When can we open presents???

Hey Yukon,

My fwend Murphy and I have a vewwy vewwy sewious question. When do we get to open our pwesents? We did our best to get wittle Santa to tell us, but he wouldn't.

Your friend,

Tucker

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Hey Tucker,

You raise a great question. The whole thing with the presents under the tree is very confusing. The presents are just lying there on the ground, like my toys. Waiting to open the presents is even more confusing. I mean, if Aunt Martha wants to send me a sausage and cheese box all wrapped up, why shouldn't I eat it right away?  But what can I say?  We love our humans, we have to take care of them, so we have to be patient with them when they do confusing things.  Fortunately, I have studied this situation carefully, and I even asked the real Santa about it one night a few years ago when I was making my nightly rounds.  

First, remember that humans don't have our noses, so they don't know what's in the presents. We sniff the presents and know which one is a sausage and cheese pack, which one is a funny t-shirt, and which one is the Wag Hip Pack. For them it's a big surprise when they open the presents and see what's inside, which we knew all along. It's good that we can sniff out the different presents because it means we don't have to worry about the presents that aren't for us. Pro tip:  the ones for us are the ones that smell like food.  The Wag Hip Pack is for you and your human, but you could hold off on opening that. Let that be your surprise for your human.

So now we only have to worry about what to do with presents for us. For some reason the humans seem to think the presents are all for them, even the sausage and cheese pack from Aunt Martha. I'm sure Aunt Martha wanted it to go to me, not them. Anyway, I have determined that humans don't want us to open our presents while they are in the room until Christmas. However, when my humans are not in the room they don't complain while I am shredding the box containing the sausage and cheese pack from Aunt Martha, so it must be OK. This agrees with what Santa told me late one night. He said that we could open presents any time after the sun came up. 

Another key thing to remember as you're eating your present is that the humans might get upset when they find that you opened and made good use of a present. In that case, it is good to have somebody else to blame.  I blame the raccoons in our neighborhood, and try to tell the humans how I saved the gift from the raccoons.  Sometimes that helps.  

In recent years my humans have been following Santa's lead and putting out my presents the night before I get to open them. You could suggest this to your humans

I hope this helps, Tucker.  Make sure you tell your friends that if they have questions or suggestions, they can reach me at [email protected].

Happy Holidays,

Yukon