A Reminder

[Buenchico]

Etiquette requires that you wait until after breakfast before opening your Christmas presents. Anything else is just SO vulgar:
http://www.tatler.com/article/the-tatler-guide-to-christmas-day-etiquette?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

If you allow your children to open their presents too early, they'll probably grow up with some really appalling habits, such as cutting the nose off the cheese. (Gasp!)

;-)

[tonyav]

but for presents under the tree it is generally considered more acceptable to wait until that lull between the morning church service and lunch.

Worst time of the day that ;-)

[gness]

Goodness, Chris.....the late MrG could have fitted in well at Tattler.....we had to wait until he'd cooked the large Christmas Day breakfast.....Lord that took him an age....and washed up......
I swear he did it to tease me but took it too far on this day......
He was also in favour of bracing Christmas Day walks......I can walk and chunter under my breath at the same time now....

When he died I told the children I wanted to change Dad's traditions because it upset me.....truth was I just can't wait to open presents....

Now we do them on Christmas Eve..... :-)

[tonyav]

Now we do them on Christmas Eve..... :-)


Is that so you can have a lie in Christmas morning, gness.

[Mamyalynne]

I say,I say,I say...

My Cheese has no nose...

[Arksided]

So long as a rat or mouse isn't attached to the cheese, whats the problem. As children it was always after church... these days we wait until everyone's converged at Mum's so about one.

[tonyav]

Not a stinking bishop then, Mamya.

[gness]

Yes, Tony.......no little ones jumping on the bed at six o'clock.....no grown ups telling me I'm missing the best part of the day....just me and my Buck's Fizz.....bliss..... :-)

[Jackdaw33]

As I never eat breakfast I'd be a long time in opening my presents. Fortunately I no longer get any. The advantage of that is that I no longer have to buy any.

[Islay]

Of course its terribly common to open ones presents before breakfast we never did as children, dogs and pets taken care of first, down to the stables and then breakfast and finally presents.

[Buenchico]

>>> that lull between the morning church service and lunch

The only (very short) lulls I seem to have are between drinks ;-)

Gness:
You've obviously got some continental blood in you. In Poland, Germany and Sweden (among other countries) they open their prezzies on Christmas Eve. [In the Czech Republic presents are opened on St Nicholas Day, December 6th].

[tonyav]

.......no little ones jumping on the bed at six o'clock....

Blimey you were lucky, more like 4.30 am when mine were little.

Bucks fizz ay, don't you be spilling any.

[sunny-dave]

We each used to get a stocking (well technically it was a rugby sock) left by Santa on our beds at Midnight on Christmas Eve - the usual tangerine & chocolate coins & nuts stuff).

Everything else was a maelstrom of flying wrapping paper as soon as possible after Chapel on Christmas Morning- with Mum trying in vain to keep track of who'd had what from who, to avoid the inevitable disasters when it came to writing thank-you letters. She had no chance :)

[Buenchico]

Islay is obviously very posh!

Arksided:
I've never really understood why we shouldn't cut the nose of the cheese but I still can't bring myself to do it, even when I'm on my own at home. It just doesn't seem proper!

[Islay]

Lol more of a very strict mother I think!

[Buenchico]

Dave:
I never had to write thank you letters for Christmas presents because my parents would remove any labels (such as "With love from Aunty Doris") so that ALL of my Christmas presents were seen to come from Santa. It's only in recent years that I've found out that some young children actually get presents "From Mum and Dad", or whoever. I just assumed that 'only from Santa' was the norm.

[tonyav]

'only from Santa' was the norm.

So did I, Chris. Always wondered how Santa got that bike down the chimney.

[gness]

Chris....my mother was furious when it was discovered I have a blood disorder only found in folk of Mediterranean descent......
"There are no foreigners in our family...there never have been!!!!!!!"

I'm now going to announce a disorder only found in folk from the Czech Republic and look forward to Dec 6th..... :-)

[sunny-dave]

Blimey - what a great idea, Chris - I could have been spared some very pained afternoons in early Januaries scrawling heartfelt thankyous for unknown presents to elderly relatives.

[corylus]

my kids had to open their prezzies early on Christmas day before the dogs started to open them.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

[-SharonA-]

We do ours at around 2am!!! Then stagger of to bed!!