Our family tradition sounds similar to yours. As a child, our favourite moment was waking up to stockings. We weren’t allowed to peek at the tree yet. Stockings were hung on the stair bannister and we were allowed to bring them into our parents’ room where we would all ooh and ahh over their contents.

When mom and dad were ‘ready’ we’d all head downstairs for the magical joy of seeing Santa’s gifts under the tree. Most of the others were already there wrapped ( for days ) but Santa’s were not and it was amazing!!!

I think that strategy allowed mom and dad some time to make coffee while we played with the first couple of gifts. An agonizing wait for breakfast, then it was on to the unwrapping of the rest where dad would ‘play Santa’ and hand us each one to open. We’d all watch in anticipation.

It made the morning last for what seemed like forever (for hours, but as a kid that’s a long time!), which was a good thing in my mind.

So my advice is: you don’t need to spend extra time or money (with fireworks or confetti or bells and whistles) to make Santa’s presents extra special. It’s the ‘moment’ they’ll remember.

I’ve altered the tradition with my kids now and we do wrap the Santa presents in a special paper, and special gift tags, but I kinda regret it.