Children from some European countries, such as Germany and Belgium, can open gifts on Saint Nicholas Day, December 6.For most children in the United States of America, Australia and the United Kingdom, gifts are opened on Christmas Day. Elsewhere in the world, children can open presents at the end of the Epiphany. But if you have early risers, do you keep the line or do you give up? While many Christmas traditions (the trees, the ornaments, Santa Claus) are essentially the same, at least in the United States, every family seems to have their own rituals or traditions about when to open their gifts. Whether you believe in Santa Claus and have gifts in your stocking or are giving gifts to family and friends under the tree, when Christmas Day comes, most people celebrating the holidays will open Christmas presents.
However, I also open some presents on Christmas Eve, since that night we had dinner with my father's family. Some people choose to avoid opening presents entirely on Christmas Day and prefer to open them the night before, on Christmas Eve. The rest said that they either distributed the gifts between the two days or opened them on Christmas Eve. The early risers lived in European and South American countries, where Christmas festivities are traditionally celebrated on Christmas Eve.
Others divided the gifts, opening some on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas Day or even New Year's Eve. Families with young children celebrating the religious aspect of the Christmas holiday had some ideas on how to balance the extravagance of gifts. They would turn on the tree lights, put on Christmas music, set up the video camera and pour themselves a cup of coffee before it was time to open the presents.
