Parents come downstairs to find toddler opened every present under Christmas tree at 3am

Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter

Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Christmas Eve can sometimes feel like the longest day of the year to a child who just wants to open their Christmas presents.

One toddler had woken up in the middle of the night, and opened not just his presents, but the entire family’s. Scott Reintgen took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to show what his living room looked like on Christmas morning with all of the gifts open and wrapping paper scattered across the floor.

“Y’all. My three year old came down at 3am and unwrapped EVERYONE’S presents,” he captioned his photo.

Reintgen’s thread continued with a video where he explained his “son’s version” of the story. “He came downstairs and wanted to open all the presents so no one was confused and they all knew what they had gotten,” the father explained.

“That’s his story,” he jokingly added.

Captioning the video, he wrote: “Just adding his explanation for why he opened everything! Also have to add: we’re not mad. He’s a good kid, and it’s a story we’ll tell for the rest of our lives.”

The father of three, who shares a six year old, three year old and one year old with his wife Katie, recounted more of the story in an interview with NBC News. The two said that they had woken up to their three-year-old loudly requesting a pair of scissors.

“The three year old had found his Spider-Man web shooters, and so he wanted scissors to cut them out,” Scott told the outlet. He opened “literally everything, from the tiniest eraser to the biggest box,” Katie added.

“He wanted us to be able to see our presents so we knew what they were,” Scott explained. “I think he legitimately just felt that he was doing a service to everyone. He will not do it again next year, we hope.”

“Showing no remorse,” Katie added.

Shortly after, the parents said they got to work on trying to fix the situation for their oldest son, assuming he’d struggle to grasp what had happened if the presents were open. “The six year old is very much the rule-follower so the idea that someone would just go down and open all the presents would just be unthinkable to him,” Scott told NBC.

“But our middle child is very much the adventurous, ridiculous, no-rules, have-fun kind of kid.”

While Scott put their three year old back to bed, Katie tried to tape together the torn pieces of wrapping paper because there were no more rolls to use. She followed by placing all of the presents up on their mantle to avoid another incident.

“Luckily, my wife repackaged enough of the presents to stop the villain origin story for the six year old,” Scott went on to write in another post on X. “We, on the other hand, are sipping coffee and plotting to tell this story at his wedding.”

After posting, Scott received comments from many people telling their own similar stories, whether that be about themselves or their children. “I DID THAT ONE YEAR. LOLOLOL Mom said that I woke them up in the middle of the night gleeful the Santa Claus had brought Daddy a plastic bowling set (intended for my brother),” one reply began.

“They went in and every present had been opened and I had been playing happily by myself for hours.”

“My daughter did this at three too,” another parent wrote. “I woke up to paper being torn and she had opened everything.  I caught her in the act and took a picture, which I will show her when she gets older.”

The Independent has contacted Scott for comment.