On Friday in the past we have done a "Friday Food Debate" where we tackle some burning questions of the culinary world, ha. We have expanded it now to other fun and different regional uses of words in addition to food related words and even other things to debate.
It's been about three years since we asked this and with new followers and new people commenting, we thought it might be fun to bring back. And regular commenters, please add your answer so we can all compare. Or maybe you have changed your tradition?
This week, the burning question is:
There are really only two times you can open presents at Christmas. "Christmas Eve" like I did while growing up, or "Christmas morning" like 2nd Man did when he was growing up. Of course, Christmas morning/day could be anytime after midnight. We have some friends that say they stay up until midnight and then open at 1:00am. There are those that do a split, opening one or two the night before and the rest in the morning.
2nd Man and I have sort of adopted the 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 both grew up with different traditions, we've made our own now.
So...when do you open your presents?
Christmas Eve? Or Christmas Day?
We do stockings on Christmas Eve and gifts on Christmas morning.
ReplyDeleteChristmas Eve
ReplyDeleteOne gift on Christmas Eve. Stockings on Christmas morning (designed to keep the kids busy so adults could sleep later). Everything else once everone was up and might be afternoon!
ReplyDeleteBetsy in WI
We usually did ours Christmas morning. After DS moved out and then got his own family, it has usually worked out better to do it Christmas day in the evening. We don't do the big meal thing, so we're very flexible on when.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger and living at home we would open presents after breakfast on Christmas morning. It was a catholic thing with my parents. Now since I got married 20 years ago, I'm free to celebrate as a Pagan. David and I celebrate Yule which starts on Winter Solstice either the 21st or 22nd and ends 12 days later usually on Jan 1st or 2nd. With Yule we open a small present each morning. The presents are useful items or joke presents. We make it fun.
ReplyDeleteWhen the daughters were at home we allowed one present to be open on Christmas Eve and the rest including stockings in the morning. Now it's all Christmas Day.
ReplyDeleteI open them when the kids decide to have dinner on eve or day. My grandkids are military so we open them when they can be on leave, sometimes a few days late or early. Our real Christmas depends on the military. This year two will be home on Christmas so we are having Christmas eve so they can visit others on Christmas day. Merry Christmas to both of you. wishing you a great new year whatever you do.
ReplyDeleteWe always opened gifts on Christmas Eve. After I married and had my son, we opened most gifts on the eve and had stockings and some gifts on Christmas Day. Our son would get so excited about the gifts to be opened in the morning that he couldn't sleep and would wake us up repeatedly during the night, so we switched everything to Christmas Eve. Then we had our daughter and too many gifts were under the tree because of presents from my parents and siblings and his parents and siblings. So we opened gifts from relatives soon after they arrived in the mail. We never told the grandparents we were doing this. We knew they'd be upset. We gave our gifts to the kids on Christmas Eve and just relaxed on Christmas morning.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Christmas morning!
ReplyDeleteMary
Is it okay to answer now? We open everything on Christmas morning. However, we found real wooden shoes at an antique shop. Then, Saint Nick or someone, came Christmas Eve and left one little gift and one little piece of candy. My husband would ring sleigh bells outside their bedroom window and say Ho Ho Ho. One time, my son jumped to look out the window and the daughter, only two, hid under the bed. My husband fell in a puddle of mud and came in with mud from head to toe. I was so shocked at both of the children's reactions! It was a funny night.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up we where able to open 1 present after we got home from church. Always went to Church on Christmas Eve for their candle light service and opened rest of the presents on Christmas Day.
ReplyDeleteSome of the neighbors would come over and mom always had oyster soup and chili.
Christmas Eve in my family, evidently because of our Central/Western European ancestry.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered about this, because the tradition in a lot of American homes is to open gifts on Christmas morning.
In my study of genealogy and family history, I've discovered that in Central Europe, some Eastern European countries, the Scandinavian countries,
and some Western European countries like Germany, the custom is to start Christmas on Christmas Eve - because the holiday/holy day celebrations traditionally begin at sunset of the day before. The festivities start with the appearance of the first star.
So, those same traditions came over with German, Czech, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, etc. immigrants.
BTW, the British Royal Family opens gifts on Christmas Eve - probably from the influence of Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, who was from Germany. He popularized the tradition of the decorated Christmas tree in Britain.
It has varied greatly over the years. My father worked shifts as I did when I was nursing.
ReplyDeleteMy children loved to sleep near the Christmas tree so gifts were opened on Christmas Day. Once my brother and I were older it all depended on dad's shifts. We would visit dad at work after church and spend the night with him as he worked soloing a huge building.
Now my children have children my Christmas is generally over on Christmas Eve as their other grandparents want the children on Christmas day. I hate that but that is the way it is. Mum andI stay home.She eats food that I cannot eat due to life threatening allergies.
Always Christmas morning (but only after a cup of coffee)
ReplyDeleteYup ... always Christmas morning when I was growing up and once I had children we still waited until Christmas morning!
ReplyDeleteChristmas morning for the whole shebang!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas from Virginia and a joyous New Year!!
Mostly Christmas Day for us. We had great pity for one set of cousins who had to write a thank you letter for each gift before being allowed to open another. The morning dragged at their house and there were often tears. Their mother, can you believe, had a clipboard in her hands the entire time and checked off details of the gift and the completion of each letter.
ReplyDelete