Christmas Day

lloyd

I'm hearing a lot of people describing how their Xmas day goes/went when they were kids....and frankly I'm shocked appalled by some of the things people do and did!

Not letting their kids get up at 4am to open presents! I am 33 and live with my GF we will be waking up early-maybe not 4am but who can sleep in?

Not letting kids open ALL their presents straight away in a mental frenzy of consumerism, making them wait till after food to open some! I rip all mine open immediately.

Not letting the kids eat all their selection boxes before their dinner! I used to smash all mine in straight away and don't recall being sick/not eating the Xmas turkey.

Am I missing the real point of Xmas or am I being a naive childless person who's attitude will very much change should I be blessed with any little angels of my own?  

meltedbuzzbox

When I was growing up we just had to wait for everyone to be at the tree together. 

Then it was an opening frenzy followed by destorying selection boxes and feeling ill. 

Then the usual meal/play with gifts etc and feel knackered by 5pm. 

Now I am a parent of 2 it is much the same but its less playing with my new toys and cooking the christmas meal. 

The kids get to run riot though. 

spacecadet

We have a few little rituals. We don't care what time the kids get up and we let them open the stockings first. 

We don't however let them downstairs until I've been down, turned the heating on, made everyone a cuppa then we're good to go. 

spacecadet

Oh, and we don;t let them go hell for leather. This is for their benefit as they used to do that and not really appreciate anything or know who it came from. Opening them a little slower and taking a bit more time they can take it all in. It also keeps the fun going a bit longer. 

lloyd

Yeah I do and did open them and take time to play/appreciate the gift...but then onto the next not wait till Boxing day....

JAYJO

spacecadet said:

We have a few little rituals. We don't care what time the kids get up and we let them open the stockings first. 

We don't however let them downstairs until I've been down, turned the heating on, made everyone a cuppa then we're good to go. 

IF you were my dad, i would get you a digital timer for the heating and a teas made. By the time you come downstairs it would look like an explosion in a wrapping factory. You would spend the rest of the day picking cellotape off your new slippers.

FX_Munkee

I'm just carrying on the (IMHO wise) traditions I inherited from my parents.
Selection of "Stocking" gifts left in their bedroom, so that when they wake up at 4am they've got something. Enough to stop them piling downstairs and going full feral consumer. They can do that at 7am.
Selection boxes deferred till later in the day. By careful staggering of presents. They're too busy with the new shiny stuff for chocolate nowadays anyway.

lloyd said:

Am I missing the real point of Xmas or am I being a naive childless person who's attitude will very much change should I be blessed with any little angels of my own?  

What time do you get up normally? Do you enjoy sleep at all? Does being woken consistently at 6am everyday for many, many years sound appealing to you?

lloyd

I normally get up around 6:30 for work then 8ish on the weekends but my times my own on the weekend so it's all good I sometimes go back to bed and relax with the papers and a bacon butty and brew-no snotty nosed darlings interrupting mummy and daddy morning time....

strumjoughlamps

kids can get up what time they want, I get up most mornings anytime from 4-6am and Xmas day will be no exception.. we do not hold pressies back but will not let them rip them all open in a mass frenzy either.. they will get very little choccy gifts and what they will get will not be allowed to be eaten at will, this is not to say they are not allowed rubbish for brekkie, this year they have chosen Lion Bar cereal as there brekkie of choice which I am sure contains just as much crap as choccy bars.

my xmas day as a child were very much like @lloyd but I prefer it a little different for my kids.

d8m

When I was young we always waited till after breakfast on xmas morning then opened presents from friends etc.

After lunch the rest of the family comes over and we opens presents from family together.

lloyd

I guess we like to do what we're used to in most cases? I always felt sorry for people in school who weren't allowed up early or had to wait for presents....not that we were rich or got millions of presents because we weren't and we didn't. If I could give my kids what my folks gave me as an Xmas day I'd feel pretty smug.

JAYJO

I got a tangerine and various other goodies in a bed balled ridden footy sock. This was a weapon for me to use on my younger brother who i shared a room with.(Bit like scum)
My other pressies would fit in a pilow case as opposed to my younger brothers which would require a lot more pillowcases and even then there would be spillage. (Hence the reason for the beatings). Infact i think i beat him up because the ungrateful git wouldnt get up at 2.30 like me.

chillidoggy

I'm looking forward to a lie-in, but I know full well it ain't gonna happen, as I wake up at pretty much the same time every morning. And as I have to collect my mum for lunch, and then drive her back home again, I won't be drinking.

Well, not until I get back home, that is.

richardhomer

My son is heading towards 13 and seems to be rapidly mastering the art of not getting up.

It'll be interesting to see if he maintains this ability on Thursday....

speshul91

I'll be opening presents with the kids. The Mrs will be cooking breakfast then I will get slowly drunk as I cook the dinner

underdog

In my house we have an odd tradition, not learned from my childhood but from having a son who didn't live with me.

On Christmas eve and half of Christmas day he would stay with his mother, the come to me in the afternoon until boxing day night.

So we (my wife and step daughter) decided so we got to share a Christmas with him we'd split it over 2 days. On 25th my step daughter would get up and Santa had been, bringing presents from everyone apart from the ones off us. Then when my son came up in the afternoon he had his off the family under the tree waiting too. We'd have the traditional dinner, family around, or out to make visits etc

On the night of 25th they then go back to bed like it was Christmas eve (carrots, mince pies out again etc) to wake boxing day to another stocking and the presents off us. Then stay at home all day so they don't have to leave their new toys.

The funny thing is, sadly I've not seen my son for 2 years (this will be 3rd Christmas) but my (now 12 year old) step daughter insists on doing Christmas this way. I always wonder if it's how Christmas will be done for her children in the future.

Snap

I've got 2 kids, I'm with you on this Lloyd.

One thing i've noticed as a parent, is that there a lot of uptight nobhead parents about - mentalists who can't seem to let their kids enjoy the simple pleasures and wonder f being a kid. You're an adult for a long time.

Christmas is a time for wonder, happiness and overall silliness.

We just go with the flow. For a a few years, we've had to wake the kids up! I can't sleep before xmas, I'm a bigger kid than them, I'm up at the crack getting them all up. Love it.

Where;'s the fun in "managing" the present opening rate, or staggering stuff - ffs, just enjoy it, it's not a regulated process, its the one time of the year, for me, when all that crap goes out the window.

joneve

Christmas Day in my in-laws household is legit (where we stay most years). Get up and open up our stockings (yes I'm 30 and yes I still have a stocking, what of it?) then head downstairs. FIL is usually first down as he's like a MASSIVE kid...Open up presents in the living room then veg out for the rest of the day. 

I might have to help with cooking this year, which I'm not mad for, but beer drinking will be involved so it's AIIIGHT. 

Not seeing my rents on Christmas day this year either, as they are heading over to spend a couple of days in their favourite hotel and spend Xmas day with my sister. So I don't even need to get dressed. BOOM! 

d8m

My first post was Christmas when I live at home, now I live in my own place with miss d8m I just drink wine and dance around the house to this:

CabbageCat

In our household the whole day was/is structured around the opening of presents. When there is a high attendance it can take hours. It's very much one-at-a-time, in order. After a couple of rounds we get mince pies, a couple more and it's champers, a couple more and you're allowed a wee (I made that one up) etc. Everyone has to be there to watch everyone's presents being opened. It's regimented and organised and hugely fun - it's definitely the best bit about Christmas (except my presents always run out first because I get loads of presents for people).

I suppose it's nostalgia. The idea of opening all ones presents at once fills me with a horror akin to accidentally slamming a door on a kitten but it seems some folk seem to like it (though they also probably only ever crunch kitties on purpose because they are pretty obviously toxic, twisted, demon-people).

Snap

everyone has their own ways, which is just how it should be, and all this talk is actually making my belly hurt a bit, like you want a poo, or are hungry, or something,

I am getting a bit excited - I hope this never goes away, the ability to get all giddy about xmas, love it, its ace.

WIll be packing up work in about 40 minutes or so, and then its more wrapping and then off to friends for Christmas Eve Eve Shenanigans