A three-year-old from North Carolina surprised his family on Christmas Day by opening every present in the house at 3am.
Scott and Katie Reintgen only became aware their toddler had unwrapped every single gift when he came into their bedroom and loudly requested a pair of scissors.
“The three-year-old had found his Spider-Man web shooters, and so he wanted scissors to cut them out,” sci-fi writer Scott told NBC News.
Mum Katie said her son, who they’ve dubbed “the midnight perpetrator”, had opened “literally everything, from the tiniest eraser to the biggest box”.
She’d spent hours the night before lovingly wrapping her family’s presents.
The couple have three children, aged six, three and one.
The three-year-old explained he’d unwrapped the presents because he didn’t want his family to be confused.
Scott said: “He wanted us to be able to see our presents so we knew what they were.
“I think he legitimately just felt that he was doing a service to everyone. He will not do it again next year, we hope.”
Katie added that the little one was “showing no remorse”.
Mum and dad were then left with the task of rescuing Christmas for their other kids.
Scott said: “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.
“But our middle child is very much the adventurous, ridiculous, no-rules, have-fun kind of kid.”
Scott put the children back to bed, while Katie taped together the ripped-up paper, having used up all the wrapping paper the night before.
The gifts were then put up high to stop a repeat performance.
Scott shared photos of the moment they discovered the night-time disaster on X, with many people commenting on their own children’s present indiscretions over Christmas.
Scott joked: “Luckily my wife repackaged enough of the presents to stop the ‘villain origin’ story for the six-year-old.
“We, on the other hand, are sipping coffee and plotting to tell this story at his wedding.”
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