Posts
My wife and I come from varied backgrounds. We are similar where it counts but there are some things we will never see eye to eye on. Movies, olives, and eating meat obtained from hunting are things we have just decided to agree to disagree on. Another of those battles is more applicable to the Christmas season. It revolves around the question of the best way to open Christmas gifts on Christmas morning. I will give you two scenarios and not tell you who prefers which way. Then you vote for which way you think is best. Here we go.
Christmas gift opening style #1.
Gifts are sorted, usually be a younger member of the family and deposited in a neat pile near the person whose name they bear. Once the gifts are piled the patriarch (or matriarch) of the family gives the "go" signal and everyone tears into their gift pile devouring each of those precious packages in seconds being sure to shout a brief but heartfelt thank you to the gift giver before going to the next morsel. It is all over with in about 3.5 minutes including thank you's and the obligatory large plastic bag bursting from the wrapping paper and packaging stuffed inside during the clean-up. Then you process the bounty with each other over sticky buns, egg cassarole and coffee.
Christmas gift opening style #2
In a seemingly similar beginning, younger members of the family sort gifts from under the tree depositing the gifts in a neat pile near the one whose name it bears. Everyone sits in a circle, adults with coffee or some warm beverage and kids anxiously awaiting the carnage of torn wrapping paper. Then an "opening order" is established. The order usually goes from youngest to oldest. The youngest is quietly given permission to open one gift - and only one. The wrapping paper is removed while onlookers giggle and poke fun at any difficulty in unwrapping the gift. "Just rip it" someone usually says and then one uncle is usually reminded that "rip it" refers to the wrapping paper not his intestinal issues. After the one gift is revealed the youth is reminded to thank the gift giver and then is asked to sit and wait next to a pile of beautifully wrapped gifts with his or her name on them and slapped by a caregiver if he or she even looks like they might open a gift out of turn. The next youngest then does the same, unwrapping one - and only one - gift while everyone pokes fun and then "oohs and ahs" over the coloring book and crayons they got (like anyone really cares). This goes on until everyone in the circle has opened one - and only one - gift. At that point the nod is given to the youngest again to begin to open his or her second gift. Then everyone else in turn opens their second gift as well. This goes on until everyone in turn has opened every gift. It lasts roughly twelve hours. People have to take IV fluids to keep from dying of hunger and when breakfast is finally served it is usually cold and slightly moldy.
So give me your thoughts on which gift opening style is better and later I will reveal which one I prefer and which one Lenore prefers.
PS. Don't call Lenore until after New Year's day. She will finish opening her gifts about then.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
oops! :)
LOL Both remind me of my maternal family Christmas (Style #1) and paternal (Style #2). The nuclear family style evolved into a blend of the two... We had to wait our turn, but only until we caught a glimpse of the corner of the box the happy receiver was unwrapping before tearing into our own!
Hmmm, you didn't seem partial to style 1 at all during your post...
I'm not sure which I like better. At my grandparents house we pass out the gifts and open them as my grandmother passes them out, so this has a speed somewhere between your 2. At my families house it works like #1, except we don't make a neat pile, we just hand them out and then watch the opening.
I will guess that when Lenore reads your blog she will hit you.
As a kid, my family always went with the free-for-all style when it came to Christmas morning. But, when I married your brother, I realized that some people prefer to open gifts on Christmas Eve. Um, Hellooo? Santa cannot come until Christmas Eve when everyone is asleep. So how can you open gifts on Christmas Eve? It simply does not make sense. So, for me - as long as you do not open your gifts before Christmas, it does not matter what method your family chooses to open them. And, seeing as how y'all are here in Arkansas for Christmas this year, you may want to incorporate style #1, for the sake of time. I hope y'all brought me something really cool. :)
Both seem to have their advantages, the first is obvious with it's speed, intensity and mission accomplishment approach. With the second, by the time you're done, you know there is little time left until the next years package and gas ripping fest, which is to rush out to the stores before they close that same day, christmas eve, wrap up your gifts and start the whole gift opening process over again. Our family uses a modified version of the first, everyone tries to take their time, giving the fake "hurry up and take the picture" smile and stare at our unwrapped gift as we go, hoping to give the illusion of appreciation for the deoderant, toothpaste, soap and perfume that we just got. I don't know, maybe I grew up a stinky kid, I had to make myself feel better by telling myself I was hard to shop for. I won't forget the time I was put on the phone with my aunt to give her thanks for her present, a calendar- short on words I said, "yeah uhh it's great, it's even got all 12 months and everything"
The first style is the way to go.
Let the time trials begin and the first one finished does win. We always just came out of our rooms and just waited for Mom and Dad to slumber into the living room and it was a pile of wrapping paper. The first choice is the best chioce.
Thanks all for your posts. There is no doubt that method #1 won.
...Jason there is also no doubt that you were a stinky kid!
Post a Comment