Organized Christmas Morning Ideas
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Christmas morning is such a joyous exciting time. With three children, it was always important to me to focus on sharing the joy of Christmas with my family and to not let distractions get in the way. If you know me at all, you know that I believe life is better when simple and organized (it’s even over on the sidebar right under my photo) and Christmas morning is even better when organized. These are my favorite organized Christmas morning ideas that will allow you to focus on the true magic and joy of the day.
It’s always been important to me to have my children and family celebrate the peace, joy, and love of Christmas first before the crazy, chaotic excitement. Don’t get me wrong, I love the squealing excitement of Christmas, too, but I want that to be secondary
Organized Christmas Morning Ideas
Have a Set Wake Up Time – Establish a wake up time that works for your entire family. Some of your family will want to get up (much too) early and other will want to get up much later. This can lead to frustration and worse. Set a wake up time and a go downstairs time that will make everyone happy. You want everyone well rested enough to enjoy the excitement and joy of the day.
Prepare the Night Before – Take a few minutes before you go to bed to prepare for the next morning. Being prepared means you can focus on your children’s excitement.
- Set out coffee supplies
- Set out breakfast
- Make sure your phone or camera is charged and set out
- Charge and set out your video camera
Lay Out Key Tools and Supplies – Toys and appliances are packaged to survive ...I don’t know what! You’ll be able to focus on enjoying Christmas morning and the excitement of opening gifts by having the tools and supplies you’ll need available.
- Scissors
- A screwdriver
- Batteries
Set Out Bags for Recycling and Trash – I don’t like to stop Christmas morning gift unwrapping to clean up the rubbish, but I also don’t like having all the rubbish laying around. Small gifts and parts get lost in the rubbish. Children (and moms) trip over the rubbish. It just adds to the general chaos (and not in a good way). The night before, I lay out three labeled bags:
- Recycle – for paper, boxes and plastic that can be recycled.
- Trash – for items that belong in the trash.
- Keep – for gift bags, gift boxes and fabric ribbon that we keep and reuse.
Using these three labeled bags makes it easy for everyone in the family to help keep the family room neat and picked up even during the excitement of gift unwrapping.
Open Gifts in Turns – You could have every one rush the gifts and open them up like the house is on fire. We prefer to take turns opening gifts.
- It allows everyone to enjoy the excitement of the recipient and their reaction to the gift.
- It teaches children to be patient and wait.
- It teaches children to be happy for other’s excitement.
- It helps prolong the excitement of Christmas morning.
- It reduces the chaos of Christmas morning.
Throw Away Trash As You Go – Use those three trash bags you set out on Christmas Eve and clean up as you go. You can have the children who are not opening gifts throw away the rubbish while they are waiting.
Plan a Break from Opening Gifts – Christmas morning is one big ball of excitement. To slow that excitement down and stretch it out, we take a break in the middle of opening gifts. We open our stockings first, then our Santa gifts, then we eat breakfast and end with opening family and friend gifts. This allows us to savor and enjoy all the excitement of the morning.
Plan Time to Spend Together – Christmas day can zip by so quickly if you’re not careful. Plan downtime and family activities. Be purposeful about planning your day so that everyone in your family can enjoy time together and make family memories that you’ll treasure for years to come.
With these simple organized Christmas morning ideas you can create a Christmas morning and day that your entire family will treasure. A day of calm, peace, joy and love – the true meaning of Christmas.
See all my most festive Christmas ideas, printables and recipes in the table below. You can scroll though the table and look for ideas or search for specific ideas with the magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner (on desktop). Click on the topic and then click through the specific article.
I’m a mom of 3, a veteran, military spouse. I’ve moved into 20+ homes all around the world. My passion is helping busy people make the space and time for what’s really important to them. Learn more about Organized 31 and me.
I love all of these ideas. A bit of planning makes the morning smooth. I would add “move your stockings from the fireplace” if you are going to burn a fire (yes, had melted chocolate on year…), and designate a place for small/high value gifts to be placed upon opening. Gift cards can easily get picked up in wrapping paper and lost!