In so many households Christmas morning is over in a blink of an eye. The kids wake up early and race Mom and Dad to the tree and stockings. While Mom and Dad are still trying to fully wake up the kids begin tearing into the gifts and wrapping paper going every where. 10 minutes later Christmas morning is over, well at least for the kids it is. Mom and Dad have a mess to clean up.
So how can you make Christmas Morning Last?
Some families have Christmas Morning traditions that help Christmas last a little longer than 10 minutes.
- Establish a stockings only rule before Breakfast. Kids and adults may only open their stockings before breakfast. Be sure to have a really special breakfast for the kids to enjoy.
- Save the majority of the presents for after Mass or Church. Let the kids get their stockings and Santa Clause gifts if time allows before Mass. Save the gifts from family, grandma, grandpa for after mass.
- Pass out only one gift at a time from under the tree and take turns opening the gifts.
- Pass out all the gifts and have everyone sit in a circle, take turns going around the circle opening gifts.
- Have a scavenger hunt for the gifts or just on special one.
- Save some gifts for after dinner, Grandparents gifts make a good choice for this especially if Grandparents are not there in the morning but are there for dinner
- If you visit other relatives over the holidays save their presents for when you visit them.
- Exchange some of the gifts on New Years Eve or Day. This is something I have done with my brothers and their families since we were kids.
- If you really want to make Christmas last save a few gifts for the kids for the Feast of the Epiphany, We all have those gifts we bought real early and hid and forgot where we put them.
7 comments:
Good suggestions. In my family growing up, we had to take turns opening our presents and this is a tradition we have continued. I find the frantic opening of presents all at once to be really gross, frankly.
We generally go to Mass the night before - so Xmas morning is just breakfast and present opening. That's okay though. It's nice to have a day to veg out. We do a lot of Adventy related things before the big day so I do feel we savor the holiday. In years past we had an "undecorate our tree" party on Ephiphany and invited friends over. By then, there are few parties and it is nice to gather with friends.
BTW, I am asking a question on my blog about Christmas letters.
http://ramblingfollower.blogspot.com/2011/12/help-me-out-here-is-family-christmas.html
Thanks Allison, we merged our family's my husband an mine traditions. I suppose that is what you do when you get married. So you find a little of both at our house. I love the idea of the undecorate the Christmas Tree party. What a great way to celebrate the Ephihinay.
@Lisa: The nice thing about that party is that we can invite friends who don't celebrate Christmas. In our town there are many Jewish families. Some of our Jewish friends had fun participating in our traditions and to ask them to "undecorate" felt more comfortable to them that asking them to help us decorate or celebrate.
I'm excited to see how Christmas morning goes this year with our 3 year old. This is really the first year that he "gets" it. We typically open our presents as a family and then around 11:00 we go over to my sister's house to spend the rest of the day with my parents, my sister, and her family. We open presents, eat brunch, watch Christmas movies, and later have Christmas dinner together. We even bring our pajamas and stay late into the night playing games and being together. It is my most favorite thing!
Great suggestions! We do the 'sit in a circle and take turns' tactic with my husband's family! Everyone gets into it and much chocolate is exchanged and slowly eaten all day!
Leanne - what a fun age for you and your little one, and those traditions sound so much fun. I really wish we had family that lived in town. I know that it would change our family traditions. Growing up we used to have the neighborhood kids come over in the evening to play what ever new game we had received. It evolved into dessert with adult friends as we grew up.
Marissa, we do a little bit of all of the above on Christmas morning. In fact right now I am taking a break from writing clues for the treasure hunt for my kids.
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