~*~*~NWQOTD 12/21/10~*~*~

Gooood morning! (Or almost afternoon rather...) We celebrated Christmas with DH's parents last night, since they won't be here on actual Christmas. So I am going to keep the holiday spirit up with the question today.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or another holiday, how do you do gift opening? I've noticed that different people do different things. Do you like how you go about it?

With DH's family, we open each gift (including stockings) individually, and everyone says thank you after each individual piece (again, including stocking stuffers)

I guess my family is just greedy, because we tear through our stockings and gifts and do one general thank you at the end of stockings and another at the end of presents. We do one person at a time, for the most part...but just one general thank you at the end.

I like my way better. To me, it just feels awkward saying 'thank you' after each individual thing. Like I said, maybe we are just greedy.

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we take turns giving gifts. so like the entire focus is on one or two ppl opening gifts at a time.

1 general thank you is more common, unless something is amazing and deserves an extra special TY

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We take turns giving gifts and watch everyone open their gifts.

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Well Neel's family doesn't celebrate Christmas, so any traditions that we have are ones that I brought over from my family.

Christmas Eve we always have Christmas pajamas to open.

Christmas morning we tear through our stockings at the same time.

Then on to gifts. We kind of open gifts at the same time, but we do pause a little here and there to see what the other person got.

It's pretty much organized chaos!

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when i was younger, it was a free for all.. if it has your name on it... OPEN IT!
BUTTTTT there were 'special gifts' that my father would write 'open last' or 'WAIT, do NOT TOUCH' on them because he wanted to see the reaction.

at dh's... we watch the kids open theirs, then we take turn handing out gifts, so dh and i would pass out to his brothers and sils and we'd watch them open, then his brother would do the same, then the other brother, then his parents, etc.

this year dh's decided to do secret santa, so the kids will open all theirs, then i guess we'll exchange with our secret santas, just the person i got will not be there with us on christmas eve.

and its going to be weird this year, last year my parents were invited to my inlaws, so they just sat there and watched.. they gave all the couples ornaments..

but this year, my brother, sil, nephew and aunt will be there too, and we're not exchanging AT ALL with them (well except my nephew). so i dont know how this is going to go down.

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Both of our families pretty much do gift opening the same way. Both our families open them on Christmas morning (we go to my parents house first since my mom won't let my brother and sister open presents until I get there and they call me at 6:30 AM to wake me up!) and we don't wait and thank after each gift. I mean, I guess we do keep up running commentary and thank yous and all that, but we just tear through them. My mom purposely adds more ribbons and tape to my brother's presents since he tears through them so much faster than my sister and I. DH's family doesn't do stockings though- I love stocking stuffers so I'm keeping the tradition alive.

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Posted by little j

we take turns giving gifts. so like the entire focus is on one or two ppl opening gifts at a time.

1 general thank you is more common, unless something is amazing and deserves an extra special TY

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same. we usually thank each other right after opening each gift

Re: ~*~*~NWQOTD 12/21/10~*~*~

At my family's house... we always took turns.

Like I get to open something, then Bob gets to open something, then Jerome gets to open something... then I get to open something again.

We have to say who its from before we open it, etc. and say thank you afterward.

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With a divorced family and 3 siblings all of whom are married and/or live out of state it's pretty chaotic... here's the run down then our traditions..

xmas eve dinner- sis and I @ my mom's
xmas morn- open gifts with mom
xmas afternoon- stop by FIL's
xmas dinner- Have it at my Dad's (my mom usually comes too they have a good relationship, thank GOD!) with step-mom, and step siblings
Morning of Dec 26th- open gifts at Dad's

With my Mom it's pretty normal. My sister, BIL, DH Mom and I sit around the tree and open them usually one at a time. We like to see what eachother gets. We open our stockings last. Then we veg out in pj's for most of the day and pig out! lol

With my Dad we all meet there in the morning (usually the 26th cause were with Mom on the 25th) and are welcomed with mimosa's and bloody mary's!! Then we have some morning cocktails while we open gifts... again one at a time. It's a long process as there are 12 of us! It's fun though and we all enjoy it. Then we have breakfast together as a family, then open our stockings and call it a day.

DH's Dad doesn't do anything for the holiday's it's really sad. He's always invited with my fmaily but never comes. So after we leave my mom's on xmas we go there and exchange stay for an hour or 2 and that's it. he get's Thanksgiving every year though.

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We're changing things up this year since Christmas we have to be at my parents house early.

We're getting up Christmas Eve and I'll make breakfast (cinnabuns) and we'll have our coffee. After breakfast, we're going to open each others gifts.

Christmas Eve night - dinner with DH, his parents, SIL & BIL, BIL's parents, my parents, and sister then back to the ILs house to open gifts. We each take turns opening our gifts and then say thank you after your turn to everyone. Like they get up and kiss and hug each other when their turn is up.

Christmas morning - wake up and go over to my parents, open presents, then breakfast (we're too greedy for food). We ALWAYS take turns in the same order: my turn, younger sister, older sister, DH, dad and then mom and we all have the same place we sit in the living room (DH sits next to older sister and they compare gifts throughout the gift opening). Then we all say thank you for our gifts and that's that.

I'm not one for hugging and kissing my family, I don't know why, so it's a little awkward for me to hug and kiss each one of DH's family after opening gifts, so of course I like my way better!

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i dont exchange with my siblings anymore just my parents...

we used to just open them all at the same time...

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We started this tradition with my neice and nephew.
Everyone is at my parents house at 1 pm on Christmas Eve. Every hour each of the kids gets to open 1 gift. At 7:00, usually myself and my neice, play santa and the elf and we give out all the rest of the gifts till everyone has a pile in front of them. We then rip through them like crazy people. and I dont know how the rest of this tradition started but after everything is opened we ball up the wrapping paper and throw it at each other.

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this is a fun question!

With DH's family, each person opens 1 gift individually, and they keep going around the room until we are done. and after each gift you say 'thank you'

my family - it's a free for all kinda, with one BIG thank you!

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Haaaa! My sister and I open our gifts like were 5 years old. Its actuallly really funny. Dh and I usually open at the same time but kinda wait for an expression. One year we did one gift opened by him, then me, then him, then me, etc.

Our family is a bunch of kids going nuts anyway-its so fun!

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at my house its usually my sister and i at the same time and then we give gifts to our parents.

at DH's house, 1 person at a time.

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At my mom's house, my mom delves out the presents. We usually each get one at a time, all open them together, say thank you, and then open the next round of gifts. It's funny because I think we've each sat in the same seats every single year .

Not sure how DH did gift-opening. His family is Jewish, but they each just tend to get each other money (not even in a card) or a large, unwrapped gift. And the gifts are never opened in front of each other. For example, I was just at my FIL's house a couple of nights ago, and as I was leaving, he handed me a card and gift and told me to open it when I got home. I have a feeling that if DH's mom were still alive, things would be a little different w/ gift giving, haha.

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In-laws: My husband is the youngest of 5 kids so for 33 years he's been like the present gopher...he digs under the tree and hands gifts out and everyone basically opens as their gift is delivered. It was really funny to watch on our first christmas together at his parents

my parents: we generally take random turns

christmas eve with like 25 cousins....we all sit and everyone opens their gifts in age order! we only get like 2-3 gifts so its actually funny and everyone is always into it!

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There are usually so many of us... The kids will bring gifts to you, they get stacked and when everyone has their pile, we dig in at the same time... then after the openings we all go around and thank each other.

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In-laws: the kids have their piles in front of them and everyone watches them open their gifts, it usually takes them about an hour (they get spoiled) the everyone else goes, usually gifts by person i.e the gifts from grandma to each person, then the gifts from DH's great Aunt to each person, then from IL's to each person. We do a secret santa with BIL and SIL and spouse's.

My mom's house: we only do stocking stuffers and my mom gives everyone pj's, including our spouses and friends that come xmas eve.

For both houses we do everything on xmas eve, so it's a long night

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With DH family we let the kids open up all their gifts first and they take turns and then the adults go and we all take turns also.

My family pretty much does everything all at once.