Are any of your christmas presents opened the night before xmas or do you wait for the big day itself?

We always are allowed to open one present Christmas eve and the rest Christmas day :)

Our family get together at Mom’s on Christmas Eve and open gifts. A tradition started years ago so that Christmas day can be spent doing Christmasy stuff with your immediate family and children. We can either open our gifts there or take them home and open them Christmas day.

We were always allowed to open one present Christmas Eve, the rest on Christmas. The Christmas Eve present was usually something we could use that night – like a pair of nice jammies or something.
Now, tons are opened both before and after Christmas because there’s celebrating it with my mom, then with my dad, then with my dad’s wife’s family, then my aunt/uncle/cousin, then my sister… I usually get very few presents on actual Christmas, but I don’t really care.

We always opened the ones from family the night before and had “Santa” presents Christmas morning.

Now, my husband and I sometimes open our stockings Christmas Eve and the presents Christmas morning.

We only opened presents on Christmas Eve if we were having a get together with family on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas day and it would only be the gifts we were exchanging with them.

My husband and I open our gifts to each other that wouldn’t be appropriate to open on Christmas morning in front of our son or other family members on Christmas Eve. Other than that, we all wait until Christmas morning.

Growing up, we always opened up a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Now, we have a whole extended family swap, and we only exchange with whoever we’re spending Christmas day with when we see them.

Katawagrey and I used to open one each on Christmas eve, but now we get kinda jacked up and have to make ourselves leave a couple for morning. Very little impulse control this time of year.
Edit to add: Now I want to know what @seaofclouds secret presents are!!

When I was married and raising my daughter we always opened one gift on Xmas eve and the rest on Xmas morning.

Now with my daughter at 23 having multiple Xmas celebrations with her dads family, mine and her boyfriends, we have adapted to, happily, a flexible situation.

This year we are doing ‘our’ Xmas, at my home with her boyfriend on the 26th, which is also my B-day.

I will have everyone over mid-afternoon for goodies and dinner, and gift opening will take place in the early evening when all the Xmas lights cast their magic around my living room! ;-)

We always open one on Christmas eve.

We have our (immediate family) Christmas on Christmas Eve morning, where my two kids, my husband and I open our gifts. Later in the afternoon, we have Mom-side-Christmas (mom’s parents and siblings families) where we all open more gifts, and then Christmas Day, we have Dad-side-Christmas where we open the last of the gifts.

The kids get one Xmas eve present (my wife’s tradition, no mine) and the rest of the presents are opened Xmas day.

We always wait until Christmas day. When I was little we could open one present and get out stockings Christmas morning but we had to wait for my dad and grandfather while they milked the cows and finished in the barn. That was usually around 10:00 AM so we kids were tortured waiting until then.
@Seaofclouds I’m with Jill. What did Santa bring you?:)

My boss gave a few of us presents today, I opened mine!

I’ve gotten to pick one and open it on Christmas Eve until I got old enough that there were fewer, but bigger ticket items under the tree instead of a larger number of less expensive things.

@JilltheTooth and @Adirondackwannabe Let’s just say one year, my husband and I had quite a shopping spree on a few adult sites for some new toys for our bedroom. We tend to add a little something new to our collection each year now as a tradition. ;)

It used to be (when we were younger) that we would open one present Christmas Eve, plus we would get new p.j’s.

Now we don’t buy for each other at all.

Yes, one or two are opened, and why not—it’s probably already midnight somewhere. ;-)

@Seaofclouds That’s one very nice tradition. :)

It seems like most people have this tradition, but yes, my sister and I are allowed to open one present each on Christmas Eve right before we go to bed. But, because my sister and I love surprises, we always choose to open the one gift we always give to each other. A calendar. So I always get a calendar on Christmas Eve.

It has been tradition for years between my sisters and I to exchange our gifts late on the night of Xmas Eve. In recent years it has become something that the whole family joins in on. We all meet at my parents’ house or my house around midnight and exchange gifts. It’s fun.

My family used to have the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve, but as I’ve gotten older and have somewhat learned self control, we wait until Christmas Day.
I suspect my parents had this tradition so they could shut me up let me indulge in my need for destroying wrapping paper works of art….

When I was younger, my parents would let us all open 1 “small” gift on Christmas Eve that my parents would point out to us (candy or a small toy or something), but then as we got older, we started just preferring that we open everything on Christmas and that’s how it’s been since.

We open gifts on Christmas morning. As a side tradition we l have 2 presents that have not been open for 20 years. No one knows what’s in them. Each year we take them out of the garage and put them under the tree. After Christmas we put them back (unopened) in the garage for the next Christmas. These gifts have come to symbolize gifts for those love ones who are no longer with us.

We used to open one on Christmas Eve and the rest in the morning. Sometimes we’ve exchanged gifts early. My partner is in the habit of asking for “practical” gifts, like upgrades for his computer. I have no clue what to get or how to install them so I just point him at the computer store and tell him to pick what he wants, and since he knows what he’s got, there doesn’t seem any point in wrapping it and saving it for Christmas day.

We always opened all our gifts Christmas morning. I know a lot of friends who did what many jellies here are saying, opening one gift on Christmas eve and the rest the next morning. I like the idea of having one “appetizer” present the night before. :)

What @christos99 said.

I have decided over the years that it is not good for children to be presented with too many presents at one time, so I have gone back to the tradition my parents used, only stocking gifts and one or maybe two wrapped gifts and the big, unwrapped surprise gift, which we could pretend was from Santa is we wanted to.

When I was a kid then my parents or grandparents would let me open one item, they would offer me from a group though. They did this because I was a relentless, sleepless pest and they wanted to be able to finish with gifts or decorating that could only be done if I finally went to sleep.

As children, we had the one present on Christmas Eve, tradition. For our children, it started out that way, too. Several years back, my father decided that for his birthday we would all open presents. Christmas Eve is now the time where all family exchanges gifts (except those from us to our children). It works out well and I know my kids actually take the time to look at what they are getting and enjoy the present, too.

Stockings are always Christmas morning! Never before.