re: As a kid, when did you open presents?

quote:

---

So Santa came a day before everyone else in the country for your house

---

He had a lot of houses to go to. I believed until 1989, which happened to be the year of the freeze, and my dad told me later on in life that he couldn't leave to go put out presents because of the roads. We got back late and no presents under the tree and our room happened to be close to his shop and we heard my parents bringing in gifts.

We always did Christmas Eve with my stepsister and opened gifts. We did Santa on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve at my Grandparents. Dad was one of five, and his side of the family picked up a fair number of strays and family friends who were at every holiday, so a fair sized group.

All the cousins drew names and exchanged. Then food. Then all the cousins were ushered downstairs while the adults did a white elephant. By that time, most of the adults were in a fairly “good mood,” so the white elephant was usually quite a spectacle.

Then drive home and sleep. Monkey Bread and pigs in a blanket while everyone opened presents in the morning. I’m kid number four, so my parents never even tried the Santa routine by then.

My brother has found a Christmas hack with his kids. Santa just fills stockings with a few small gifts and his delivery time can vary each year. The real show is at the grandparents houses.

We drove about an hour to my Ma-Mas house in Vacherie. If we were still up when we got home and my dad wasn't to drunk we would open them Christmas Eve night, if not Christmas Morning