Stocking traditions - Christmas

[noobmom]

Those of you who do stockings for the kids, I have two questions:

1) Do you wrap the presents in the stockings or just stick them in there? I don't mean the things like oranges and such, but if you have a little toy.

2) When do you open the stocking relative to when you open the gifts under the tree?

I was thinking that we might do the stocking before breakfast and the gifts afterwards. In DH's family they do "Christmas Eve gift" which is when one person gets to open a present on Christmas Eve.

[Alyantavid]

I do wrap the stuff in the stockings. I use one type of paper per year that's only used on gifts from Santa. So the stocking stuff is wrapped in that as well.

We always do stockings first. I don't know why, just what we've always done.

[gcgirl]

I haven't ever wrapped stuff in stockings (my parents never did either), but I might wrap a couple of things just for fun. We always did stockings first, then presents. Lately it's morphed into stockings, breakfast, then presents, to stretch out the day a little and make it more relaxing.

[beanma]

stockings first, before breakfast – no wrapping, but Santa doesn't wrap anything at our house.

[sewchris2642]

We open one gift (annual Christmas jammies) before we go to my parent's house Christmas Eve. We open presents from my side of the family there. The stocking stuffers are not wrapped. The stockings and unwrapped presents (from Santa/non-Santa) are done before breakfast. As are gifts from our immediate family. Gifts from dh's side are openned in the afternoon at either our house or his brother's house (depending on year. We alternate)

[gaudynight]

We don't wrap presents in stockings, and we usually open the stockings before breakfast. Big presents after breakfast.

[Aufilia]

In our family we do wrap presents that are in stockings. We open presents under the tree first, then do stockings, and then have a big family brunch.

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by beanma

stockings first, before breakfast – no wrapping, but Santa doesn't wrap anything at our house.

same here.

[Boot]

We wrap stocking stuffers and open them first thing while nibbling on Stollen and drinking coffee. When I was a child I used to open them with my sister on my parent's bed. We always take turns (including the dog) so it's quite a long drawn out affair.

[Everrgreen]

This is what we did when I was a kid, and what I will continue with my kids:

Stockings first, things inside are mostly not wrapped, but 1 or 2 things might be wrapped, then we have breakfast, then we do the tree presents, which are all wrapped. Oh and I plan on having a Christmas eve present to open, which will be pajamas to wear that night

[semi-crunchy]

My mom always wrapped one present in the stocking and we would open the stocking right before the other presents. I want to continue that tradition.

[frontstreetmama]

We do one present Christmas Eve - usually new pjs for photo ops on Christmas morning

I wrap MOST of the stuff in the kids' stockings and they are allowed to dive in once I put coffee on! LOL We do presents AFTER mama has a coffee in hand (my kids get up at 5ish!!) The stockings keep them busy until I'm a little coherent!

[muldey]

We always do stockings later on Christmas day.(We don't wrap the gifts in the stockings.)It just ends up working out that way,as the kids are too busy with the bigger gifts.Gifts are opened before breakfast.We always do a present on Christmas eve,jammies to wear to bed.We do gifts from my mom on Christmas Eve,gifts from my dad and other relatives and friends on Christmas day.

[staceychev]

We do mostly unwrapped in the stocking, but a couple of things are occasionally wrapped. They get opened, in mine and DH's family, after under-the-tree gifts.

[lach]

This is what we did as a kid, and what I'll continue to do:
Things in stockings are wrapped. Stocking opening is a free-for-all, and when my parents worked on waking up and getting some coffee

After that we turned to the presents under the tree, and that was a very orderly opening, with one gift at a time and everyone else watching the person open their present. This takes some time, especially as we'd start playing with our new toys. We'd break for breakfast about halfway through, and then resume opening after breakfast.

My husband is British, and I think our kids will follow his tradition:
Stockings are left at the foot of the bed, and Santa comes in the night and fills them. The child can open the stocking privately when s/he wakes up. Hopefully, this will buy DH and I some more time to sleep in! My parents used to leave a present in our doorway to buy some time, and the stocking thing seems nicer.

[SparklingGemini]

Some things in the stocking are wrapped, some not. I loooooove to wrap gifts, so I probably go above and beyond what is necessary.

And we usually explore the stockings after all the other gifts. I think. Golly, now I can't seem to remember....

[MadiMamacita]

here, wrapped things go under the tree, unwrapped in stocking. there is occassionally stocking spill over that goes on the floor underneath the stocking.

We have always done 1 present each on christmas eve, (but who can ever open just 1??) and then stockings first thing xmas morning, and presents after that. we make a day of it. when we were kids my parents would bring out more presents xmas morning that were from "santa", but I don't remember whey that stopped.

This is my first year having xmas in my own house with dh and baby, so we haven't quite decided what to do yet.
We will probably do xmas eve at home just the 3 of us, and then head over to my parents in the morning and do xmas breakfast (my mom's favorite) and stockings, and exchange gifts with my parents. My mom has needlepointed stockings for each of us, including dh and the baby, and stuffing the stockings has always been my dad's job so it feels wrong to do stockings without them!

[LaLaLaLa]

I wrap everything; I think it's much more exciting to open one thing at a time than to just dump the stocking and see everything lying there. We do stockings first, going around in order to ooh and aah over what everyone got. Then we do regular presents. Last year, which was the first year it really mattered, I got up early to make monkey bread and coffee, then woke everyone else up. So we opened presents and ate at the same time. Then we opened the rest of the gifts.

Santa this year is wrapping everything in brown paper (grocery bags--my frugal idea this holiday season, plus it eliminates the need to hide any special Santa paper). Santa draws a fancy curlicue E for DS and H for DD (their initials) on each gift, and this year might dust them with glitter.

[lach]

Originally Posted by LaLaLaLa

Santa draws a fancy curlicue E for DS and H for DD (their initials) on each gift, and this year might dust them with glitter.

Clever! I still remember noticing that Santa's handwriting was an awful lot like my dad's, and a sudden dawning realization that maybe what my friend Robbie had said about Santa was true...

[StrawberryFields]

I don't wrap the things in the stockings, although I was thinking of doing it this year. The presents in my stocking were never wrapped when I was a kid. Our stockings don't really relate to when we open presents since we do them here on December 6th, and obviously the presents don't come until Christmas. But to me stockings are a right away when you wake up kind of thing, like an Easter basket. But presents, whether it is Christmas or birthday or whatever, usually takes place a tad later on in the morning. I don't like to keep anxious kids waiting, but at least enough time to start the coffee and pull out some breakfast fruit or biscuits.