If you host Christmas and your kids Grandparents stay with you, how do you handle Christmas morning and the excitement for your child - when you know the Grandparents can't get up as early as your kids can? Do you let them open their stockings before you go down and then let them play with their unwrapped gifts while waiting for Gram and Gramps or do you make them wait for the whole shebang to start at 8am (or whenever the Grands can get up?)
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Are the grandparents super elderly? My dad gets up earlier than any of us anyway and we just made my mom tough it out and get up early. She didn't mind a bit.
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My parents aren't staying with us, but they are coming over early, but I'm sure it won't be as early as the kids get up. I'm planning on letting them open their stockings and then having breakfast while we wait for the grandparents.
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I imagine they will get up early too! Praying DS sleeps until at least 6!
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We are usually at my parents' house (this year they will be at ours), but even growing up, the rule was that kids could go open stockings and play with the gifts from Santa, but couldn't touch the wrapped gifts. (Santa brought 1 gift to each kid that was unwrapped and set up, ready to play with.)
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My parents would get up the second they heard my son up.
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I wouldn't make the kids wait. Why can't the grandparents get up?
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I would have my kids go wake up their grandparents
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Our kids wake the grandparents up. They don't mind at all!
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@Truth Bombs: @kiddosc: my dad is ill and doesn't sleep overnight. He is only able to really sleep from about 5am-on.
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DD is only 8.5 months so we'll probably just postpone Christmas until mid-day. My parents sleep absurdly late when they visit us. They stay in a hotel or VRBO and they never make it over to our house before noon.
Once DD is old enough to understand Christmas, I imagine we'll let her get her stocking and Santa gifts right away and then wait a little bit for grandparents. But we're not waiting until noon.
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I think that's a good reason to ask a child to wait on opening things (unwrapped stuff seems to me to be fair game for immediate play!). But I guess I'm a huge Grinch, because I make LO wait until I've at least had some coffee!
We even had him wait until after church on Christmas morning last year, poor kid. This year he has to wait for our guests to come over for brunch. If you prep the child in advance, I think it's fine. Alternatively, designate a reasonably exciting gift or two to open first thing and save the rest for Grandpa and Grandma to see.
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I think if I were in that situation I would let them open their gifts from us/santa and wait to open the gifts from grandparents. I prefer to have Christmas morning just be our nuclear family though. It's one thing to wait 20 min while people get up and get coffee and quite another to have to wait hours. I think that sucks a lot of the joy/magic out of Christmas morning.
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@honeybear: ha! My aunt used to make my cousins wait until after Christmas Day Mass to open presents. I used to think that was the worst type of torture.
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Well, in DH's family, immediate family presents are after breakfast (so around 930am or 10am) and then extended family presents are after the family luncheon (so around 1:30pm). So I would just say presents are for after lunch/brunch. Then its about killing time! I think they should be allowed to open their stockings any time after 5 or 6am (depending on when its likely they will get up), play with whatever is in the stocking (so put something that will occupy them in there!), then allow them to come wake up mom and dad for snuggles. Then I would have them help you make a special smallish breakfast that they can help you make, like cinnamon rolls from a tube or a Snowman pancake with sprinkles and chocolate chips or something. Then Christmas movie with popcorn! And then hopefully the grandparents will be up, everyone can have a brunch/lunch together, and then open presents.
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@mediagirl: I'm definitely an ogre.
I do let LO pick out one gift to open on Christmas Eve, and he can have his stocking and maybe one gift from us when he gets up.
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Growing up, stockings were always free game as soon as we woke up. So I'd let her do those right away, and that should tide her over until she's able to open presents when the grandparents get up!
We even had him wait until after church on Christmas morning last year, poor kid. This year he has to wait for our guests to come over for brunch. If you prep the child in advance, I think it's fine. Alternatively, designate a reasonably exciting gift or two to open first thing and save the rest for Grandpa and Grandma to see.
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16 comments