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The dad's original post has been seen by nearly 7 million people, before he shared a follow-up video in which he revealed his son's "version of events."
'Twas the early hours of Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring ... except a 3-year-old boy who couldn't wait to open his gifts!
Writer Scott Reintgen went viral on Christmas Day after he took to X (formerly Twitter) around 4:30 in the morning to share a photo of the utter chaos he and wife Katie woke up to. In the image, the family's Christmas tree is seen fully lit, while unwrapped presents are littered about the living room (above).
"Yall. My three year old came down at 3am and unwrapped EVERYONE'S presents," he captioned the photo, which has since been seen by nearly 7 million people, liked by 136,000 and reposted around 8.4K times.
In the replies, he also explained that the boy had fallen asleep around 9pm and they waited until 10:30 to put out all the presents. The dad added they "just didn't expect him to go down in the middle of the night" -- and said they only found out what he had done because, at around 3am, the boy "came back upstairs shouting, 'I need scissors for my web shooter!'"
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. pic.twitter.com/GKiJjPjQXR
— Scott Reintgen (@Scott_Thought) December 26, 2023 @Scott_Thought
On Tuesday, Reintgen followed up his original post with a video in which he explained the boy's reasoning for spoiling the surprises Santa left for himself, his parents and his two siblings, ages 6 and 1.
"Alright, I just have to add my son's version of events was he came downstairs and wanted to open all the presents so no one was confused and they all knew what they had gotten," explained the boy's dad. "That's his story."
"Just adding his explanation for why he opened everything! Also have to add: we're not mad," he added in the caption. "He's a good kid, and it's a story we'll tell for the rest of our lives."
Responding to some of the replies, Reintgen also explained how the child's parents spoke with him about what he had done.
"We talked through how he feels when he opens a present, and how we want other people to have that same choice and feeling," he said. "He agreed he would want other people to experience that and was only trying to help. mostly we laughed and had fun with it."
He joked the moment "already written into a wedding speech" and said the child probably felt like "the freest creature in the universe ... for exactly seven minutes."
"We feel like it's the best possible disaster," he also quipped.
The parents spoke with TODAY about the viral moment as well, explaining that they did end up rewrapping the gifts, so the other kids could open them when they woke up a couple hours later. Scott also concluded, "I think we’ll be waiting until early morning to put them out next year!"
