When does your family open their presents?

This category has changed A LOT over the years for me as I have gotten older and had my own family. Being a military family on a tight budget we’ve always in the past started shopping early (like in January) to work everything in that we wanted to do so that it fit into our tight budget. It has become a habit

My family traditions as a kid were of a BIG Christmas eve open with lots of family and that carried on through college, but as we (cousins) all got older and began getting married with families of our own, our grandparents passed on, some of us moved away, blended families (each with their own traditions) were formed, etc… getting together for both Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day became harder and harder to do. 

Eventually Christmas eve became a MUCH smaller event for mainly immediate family. We would have a small dinner and open our gifts to each other that night. Christmas morning was for being at our respective homes with our own kids opening presents and then the larger family get together much later on Christmas day for dinner at just one place, usually my grandparent’s or parent’s house and then eventually it was at our house after my dad passed away.

These days with everyone all over the country, both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are mainly just hubby and I with LOTS of phone calls to family and friends and we open our gifts on Christmas morning.

In years past we would attend the Christmas party at the Eagles and then deliver the neighbor plates and gifts to friends on Christmas Eve. This year with my step dad’s passing, my mom will be with us with her friend joining us for Christmas dinner.

For me, stuffing stockings is one of my favorite things to do. I’m always on the look out for special little items that I tuck away ALL year long waiting for just this day.

A couple years ago we added stocking stuffing to our charity gifts and it is so much fun and satisfying.

Since the kids are grown, hubby gets my FULL attention and he hates it (sort of) because he says he isn’t as good at reciprocating the stocking process. But, he tries hard and is getting better at it every year. EVERY year though he complains about having to actually make things ‘fit’ into something stocking shaped. So, we bought new “bag” style stockings.

We have stopped “BIG” presents to each other so the stocking is our “main” or “BIG” present. We did convert to these larger “bag” stockings and we individually wrap the presents inside the “stocking” for more fun. I found these cute bags at Marshalls a couple years ago. These bags are soooooo much easier!! 

In the past I donated most of our leftover wrapping resources to our local Eagles Lodge for their charitable endeavors and the float they decorated for the parade. So, it was fun to pick out some new wrapping papers this year.

These are stocking stuffer pictures are from the last few years.

As for a WISH list, it gets smaller every year – we really do NOT need anything!