How to Be Prepared to Open Kids’ Gifts at Christmas Events

My goodness! What are toy manufacturers thinking with all the toy packaging these days? Seriously, even Houdini would have trouble escaping if he were all done up like a Barbie with her hair sewn into the plastic packaging. When your little angel brings you a trapped doll or truck on Christmas morning, there’s a good chance you’ll still be wrestling the toy from it’s packaging 20 minutes later, meanwhile the kids are playing with cardboard boxes for entertainment. BUT! If you’re properly prepared, you will be the hero on Christmas morning and at all the other holiday get-togethers featuring bound and gagged children’s toys.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Electric scissors or kitchen shears
• Various sizes of batteries
• Screwdriver

1. 

   For the past several years, I have packed kitchen shears in my bag before we made the wild family tour on Christmas day. Kitchen shears make easy work of the hard plastic packaging in which many items are encased, and with minimal effort can clip the little twist-ties holding toys in place. However this year, I look forward to employing my new Black & Decker Cordless Power Scissors that I won in my department Dirty Santa gift swap!

2. 

   A few days before Christmas, I make a run by Dollar General for batteries … AA’s, AAA’s, and 9 volts are the most common sizes used in children’s toys. What good is a remote controlled car if you don’t have batteries around to power it up?

3. 

   Sometimes toys that require batteries also require a screwdriver to get into the battery case. I’ve found that the screws are typically very small in size, so be sure to bring a little Phillips head screwdriver with you. An electric screwdriver with interchangeable heads is even better. In the past, I’ve seen people resort to using a steak knife to unfasten little screws, and let me tell you this can go horribly wrong.

Tips & Warnings

• You might want to keep scissors, batteries, & a screwdriver handy and accessible for the week before and after Christmas … my kids tend to pick up gifts everywhere they go.
• Don’t expect to take a lot of pictures at these events … most likely you’ll be opening toys. Give your camera to someone who doesn’t have kids to snap photos for you.
• Amazon has a selection of toys with “Frustration Free” packaging. I ordered our son an Imaginext Pirate Ship and was very pleased to simply pull the pirate ship right out of the box with very little waste.

[amylaine]

on 8/12/2009 We always open the toys and prepare it to be played with. Then wrap it. If the child is not open wrapping paper very well, we put gifts in bags and wrap tissue paper around then. Great article.

[Rockney]

on 1/2/2009 Great writing style with great tips!

[Thims]

on 12/28/2008 Batteries! 10,000 batteries!

[Punkuns]

on 12/26/2008 Great tips! With 5 little ones I’ll need them!

[Alishamitchum]

on 12/24/2008 Great tips!