Filing away for when LO is older and equates Christmas with new toys. If Santa doesn't bring presents...
When do you place wrapped gifts under the tree?
Do your kids wake up at dawn and scurry to open them Christmas morning?
What time do they go to sleep?/ Is there an incentive to go to sleep early?
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
We do Santa, but regardless, we put all the presents (Santa's and ours) under the tree Christmas Eve after the kids go to bed. That way when they get up in the morning, there are suddenly lots of presents under the tree. I think it makes it more magical. My parents did this for us even after we stopped believing in Santa.
My kids are still young (2 and almost 4), so they don't wake up early just because it's Christmas. But I'm sure they will eventually! I know I did!
Christmas Eve bedtime is the same as any other day. Though I can imagine them staying up later as they get older. It's A Wonderful Life usually plays on Christmas Eve and I used to stay up and watch it with my parents when I was a kid, so at some point, I'll let my kids stay up and watch it with me too. But not until they are older.
eggplant / 11716 posts
We didn't do Santa growing up, and if I remember correctly, some presents would be there in the days leading up to Christmas, and other would appear that night.
Although I'm pretty sure the "presents appearing" was more because both of my parents worked and owned a side business and had kids--and they just stayed up late the night before wrapping presents because that was the only time, not to make it more magical, haha.
squash / 13208 posts
Whether or not you do Santa I think the fun/anticipation is going to bed with nothing under the tree and waking up to something magical 
pomelo / 5573 posts
We did Santa, but he just filled stockings. Presents appeared under the tree over the course of December, and then the stockings got filled after we went to bed Christmas Eve. I have all my presents under the tree right now, and have for over a week!
@Mamaof2: I think the fun and anticipation comes from getting to finally open the presents!
pear / 1593 posts
@Mamaof2: @erinbaderin: yea I think our own childhoods color what we think makes it special
I grew up with the presents under the tree throughout Dec, and so I want to do it the same way
squash / 13208 posts
@runnerd: your probably right!
As a kid if there were presents under the tree beforehand we would sneak and open them - ha! So it wasn't so exciting opening them for real on Christmas morning.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
My mom used to buy, wrap and put under the tree. I used to unwrap and open every single box because the temptation was just too much.
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
We won't be doing Santa...
When the girls are young, wrapped gifts will go under the tree the night before after they go to bed until they know that they can't open them!
I think I will just tell them when present opening time is... So they can never just run down whenever and rip things open.
They'd just go to bed when they go to bed....? Unless we're somewhere for Christmas Eve or have people over... But to me bed time doesn't have anything to do with presents the next day...
honeydew / 7230 posts
@runnerd: We did it that way, too! We already have presents wrapped under the tree, although Blake did help himself to one of them the other day, so it needs a re-wrap. My parents always put wrapped presents under the tree, then added stockings and one "Santa present" for Christmas morning.
nectarine / 2018 posts
We will put gifts from others under the tree as they arrive. Gifts from us will be put under a day or two before Christmas and stockings and one or two things from Santa for Christmas morning. We both grew up with a similar structure so it works out!
nectarine / 2460 posts
We did Santa growing up and my parents would keep wrapped presents under the tree throughout December. Then Santa would leave our 1 "big" present on Christmas Eve after we went to sleep, but it was left out and unwrapped. This was especially cool in the early days when kid presents might require a lot of set up and are awkward shapes to wrap. This way the present is ready to be played with right away! You could duplicate that even if you didn't do Santa.
ETA: We had to wait upstairs Christmas morning till my parents were up to go downstairs and see our presents. But we could see/play with the big present while everyone leisurely got breakfast and whatnot and then had present opening all together maybe 30 min - 1 hr later.
nectarine / 2018 posts
@JennyPenny: We also make sure gifts are ready to go. While DD is little her Santa gift will be unwrapped and assembled if necessary. Gifts from us are wrapped but they are removed from packaging, with batteries and assembled, if needed. It makes it so fun that as soon as the gift is touched it's ready to be used.
nectarine / 2690 posts
Mine was similar to @JennyPenny: growing up. Mom and dad would wrap presents and put them under the tree throughout December, and then the presents from Santa (and stocking stuffers) would be put out - unwrapped - while we slept Christmas Eve. Then when we got up in the morning (or middle of the night lol) we knew Santa came and we got to go through his presents and then open the stuff from mom and dad.
I don't know yet what we'll do for LO, she's too young this year. Right now I just have her presents sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be wrapped 
. My husband said "you're showing Piper her Christmas presents!" and I'm like, "uh, she has no idea what that even means right now" lol so this year its easy!
apricot / 370 posts
As a child, I became an expert at unwrapping and re-wrapping any gifts under the tree before Christmas. It was kind of a bummer on Christmas day because I already knew what I was getting, but that never stopped me.
So, in case sneaky child runs in my genes, we'll put presents out Christmas Eve after bed. We do this as adults in my parents house too - everyone sneaks out at some point during the night to add theirs to the mix. It's really fun.
cantaloupe / 6131 posts
No Santa after age 4 for me and even then he just brought a candy filled stocking. We just had gifts lined up under the tree as we received them BUT I did secretly unwrap the gifts and rewrap them as I got older so I may try to just put them under the tree after my kids go to bed. We always stick to bedtimes but once they "get" Christmas we will probably let them stay up a little later and watch movies.
nectarine / 2018 posts
Just want to add I wasn't a kid who opened them early but my husband and his brother always tried. My MIL would collect random boxes all year then would put the gift in a random box (like for a coffee maker), wrap it, put that in another random box, and wrap that. Sometimes as many as 5 boxes - that way if they tried to look it would be really hard. A little over the top in my mind but it's an idea.
apricot / 356 posts
We had wrapped gifts under the tree in the week leading up. I never opened them before! Can't say the same for my brothers and sister!! I don't think my parents wrote names on the gifts, maybe that's why!! Presents were always from family members, never Santa. And we open them Christmas Eve.
pomelo / 5573 posts
We never unwrapped presents under the tree but we definitely hunted them down where they were hidden in the house. It's funny - so know now that it's so much more fun to wait until Christmas morning but that's probably one of those things kids have to learn from experience.
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