[jthomas1600]

So how does everybody do the present opening? We did something different this year. Since Christmas is on Sun. and we're having church we decided to have a weekend of Christmas. Each of the kids got a "big" present when they got up this morning. Then randomly throughout the day we let them open more one at a time. We'll open a few in the morning before church and then do the rest after church. It's something new for us, but I think they kids have enjoyed it so far.

[Ted Logan]

Our Christmas traditions grow out of two related issues from my childhood:

1) As hard as my parents tried to make Christmas about Jesus, it just wasn't. It was about presents for me.
2) When I discovered that my parents had lied to me for years about Santa Claus, I was seriously hurt and angry. The Santa Claus thing really messed me up as a kid.

So we don't exchange gifts on Christmas. Instead, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day (which is December 6). On the Saturday before or after Dec 6, we sit down and read the story of St. Nicholas (the actual Bishop of Myra from AD 300, no North Pole, elves, toys, or reindeer) and then exchange gifts as a way to share the love of Jesus, just as St. Nicholas did. And just as St. Nicholas gave to the poor, we also set aside a portion of any money that comes to our kids or to us for the holidays and give it to the causes dearest to our hearts. This year, we sent some of the money to a friend in Kenya, some will go to church, and some will go to support the Christian school where Heather teaches and Halina goes to kindergarten.

On Christmas morning, we wake up the kids with Christmas carols. Halina and I will sing carols while Heather cooks our special Christmas breakfast where each element tells part of the Christmas story. We read the Christmas story (last year from the NLT; this year probably from Halina's new Bible, which isn't just a storybook Bible - it uses very simple translations of actual Scripture). We'll then go to Church, and then over to the grandparents' house, where we'll spend the afternoon and evening with family.

So far, our plan has worked very well. Halina got all her gifts on Dec 10th this year (Saturday after the official St. Nicholas Day) and she'll get a couple more on New Year's (her aunt brought her gifts with her, so we'll keep them until then). But she is SO EXCITED about Christmas! She LOVES the special meal, the singing, the story. And there's NO contest between presents and Jesus.

[Thrash]

Originally Posted by Ted Logan

Our Christmas traditions grow out of two related issues from my childhood:

1) As hard as my parents tried to make Christmas about Jesus, it just wasn't. It was about presents for me.
2) When I discovered that my parents had lied to me for years about Santa Claus, I was seriously hurt and angry. The Santa Claus thing really messed me up as a kid.

So we don't exchange gifts on Christmas. Instead, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day (which is December 6). On the Saturday before or after Dec 6, we sit down and read the story of St. Nicholas (the actual Bishop of Myra from AD 300, no North Pole, elves, toys, or reindeer) and then exchange gifts as a way to share the love of Jesus, just as St. Nicholas did. And just as St. Nicholas gave to the poor, we also set aside a portion of any money that comes to our kids or to us for the holidays and give it to the causes dearest to our hearts. This year, we sent some of the money to a friend in Kenya, some will go to church, and some will go to support the Christian school where Heather teaches and Halina goes to kindergarten.

On Christmas morning, we wake up the kids with Christmas carols. Halina and I will sing carols while Heather cooks our special Christmas breakfast where each element tells part of the Christmas story. We read the Christmas story (last year from the NLT; this year probably from Halina's new Bible, which isn't just a storybook Bible - it uses very simple translations of actual Scripture). We'll then go to Church, and then over to the grandparents' house, where we'll spend the afternoon and evening with family.

So far, our plan has worked very well. Halina got all her gifts on Dec 10th this year (Saturday after the official St. Nicholas Day) and she'll get a couple more on New Year's (her aunt brought her gifts with her, so we'll keep them until then). But she is SO EXCITED about Christmas! She LOVES the special meal, the singing, the story. And there's NO contest between presents and Jesus.

I may need to talk to Alyssa about this for the future when we have children. This is amazing.

[TheProdigalModern]

We had planned to do St. Nicholas Day this year, but we were in the middle of a move at the time and it didn't really work out.

Every year we go to my wife's grandparents house on Christmas Eve and 30-plus people (four generations worth) have a nice meal together before gathering in the hall to have what amounts to an informal Christmas service with Bible-reading, carols and a senior member/one of the multiple ministers in the family sharing some thoughts. Then presents are exchanged. It used to last well into the morning but as more of us have small children it has started to wind down earlier. The experience can be fun or it can be like teeth-pulling, depending on the year.

Right now I'm waiting for the children to wake up. We'll have a modest gift-exchange by American standards, and then we'll go to church.

[Chinchilla of Doom]

This year was weird. This year we are figuring it out as it goes, since my mom and dad are split this year. We woke up early as always, but it was only gifts from my mom this morning. Then later, my dad came and brought us his gifts. Now we are trying to plan are day and see what parent gets what time. It is a headache.

[1/2-Fast Player]

When I was young (back when Christmas celebrations were in their infancy), we'd go to my mom's parents' home on Christmas Eve and have a large dinner with her side of the family (dozens of cousins, plus aunts, uncles, family friends, girlfriends/boyfriends, etc.). Then we'd attend the church's candlelight service, and then go back to exchange gifts. On the way home, we'd drive around looking at all the Christmas lights and decorations.

On Christmas morning, we'd exchange gifts at home, then go to my dad's parents' home. We'd do the whole big family gift exchange deal with his side of the family, then have Christmas dinner. It was neat having two large family celebrations.

Nowdays, I live 170 miles from my folks and have kids of my own. We always make a trip to visit my folks, either before or after Christmas, but we spend Christmas day at home now. If my wife's dad is staying down here, he joins us for Christmas dinner (he spent last night with us and went to church with us this morning), and so do other local family members and often a few family friends.

[Rainer.]

We opened presents, went to breakfast with the family at Denny's, then went to church to have Christmas service and a ton of Vietnamese food.

Uncomplicated.

[Frank1234]

This year wasn't very Christmassy for my family. My parents weren't planning on doing presents at all, but at the last second they did. So my cousins also had to make last second presents to keep it from being awkward, so it was mostly gift cards. It was very wierd. Our family opened presents over pizza on Christmas Eve at about 5 pm:P Then we went to my cousin's house in Kent(close).
Then on Sunday we went to church in the morning. Then my grandmas house. Then my cousins in Mount Vernon(1.5 hours away).
And yeah, we went to church again this morning.

But this isn't all. Ukranians celebrate Christmas on January 7, so I have another Christmas coming up. This one were doing a Christmas play in our church (which is gonna be epic).

Yeah, but overall, it was very different this year

[normajean777]

This was the first year that my mother and sister worked (and alternative shifts). So we opened gifts on boxing day. It would of killed me 10 years ago, but fine in my adult life.

[dogfood]

go to church
have lunch
open presents
snooze
have dinner
watch boring christmas message from queen
then watch top gear

[JBend8]

We always do opening presents on Christmas Eve. I think its like a German thing or something? Anyways we started it once we found out about the Santa Claus scam..

[magical spatula]

For the last few years, I've exchanged gifts with roommates/friends either Christmas Eve or a few days prior and Christmas Day I usually work. I have it off with a day or two before/after it, I'll drive home to spend it with my mom (other family is scattered about the U.S.). This year, I had to work, so my mom came to visit me for a few days including Christmas. We did a small roommate gift exchange on Christmas Eve, I worked through the middle of the day on Christmas and we ate Chinese food for dinner and left our server a big tip.

When I was younger, we went to Christmas mass at the Catholic church we went to for most of my childhood and did the big gift opening on Christmas Day (sometimes at family's house if we could afford to be there) and spend the day playing with our new toys and gifts and appreciating our family time, listening to Christmas music, cooking dinner, etc. I miss it a lot and would like to think we might have that again someday if we're all in a place to be able to be together, not working and able to celebrate. We've all kind of lost the Christmas spirit over the years because I dread the season because that means work is super busy and I don't have time, energy or money to devote to traveling, cooking, decorating, finding/buying gifts, etc.

[yearofrolling]

Youngest to oldest for gift opening.