Spooot Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 morning and then tell them ok, get dressed we have to be at Grandma's by 9AM? I never had to deal with that issue, but my daughter did with her first two. I finally told her that it was time that she and her husband start a tradition of thier own, like let your children have the morning with thier new stuff and then head to other family gatherings after lunch. So that's what they did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyers12345 Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 That's what we have to do. We also have a christmas dinner christmas eve, at 5:00, so no family traditions there. Before my dh's dad moved and he lost touch with his mom, we opened presents here at 5 or 6, dressed and gone to my mom's by 7, his dad's at 11, his aunt's at 1, his mom's at 3, and my grandma's at 5. Plus, my aunt's on Christmas eve. It is absolutely miserable. Now, we still go 3 places other than home on Christmas day. The reason we go to my mom's so early, is that my little sister is still at home and not allowed to open gifts until we're there. She starts calling at 6. Now she's 19, and every year it gets a little later and later. I would LOVE to hang out here for a while, but I have to remember, Christmas morning with the kids was mom's tradition too, and my 2 are the only grandkids, so they want to spoil them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abentley Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 We had to stop the craziness here. My MIL has a christmas Eve party that went from 5:00-Santa stopping by at 8:00p.m. we would shuttle my kids over to my ex's parents for her Christmas Eve, get them home around 10:00, and make them "hurry to go to sleep". christmas a.m. would be calling my MIL waiting for her to show up so they could open presents, she would make them hurry "so she could run over to my Dh's brothers house" 15 minutes away. Then we would shuttle my kids over to their Grandparents by 10:00 a.m. for breakfast, and run over to my Dh dads and do "dinner" at lunch time. In that whole entire mess, my family never factored in. So we stopped. WE always traveled for Christmas.. and sometimes Santa got lost. I wanted my kids home for Christmas and we plan on visiting our kids so they can keep their kids home as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misshayley Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 When we were little that's what we did. We would open our gifts around 6 or 7 and then be at my grandparents around 10 or 11. I have no clue what DH and I are going to do when we have children. We start Christmas Eve with his family then come home and go to bed then get up and go to my aunt's and then go to my parent's. DH and I typically open our gifts on Dec 23 so that we have time to enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spooot Posted November 27, 2006 Author Share Posted November 27, 2006 I guess after watching my daughter go through the stress of figuring out how she was going to be everywhere she was expected to be Christmas morning (with us, her dad and stepmom, both sets of grandparents on her side and then her DH's parents). I took a step back and said ok, nothing says that we HAVE to open these gifts we bought on Christmas morning. So we go up a week before Christmas or a week after. The grandkids love it, their Christmas is about two to three weeks long. *LOL* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sm1kla Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 I have a family dinner Christmas Eve for 25+, I took on the responsibilty for my mom & dad who have done this for 40 years. After dinner, we exchange family gifts only. My step daughter gets all of her gifts then too since she is with her mom on Christmas day. My kids do not get any Santa gifts until Christmas morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheli Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 I stopped all of that a few years ago. It used to be visit the grandparents, aunts and uncles then off to the other side of the family. The kids were lost in the whirl of the revolving door... to me Christmas is about family but it's also about the kids. We simply stopped going and invited anyone that wantd to drop in to do so. Some come by and have pie in the afternoon, others think it's too much trouble to go visiting on x-mas...tough!!! They thought it was ok for me to travel all over the state with kids but not ok for them to travel to see us. Now my children enjoy the holiday and their new toys - and we know who really wanted to see us in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trish1298 Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 That also what we do. We wake up, open presents, then into the car for an 18 hour trip to Kansas. So we can be there in time for Christmas with the rest of the family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christib327 Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 Before I even got pregnant my husband and I decided that we would stay home Christmas morning. So now, we go to either my parents or his parents Christmas eve and do the other Christmas evening. Or, they can come to our house. Every year, it's been a little different, but we won't back down from being home Christmas morning. I want the kids to have time to enjoy their new stuff and I want time to enjoy the kids. It's worked out great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glitterstarr Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 When I was small we always had to leave our toys and stuff to go some where else on Christmas Day and I always hated having to leave because I wanted to play with my new toys. I swore when I got married that my kids would never have to leave home on Christmas Day so they could enjoy their toys and play all day and have fun with their toys and that's the way it's always been for 19 years now. We always did Christmas with my family on Chirstmas Eve and on Christmas Day my mom and dad would make the rounds to me and my sisters house to visit with our kids to see what they got and enjoyed them showing off what they received. We have always lived next door to my inlaws so we usually eat lunch there every year so it's still like the kids were at home. Also the inlaws come over every year on Christmas morning to watch the kids open their gifts it's just tradition. Now on Christmas Eve since both my parents have passed away my husband always takes me out for lunch because Christmas Eve makes me sad and I usually end up crying a lot since that day was usually spent with mom and dad because I miss them so much. Plus my husband knows that I get really down during the month of December because my mom passed away 2 weeks before Christmas in 2001. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noehlp Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 We got to my ex's Grandparents house on Christmas Eve, usually in the early afternoon. My Dad and Step Mom have Christmas at their house within a two week window of Christmas, but never on Christmas, so we go there sometimes. My Mom is the only Grandparent that is really involved w/my kids' lives. We see her every weekend and sometimes during the week too. Sometimes she will come over Christmas Eve night, but we don't do presents then with her. On Christmas morning, once the kids awake, I call her and ask how long until she could get here. If it is fairly soon, I try to stall the kids on opening the gifts and then they open them when she gets here. But if it is going to take her a while I let them open their gifts, maybe setting 1 or 2 aside. Then when she arrives they open hers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hnybee411 Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 My husband is actually the one that put his foot down here. His mom was complaining because we always have christmas with my parents (um...we live with them) and go up there like the weekend before or the weekend after. They live three hours away. He just pointblank told her "My kids are celebrating christmas in their home with us. You know where we live." It probably didn't help that they really didn't celebrate christmas from the time he was about eight until they had their first grandchild. Now it's like this big thing. He's a little bitter about that. Can't say as I blame him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyzmom Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 that's the way we did it when we were growing up.... we don't do Santa here, but we still get our kids a bunch of gifts and my mil expects everyone at her house by 9am. there were several years where my bil and sil brought their kids in their pj's and had them open their 'santa' gifts there as well as their family gifts...that was terrible! their kids didn't get to enjoy their stuff, and my kids had to watch them open all their fun gifts we have my parents over for dinner on the 23rd, we do our personal Christmas (dh, me, 3 boys and dog) on the 24th and they get to play with all their stuff all day, then morning of 25th we go to inlaws (we still do the 'get up and find all the stuff under the tree thing', just on the 24th and the gifts are from mom and dad) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elena_398 Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 We usually are up by 7am. I make coffee then turn the lights on. Get the camera ready. Then the kids are allowed to come down. They open gifts and look in their stockings. Then we have a nice christmas breakfast. We don't go to my parents house till noon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berry1014 Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 Before we had kids we would visit the parents but now we stay home and we host Christmas dinner so everyone comes to us. We refuse to take our kids away from their Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorisha Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 When I was a kid we did every single christmas eve & christmas at grandma's and pappa's. The whole family would come in I'm talking 50+ people showing up christmas eve morning and staying until late christmas night or the next day. It was a huge family tradition and my grandparents had more then enough space for all of us. I remember how good it felt to see all my aunts, uncles and cousins we had soooo much fun on those 2 days. Snowball fights, sleigh races, snowman building contests, grannies hot cocoa with marshmallows...Oh how I wish my children could experience what I did sadly both grandparents have passed and now no one gets together for christmas anymore. Except for christmas eve party at my sisters which is just immediate family no aunts, uncles or cousins.. As a child I could careless about leaving a new toy behind I just couldn't wait to see my family that was the most important thing to me. Nowadays its just me my husband and our 4 kids for christmas morning unless the kids' grandparents decide to pop in. I love having it just be us but at the same time I long for the christmas's I had when I was a kid! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 We usually are up by 7am. I make coffee then turn the lights on. Get the camera ready. Then the kids are allowed to come down. They open gifts and look in their stockings. Then we have a nice christmas breakfast. We don't go to my parents house till noon.This is similar to what we do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom_of2boyz Posted November 28, 2006 Share Posted November 28, 2006 The only place we go is to my moms for a while, and probably this year will go to my oldests sons house, because his girlfriends son is only 3 instead of dragging him out and away from his stuff. Since my youngest is 10, it's not like when he was younger, and dragging him away from the toys. Plus between my mom, my oldest son, and my 2 sons dad, we all live within a 4 block radius, so it's not like the younger one can't pop in and out between houses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glitterstarr Posted November 28, 2006 Share Posted November 28, 2006 We usually are up by 7am. I make coffee then turn the lights on. Get the camera ready. Then the kids are allowed to come down. They open gifts and look in their stockings. Then we have a nice christmas breakfast. We don't go to my parents house till noon.How in the world do you keep them in their rooms until 7? LOL When my 2 were small it's the only day of the year they were up before 5 waking us up! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy72 Posted November 28, 2006 Share Posted November 28, 2006 our girls have til 11:30am on Christmas with their toys then we go to inlaws for most of the day...we have Christmas here for my side at noon on Christmas Eve...so it isnt that bad for them my girls have never gotten up very early to open presents...they wake up at 8am and never bother us to open up their gifts...lol....heck I even woke up my first dd when she was little at 8 to get her to open her gifts...lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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