My Mom went to get lengths in wrapping our gifts. And booby trapping the tree....LOL

There were 5 of us. So the under the tree was packed. To this day my siblings and I don't know where she and our dad managed to hide all those gifts.

But after we all went to bed on Christmas Eve, they would put everything out. And she would buy the hard Brach's candy and wrap those. She would place those all over the presents and if they crinkled she was up in a flash.

all wrapped!

The gifts under the tree were always wrapped. The stuff in the stockings weren't. It was quite amazing how I always knew what everyone had in their stockings before they did themselves. :)

Unwrapped when I was growing up and unwrapped for my kids.

Santa presents were always unwrapped...just under the tree on Christmas morning. Mom and dad presents were always wrapped...and we got to open 1 package on Christmas eve, the rest on Christmas day. The Christmas eve present was almost always new pj.s

this is the way we did it when i was a kid and now we do it with our boys

Oh my gosh! That was our EXACT Christmas! The kids still get PJs every Christmas Eve. Every year they make fun of me "oh goody.....we get to open one gift...I wonder what it could be"....they are so bad :D

unwrapped, front and center with stocking filled.

The unwrapped were from Santa, which included the stockings.

All the stuff was wrapped. It was amazing...part of the fun (to us) was ripping off the paper to see what was inside! And if you snuck in the middle of the night (because nothing came until you were asleep) you shook the stuff. The only thing I ever remember not being wrapped was a wooden tobagan for my brothers (we grew up in NY) and my barbie dream house (which...is almost 23 years old & I still have). Merry Christmas...may you experience the magic we felt as children all over again!