Anyone else have a child who ...

[Carson]

was so excited he/she woke up at the ungodly hour of 3am, wanting to open presents?

My nine-year-old did. I told him to go back to bed and he was back at 5am, shaking me awake. "Now, Mom? Please!"

It's almost 7am now, and I'm already exhausted.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

[Spinzonner]

1. Next time buy him

a straight jacket and have him try it on

[MuseRider]

2. Merry Christmas!

Your story makes me smile, I remember the days when I would be up until about then only to be awakened by the boys about 30 minutes after finally getting to sleep. These days I have to awaken them if we are to have Christmas before 3PM. He sounds adorable, you will have a wonderful day and thanks for the story and the smile. Tell him Santa left you an afternoon nap.

[baldguy]

3. That was me 35 years ago!

[fortyfeetunder]

9. Early riser too

But my parents had their stuff together, and knew us heathen kids all too well. They hid gifts at friends' homes, made us go to bed at 9PM and kept the mystery up. I think the earliest we were up was 2AM....

[Daphne08]

4. Enjoy these years...

for soon they will be grown and gone and you'll wonder where all those years went.

[izzie]

5. My sister always had to drag me from bed.

My parents had a rule. Could not even open socks unless your sister is up. I guess they figured it would keep her in bed longer. All it did was get me up earlier. I still wish she was around to be the same as she was as a child and I had a dream about her last night.

[SheilaT]

6. When my boys were little

Santa left a stocking filled with goodies, including several small toys, on the bed or right outside the bedroom door. They could open that, play with those things, and then, after breakfast, we opened the presents under the tree. I may be the only parent in North America whose kids didn't wake up in the pre-dawn hours to open presents. There was never any point in it.

The trick is make sure the stocking has truly interesting stuff in it. I also included candy, which they could eat before breakfast.

[Clark2008]

8. Last year, my parents had to call me at 9 a.m.

to wake us up. They were wondering why we hadn't called at 7 a.m. to have them over to start the rending of the packages.

This year, my son was sick, so he was up and down all night long with a cough and sniffles (we slept on the futon in the den, which has a bathroom attached, so he wouldn't have to get up and go by the living room to get to the main bath for toilet paper). We were up at 7:30 a.m., but, honestly, that's unusual.

So, you're not the only parent in North America who gets to sleep in on Christmas. :)

[Not_Giving_Up]

7. My oldest was like this

He's now 11, no longer believes in Santa, and actually ASKED me what time he should wake us up this morning. He's just a morning person (the only one in the family).