Over-eager son, four, causes chaos by opening Christmas presents during the night

A gobsmacked mother thought she had been burgled on Christmas morning after her four-year-old opened all his presents during the night, leaving a scene of carnage. 

Footage showed Danielle Abbs, 29, from Cornforth, County Durham, shouting ‘oh my God’ as she discovered the ‘nightmare’ scene of her son’s gifts lying on the floor in a sea of wrapping paper. 

The 29-year-old receptionist was initially ‘devastated’ and thought they had been burgled and her son Byron-Joe’s defence that it was an ‘accident’ did not help. 

Gobsmacked mother Danielle Abbs, from Cornforth, County Durham, thought she had been burgled on Christmas morning after her four-year-old son Byron-Joe created havoc by opening all his presents during the night

But two years on from the festive disaster, Byron-Joe, now aged six, has vowed to stay in bed on Christmas Eve this year. 

The hilarious clip of the 2018 discovery has recently re-emerged online after Ms Abbs posted it on Facebook.

Speaking of the moment she discovered the carnage, Ms Abbs said: ‘I’d just opened the door slightly and flicked the light on and that’s what I was met with.

‘I thought I’d actually been burgled to be honest at first – although it was a bit of a nightmare, it was in a way a bit of a relief.

‘I was so shocked. I couldn’t actually believe what I was seeing to be honest. I was devastated because you do all that work to just see their faces at the end of it.

‘I was quite disappointed but it didn’t last long – he was happy and that’s the main thing.

The 29-year-old receptionist was initially ‘devastated’ and thought they had been burgled and her son Byron-Joe’s defence that it was an ‘accident’ did not help

But two years on from the festive disaster, Byron-Joe, now aged six, has vowed to stay in bed on Christmas Eve this year. Pictured: Stills from the footage of Byron showing off his presents after he opened them during the night on Christmas Eve in 2018

‘The excitement must have just got to him – he’d just turned four and it was the first year [2018] that he really understood Santa.’  

Ms Abbs often posts Facebook Live videos during special occasions so Byron-Joe’s grandparents can watch too.

But when the grandparents watched this one back they couldn’t believe his antics, which soon became the ‘talk of the family’.

Ms Abbs said: ‘I don’t know how he managed to get away with it – I didn’t hear a peep.

The hilarious clip of the 2018 discovery has recently re-emerged online after Ms Abbs posted it on Facebook. It followed Byron-Joe on Christmas morning as he headed downstairs to ‘open’ his presents, only to then walk in on the mess he had created during the night

Speaking of the moment she discovered the carnage, Ms Abbs said: ‘I’d just opened the door slightly and flicked the light on and that’s what I was met with’

‘I think he’d been quiet and possibly sat in the darkness opening them – I don’t know how he managed to get himself back to bed with all of those toys.

‘Now I’m quite pleased it was live because if it was just a normal video I don’t think we would have had quite the same reaction.

‘Everybody was on about it – they all definitely found it funny.

‘Lots of people wrote on it saying they were watching the video around the Christmas table with all the family and it made them all laugh – it’s quite nice to know that it had made people smile.’

‘I thought I’d actually been burgled to be honest at first – although it was a bit of a nightmare, it was in a way a bit of a relief,’ Ms Abbs said.  ‘I was so shocked. I couldn’t actually believe what I was seeing to be honest

The 29-year-old was inundated with comments from sympathetic parents as well as some brilliant suggestions as to how a repeat of Byron-Joe’s shenanigans could be avoided

Some even proposed concealing the living room door with wrapping paper so he’d have to tear it down to enter, waking up Ms Abbs in the process

The 29-year-old was inundated with comments from sympathetic parents as well as some brilliant suggestions as to how a repeat of Byron-Joe’s shenanigans could be avoided.

Some even proposed concealing the living room door with wrapping paper so he’d have to tear it down to enter, waking up Ms Abbs in the process.

She said: ‘It crossed my mind – do I stay downstairs or should I put bells on the door? But I thought no, I’d trust him and hope for the best.

‘He knows that I was quite gutted that I hadn’t seen his face and he always says that he wouldn’t do it again, and I honestly don’t think he would.

‘If you speak to him now about it he says it was an “accident”.

‘Last year I probably didn’t sleep to be honest but it did work out – it made last Christmas even more special I suppose because I’d waited two years to see his reaction.

‘He appreciates every little thing he gets so his reaction is always amazing.’