myoldest is 8 and Dh and i have this "ahem... disagreement" every christmas. I want to have at least one gift ready to go so the kids can play with it christmas day, He wants to take nothing out of the packaging. So when the kids were toddlers they would totally lose interest because everything was just in boxes, now as big kids they are annoying the heck out of me, as i try to assemble stuff admist the wrapping paper trying to focus on directions written in greek while the kids are begging, "can we playiwht it now pleaaaaaaaaaaaase." of course, if hubby tries to put stuff together he ends up screaming at them whcih ruins christmas. I'm just irritated, know what i mean? anyone willing to explain why one way is better than the other. oh and Dh says the kids will know if it is opened that mommy and daddy are Santa, because Santa wouldn't have it ready for them, I don't exactly get that logic.
For example, 4 yo gets a new kitchen set the one you need to assemble with screwdrivers and stick labels on that makes noise when you open the door and when you lift the lid of the grill. 8 yo gets a DSi and we are not the least bit techonoligcally literate, i don't actually understand how much this thing can do, and we hadn't looked at the instruction manual. I should have just let the kid set it up himself. lol
Merry christmas everyone.
Ok, so there wasn't something i was missing beyond, LAzy husband and Missing elves. I may just do it myself next year.
added: I'd love to give you ladies all a big chrismas Hi -5! I am glad to know i'm right on this one, still not sure it's worth the ."....discussion" with him, but i may just put together a few things myself next year.
As i've thought about this more, i think he really likes having the lovely symetrical? square and rectangle boxes under the tree. He is super type A and i think in his mind it just "looks better " that way. Also I asked his mom and THEY never preassembled and EVERYTHING was always wrapped. so he is definalatly reliving his childhood, His dad is a whole lot more coordinated and patient though so i'm sure it was fun for them to build things together. And lastly, another "discussion " we have is that Christmas eve is the only time I insist upon going to my childhood church with my mom and while he comes he won't give up the 11 pm service at the church we attend now, so we ALWAYS since 6 mos old have dragged our kids to both services on Chrismas eve. So to preassemble big stuff would be very difficult that night, and ahead of time would be hard to store, soooooooo he isn't all bad, just a little misguided. i'll work on him :)
Thanks all!
We assemble things.. this way they can play right away.. last year it was the train set and this year it was the racing set.. both we set up the night before.
Assemble, assemble, assemble. Santa would indeed have everything ready for the children on Christmas morning. Why else does he hire all those elves and pay them competitive wages? So everything can be all set up and ready to go!
If I had to assemble things these days for my grandchildren - happily, that's their parents' job, not mine - I think I would have to hire an elf to do it, because this allegedly smart brain can't understand the directions, even when they're written in English. Is there a web site for that?
Tell your hubby to stop being a butthead and assemble those toys ahead of time.
Santa assembles at our house, for the very reasons you described. My DH and I put the kids to bed, pour a cocktail, put in a Christmas movie and put together whatever needs to be assembled. It's kind of fun :)
All Santa gifts are open and assembled because in most movies Santa places opened toys under the tree. Not only that, but they should be ready to be played with since the elves are the ones who put them together for Santa.
He is just trying to get out of doing it....lazy is my guess....do like I do....I don't have a husband...died in '91...car accident....I am a grandma now....over the years I have learned to do many things I never dreamed of doing myself. I assembled my grandsons computer desk I gave him for Christmas...put together a puppet stage...decorated my house from top to bottom myself....and gave a huge Christmas party for 18 people...and all without the help from a man. You can do it...just give it a try. Plus I have 2 pinched nerves. Pooie on the lazy men of the Earth. Santa always brings his gifts assembled and ready to go. Just send your husband back to bed...he probably didn't wanna get up anyway.
I assemble beforehand for the same reasons you listed. It's stressful and Christmas morning should be fun and magical for kids. Santa has a "workshop" and doesn't buy toys packaged. I have a toddler and by Christmas morning she was so tired of opening gifts (previous Christmas get togethers). When she came into the living room and saw all her toys lined up and ready to play with she was SO EXCITED! Just explain to your hubby (or pull out the camcorder and show him) how it puts a damper on Christmas - and stresses you out. Good luck next Christmas :)
Aw, I'm sorry, of course the toys should be ready to go, and the packaging should be in the trash, out of sight!
I'm surprised your husband hasn't figured that out by now :(
I do both!!! Set some up, and leave some in boxes! Even the assembled ones are wrapped, though :)
LOL... and you can turn the argument around on your husband. If they're IN the packaging, then Santa didn't make them. If they're OUT, they're from the workshop, in and they have a UPC code / bar code / come from a shop.
They are ALWAYS "ready to use" here... If it gift it we have removed it from the package and placed it back in as well as possible- some of the cars are "screwed in" to the boxes! Batteries put in/charged etc (ex iPods are charged and ready for the kids to plug and add music) and memory cards put in as well as internet and parental settings addressed. If there are clothes they would be wearing that day they are washed/untagged and ready to go. I can not stand the thought of dealing with my kid while I "play" with their toys first!
We pre-assemble stuff from Santa. This year Santa brought a ping-pong table. "He" left paddles and balls under the tree, and we stayed up until 2:30am putting together the ping-pong table in the garage. We were exhausted, but we had fun assembling it with each other, too. It was so nice not to have to mess with it today, and the kids have had a blast playing ping-pong today!
at our house Santa always brings stuff already assembled and ready for play
You know, I was just thinking about this today. Our kids are only 1 and 3, so we don't have much Christmas experience with them yet. But we found ourselves in the exact situation today. Our son would open a gift and we'd find it would take 10 minutes to take it out of the packaging and then it would need batteries also. This went on for 1/2 the gifts. I think it makes total sense to pre-assemble for them - and put batteries into everything. I plan to do that for gifts next year. Then they can play right away and you have less stress and packaging sitting around. FYI- we don't do Santa, but I don't think anyone who believes in Santa would figure out the pre-assembly was done by you instead of Santa. Anyone old enough to know the truth about Santa would probably not need pre assembly anyways.
I Put batteries in things that need batteries and put them back in their boxes and wrap them.
If the packaging is too cumbersome. I make sure we have the right sized batteries and a flat head and phllips screw driver close by.. I also always give the batteries along with any gift I give that needs them.
When we gave the Trampoline to our daughter, we assembled it on Christmas Eve after she went to bed.. We laughed and laughed as we tried to do it in the cold in the super dark back yard. Lots of Irish coffees that night to keep us warm and awake.
When she was given a Tiny Tikes Castle. We picked it up while she was at Daycare and had it assembled when we brought her home.
We just have learned it is better to be able to have it ready. Less pressure on us and less frustration for her.
LOL we were just teasing my sister about this yesterday. She and her 2-year-old daughter live with my parents and she didn't have her open any gifts until we got there in the afternoon, which in and of itself I thought was odd. But anyway...she gave her a Step 2 kitchen in the box. I was like "what the heck, did no one tell you you're supposed to stay up into the wee hours of the morning all aggravated and bleary-eyed assembling the damn thing and applying decals while you're cursing under your breath?" She said that my parents also suggested assembling ahead of time but she didn't see the point. Well wasn't she the smart one...my husband and brother put most of it together for her.
Anyway...I pre-assemble the big things ahead of time.
In response to your "So What Happened". I love it and can relate!! I decided about 5 years ago to just put the stuff together myself. I get a cup of flavored coffee and put on Christmas music and get to it. I have actually gotten quite good at figuring out how to put all those toys together and it makes Christmas day so much nicer. :) It's worth it to me to put in the extra time and effort.
Hope you had a nice Christmas,
R.
I would just flat-out remind him of how he reacts when he is trying to put stuff together and the kids are getting impatient - he gets upset and frustrated, he screams at them, while he's also being the stubborn one by insisting on having everything wrapped. Ask him how he thinks it makes the girls feel to be yelled at by him that way when all they want to do is play with stuff. You are not asking to not have ANYTHING wrapped - just to have a couple of things assembled right away so they can enjoy them sooner. Especially things like a play kitchen. And the kids don't need to think that EVERYTHING comes from Santa - even my 4 year old knows that Mommy and Daddy get gifts for her too, not just Santa. I just thought today, as we were trying to get toys opened and ready for DD, that it would have been so much easier to skip the wrapping part, and just have the stuff assembled already and batteries in (nothing big, just smaller battery-operated toys). Stuff that doesn't take much work and is pretty much ready to go, like puzzles and board games, can be wrapped.
Seriously. Hubs needs to get a grip.
What a horrible experience for a child...we have always put the toys together that need it beforehand. Like with the Ematic Twigs tablets we got the kids for Christmas, we took them out and fully charged them along with programming them with email addresses and everything so they could turn them on and start downloading applications from the Android market then we put them back in the box. The point is they were fully ready to be opened then instantly played with the moment they were opened. They have played with them almost all day except when they were outside riding the bike and scooter that Santa brought.
Santa brought a Kangaroo Climber the year before last and it was set up in the bedroom when the little guy woke up, it was the first thing he saw, he immediately went over and started climbing on it and sliding. If he had just seen the box he would not have had that full experience. We put batteries in the toys, they go back in the box to be wrapped then unwrapped, we do not buy bikes in the box, we buy them already put together.
I suggest next year you only buy gifts that are what they are, fully put together items. I would not give hubby the opportunity to relive his childhood over and over. He must have had some kind of experience when he was young that in his mind is the perfect Christmas Ideal. I would take time to help him learn it works better in the real world.
Also, in our house Santa's gifts are always out in the open, first thing they see, with nothing more than a ribbon or bow on them. Our gifts from the family members are always wrapped so there is a very simple definition between the 2 different groups of gifts.
I think big items should be assembled. If you "do" Santa, it helps keep the magic going. It makes things less stressful & it's a hell of a lot more fun for kids to see their gift assembled under the tree than to receive a box with the parts in a million pieces.
No offense, but your DH is sounding kind of jerky regarding this topic. If it has to be put together anyway, why not do it early? I think you should just assemble the things yourself from now on, since he's just being a big baby about it.
It totally agree with you. Your husbands logic is completely backward to me. Why would Santa's elves break everything down to pieces and put it in a store brand box? Santa's gifts are always assembled around here and out of the boxes unwrapped unless the request was for a specific brand the elves couldn't make (like a cartridge for the Leapster etc).
I like the idea of assembling the gifts and having them ready to go. My 5 yr old yesterday was asking me, "Mommy, why do you have to build it? Santa's elves make the toys!" Haha, I hadn't thought of it that way, but I guess he is right. If we are gonna "do" Santa, I should probably start doing it right before he catches me.
Santa Claus does NOT wrap presents at our place so anything that is hard to wrap and/or requires assembly is from Santa.
Santa Claus ALWAYS has things ready for him to play with. And I tend to stay up half the night on Christmas Eve to do it, but since I usually work overnights that's not a big deal.
Well I think the whole Santa lie is just stupid. So I can't help there.
But as far as pre-assembling...I'm past that with my daughters now. But I do remember wanting to make sure something was ready. It works out. It's not worth the stress.
