[rtsmom]

In our home, Santa brought the stocking stuffers (unwrapped). All the gifts under the tree were wrapped (unless it was something large, like a bicycle).

Janet

[paigeturner]

Speaking of wrapped or unwrapped, last Christmas was our first year as empty nesters. It was a little depressing. So I decided to spice things up by wrapping myself in nothing but saran wrap, put a bow “down there”, waddled over to the Christmas tree and crawled under to surprise DH when he got home. The problem was that he decided to go out for some drinks with friends and got caught up in a poker game. I feel asleep and when he got home, he found me under the tree, sound asleep, drenched in sweat. Not too sexy. Such is life.

[aclee]

Originally Posted by paigeturner

Speaking of wrapped or unwrapped, last Christmas was our first year as empty nesters. It was a little depressing. So I decided to spice things up by wrapping myself in nothing but saran wrap, put a bow “down there”, waddled over to the Christmas tree and crawled under to surprise DH when he got home. The problem was that he decided to go out for some drinks with friends and got caught up in a poker game. I feel asleep and when he got home, he found me under the tree, sound asleep, drenched in sweat. Not too sexy. Such is life.

So does that qualify as wrapped or unwrapped...I mean can't you sorta see what's underneath?

I'm not sure...

[paigeturner]

Hmmm. Good question. You could definately see what was underneath and before I got all sweaty it looked great! Sort of like a total body lift without the surgery! I wrapped up like I had on a fancy cocktail dress. My sister had to come by and help. I looked fabulous...but alas, all ruined because of sweat and poker.

[crick]

Originally Posted by aclee

So does that qualify as wrapped or unwrapped...I mean can't you sorta see what's underneath?

I'm not sure...

Depends on if she used the colored saran wrap. If you do a couple layers of red and green, not only are you festive but you don't give away all the secrets..

So I vote wrapped.

[binkybear]

Originally Posted by crick

Depends on if she used the colored saran wrap. If you do a couple layers of red and green, not only are you festive but you don't give away all the secrets..

So I vote wrapped.

Yup, totally caught that exact segment on Martha last week

[aclee]

Originally Posted by paigeturner

Hmmm. Good question. You could definately see what was underneath and before I got all sweaty it looked great! Sort of like a total body lift without the surgery! I wrapped up like I had on a fancy cocktail dress. My sister had to come by and help. I looked fabulous...but alas, all ruined because of sweat and poker.

But with a little sweat under it, could you have slide right out of that puppy? That could still be fun

I don't think I could do it...as a bigger gal...I would feel so...I don't know...Environmentally unfriendly...

[paigeturner]

I am seriously giggling like a crazed woman! I'll tell you, all that sweat and I wasn't as big as I was when I started!

You could always just go with bows...

[gigigeorge]

I love hearing everyones ideas and traditions ! For us we do a combination of wrapped and unwrapped, not sure why actually I started doing this but I like the "look" of it under the tree ! lol. We dont put any gifts or anything under the tree until the wee hours of Christmas morning that way no peaking, when I was little my parents used to put the gifts from family under the tree and my lil brother ALWAYS unwrapped them all so we always knew what we were getting ! lol

I also wrap some of the things that go into the stockings and others I leave unwrapped - lol.

Dh's family does all their stuff on Christmas Eve then on Christmas day they would travel around to all their family members. When I was a teen we were incredibly poor and we didnt have a tree or anything, we would wake up Christmas morning and make the 3 hour drive to my grandparents house where we would open presents. Even since then I knew that once I had kids we would have a very strict no traveling on Christmas ever, ever!

gina.

[lovemy2boys]

Originally Posted by paigeturner

Speaking of wrapped or unwrapped, last Christmas was our first year as empty nesters. It was a little depressing. So I decided to spice things up by wrapping myself in nothing but saran wrap, put a bow “down there”, waddled over to the Christmas tree and crawled under to surprise DH when he got home. The problem was that he decided to go out for some drinks with friends and got caught up in a poker game. I feel asleep and when he got home, he found me under the tree, sound asleep, drenched in sweat. Not too sexy. Such is life.

Did you happen to watch FRIENDS in it's hey day? This reminds me of an episode when Ross was trying new things, and he decided to wear leather pants...If you saw it you'd remember it...

Let's just say that your sweaty saran wrap has me in fits of giggles right now, thinking of that and the episode...

[paigeturner]

Huge Friends fan..Love that episode and am laughing thinking about it!

[RavenSong]

Paige, that was the best laugh I've had all day, girlfriend. Have you ever watched Fried Green Tomatoes? There's a scene in it where Kathy Bates wraps herself in Saran Wrap and is waiting at the door with a freshly made martini when Hubby gets home from work. Priceless....

I like the idea of red and green layers of Saran Wrap. How festive!!!

On a serious note, I vote for wrapped presents under the tree and unwrapped (mostly) presents for the stockings. For bicycles, ride-along toys, train sets, wagons, pogo sticks, etc., I use great big jumbo-sized ribbons and bows.

[MamaTo6]

We wrap almost everything. Big stuff, bikes etc just get a big bow, but I love the hellium balloon idea and am stealing it for sure. Santas gifts are wrapped in a different paper. This year it is all Disney paper.

Stocking stuff is both wrapped and unwrapped, depending on the wrappers mood and time. lol. He gets to open his stocking while we make coffee and wash up and get presentable for pics. lol. (too many Christmas morning pics of both of us looking haggard and hung over and I dont even drink. lol)

We put the presents under the tree and they are all mixed up, spread out a little and chaotic. There are name tags and bows on everything signed, Love: Santa, Mommy and Daddy. There are sooo many presents but it looks like even more when they aren't laid out in piles. After they are opened, then we place them in piles under the tree so Grandma and aunts and uncles etc can visit and Mikey gets to show off all his new things. lol. He gets so excited all over again when he gets to show/share his things with others. (only child at home)

We do set up things that need to be set up and this year we took things out of hard to open packaging as well. The CARS 'shake n go' cars are out of the boxes and unwrapped and will be placed in among the presents to find. Theres a couple more loose things like that, that we took out of packaging and put batteries in, so we didnt wrap it.


We don't tear into the gifts but rather I do as my parents did. We hand out presents one at a time and we all watch the person who is opening, and then give the required ooohs and ahhhs over the new gift. I think it builds the excitement to have to wait that little bit longer.

Just typing this post has ME all excited about Christmas and I may be even more anxious than my little 4 yr old now. LOL>