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

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

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!!

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

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.

Before this site I never heard of Santa gifts being 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.

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.

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

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

wrapped not even a question for me to be fair.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Mine were always unwrapped

Unwrapped. Then gifts from us are wrapped.