Family Tradition of Christmas Presents...What Were We Thinking?

Over the past few years we'd kept the presents hidden away until Christmas Eve.  All of the presents would be put out at night, after the kids all went to bed.  Usually this was met with me cursing my own exhaustion as I wrapped all of the presents that had been unwrapped, which took me until well early in the morning.  We all know kids, waking up at the crack of dawn Christmas morning, so this usually meant for a very wiped out mama come time to open the presents.

For those of you who remember last year, our tree was pretty much over-run by presents.  Santa didn't bring terribly much, and Chesh and I didn't get much, but my Aunt and Uncle's incredible generosity combined with my Grama's gifts made the tree pale in comparison to the pile of gifts.  We decided then that we had to do things differently next year.

Now, I'll be honest, I never anticipate as much stuff as we end up getting.  This year we know Santa's planning to get more than he did last year.  We've talked to him about keeping the tradition of family activities.  Since he's not bringing them a big, expensive kitchen set this year, or anything just as fancy and expensive, we've talked him into bringing a couple small gifts from the whole family.  He's whispered rumors of bringing an additional gift for everyone in the family, even us adults, so we're going to have to plan for five extra gifts under the tree this year.  I hope they're not too big!  Space is at a premium under that tree!  Okay, so maybe not so much yet, but with our current set-up, big presents mean we're going to have to move some furniture to make room for it all, something we may just have to do anyway!

At the moment each of the kids have their presents from my mom under the tree.  My daughters gifts from Chesh and I are there.  My littlest has his gifts from Chesh and I.  My older son only has his gift from Chesh, but I got sick over the weekend, so I haven't gotten around to wrapping the last one.  We've got a stack of little gifts on the table under our small tree because that's where my littlest wanted his birthday presents to go.  For now, it's a suitable arrangement.

The older two are supposed to be getting presents from their dad, but I never know with him.  He makes a lot of promises, but he doesn't follow through on most of them.  Generally until I get confirmation on things I don't know for sure if they're done or not.  In other words, since he won't get me tracking numbers or anything, I won't know until they get here.  Thankfully, this year I'm being smart and not saying a word to the kids until we've got presents in hand.  I had seriously considered buying "back up gifts" to give to them "from their father", but it's not in the budget and I really don't think it's right for me to lie to my kids like that.  Either their father will make sure it happens...or he won't...  It's got me stressed out both in the "under the tree real estate" department (since I know the gifts he was wanting to send aren't exactly small) and because it's hard to be dancing around, knowing that you might be getting something, but not knowing whether to worry if nothing shows.

Thankfully, on the more reliable side, I know my aunts presents are due here this week.  I'm excited to see how we're going to fit all that under the tree.  One thing I've learned about my aunt is whether the quantity of gifts is great or small, there's always interesting shapes to work with.  She's not one of those people who believes a present in an unconventional shape should go in a box.  She wraps it just the way it is, which only makes the holiday so much better as the kids stare down their presents, wondering what each package could be.  The more creative shapes always end up with more creative answers.  Of course, these can also be harder to stack under the tree.  I'm kind of excited to see what we'll be working with this time around.

Of course, having all the presents under the tree ahead of time does make things more challenging.  It's great because the kids have that much longer to wonder what each present is before Christmas finally comes.  However, that comes with the cost of keeping the kids out of the presents!  My older son has already said ten times he wants to open his presents right now!  My daughter is happy to wait and look at them for hours, but she has to ask me a million questions about each present.  My littlest is content to rearrange the presents, which isn't so bad, I guess.  I love having the presents out where everyone can see, but I'm not sure if this is going to be the brightest of ideas for next year.  I may just have to go back to putting all the wrapped presents up in my closet until Christmas eve and then spend all that time putting them all out, which hopefully won't be so long given I'm trying to get in the habit of wrapping in advance!