Christmas Presents

[Dan Gould]

Personally, I've never understood the Christmas Eve thing.

[sidewinder]

It seems to be the thing in the Germanic countries, with Xmas day being much more low-key. In the UK it all happens on Xmas day, with the result that kids wake up at 5am and wake up the folks from their well earned holiday lie-in.

[couw]

in germany presents are indeed opened on Christmas eve. Christmas day is reserved for eating a lot.

[connoisseur series500]

Xmas day of course.

[Dan Gould]

Methinks the "when we get to it Christmas Day" crowd all are childless!

When I was younger, it was a huge, endless process, because in the morning we would do the "Santa" gifts to each of the kids, followed by brunch, followed by the equally lengthy exchanges of personal gifts from family member to family member.

That reminds me of another poll topic ...

[sheldonm]

We stay at Gina's parents house on Christmas Eve, so we open our gifts to each other before we go there. We celebrate with her family that EVEning and It's back to my family on Christmas day to open gifts and eat about 3:00 p.m. It's more running than I would like, but it just one of those things you live with. In any event, I will most likely score Mosaic Certificate or music from my ever growing list

[catesta]

Christmas Eve, a few hours after dinner.

We've been doing it that way ever since I busted my dad setting up a race car track that was supposed to be from "Santa".

I think he blamed it on the unions, said something like "all he does is deliver it now, they want double time to set it up, and I'm not payin' double time."

[Rooster_Ties]

Christmas Day, but we always opened the presents from this one really weird relative of mine on Christmas Eve. She is my Godmother, but we always called her "Auntie Glo" (her first name was Gloria).

She was a travel agent, and always flew all over the world - and would get the strangest presents for us. Novelty toilet seat covers from Japan, weird nick-knacks from India (cheap plastic stuff, some of which we could never figure out what it was!!), and “snow globes” from countries that didn't ever even get snow!!!

I remember getting a sweatshirt from her from Hong Kong, sometime in the early 90’s, which showed a Chinaman painting out the British Flag, with the Chinese Flag being painted over the British Flag - in anticipation of Hong Kong reverting from the British to the Chinese a few years ago. The Chinaman on the sweatshirt had this totally maniacal look in his eye, and I was always afraid of wearing it - because I figured that it was probably equally offensive to people from the U.K. as well as to the Chinese.

We always opened the presents from Auntie Glo on Xmas Eve, cuz we could stand to wait until Christmas to see what truly weird shit she had come up with the previous year.

(And you know - it wasn't like Auntie Glo had a wicked sense of humor about things. She really was innocently buying whatever she thought we would like. She was a sweet lady, who I never thought had a clue about anything.)

[Big Al]

Christmas Day, all day. Our kids are spolied enough..... er, blessed to have BOTH sets of grandparents here in town. So we open presents and have breakfast at our house, go to church, go to my folks for more presents and lunch, go back home to unload the first bunch of loot, then head over to the in-laws for more presents and dinner. So by the time bedtime rolls around, we're ready for a vacation! But I'm loving it, and the kids are DEFINITELY loving it; and as long as the grandparents are still around, we'll be loving it for many years to come!

[couw]

we had presents last week when we visited my family in the Netherlands. That's one of the very few tiny spots on the globe where St. Nicholas is still celebrated. It's the original Santa so to speak, before he was commercially perverted and before he got dragged to Christmass by people who didn't want to bother to have two of these friendly nice guys like Nicolas and Jesus who with their unseen power bring presents to everyone.

Anyhow, in the netherlands St Nicolas arrives in a boat from Spain where he lives. He brings a bunch of Zwarte Pieten (Moors) with him. The looks of the scene would probably make any US equal rights fighter drop dead from over-excitement. The guy has a white horse. He arrives some two weeks before his actual birthday, which is celebrated on the 5th or 6th of December.

The kids are allowed to put their shoes out; in my time we still had a fire place, nowadays the kids go with the central heating system. The story is that the workers (the Moors) climb through the chimney and drop sweets and small present in there. Parents of course use this time to make their kids behave better. If you're not nice, you're not gonna get what you wished for. In less modern times (in my youth actually) there was the additional factor of the Roe (a bunch of twigs to flex on a children's behind) and the bag that the helpers use to carry their gifts around. Kids were told that if they weren't nice, they would be put in the bag and dragged off to Spain...

The grand finale is a huge pile of gifts, preferably thrown into a fire place (no fire allowed!) or put in front of the door by a friendly neighbour.

The kids love it. There are a lot of specific songs (probably the only song EVERY dutch person knows is Zie Ginds Komt de Stoomboot, quoted by Ornette on one of the Golden Circle albums BTW; its tune is based on an ancient Baltic folk song) and sweets and stuff like that.

Anyhow, I had convinced the kids the doorbell and the racket wasn't me but one of the Saint's friendly helpers. We tried to have each kid take turns in opening their presents, but with a 7, a 4, and a 2 year old, that is NOT an easy task. All the excitement that has been building up for weeks comes pouring out the moments the presents arrive. Poor kids

Edited December 11, 2003 by couw

[chris]

We always open one present on Christmas Eve and then the rest the next morning, though this year we wont be celebrating until we get done travelling, so Jan. 5 -- why wasn't that day on the poll?

[Jazzmoose]

  catesta said:

I think he blamed it on the unions, said something like "all he does is deliver it now, they want double time to set it up, and I'm not payin' double time."

"Can it, fat boy! No pay, no toys; this is a union shop now!"

[BruceH]

Christmas morning, always and forever! The trick is to have all the presents opened within 30 minutes (more likely 15).

[BERIGAN]

  chris said:

We always open one present on Christmas Eve and then the rest the next morning,....

The way it should be! How could you as a kid open all the stuff Christmas eve, and get to sleep before dawn? Who would want to open the Mosaic before going to bed?

[chris olivarez]

Christmas usually in the early afternoon.

[Johnny E]

Depends on if you got kids. In my family adults eat (generously), drink(embarrassingly) and open gifts all on Christmas Eve. The kids then wake up their hung over parents at 5am (2 hours after they've fallen asleep) where upon the drunken dad has to put together a bike, train set, and stereo while sipping a rum eggnog hair of the dog.

[Johnny E]

  catesta said:

I think he blamed it on the unions, said something like "all he does is deliver it now, they want double time to set it up, and I'm not payin' double time."

Now we know where he gets it

Catesta, do you do the Italian seafood feast on Christmas eve like my family does? My mother is Italian you know...Aliano used to be her name.

Not quite a 7 fish dinner but we have three: crab, shrimp, & calamari. One for each of the wise men my mother says.

Of course I'm far away from my mother now. She lives in Philly and I live in Seattle. But I have a brother and a sister who live here so we do it with our families. My mother comes to visit every third Christmas or so.

[jacman]

got 2 kids, so Christmas morning we'll open presents.

i prefer to open presents one at a time, throughout the day. love the anticipation.

[Christiern]

• In the Scandinavian countries we exchange and open gifts on Christmas Eve, after a sumptuous and--for kids--all too lengthy dinner. Christmas Day is for visiting relatives and having a lunch that centers around left-overs, such as goose from the night before.
  
  For all I know, they may eat Christmas peanut butter sandwiches these days, but I rather suspect that today's Christmas dinner is a healthier version of what used to be (Danes tended to eat far too much fat and butter, and very little green). When I was a kid, the typical, traditional Danish Christmas dinner started with a rice pudding-like dish. One serving (supposedly random, but always rigged when kids are involved) contained an almond, the recipient of which got a special almond gift. The main course was sometimes a roasted rack of pork, but more commonly a goose stuffed with apples and prunes. In either case, it came with red cabbage and small, caramel-coated potatoes (turned in sugar and butter), as well as rich brown gravy, made with heavy cream and good wine. There was also red-currant jelly on the side. The dessert could be anything from ice cream to something fruity, but rarely if ever was it cake.
  
  After dinner, one retires to the living room where coffee and cognac are served along with an assortment of Christmas cookies and chocolates. Then one circles the tree, holding hands, and walks around it while singing Christmas songs. This is often a chore for kids, who are eager to get to the gifts. That ritual follows. We don't hang Christmas stockings anywhere--Santa comes through the window at night and puts little gifts in slippers that have been placed on the sill for his convenience.
  
  In Iceland, where I also grew up, the routine is very similar, but the traditional dinner consists of smoked lamb served with boiled potatoes and green peas in a creamy white sauce.
  

[Brad]

On Christmas morning. My son wants to get to them right away, but it's great to here what they do in the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Iceland. When I was kid and lived in Uruguay, the big holiday was not Christmas (but still big) but the 6th of January (it was called 3 Kings Day, or epiphany), when you put your shoes out and presents were left.

[brownie]

  couw said:

in germany presents are indeed opened on Christmas eve. Christmas day is reserved for eating a lot.

In France, Christmas presents are opened on Xmas eve and we eat a lot that night. Then the big Xmas eat continues on Xmas day. We eat too much

[slsmcgrew]

I was unable to vote. My vote would have been both.