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

[dradamsapple]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "aaoconnor2002" 
<aaoconnor2002 at y...> wrote:
> 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.
> 
> snip<
>
> How do other people from large families handle this?
> 
> Audrey



Oh boy.  Christmas Eve and presents.  Unfortunately, brings back 
bad memories. 
 
See, when I still believed in Santa, my father took me out for awhile 
so that my mother could put all the presents under the tree, so that 
I would be surprised when I got back. She told me that "Santa came 
while you were out."  (note:  I, too, am an only child).  What 
possessed my mother to put the presents under the tree early that 
year is beyond me.  They NEVER put out the presents on Christmas 
eve.  Well, I was soo excited, that I asked if I could open one 
present.   To make a long story short, I had opened all of my gifts 
that Christmas Eve, and had nothing to open on Christmas morning.

Tears.  So many tears.  I have never forgotten that and to this day 
will not allow my children to open gifts on Christmas Eve. (can you 
say, paranoid-Scrooge?)

Well, things are now much better, because we have no way of seeing 
both sets of grandparents all in one day.  So, we have traditionally 
gone to my mothers' house on Christmas eve, where we open presents 
there;  Christmas morning, we open presents at our house; and 
usually, Christmas day-evening, we open presents at my mother-in-
laws, where all the little kiddies gather.  We tried to have one 
person open one present at a time, but impatience ruled and it's 
utter chaos with everyone opening presents all at once.  It's fun 
though!  Twenty-four hours of presents!!

Anna . . .(who hopes she didn't depress anyone with her story)