Open Presents Before or After Dinner?

SteJer

Do you open presents first thing in the morning, wait until after dinner or open some before and after dinner?

Carrie6OD

SteJer wrote: »

Do you open presents first thing in the morning, wait until after dinner or open some before and after dinner?

After. Always!

Zaph

First thing in the morning. Making people wait until after dinner is just cruel!

ednwireland

Christmas eve

heroics

Wait what!! I’ve never heard of waiting till after dinner to open presents. Everyone I know does it first thing in the morning

quadrifoglio verde

First thing in the morning as we always have since we were Nipper's.
My mams a nurse so none of us will be allowed open anything until she gets home on Christmas morning.

duffman13

You meant breakfast yeah? How cruel would it be to wait till after dinner

Posy

Before dinner!!

I did open mine after dinner once, but that was because the day's cooking schedule ran over due to me accidentally having a glorious lie in.

Loughc

Before dinner that morning for me

Yawns

Be lucky to get the kids to wait til I get down the stairs before they open anything!

But yeah, first thing in the morning, let them have at it. Then it's a big breakfast that will fill us til dinner time. At least it's the one morning you're guaranteed to be able to cook anything in peace in the kitchen without a little helper tripping you up

dartboardio

Before breakfast even! We don't do dinner until between 4 and 6

I'm only nineteen so can't speak for a family I've actually formed but in my family we all wake up between 8-11 open presents, tea, coffee, chocolate, maybe a light breakfast, then chill around the house for the day. Friends visit.

Passenger

Often exchange gifts on Christmas Eve night when everybody is relaxing. Otherwise on the day itself before dinner.

dartboardio

Passenger wrote: »

Often exchange gifts on Christmas Eve night when everybody is relaxing. Otherwise on the day itself before dinner.

We open one present each on Christmas eve, the rest Christmas morning

Passenger

dartboardio wrote: »

We open one present each on Christmas eve, the rest Christmas morning

Everyone is getting more than one gift?? :eek:

tickingclock

First thing in the morning with my own family and then after dinner in my folks house!

sjoyce87

Down the stairs and straight into the sitting room to open presents

Nodster

Boxing Day










......nah, just the two of us, so our own just after midnight and save the rest for Christmas morning

G_R

We open all of them straight away as soon as we get up, except for the extended family kris kindle - that happens after dinner, before desert. We have it planned to a t!

Carrie6OD

This is a revelation... We have always opened presents after dinner!! Before dessert, but as a welcome intermission to the feeding frenzy. Santa presents are opened in the morning of course but under the tree ones must wait. I’m all for delayed gratification. I had no idea that my family were indeed the odd ones out in this regard!

Malari

Gradually, throughout the day!

SusieBlue

I couldn't imagine waiting till after dinner. We normally rise at around 8am and don't have dinner till 6ish, I couldn't sit there for the day staring at the pile of presents, waiting to open them!

I have relatives with young kids who insist on eating breakfast and being dressed before opening presents. The mum will do full hair and make up, the kids bathed and dressed, and then they'll go downstairs and have breakfast. Their kids are 3 and 5 and the breakfast is always a rushed, tense affair because the kids just want to see what Santa brought and have no interest in the food. The mums reasoning is that she wants the kids looking nice for pics.
Wouldn't be a fan doing things their way, personally.

DvB

Since I was old enough to understand what was going on we have opened ours as early as we were allowed get down the stairs by our parents, pretty much everything is opened straight away. Thats carried over to our two now as well. Then its the mother of all brekkies, a clean up & into the dinner prep!

Even when people arrive later in the day the kids will open their presents from relatives straight away, theres no hanging about in our family, never has been & never will be I suspect.

enda1

In the morning! And we even still go down the stairs together, youngest leading. (and she's 28!)

freshpopcorn

Up until last year we opened presents as we got them. Last year was the first year we waited until Christmas day and we opened them in the morning.

miamee

Used to be before breakfast but now we're all grown up and potentially arriving at my parent's house at different times, we wait til after breakfast and then exchange them. After dinner would be a long wait

jellybear

Going completely against tradition here- we open ours on Christmas eve! As I'm the youngest (nearly 29!) it made sense over the last few years as we all get a nice lie on on Christmas morning

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

StripedBoxers

Before, always before. Usually first thing in the morning.

When I was a kid and we went to my relatives, we'd all get up super early, open everything, then have a mid-morning nap and be full of energy for the rest of the day It was great.

The best one was my younger cousin pacing the floors because Santa was bringing him an Xbox (or some console) and he couldn't sleep with excitement. He eventually fell asleep for about two hours and were up aroud 5am that time, back in bed by 7 and up again around 10!

kurtainsider

Our kids are forbidden to come downstairs until 6.00am on Christmas morning to open their presents. There is always a charge on the dot of 6.

Dial Hard

Santa presents - as soon as I get up. I still walk into the sitting room with my back to the tree, turn around with my eyes closed and then open them. I'm 35 years of age...

I give my folks their presents from me as soon as they're both up.

Sibs Kris Kindle and nieces/nephews presents - as soon as we're all there which is always before dinner. My dad also gives us our presents from him and mum then, even though they (obviously!) bought the Santa ones too. We just always got a gift from them as well as from Santa when we were kids and that tradition has survived.

I can't wait! And this is the first year in ages I've looked forward to Christmas; my marriage broke up around this time a few years back so I spent a while dreading it, but this year I'm like "YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

CheerLouth

Tear into them as soon as we get up! This year, our little girl is three & will have a proper appreciation of Santy & she has someone to share it with this year (her little bro) so am expecting a big rush on the presents!

Who has the self control to wait until after dinner?! We are not that civilised in our house! :P

Sunny Dayz

Before. Son (teenager) opens his presents when he gets up that morning. Myself and hubbie open our gifts from each other and from son.
The rest is kept until after morning mass where we head over to my parents house. We all exchange presents and open the rest after mass and before we roll up our sleeves to start on the dinner prep.


When our son was younger we used to hold back some of his wrapped presents until after dinner or later in the afternoon, everyone was so generous to him. We found that otherwise it was a bit overwhelming, he was just opening presents but not really looking or appreciating them properly. At least in the afternoon when we are all full from dinner there was still a little bit of excitement and the grown ups had a bit more spare time to play with him and put things together.

job seeker

7am on Christmas morning every year, despite being 24 I do be extremely excited about Christmas and presents.

TG1

My sister (34) wakes me (32) up at about 6am and we go down and open them, then go back to bed! At this stage presents are usually pots or socks or other awfully practical things but for some reason the joy of waking up early for them never really got any less..

_Brian

We do our immediate family presents straight off.

Then make our way through other stuff.

sunshine rose

After dinner! Apart from when we were young and had Santa presents, they were always opened in the morning but the rest would wait until after dinner. I think it was a great way of spreading it out throughout the day.
It's the best, wouldn't have it any other way. We all sit down absolutely stuffed after dinner, it's dark outside, the fire is lit and it's all cosy while we pass around presents.
This year will be slightly different for me as I'm spending Christmas Eve night/Christmas morning with my boyfriend in our house before going our separate ways so we are going to open our presents to each other together in the morning-will be really strange as I haven't opened a present in the morning since Santa! My poor boyfriend the last couple of years has been driven demented waiting all day for me to open my present from him😂😂😂

pudzey101

Posh people open after dinner i heard on the radio today

clairewithani

pudzey101 wrote: »

Posh people open after dinner i heard on the radio today

Deadly. I am posh!!!

Santa presents ungodly hour.
Family Kk after dinner

LilRedDorcha

We always open our presents at 8am (the earliest our parents would let us be up to do it). When my brother(the youngest) was younger and excited for santa, he'd just come in to my room as soon as he woke up and we'd watch something. This tradition has kept up even though he's 14 now. My sister then potters in to my room when she wakes up, and we go down when the parents get up. Even though there's no santa in the house, we still open the presents in the morning before breakfast.

My nana comes out for dinner and we open the presents from her, and give her presents to her then. Going to be the first year without both grandad's so I thought I'd be dreading it, but thankfully some of the Christmas spirit is still there

Postgrad10

No children in the family so after midnight mass on Christmas Eve.