long wait for four little ones! We do “Santa” gifts on St. Nicholas day in early December, but will have a few gifts for them to open while we’re waiting for Daddy to get home Christmas morning.

We’ll also be going to church in the morning, and I definitely agree with not rushing gifts. I also like taking turns opening gifts, that way we can enjoy it all together and we’re less likely to lose something in all the chaos!
Anne Fields

We allow stockings to be opened without parental supervision. While we stumble out of bed and get the coffee made! Then we hand out presents, depending on the year and the kids ages, sometimes one for each, and open at the same time, or one at a time. I like to sit back and take it all in! This year will be different because both kids “need” gift is large and not particularly wrap-able. Also,with Church in the AM I’m not sure if we’ll do presents before or after.
cate

this year was our most successful gift-opening for a few years!

as a child, my parents made us get dressed and eat breakfast before opening presents, and that’s something we continue now – it stretches the morning out a little bit more, and we’re able t avoid the early morning choclate munching.

this year we got the kids to find their own presents under the tree, and take turns opening – from oldest to youngest, with the big ones helping the little ones identifying presents. this worked to make the morning go a little slower, ensured mum could get photos, and the cries of “where’s the net one?” from previous years was no more… it was all over by 9am (except for santa sacks, which they opened in about ten minutes flat with their cousins at ten am)
- http://lifeyourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way
  
  Fun! It sounds like a great tradition!
Kim_mankel

each year i wrap all of each childs gifts in a certain paper so no tags involved then i put a scrap of the paper in either the stocking of a small christmas bulb with candy so then they know what gifts are theirs
- http://lifeyourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way
  
  Oh my goodness, Kim — I LOVE this idea!!! Thanks so much for sharing!
- http://lifeyourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way
  
  I read your comment to my husband the ther day because I think it,s such a great idea. Fun and it simplifies things for you!