@OnionSoup Yup, I decided to take the kids out to dinner for Xmas this year. Why should I be stuck in the kitchen trying to put a meal on the table, when I could be spending all day enjoying the kids!
We usually do gifts on Christmas Day, but this year we’re doing everything Christmas Eve. My husband will be leaving for work at 11 pm Christmas Eve to work 16 hours straight and there’s no way we’d make the kids wait until 5 or 6 Christmas night.
With my Birthday being today, all of the cheap relative who would send me a combination Birthday/Xmas present, those would be opened on the 24th.
Making my brothers and sisters jealous was great, but never offset the cheapness of some relatives.
@Oldelvis happy birthday. Mine was yesterday. But when I was a kid, I managed to get a few extra gifts because relatives who didn’t give gifts to anyone else in my family would bring me something since they were seeing me near my birthday.
@Oldelvis Happy Birthday! Know what you mean. I have a cousin goes thru the same thing and my dads birthday is the day of or right at Father’s day every yr so the cheap ones get him 1 combo.
Since both my and my wife’s parents are divorced, Christmas eve has historically been on one of multiple “Christmas celebrations”’ that we spend with different parts of the family. Therefore, out of necessity there is some opening of gifts on Christmas eve.
However, I answered “one gift” in the poll, since that was the tradition in my house as a kid, and what we did when my children were younger.
We go to see other family and get gifts, mostly gift cards because at this point it’s stupid to expect real gifts. (Maybe next year we won’t have to go.) No point in getting a gift card if you have to buy one to give as well, here’s $50 for Amazon, oh and you got me $50 for Amazon.
My family only opened presents on Christmas Eve. We didn’t have much money when I was growing up, so it wasn’t like some huge extravaganza, and it simply makes more sense to do it the night before unless you’re keeping up the Santa thing.
I literally can’t remember a time when I thought Santa was real, and my parents liked sleeping in, so we all had a nice Christmas Eve meal before relaxing and opening presents. Always one at a time, no frenzy. The most intense it got was when we gave our dog her wrapped treats and she went to town. Then my brother and I would stay up to play with our gifts, and we all slept in the next morning.
I got a taste of the “traditional” Christmas morning with multiple small children (cousins in-law) when I was married, and you can keep it.
None of the above? My friends and I do our gift exchange on my birthday, the 23rd. The dogs get their gifts on Christmas morning, but mine are already unwrapped and back under the tree for the time being, along with a handful of gifts for people who RSVPd to last night’s party and then canceled at the last minute. The rule is that they have till New Year’s eve to connect with me and get their gifts, because when I take down the tree on the 1st, leftover gifts get boxed up and sent to the garage for next year.
My grandmother (in her 70s then) usually gave the six grandkids money in those money envelopes with the oval cutout for the president’s picture.
Like this one:
She would caution us not to reveal to the others that had not opened their envelopes the denomination or amount of the bills inside, although we all got the same amounts most times. A “thick” envelope meant it was a very good Christmas for us.
Well that one year, she gives out the envelopes and my cousin and I being the eldest, went first. She leans over to us and whispers “Shh. Don’t tell the others what you got.”
We opened them together and on the outside she wrote
'Twas a thin Christmas this year.
We looked at each other, and knowing my grandmother’s dry wit, thought “She’s sandbagging us.” Could it be that instead of a fat wad of Washingtons or Lincolns, it would be Franklin’s visage awaiting us, along with the sugar plums dancing in our heads?
Keeping a poker face was the hardest thing to do at Grandma’s Christmas gift opening ceremonies. We couldn’t let the others know, since we (the oldest) went first, and we didn’t want to hurt the younger kids feelings if we got more just for being older.
The envelopes were thin. Only one or two bills inside, surely. Feast or famine. Would she really slip us, as a joke, a lonely Washington or Lincoln on … Christmas?
Nah! We tore into them simultaneously, hoping to see Franklin.
My cousin looks at me and sighs, “Yup. It sure was a thin Christmas”, and then I opened mine. He winked. I winked back. We both showed the disappointment in our faces.
When the others opened theirs, the howls of laughter were unstoppable.
She had taped a wallet picture in the envelope so that when you opened it, instead of a dead president, we saw her lovely face smiling back at us.
A “thin” Christmas, indeed!
And that picture is how I remember my grandmother, and it means more than all the money she gave us over the years.
Only the ones I give myself!!
Kids are each getting to open one present on Xmas Eve… But it’s more for the Mrs than the kids.
She’s giving them Xmas PJs on Xmas Eve so they’ll wake up in them Xmas… Otherwise we never do the Xmas Eve present thing.
Our main dinner is Xmas Eve though. Get the feast out the way the day before so noone has to cook or feel left out on Xmas day itself.
@OnionSoup that’s what my family does every 2-3 years. It’s PJs or ugly sweaters.
@OnionSoup Yup, I decided to take the kids out to dinner for Xmas this year. Why should I be stuck in the kitchen trying to put a meal on the table, when I could be spending all day enjoying the kids!
We usually do gifts on Christmas Day, but this year we’re doing everything Christmas Eve. My husband will be leaving for work at 11 pm Christmas Eve to work 16 hours straight and there’s no way we’d make the kids wait until 5 or 6 Christmas night.
@PurplePawprints Sometimes, ya gotta do what you gotta do!
When the kids were little, we would open presents from the family on Christmas Eve and presents from Santa on Christmas Day.
OPENING. Opening presents on Christmas Eve. We never did that. What time is it? Socks?
With my Birthday being today, all of the cheap relative who would send me a combination Birthday/Xmas present, those would be opened on the 24th.
Making my brothers and sisters jealous was great, but never offset the cheapness of some relatives.
@Oldelvis happy birthday. Mine was yesterday. But when I was a kid, I managed to get a few extra gifts because relatives who didn’t give gifts to anyone else in my family would bring me something since they were seeing me near my birthday.
@Oldelvis Happy Birthday! Know what you mean. I have a cousin goes thru the same thing and my dads birthday is the day of or right at Father’s day every yr so the cheap ones get him 1 combo.
My family does the family gathering Xmas thing on Xmas Eve. Santa comes Xmas day, then we go celebrate Xmas at my wife’s house.
Since both my and my wife’s parents are divorced, Christmas eve has historically been on one of multiple “Christmas celebrations”’ that we spend with different parts of the family. Therefore, out of necessity there is some opening of gifts on Christmas eve.
However, I answered “one gift” in the poll, since that was the tradition in my house as a kid, and what we did when my children were younger.
@DrWorm You should enjoy the holiday classic, Four Christmases.
https://g.co/kgs/uwNRcX
We go to see other family and get gifts, mostly gift cards because at this point it’s stupid to expect real gifts. (Maybe next year we won’t have to go.) No point in getting a gift card if you have to buy one to give as well, here’s $50 for Amazon, oh and you got me $50 for Amazon.
My family only opened presents on Christmas Eve. We didn’t have much money when I was growing up, so it wasn’t like some huge extravaganza, and it simply makes more sense to do it the night before unless you’re keeping up the Santa thing.
I literally can’t remember a time when I thought Santa was real, and my parents liked sleeping in, so we all had a nice Christmas Eve meal before relaxing and opening presents. Always one at a time, no frenzy. The most intense it got was when we gave our dog her wrapped treats and she went to town. Then my brother and I would stay up to play with our gifts, and we all slept in the next morning.
I got a taste of the “traditional” Christmas morning with multiple small children (cousins in-law) when I was married, and you can keep it.
None of the above? My friends and I do our gift exchange on my birthday, the 23rd. The dogs get their gifts on Christmas morning, but mine are already unwrapped and back under the tree for the time being, along with a handful of gifts for people who RSVPd to last night’s party and then canceled at the last minute. The rule is that they have till New Year’s eve to connect with me and get their gifts, because when I take down the tree on the 1st, leftover gifts get boxed up and sent to the garage for next year.
@moondrake I’d better get over there for that puppy then.
@therealjrn I actually have 6 wrapped gifts under the tree in case of surprise guests. So I have you covered.
My sister is working tomorrow so we did the Christmas stuff with her tonight. My mother and I are exchanging gifts tomorrow.
My favorite Christmas gift story:
My grandmother (in her 70s then) usually gave the six grandkids money in those money envelopes with the oval cutout for the president’s picture.
Like this one:
She would caution us not to reveal to the others that had not opened their envelopes the denomination or amount of the bills inside, although we all got the same amounts most times. A “thick” envelope meant it was a very good Christmas for us.
Well that one year, she gives out the envelopes and my cousin and I being the eldest, went first. She leans over to us and whispers “Shh. Don’t tell the others what you got.”
We opened them together and on the outside she wrote
We looked at each other, and knowing my grandmother’s dry wit, thought “She’s sandbagging us.” Could it be that instead of a fat wad of Washingtons or Lincolns, it would be Franklin’s visage awaiting us, along with the sugar plums dancing in our heads?
Keeping a poker face was the hardest thing to do at Grandma’s Christmas gift opening ceremonies. We couldn’t let the others know, since we (the oldest) went first, and we didn’t want to hurt the younger kids feelings if we got more just for being older.
The envelopes were thin. Only one or two bills inside, surely. Feast or famine. Would she really slip us, as a joke, a lonely Washington or Lincoln on … Christmas?
Nah! We tore into them simultaneously, hoping to see Franklin.
My cousin looks at me and sighs, “Yup. It sure was a thin Christmas”, and then I opened mine. He winked. I winked back. We both showed the disappointment in our faces.
When the others opened theirs, the howls of laughter were unstoppable.
She had taped a wallet picture in the envelope so that when you opened it, instead of a dead president, we saw her lovely face smiling back at us.
A “thin” Christmas, indeed!
And that picture is how I remember my grandmother, and it means more than all the money she gave us over the years.
Esteemed Older Brother gave me a bio of Otis Redding this evening.
He gives excellent gifts. : )