Christmas presents - one at a time or all at once?

[aaoconnor2002]

I've been following the discussion of the timing of Christmas 
decorating and I was curious how people handle another aspect of the 
holiday season - gift opening.

When I was growing up we were allowed to pick one present to open on 
Christmas Eve, the rest had to wait until morning.  We would gather 
in the living room.  All the packages would be distributed and when 
each person had his pile in front of him the chaos would commence.  
Eventually we would be dragged away from our presents when dinner was 
ready.

I assumed this was the way all families did it until I got married.  
My first Christmas at my in-laws was quite different.  For one thing 
everybody waited until after dinner to open presents.  They also had 
a different way of handling present distribution and opening.  

Apparently at some point in the distant past an elderly aunt had felt 
slighted because she hadn't been thanked by each individual child as 
they opened their presents.  She made her displeasure known.  
Basically she pouted for several months until my in-laws agreed to 
change the way they handled Christmas presents.  

A new tradition was introduced.  One person acted as "Santa" and 
handed out each present individually.  Then the entire family had to 
sit and watch the person open the package, ooh and aah appropriately 
and thank the giver.  

By the time I joined the family the elderly aunt was long deceased 
but no one dared change the way things were being done.  It wouldn't 
have been so bad but my husband was one of seven children.  With 
assorted spouses, grandchildren and cousins it wasn't unusual to have 
25 people sitting around watching other people open packages.  Add to 
that the fact that dinner rarely got servrd until 6 pm or later and 
you ended up with tired and very cranky children of all ages still 
opening packages at midnight. 

How do other people from large families handle this?

Audrey