The Great Christmas Debate - #5 Santa Presents Wrapped or Unwrapped

Loughc

So here we go again it's week 5 of our great debate series. Mid-October is creeping up on us, the dark mornings are rolling in and the weather is getting more wintry each day.

This weeks big debate question is Santa Presents wrapped or unwrapped?

The debate that we didn't think we wanted but we need... did Santy wrap your Christmas Presents?

seamus

Unwrapped. Always unwrapped.

Ain't nobody got time for that

Loughc

It was unwrapped for me as a child too. I remember we each got designated sofa cushion and all of your presents were left on the sofa cushion for you in the morning.

I didn't think this was a thing until a few posters mentioned theirs were wrapped.

seamus

Yeah, we were the same, nicely laid out in a place in the room for each of us.

I wasn't aware this was a thing until my daughter came home from school and heard that some of her classmates' presents were wrapped. I don't remember how we fudged it, but we did.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

Unwrapped

Wrapped. Always wrapped. Everything was wrapped! Unwrapping everything always added to the excitement

Jude13

I think mine were unwrapped as a kid. We used to get one big present and then a full stocking. So as a kid that one big present was a bike/tractor etc so not sure they could wrap them.

I wrap my daughters and its a pain in the back side. My OH pointed out that she would notice that Santa had the same wrapping paper as we had to I had to unwrap them and re-wrap on Christmas eve, using allot of stealth.

kitten_k

Ours was always unwrapped and anything that needed to be put together was already put together.

Toto Wolfcastle

kitten_k wrote: »

Ours was always unwrapped and anything that needed to be put together was already put together.

The sign of a clever parent!

Ours were always unwrapped (and still are) and arranged on a couch cushion like Loughc. My sister wraps her kids' Santa presents now but she's wrong. :pac:

what the hell!

Ours were always unwrapped. Just left in separate piles in the sitting room. You saw exactly what you had got when you looked in the door!!

seamus

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

The sign of a clever parent!

Ours were always left unassembled - putting it together was half the fun!

DvB

Ours were definitely unwrapped. Gifts from anyone other than santa were wrapped, but not the ones from the big man.

Toto Wolfcastle

seamus wrote: »

Ours were always left unassembled - putting it together was half the fun!

I think it depends on the age of the kid.

CheerLouth

Unwrapped! Left in different piles in the sitting room & sometimes, we wrote our names out on pieces of paper to leave on our piles.

Now that we have kids, they are still unwrapped. I couldn't deal with the pressure of wrapping Santy presents.

Lord Spence

Unwrapped

Yer all bonkers!! Santa wraps presents, ye lazy lumps!! The joy of unwrapping is something to behold!!

freshpopcorn

Unwrapped

Before this site I never heard of Santa gifts being unwrapped.

Loughc

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Before this site I never heard of Santa gifts being unwrapped.

I always thought unwrapped Christmas presents was the 80's Irish Christmas way of doing things...

freshpopcorn

Unwrapped

Loughc wrote: »

I always thought unwrapped Christmas presents was the 80's Irish Christmas way of doing things...

I was boring the nineties. Siblings were born in the 1980's.
Any photographs of previous Christmases or other people's families Christmas Santa stuff was always wrapped.
I was honestly amazed it was even a thing. I always thought part of Christmas morning was sitting down opening stuff under the tree not just walking into the living room and seeing a pile of stuff.

Loughc

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I was boring the nineties. Siblings were born in the 1980's.
Any photographs of previous Christmases or other people's families Christmas Santa stuff was always wrapped.
I was honestly amazed it was even a thing. I always thought part of Christmas morning was sitting down opening stuff under the tree not just walking into the living room and seeing a pile of stuff.

Not just you that thinks that. This is the closest poll yet just two votes separating things.

jellybear

Definitely unwrapped!! The excitement of opening the door of the sitting room and seeing all the presents...what seemed like so many, your eyes couldn't focus!! I would have hated if they had been wrapped...would have taken the fun out of it for me.

freshpopcorn

Unwrapped

jellybear wrote: »

Definitely unwrapped!! The excitement of opening the door of the sitting room and seeing all the presents...what seemed like so many, your eyes couldn't focus!! I would have hated if they had been wrapped...would have taken the fun out of it for me.

The excitement of the unwrapping and not knowing what was under the paper in my experience was better and you still say your big pile of presents!

Toto Wolfcastle

With unwrapped Santa presents and wrapped presents from other people you get the best of both worlds.

Toto Wolfcastle

Loughc wrote: »

Not just you that thinks that. This is the closest poll yet just two votes separating things.

I just realised I didn't actually vote. :pac:

Lord Spence

Unwrapped

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

With unwrapped Santa presents and wrapped presents from other people you get the best of both worlds.

But one world is rubbish and in the other world they wrap their prezzies

jellybear

freshpopcorn wrote: »

The excitement of the unwrapping and not knowing what was under the paper in my experience was better and you still say your big pile of presents!

No way- too much work and time taken to open them :P

mirrorwall14

Oooh this is a slightly irritating question because the tense is important! Our presents weren't wrapped so I've chosen unwrapped. However I was always a little jealous of those that did get them wrapped so I wrap them for my own children!

Loughc

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Oooh this is a slightly irritating question because the tense is important! Our presents weren't wrapped so I've chosen unwrapped. However I was always a little jealous of those that did get them wrapped so I wrap them for my own children!

Pick the option you think is the way it should be

Posy

I genuinely cannot remember.
I will have to ask my parents.

mirrorwall14

Loughc wrote: »

Pick the option you think is the way it should be

Too late 😂. They weren’t wrapped for me so went with that. I will be wrapping!

lycan238

Unwrapped

wrapped not even a question for me to be fair.

SteJer

Unwrapped

Definitely wrapped. Part of the magic is watching the kids open their presents one by one and seeing their excited faces when they realise what they got. I think if the presents were left in a pile unwrapped kids wouldn’t appreciate everything individually as all the presents would be on show at the one time. Christmas morning only happens once a year and Santa visits don’t last for too many years. Having to unwrap the presents prolongs the morning more unlike seeing all their Santa presents the minute they walk in to the room.

Loughc

31 votes with a 65/35% split.

So funny how traditions can slightly change from place to place.

Jude13

I am unsure as what to do next year now with the new arrival, wrapped or not.

Also as an aside, what age do kids know the whole story, wink wink, these days?

sydthebeat

Wrapped everything one year for five kids, including a bike.

Was worth it, looked class and there was the added excitement..... but I don't think I'd do it again

AvonEnniskerry

Unwrapped here. But put into a Santa stocking. Any gifts from us would be wrapped though.

seamus

Jude13 wrote: »

I am unsure as what to do next year now with the new arrival, wrapped or not.

Also as an aside, what age do kids know the whole story, wink wink, these days?

You don't have to do it any particular way and you don't have to do it the way your parents did. You're starting your own family traditions now, it's actually a really nice feeling.

The age they know the whole story varies. Seems to be anywhere between 7 and 12 (at the extreme upper end). Some kids figure it out, others hear it in school from the kids who've figured it out. People and even other children are actually pretty good at keeping schtum about it.

KevinCavan

Unwrapped if you have any conscience! Save the environment dude!;-)

CheerLouth

Jude13 wrote: »

I am unsure as what to do next year now with the new arrival, wrapped or not.

Also as an aside, what age do kids know the whole story, wink wink, these days?

Whatever you decide, you'll have to stick with it forever :P

Lord Spence

Unwrapped

seamus wrote: »

You don't have to do it any particular way and you don't have to do it the way your parents did. You're starting your own family traditions now, it's actually a really nice feeling.

The age they know the whole story varies. Seems to be anywhere between 7 and 12 (at the extreme upper end). Some kids figure it out, others hear it in school from the kids who've figured it out. People and even other children are actually pretty good at keeping schtum about it.

My daughter is turning 12 in December and she is still a believer hook line and sinker, had to tell her about the easter bunny only this year and that brought tears so didn't have the heart to tell her about Santa too. This is her last year for sure as the girls in her gaelic team will be looking at her funny when she mentions Santa

Jude13

Okay, I was thinking that a 10 yo would know in this day and age. I will keep the yarn going.

Lord Spence

Unwrapped

Jude13 wrote: »

Okay, I was thinking that a 10 yo would know in this day and age. I will keep the yarn going.

100% let the magic continue if you can

CheerLouth

That's so lovely, Lord Spence! If only all kids could still believe until then!

seamus

My mother tells the story that when she was in school she kept believing for quite some time. She had older siblings who strongly maintained the pretence, so she was ten or eleven. In school one day she made some remark or asked some question about Santa, and - bearing in mind this is the 50's - the teacher absolutely rounded on her, scolded her in front of the entire class for being so silly and naive, and basically had them all laughing at her.

She felt humiliated and let down by her family for being lied to. So when she got married she said that she wouldn't allow her children to suffer the same fate and would be honest and upfront from the start, you could still have the magic without the belief.

My Dad who had nothing but good memories, convinced her to go with the Santa thing, she could always let the kids know later on. She said that when she saw the joy on their faces at 4/5 years of age, she knew she had to keep it going.

iguana

Unwrapped all the way. Santa used to not only leave all our toys set up ready to play with, he also couldn't resist playing silly little jokes during the set up. He'd swap over characters in funny ways. Leave things in slightly odd ways designed to make you laugh, etc. It was lovely to think of Santa not just bringing this bounty of toys but taking the time to do something a bit silly and personal just to give you an extra smile.

What I love most about not wrapping as a parent is that excitement causes a form of hysterical blindness. It's so funny to watch S focus on one present while somehow managing to be completely and utterly unaware of a different item right under his nose. He'll spend a few minutes on the first thing he noticed, then step back and suddenly notice the item he passed out and be in complete shock at it. It's really funny and it happens a few times every Christmas morning. What's great is that it's often impossible for me to predict what will get that reaction. A few years ago he'd asked for a really small Star Wars set as his main present and I bought a lot more of the same collection and laid it all out like an iconic scene from Empire. it was absolute front and centre under the tree. To me, that was the WOW!!!!! gift. He'd wanted the little set for nearly a whole year and to get that and all the other vehicles and figures would surely overwhelm him. But on Christmas morning, he just walked right past the whole big diorama of a set up and focussed on something else. It took 15 minutes for him to eventually look at his Star Wars set and suddenly realise that it was this huge thing. He was obviously delighted but mainly he was just really, really bewildered that it was there behind him the whole time.

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

I think it depends on the age of the kid.

That's true. And the present. S is getting a build your own computer kit this year from Santa. So it would be a bit of a disappointment if it was assembled for him! But when it comes to the likes of a Hot Wheels set or something, there is no way in the depths of hell that I'm spending Christmas morning trying to perfectly fit shagging stickers into their tiny indentations. They are so sticky you only get one shot at getting it right and doing that under pressure while a 6 year old tries to both hurry you and direct you is the stuff of nightmares. Doing all that in advance is the best way to keep Christmas morning fun.

uncommon_name

I think unwrapping might add to the excitement of it all.
Mine weren't wrapped though and I was still always excited. And when I have kids, they wont be wrapped either

chuckles30

Mine were always unwrapped

Kdylass

unwrapped - Santa doesn't have time to wrap presents for all the boys and girls!!!!

Zaph

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Before this site I never heard of Santa gifts being unwrapped.

Oddly enough, before this site I'd never heard of them being wrapped. Like some others here, our presents from Santa would be in our own little pile on the couch. It was mayhem enough once we all got started into our piles without adding heaps more wrapping paper into the mix.

freshpopcorn

Unwrapped

Kdylass wrote: »

unwrapped - Santa doesn't have time to wrap presents for all the boys and girls!!!!

The elves do the wrapping!

Whispered

Unwrapped. Then gifts from us are wrapped.

freshpopcorn

Unwrapped

Whispered wrote: »

Unwrapped. Then gifts from us are wrapped.

When I growing up we only got Santa presents!

Posy

They're always wrapped on TV and in Christmas films now that I'm pondering it!

Also, can we stop the talk about Santa not being R-E-A-L please?
I still haven't told Loughc, so I'd like to keep the magic for him. :pac: