We have a real tree and need to be able to sweep up the needles, so we can’t put them all there too early. I have the kids help me wrap a few for each other and other family that will be with us on Christmas, and we put those under the tree in the days leading up. But gifts from DH and I and Santa go overnight on the 24th, so the kids get to ooh and aah over how many more presents there are. No right or wrong way!

Our presents never appeared until Christmas morning and the excitement was everything, coming down the stairs on Christmas day. I have done that with my son too and it's not something I would miss out on.

The only reason i don't put the gifts under the tree before Christmas is because it makes it more difficult to add fresh water to the tree.
If we had an artificial tree, or maybe if our layout was different, then I would have presents under the tree as soon as they were wrapped.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I was reading the other thread about how the kids couldn’t sleep on Christmas Eve and it makes sense to put them under the tree the day before! I mean, the whole leaving Santa milk and cookie (which we have yet to do) would not work if the presents are already there.

People other than Santa exchange gifts on Christmas too, OP. (Mom to Dad, Grandma to kids, etc) Those are the ones that go under the tree before Christmas. Santa leaves unwrapped gifts on Christmas Eve.

Most people wrap Santa gifts FYI

We have never wrapped Santa gifts. Santa sets everything up so it’s ready to play with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I was reading the other thread about how the kids couldn’t sleep on Christmas Eve and it makes sense to put them under the tree the day before! I mean, the whole leaving Santa milk and cookie (which we have yet to do) would not work if the presents are already there.

People other than Santa exchange gifts on Christmas too, OP. (Mom to Dad, Grandma to kids, etc) Those are the ones that go under the tree before Christmas. Santa leaves unwrapped gifts on Christmas Eve.

Most people wrap Santa gifts FYI

We always do this, except for the gifts from Santa.

We slowly start to put present under the tree starting about a week before Christmas. Currently all the gifts for the kids and DH are under the tree because I already wrapped them. DH has yet to wrap any presents for me so no gifts for me under the tree. Growing up we only put out the presents the morning of Christmas Eve because we had cats who would liked to drink out of the tree and would chew on the bows or packages.

Gifts from Santa come out late on Xmas eve. Others upon arrival.

Anonymous wrote:Gifts to/from each other we put under the tree after they're wrapped. Santa gifts come in the middle of the night.

+1

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I was reading the other thread about how the kids couldn’t sleep on Christmas Eve and it makes sense to put them under the tree the day before! I mean, the whole leaving Santa milk and cookie (which we have yet to do) would not work if the presents are already there.

People other than Santa exchange gifts on Christmas too, OP. (Mom to Dad, Grandma to kids, etc) Those are the ones that go under the tree before Christmas. Santa leaves unwrapped gifts on Christmas Eve.

We have gifts under the tree as soon as we put it up. But Santa gifts magically appear on Christmas morning.

There is no right or wrong way OP! I’d like to put some (like the ones mailed from family) under the tree but my youngest is 1 so he will probably rip them up. Will probably start doing it in a year or two.

We do too. They are so pretty!

Anonymous wrote:Gifts to/from each other we put under the tree after they're wrapped. Santa gifts come in the middle of the night.

This, plus I put extras from us under the tree so on Christmas morning there’s a big change in the size of the pile. Plus I fill the stockings on Christmas Eve after everyone’s in bed.

I think it depends on what you are used to. I grew up with ALL the presents appearing magically after we fell asleep on Christmas Eve. My mom tried something different one year and it felt like a disaster.

DH grew up with the presents being out. They were allowed to look from a distance but not touch and the labels were in a different code each year. So they spent a couple weeks trying to guess whose present was whose without touching. To him THAT was magical.

We had to debate for a long time what we would do with our own kids. We settled on the Christmas Eve present pile, but I think DH is still a tiny bit disappointed (almost every other holiday tradition comes from his family, though).