Christmas morning

[Mr. Christmas]

What time does Christmas morning start when you get up and everyone opens gifts? We always done it fairly early around 6 o'clock but the past few years it's been about 8:30.

[Twinkle]

When the kids were little, they woke us up early, somewhere between 5:30 and 6am. My husband and I dragged ourselves down the stairs to watch the kids open their gifts Santa left. We wouldn't miss it for the world but wanting an extra few minutes of shut eye. Can still remember those days like it was yesterday.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a289/Lizilu2/Christmastreewithchildandteddy.gif

[digbugsgirl]

We are usually up around 7am when we don't have to work, so that's when we open ours.

Brandy

[Jeff Westover]

5:30am-6:00am? That's it?!!! sheesh, I get to bed around 2:30am once all the assembly is done on Christmas Eve and my kids are up by 4:00am. It's brutal.

My favorite Christmas day tradition is the nap. I know down the road we're look back on this with fondness. But with five of my kids still under the age of 12 we have a ways to go.

Jeff

[sheepsnot]

Twinkle, that is a beautiful picture! Mind if I borrow it? Our youngest, and only, child is 22 and lives on his own, so we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn. Let me tell you, Jeff, it is sweet, but not sweet enough to replace the anxious joy kids have. :smile:

[Jeff Westover]

I'm not really complaining. I believe I tortured my parents in the same way. Guess the ornament doesn't fall far from the tree, so to speak!

[AuntieMistletoeDear]

:) We used to wake our parents up shortly after Santa had left our house. I think it was the jingling bells that woke me up a few years in a row. I would sneak to my brothers' room trying not to spoil the surprise by looking into the Living Room at the presents some wrapped some not. We'd go as a group to wake our parents. As the Christmas Eve gatherings at our house grew bigger and ran later, it was likely the wee hours of the morning 3:00-ish when we'd wake our parents up.
They made a rule that we could not wake anyone else up to open gifts until the Street Lights went out. That made it about 7:00 a.m.
In my teenage years and when visiting as an adult, opening gifts doesn't start until at least 10:00 a.m.
Of course, I am still awake by 5:00 waiting for everyone else. Thankfully my husband is an early riser and we can wait it out together.

[Andrex]

(Been my first post here in almost a year! HUZZAH!)

We are usually awake at 6-7, but we have to wait til the rest of the family shows up, which usually takes til 9. Then the usual present unwrapping etc. takes place.

I'm very glad to be back!

[sheepsnot]

I don't think we've met, but I'm very glad to have you back! Not many people yell Huzzah in the middle of a post. Good to hear from you. 8)

[Andrex]

It's good to be back. I plan on sticking around this time!

[Andrex]

It's good to be back. I plan on sticking around this time!

[skiparooney]

:rudolph: in the skippy house ...we all wake when the skiparoons do .. which is roughly 4 or 5 am :o .... they then come into my bedroom wiv their stockings that the Big FC 8-) has left over night .... after the stocking opening we all rush down the stairs and find out that "hes been!!" :???: Then the fun begins and its wrapping paper everywhere and those iccle grey ties that tie on toys to cardboard everywhere :o .... chritmas day has now begun :family:

[caseydbell]

This may sound funny but Christmas "morning" starts the morning of Christmas eve. what I mean is this, we go to my grandmothers and hang out on christmas eve (this is really a all day thing 1PM-11PM) we also open gifts, thus Christmas morning starts Christmas eve.

[lpstong]

Our present opening usually started Christmas Eve. It was a traditon since I was a child. But now that all my siblings and I are grown with children we had to work a little on this. We didnt want any disbelievers. But Christmas eve all the grandchildren would recieve family gifts and maybe 1 or 2 gifts from Santa if he made a quick stop before his other stops.

But Christmas morning was just for our spouses and children. It was our way to extend the presents as long as we want. And I come from a large family. So opening of presents at times felt like a marathon. Which was nice. 2-3 hours with the siblings and grandparents christmas eve than and hour or son in the morning with the children.

As far as when I was a child our times would usually be between 5 and 6 am. Just pure excitement. It was to hard to contain ourselves in bed. We tried to be quiet and snuck in front of the tree to touch everything on top of the tree and underr as well. It was fun.

My children are pretty much the same. A few times I would fall asleep on the couch sometime after 2 am in the morning. I would hear my son sneak in the living room as early as 3 am once. I was so tired. I had asked him to go back to bed and he said why? since santa was here already. My daughter heard us talking and decided to join in. So one year we had our presents as early as 3:30 am.

[ReineV]

well, we usually got up pretty early to open presents, but then last year, we waited until everyone got there, ate Christmas dinner, then we opened presents, then we ate dessert while watching Christmas movies

[dvdguy]

usually about 6 or 7 in the morning. & we dont have kids. I just cant sleep

[sheepsnot]

I was up at the crack of 8:30. Killer farmer hours!

[dvdguy]

dont you mean crack o noon?

[sheepsnot]

What, me lazy? I haven't slept till noon in over a week.

[mrshfromjersey]

When we were kids (I have 3 brothers) we were not allowed to get up and go to our parents room earlier than 6:30am. If one of us got up earlier, boy were we in trouble. We had to go to my parent's room and sit on the bed while my Dad would go and put a pot of coffee on. He would come back with our stockings and then go out and bring the coffee in for himself and my Mom. He then would bring in a glass of orange juice for each of us kids. We were NOT allowed to start opening the stockings until my Dad came back. Of course, there was a lot of stocking "squeezing" but we never took anything out until we were told to start. Once we were finished with our stockings, we would go out to the living room to see what Santa left under the tree. My Dad would sit at the organ and play Christmas Carols. I miss those days.

Even though we don't have children, dvdguy and I get up between 6am and 7am - even if we went to midnight mass.

I agree that the Christmas day nap is very important.

[sheepsnot]

Bring in a couple of loaners. You'll make their day and they'll make yours. Don't tell them I called them loaners. Poor choice of words, but you get the idea. Soon you'll fall in love with them and you'll have little dvdadoptees.

[dvdguy]

'yeah how much to rent one of them thar chilrens?"

[sheepsnot]

You can probably pick up a couple free of charge. Avoid those two sick ones on The Simpsons. "Cough! Cough! Doctor says three walls isn't enough!"

[mrshfromjersey]

I think we'll just borrow a niece or a nephew.

[dvdguy]

what about that small balding child? "the doctor said I wouldnt have so many nose bleeds If I just keep my finger out of there"

[MarthaK]

I grew up as an only child, so Christmas started when I did.
When I was little, that would be around 6 a.m.
By the time I was 8, I would roll over and stay in bed until 7 a.m.; not because I was lazy, I just wanted it to last as long as possible. So, sleeping in an extra hour anticipating what was waiting for me downstairs worked.
There was no point in postponing it further, since Mom was up by then making coffee and putting the turkey in the oven.

As an adult, I never had any children, so the slow start continues to this day. I do enjoy waking up early, though, and taking a quiet walk with the dogs through the neighborhood looking at all the homes lit up with excitement in the early morning hours.

[Ervserver]

As kids mom would blast the stereo with Christmas music about 7am to signal us kids to get out of bed and we would grab out robes and head for the Christmas tree and see what Santa had brought us.

[ChristmasFan08]

me and my brother last year put both out mobile alarms on fro 5.45 and i just couldnt get too sleep my family and i watched polar express and then i went to bed but i couldnt get to sleeep

[Minta]

The past few years we did not get up until 7-8ish. We always got up before our daughter but I have a feeling things will be a bit different this year. Now that she is in school she is in the habit of waking up early and so is her baby brother. I guess I better have the coffee pot ready to go at the crack of dawn.

[Merry Sage]

I'm not really complaining. I believe I tortured my parents in the same way. Guess the ornament doesn't fall far from the tree, so to speak!

I was waiting for someone to 'fess up. :wink:

[ChristmasFanatic]

When my brothers and I were young, it was probably 4:30AM to 5:00AM. Then, as an adult, I'd go to Mom's on Christmas Eve and stay and because my step-Dad was a truck driver and often had to do some runs early in the AM, we'd still get up very early, so he could exchange gifts with us, before afternoon. Mom and Jim now have anywhere from 2-3 of my nieces and nephews living with them, so Carol and I get up early...the past 2 years, it's been 2:30AM, so we can open our gifts at the apartment, before heading to Mom and Jim's to watch the kids get into their gifts. Needless to say, the past two years, after breakfast is over and before heading to Dad's, I crash for an hour or two and stack some Z's.

[kgstyles]

when I was growing up me and my brothers and sisters had to wait in our beds until we all were awake which ended up being between 6-7 a.m. then we had to take turns watching everybody open up their presents.

[SnowMaiden1018]

WOW, I would have been bouncing off the walls If I had to wait LOL!!!

[mrfrosty87]

Good post, When i was a kid i used to wake up at 5:00 jump on my mom and dads bed until she woke up, Now we have a different tradition we usually wake up at maybe 9 and cook breakfast together then open gifts with christmas music playing, then we do all over again in my grandmoms house that same night for dinner

[Billy Battles]

When I was a kid I would me and my siblings would get up around 6:00, until I was about 10 or 11, being the youngest and 3 years younger than my youngest sibling I would have to wait until everyone else woke up like 9:00

[Sunshine73]

When I was a kid, Christmas morning began when my younger siblings would drag us out of bed. It seemed each year they woke up earlier and earlier until one year they had us up and opening gifts at 2:30 am. YIKES! Mom and I had gone to bed really late and never bothered to look at the clock when they woke us up. It was about an hour later that we realized just HOW early they'd woken us up...that's when we instituted the 6:00 am rule.

Now, it's just DH and I on Christmas morning and, while I would sleep in, he's more of a "get up at the crack of dawn and open gifts" kind of a person. So, Christmas morning usually starts somewhere around 5:30 am with DH leaning over my face, staring at me until it finally wakes me up. Then, the minute I open my eyes he'll announce, "good you're up, let's go open gifts!"

[Head Elf]

cheesyWhen I was little, my brother and I would wake up and want to open presents right away, but we had to wait for the parents and they slept til 7:ooam. Who does that when you want to unwrap presents. I guess now that I'm older, I haven't changed that much, I still wake up early and want to get the show on the road and unwrap the presents and see what I got. My husband thinks I'm crazy.

[Storeytime]

We usually did our thing around 6:00 when the kids were younger. The rule was that they couldn't go out into the living room until they woke me up. I would have to go into the living room to check and see if Santa had come yet. They would be waiting by the door, just shivering with excitement. Of course, being the kind of person who likes to build the drama, I would make them wait a few minutes while I really made sure Santa had come. I'm sure it's a tradition they'll pass on to their kids, if for no other reason, just to pay somebody back. After the late night gift wrapping and early rising, naps are an annual tradition for me also.

[JanaBanana]

Its hard for my husband and I to even stay in bed... so on Christmas morning it can be anywhere from 4:30-5:30 that the kids wake us up.. they have to wake us up before gifts. There was one year we were so excited for them that WE actually woke them up by doing little things like throwing something down the stairs or coughing really loud!
We open gifts which take a while with 4 kids then breakfast and then im on to the cooking for Christmas dinner! We eat between 1-2 so we can eat all day :)

[Holiday]

These were fun to read! We celebrate Christmas w/ my family (with my parents, brothers/sister, nieces/nephews) on Christmas Eve....so the excitement/anticipation for me has always been waiting for everyone to finish eating dinner. And then of course we would have to do dishes (I would swear my Mom used real plates just to prolonge the wait - now w/ close to 40 of us, she uses paper) And when I was little my older brothers & sisters would always say (while looking at all the presents under tree) "they are too pretty to open, lets just keep them for next year!" which provoked a big "NOOOOOO!" from me! :lol: I can remember bouncing off the walls waiting for dishes to be done!!! Christmas morning is different every year - some years my inlaws have Christmas lunch & some years they have Christmas dinner (supper) - I like to sleep in, so we don't get started too early, & my hubby is a bah hum bug! I do log on to MSN every year on Christmas Day at 10 AM & open gifts with a friend who lives farther away - we send each other gifts & open them together while chatting on MSN. That has been a fun tradition!

[Chillywilly]

In our house as kids we had to wait until our parent got up which was around 6:00 am in the morning. Once I got married and had my own children Christmas morning started around 5:00 am. And that was because our children woke us up! yearning to open their gifts.:tree:

[Andrex]

Well, umm, I'm back again and I really will try to stay around! =0

I still have several ongoing projects related to Christmas, hope to use this place as motivation.

[kidzrme]

It is a tradition in our family to all sleep at my parent's house(grandkids and all) on Christmas eve. The grandkids range in age from 18 down to 1 1/2. We watch the marathon (a Christmas Story) and the kids all sleep in the same room together..They really look forward to it. The bigger kids love the excitement of the little kids waiting to hear santa and the reindeer on the roof. Just thinking about it makes me smile:)

[Andrex]

It is a tradition in our family to all sleep at my parent's house(grandkids and all) on Christmas eve. The grandkids range in age from 18 down to 1 1/2. We watch the marathon (a Christmas Story) and the kids all sleep in the same room together..They really look forward to it. The bigger kids love the excitement of the little kids waiting to hear santa and the reindeer on the roof. Just thinking about it makes me smile:)

That is just awesome. :lol:

[Merry Sage]

When my children were small, it began at stupid o'clock in the a.m. Now its just my husband and I so its much more civilised and sedate. A tad dull too, come to think of it.

I suppose I could wake him up at 5 a.m. though and shout, "let's open presents!!!" :notice: