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This Christmas is definitely one for the books for a family in North Carolina after their toddler opened the entire family's gifts in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep.
Most young children on Christmas Eve try to get a peek of the presents under the tree, but one toddler took his curiosity a step further and decided to unwrap his entire family's Christmas gift haul at 3 a.m. while his household was sleeping, per NBC News. It wasn't until Scott and Katie Reintgen were awoken on Christmas Day to their 3-year-old asking for scissors that they realized what had happened and discovered the "terrifying" scene.
"The 3-year-old had found his Spider-Man web shooters, and so he wanted scissors to cut them out," Scott told the outlet on Tuesday (December 26). He also shared a photo of the aftermath of his middle child's midnight mayhem on X (formerly Twitter).
The Reintgens have three children, ages 6, 3 and 1, so there were quite a few presents under the tree; but that didn't hold the 3-year-old back. Katie said "the midnight perpetrator" opened "literally everything, from the tiniest eraser to the biggest box" that the couple had wrapped the night before because he didn't want his family to be confused.
"He wanted us to be able to see our presents so we knew what they were," said Scott. "I think he legitimately just felt that he was doing a service to everyone. He will not do it again next year, we hope."
While the toddler may not remember his Christmas impatience, his parents will make sure he won't ever forget it. Scott even joked on X it will be a story they tell when their little one grows up and gets married.
"Luckily my wife repackaged enough of the presents to stop the villain origin story for the 6 year old," he wrote. "We, on the other hand, are sipping coffee and plotting to tell this story at his wedding."
The Reintgens said their oldest child is a "rule-follower" that would be confused by someone who "would just go down and open all the presents," so they had to act quickly to ensure his Christmas went smoothly. Katie tried to salvage as much of the ripped wrapping paper as she could to repackage the gifts while Scott put the kids back to bed, making sure to put the presents on the mantle and out of the reach of the 3-year-old.
In a follow-up video to his original X post, Scott added that he and his wife aren't mad, calling their 3-year-old a "good kid" and adding that the story is one they'll tell "for the rest of our lives."