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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ugh!!!

The open one gift at a time circus is soooo excruciatingly boring and just drags and drags.  It creates awkward moments, for the giver who might be on a much lower budget than everyone else, or when someone doesn't care for a gift or received a duplicate.

My inlaws do it that way and it drives me crazy.  It goes on for hours and hours, and 90 minutes into it the kids are yawning and saying things like "I am so tired of opening presents".

What makes it worse is that they are really into exchanging and returning gifts they don't like, and they will ask for the receipt or mention they are returning it right there after they open the present.  It is such a boring and controlling way to open presents.

The free for all is such a more festive way to open presents, and it is clear to the giver that their gift is appreciated as the recipient holds it over their head, cheers, or yells thanks across the room or holds up a particularly beautifully wrapped present and exclaims "Everyone, look at this one!  Isn't the bow beautiful?".  Then at the end you have the fun of piles of wrapping paper to wade through, as everyone discusses how this was the Best-Christmas-EVER!

Nothing beats a big, joyful, Christmas gift giving extravaganza, full of honest and exuberant thanks to the givers.

I think the buoyant extravaganza vs the calm, quiet, taking turns for hours gift circle is a difference between tiny families and medium-large families.  It is like two totally different cultures.[/quote]

Eh, we do mostly one at a time in my family and it's still full of "honest and exuberant" thanks to the givers. We started doing one at a time when we were in elementary school. We were allowed to do stockings all at once, but all 3 of us kids had to be together to open, but we didn't have to wait for our parents to wake up. We had to wait until X time to wake mom and dad up and no other presents were opened until they had coffee in hand.

Now, it's generally 5-10 adults (depending on whether significant others and relatives are with us) and one 5yo kid. Kid hands out gifts to everyone, no one is allowed to open anything until everyone has a gift. Then we take turns opening and ooh and ahh over what everyone got, but no set order and there's often overlap with more than one person opening. Repeat. There's still a lot of excitement, the adults are back and forth between the living room and kitchen getting drinks and prepping breakfast, helping assemble gifts, everyone stays in their PJs until the afternoon. There's still a lot of energy, big piles of wrapping paper in the corners, lots of laughing and joking and chucking bows at people's heads. . . it's pretty awesome. If there's a discrepancy in the number of gifts, the person who ran out first gets to open the family gifts. I don't remember gift opening taking more than 45min as a child and it takes about that much time now too (we're slower as adults, but the number of gifts per person has gone down).

The waiting, anticipation and sharing in other people's excitement are part of the fun. I love seeing what other people receive and even DS likes to watch others open their gifts (esp if it's something he picked out). Yes, it's slight torture for him to wait, but learning to be patient is a good thing.

For OP's MIL though, she's nuts to think she has the right to change OP's family tradition. [/quote]

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