But anyway, we've started putting out our presents for one another as soon as we have them wrapped. We've done this for a few years now.
At first, I didn't like the idea.
My family has always been a surprise family. As kids, we never had any idea what presents we would be getting or how many there would be until my dad would check downstairs to see if Santa came on Christmas morning. We would always be huddled at the top of the stairs, creeping further and further down the stairs until my dad would whistle or something and then we'd scramble down and gasp and scream in amazement at all the presents under the tree. There were five kids in my family so there were a LOT of presents. It was awesome.
So at first, presents being out early seemed to take away from the surprise element. J and I both know what our presents look like, and we each have an idea of how many we're getting.
But the longer we do the "presents out early" thing, the more I enjoy having them as something to look at during the Christmas holiday. I really like seeing them up on the mantel. (J's gifts to me are on the right, and my gifts for J are on the left).
But once R gets older--like, next year--I don't think we'll have any presents out early. I like the surprise element much better with kids.
How do you all do it? Is it always a surprise on Christmas morning even with you and your partner? Or do you have presents out early?
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Santa won't come before Xmas ,will he?
ReplyDeleteno, he wont, and actually that's something I'm going to talk about as an update to this post... stay posted... haha.
ReplyDeleteSanta will be bringing things for R at Grandma and Grandpa's house, though, since that's where we'll be on Christmas.
My parents used to put out a few from them, and then any we received in the mail would go under the tree as well to wait for Christmas. There were usually a few more from "Mom & Dad" under the tree on Christmas morning, but the majority of the new presents were from Santa. Once Erin no longer believed, there were just a few out before the day, and the rest would show up that morning. Also, the stockings would be empty before Christmas(they were the only things we were allowed to open before our parents got up!).
ReplyDeleteOh this looks beautiful! Do the cats get a stocking too? I like wrapping paper a lot, and definitely consider it part of the decorations.
ReplyDeleteI think putting out the presents before hand is great...it builds the anticipation.
My family's tradition had been to torture each other with guessing gifts for a month and debate each other on when we would open presents. It started out kids v. parents trying to open them early, then dad would cave. Then, it was everyone v. mom. It was good for building those debate/negotiating skills.