Pages

Friday, December 27, 2019

OPENING PRESENTS FRIDAY DEBATE

Normally on Friday, we do a "Friday Food Debate" where we tackle some of the burning questions of the culinary world, ha...but this week we'll expand to another random fun question since it's Christmas.

This week, the burning question is:


We've asked this a few times over the years.  Now that we have new readers (and long time readers chime in too so everyone can compare) we thought it might be fun to ask again as part of the Friday debate question that everyone enjoys. 

There are really only two times you can open presents.  Christmas Eve (like I did when I was growing up) or Christmas morning (like 2nd Man did when he was growing up).  Now Christmas morning/day  can be anytime after midnight too.  We have some friends/coworkers that say they stay up until midnight and then open at 1:00am.  There are those that do a split, opening some the night before and the rest in the morning.  

2nd Man and I have sort of adopted that latter tradition...we get to open a present after dinner on Christmas Eve and the rest when we wake up Christmas morning.  I guess even though we grew up with different traditions, we've made our own now.

So...when do you open your presents?



22 comments:

  1. The Brits do it on Xmas day. The continental Europeans mostly on Xmas Eve, I think. Roderick

    ReplyDelete
  2. Christmas Eve only, because my parents were German and that is what they did.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My husband and I open presents on Winter Solstice. As a kid, my family opened presents after breakfast on Christmas day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. In our family, we always open presents after Christmas Eve dinner. As a kid, I would read about presents being opened on Christmas morning and always wondered about the different times.
    Since I started my genealogy research and traveled to Europe, I’ve learned that Europeans open presents on Christmas Eve. The British open theirs on Christmas morning. The Royal Family, with their German background from Prince Albert in the Victorian era, opens their gifts on Christmas Eve.
    So, with my European ancestry, I now know why we open our presents on Christmas Eve.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here- always Christmas Eve and we have lots of German in the family! Santa did bring the kids what they requested Christmas morning but this gift- usually just one- was never wrapped.

      Delete
  5. Always on Christmas morning here in Pennsylvania.

    Mary

    ReplyDelete
  6. Now that I'm buying my own Xmas gifts,I open them as soon as they get here
    I gotta question : Whole berry,jellied or with orange peel and pecans cranberry sauce

    ReplyDelete
  7. Christmas morning, but sometimes an earlier one slips in.

    ReplyDelete
  8. For the first time since our first year of marriage TheHub and I were alone on Christmas morning. We have a big brunch every Christmas so this year we opened our presents to each other on Christmas Eve. For the first time ever I had time to get the brunch ready without being rushed. From now on any year no one is visiting we will open them on Christmas Eve

    ReplyDelete
  9. For years now we haven't exchanged gifts, but instead we have donated to our favorite charities around the holidays. When our daughters would always ask what we would want; we would always tell them to make a donation to those less fortunate.
    Now, later on Christmas Day (mid afternoon or early evening)I do open up a bottle of wine. :}
    When I was a young child; Santa always came late on Christmas Eve so come Christmas morning is when our gifts where opened.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Christmas morning. When I was a kid I had a friend who opened presents after Mass on Christmas Eve. I couldn't figure out why Santa stopped at her house so early.

    ReplyDelete
  11. In the UK here and definitely presents on Christmas morning! However husband's family had a tradition of the Christmas Tree giving presents,which got opened on Christmas Eve - just one small present each. Kept the children happy (and even more excited) and we still find individual presents from The Tree all these years later, to be opened whenever we get together over Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  12. While I was young,living with parents,we would go to midnight service. When we arrived at home, around one thirty or two, we were allowed to open all the gifts. We then went to bed and when we awoke (a few hours) there would be the BEST/Special gift waiting for us. With all the families that are far and have their own commitments, we chose to celebrate on the Epiphany, the day that the Three Wise Men brought their gifts to the Christ child. Works well for our family.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Belated Christmas Greetings!!! :)
    I started a new tradition this year. Christmas Eve Bags. I sewed us some Christmas PJ's and filled bags with socks and slippers and we exchanged them before going to bed to watch Christmas movies! So we have the Christmas Eve Bags for Christmas Eve then we exchange gifts on Christmas morning! Makes it a lot of fun! :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. We always opened them Christmas morning, I think it's special for children to wake up to gifts under the tree. As we grew older, we would open them after lunch because we liked to sleep in and once everyone was home it was nice to see all the gifts under the tree.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Growing up we opened gifts on Christmas morning, never Christmas Eve, and I’m 1/2 German, 1/2 Polish/Prussian.

    When we were kids none of the gifts from Santa were wrapped, but the smaller ones were hidden all over the living room where the tree was, so after the excitement of the first main Santa gift it was a little bit of a treasure hunt. Then we opened gifts from mom, dad (until I was 8, my bro was 3 when dad passed away). After opening the gifts we had a phone call with my closest cousins to talk about the gifts, even though we’d see them in a few hours at Christmas dinner.

    These days my hubby and I rarely exchange birthday or Christmas gifts. We declare when we find something we want any time of year - "This is my Christmas gift". I do participate in a Secret Santa exchange with horsewoman's group I belong to, and my closest cousin and I exchange gifts as well.

    Shelley

    ReplyDelete
  16. There were no gifts to unwrap ever. Santa brought gifts unwrapped! Santa set it up like a tableau with each child's gifts all together in one spot. Mama guided us a bit as to which place was ours--eventually five kids. When we all got up, then we could go in as a group. Relatives who came from out of town before or after Christmas gave us wrapped gifts which we could open immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  17. SOMETHING DIFFERENT! Now that 2019 is coming to an end, can I ask why, on your list of "Blogs We Enjoy", there are two identical links to "Comptonia"? Very odd.
    Happy 2020 (and a new farm house), Roderick

    ReplyDelete
  18. Late to the party as usual, but...
    As kids, we opened our presents on Christmas Eve, in the German tradition. There were no stockings at Christmas. Also in the German (Catholic) tradition, we got woolen stockings (instead of shoes) filled with candy, fruit, and nuts on the eve of St. Nicholas, to be plundered when we woke up on Dec. 6 which is his proper feast day.
    With my own children, we open gifts on Christmas Day. We also do stockings on Christmas Day; they do still contain a bit of candy but mostly small, inexpensive practical gifts (nail clippers, lip balm, sample size products, nail polish,
    etc.) and jokey little gifts.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave us a comment! I have some comment moderation on and of course will approve your comment relatively quickly. We love feedback and hearing what others have to share with us all. Please know that I can't always reply to it right away, but ALL comments are read. I will reply just as soon as I can so be sure to come back and see my reply.

Now, let us hear from you!