What does your Christmas Eve/Christmas Day/Boxing Day look like?

[OctoberMoon]

Just wondering what you usually do and how you usually celebrate these 3 days in particular?

It's all changed for me. We lived in a place much too small for hosting until last year, and neither of our families are that bothered about Christmas so Christmas was always different every year (besides Christmas Eve, that is always the same)

Last year it was fantastic, I am a real lover of Christmas and everyone came to me, still finding my way with my traditions though as I only moved into my new (big) place on December 22nd last year it was chaos!

Last year, this is how it looked -

Christmas Eve - Up at 7am, hairdressers at 7.30am, back home for 8.15am for Gingerbread latte and a box of chocolates Off to my cousin's house with my DD, cousin's kid and my DD watch Christmas films whilst we have a baileys. We all read "T'was the night before Christmas" and then the kids exchange presents. We go home, where a Christmas elf has left a lovely package with new pj's in, new slippers, a Christmas book to read at bed time, reindeer dust, a reindeer mug and hot chocolate. DD gets a bath and puts new pj's on and we watch Carol's from Kings. When that is finished we leave Santa's treats and sprinkle our reindeer dust, and then she goes to bed. I then have my bath, slip my new pj's on and me and DP gorge on a M&S buffet and watch all the amazing Christmas eve telly (with a Baileys or 10)

Christmas Day Up at 7am, Santa's been! Pass me the festive coffee and a box of chocolates please. Once all presents have been opened, I prepare some breakfast and open the bucks fizz, the inlaws arrive and stay for breakfast for a few hours. They go home about 1pm and I start preparing dinner with my Christmas music blasting whilst DD plays with all her new toys. My parent's and sister arrive about 3.30pm and my Jamie Oliver inspired meal and my champers is served at about 5pm. We watch Vicar of Dibley after dinner and they go home about 7pm. DD goes to bed, and DH gorge on yet another M&S buffet and more baileys. I've put on about half a stone in the last 2 days alone.

Boxing Day Bit of a lie in, then a full English breakfast. DP goes to the football and for a meal with friends. My cousin, her kids, My mother and a couple of my aunties come about 4pm, fire is blazing, yankee candle is lit and we eat, drink and be merry. Christmas music and Christmas movies are on and a lovely buffet has been prepared. I have now put on about a stone and everyone goes home and I waddle to bed.

Excited for this year!!

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

Christmas Eve for me is mainly about cooking - mince pies, sausage rolls, prepping the veg for the next day and cooking an absolutely huge gammon that feeds us that night and goes well with the leftovers for the following week.

Christmas Day, I get up early, get the turkey prepped and make sure everything is ready for cooking later. I get out some pastries and panettone for people to grab for breakfast, then we open presents. I serve nibbles (olives, sausage rolls, feta, crackers, dips etc) at around 11.30. Lunch is at 3, 3.30pm. We don't have pudding until much later, and then have cheese too. The evening is for playing games, drinking wine and watching a film.

Boxing day is relaxed. I cook a big joint of beef, and we have a bit of a mish-mash of leftovers to nibble on throughout the day. Go for a walk, enjoy playing with DD's toys.

Reading back it seems mainly to be about food!

[lade]

Christmas is huge for me, and we have a pretty standard tradition every year...

Christmas Eve: Usually the day I finish tidying the house ahead of the festivities. The DDs will watch Christmas films, and at some point in time we will sit down and watch the box of delights together. Quite often, some friends have a party on Christmas Eve and we may go there, and have a drink with most of the other mums and dads (and their offspring). Then, we have an easy tea and my parents come over. We have little tree presents that we give out, and for the DDs that always includes a new set of PJs. The children do all the usual Santa traditions (although as DD1 will be 10 this year, I fear it will be her last year of doing this) - throwing out the reindeer food, leaving out the santa key, putting out a carrot, mince pie and a glass of wine etc. And then the children go to bed. We stop and have a relaxing drink with my parents, and they leave and DH and I have a nice snuggly evening together.

Christmas Day: DDs are usually up about 7am ish, and their sacks are usually full of presents. They bring their sacks into our bed and open them up with us. The DDs are allowed to ask for 3 items, and usually Santa returns the letter they posted in the bottom of their sacks, with the 3 items ticked off. Santa always brings them items they are not allowed (like Bubble gum) and so the children will eat a selection box and chew gum in bed, whilst I moan about how naughty Father Christmas is .

Then we get washed and dressed and always have a nice breakfast. Usually Bucks Fizz with pancakes and syrup. Then we put on Christmas music and open the presents from us. In there, we have a 'joke' present whereby the present contains clues as to what it is (and the present has been under the tree for a month, whilst the recipient tries to guess what it is). Once you have worked out what the present is, you may open it. Once all the presents are open, I have a bit of a tidy up, the DC play with their presents and decide which ones they are going to take with them before we go over to my parents house. We play lots of practical jokes on each other at Christmas - one year we wrapped up a loo roll for my daughter to open, so you have to work out the good presents from the bad! It all adds to the fun.

At parents, there's more present opening from Santa, and lunch. After lunch, we open presents from each other. We have a buffet tea and play lots of games. Often we buy the DC a new game for Christmas and we play that. It is also a tradition that we play chocolate roulette too. We don't watch TV on Christmas day, but spend the time as a family.

Boxing Day This is our easy day. We come home, and we open any presents that have come from non family people (friends etc). Then we find a home for our new presents, and have an easy relaxing day. We may go for a walk by the river, if the weather is nice and feed the ducks. We don't do anything major on boxing day.

The 27th is DHs birthday, and so we see his parents then, and the madness restarts. We often go back to my parents in the evening, as my grandparents come over and we have another Christmas / DHs birthday celebration.

Over the rest of the week, we see friends / host little teas or go to them and open little gifts. Christmas pretty much lasts a week here.

[chanie44]

We don't really have many traditions yet as the children are 3 and 1, but I'm hoping the 3 year old will be more into it this year.

My plans are:

Xmas eve - buffet dinner for the children and our siblings. Xmas eve hamper (pjs, snowman soup etc£

Xmas day - we are planning on having it at home, just the four of us. So it will be fairly laid back and I plan to prep the food on Xmas eve.

Boxing Day - visit family (possibly some sale shopping for me!!!)

[DaddyPigsMistress]

Christmas eve am:
me and the toddler do softpay while dp and ds1(10) mooch round town (run round lije headkess chickens getting my gift)

me and ds2 go to the panto with my sister and her kids in the afternoon. We get homeabout 7:30.

Christmas day: up at th e crack of dawn,stockings first for the kids them open The gifts.
I will take the toddler for a big dog walk about 8:30- 9:30. Then its off to my parents for lunch. Home about 5ish so the kids can play before bed

Boxing day: not much in the day, we tend to veg, migh wonder into town for lunch if we can be bothered

Big party at dp's parents in the pm, will be there till about midnight

[FannyMcNally]

Lade, my dds are 21, 18 and 15 and we still do food and letters for Santa and Rudolph and they still reply and leave gifts! It's more my dds indulging me now I think .....

[DumSpiroSpero]

Christmas Eve: Doing any last minute stuff, pottering, prepping the Christmas dinner, crib service & takeaway.

Christmas Day: Just the 3 of us at home (our parents are a bit of a volatile combo so we don't see them on the day). DD opens her pressies, bucks fizz, pain au choc and bacon sarnies and then we open ours. Dinner, playing the pressies and watching Xmas TV before cheese and biscuits and wine and bed.

Boxing Day: My parents

We see the IL's whenever DH's siblings are down over the holidays - usually the weekend between Xmas and New Year.

[buzzgirly]

Christmas Eve: I want this to be our family day from now on. First thing will be putting flowers on my dads grave. Then I plan on watching some Chrismtas movies. We will then have a walk to deliver neighbours presents and to find the fairies in the local woods - DH will sprint ahead to cover some logs in glitter. Then when we get home the elves will have delivered a hamper with pjs, bubble bath, toothbrush, Santa sack And chocolate Santa. Dcs will have bath and then leave out some treats for Santa, and then go to bed hopefully after A Night Before Christmas. Then DH and I will build up some toys, argue about where to leave the Santa sacks and go to bed. Christmas Eve is my favourite day of the year!

Christmas Day: Last year DH and I woke dcs up at 5.30 - slightly overexcited parents here - will try and contain ourselves and let them get themselves up. Santa will have eaten all the treats and left footprints in the hall. He will also have covered the living room door in wrapping paper so dcs will have to burst through it to presents galore.

After the present opening madness, breakfast will be croissants or pancakes. I will then prep the dinner whilst dcs play with toys while various relatives come in to drop off more gifts. Dinner will be about 3 with my mum or ILs. Going to get a game this year for us all to play - if anyone has the energy for it.

Boxing Day: this has always been a chill out day, I think this year I will lock the door and have a pj day.

As you can tell I love Christmas!

[ShabbyButNotChic]

I bloody love christmas!

Christmas eve: sleep in til about 9, then potter about wrapping last minute presents, going to my parents at lunch (we alternate between my parents and dp's), have a snacky buffet running all afternoon, its my dads birthday so people will be popping in. Do presents then go on a long walk with the dogs in the woods (hopefully in the snow!). We also go and put a bauble on my grandads tree, as he is scattered in the woods. Evening consists of a takeaway of dads choice, alcohol and maybe a board game. Traditionally i supply a new xmas film every year and we watch that. (My dad loved arthur christmas last year :) ) we stay up and all open one small present at midnight.

Xmas day: my mum will be up at the crack of dawn shouting 'he's been!' My dad then tempts us downstairs with bacon butties and cups of tea. We all sit in our pjs and open the presents. My dad then locks himself in the kitchen with a rubbish cd on and a bottlr of wine and cracks on with the dinner. We all make ourselves look presentable. Dinner about 2/3pm then a dog walk after. Rest of the day is lounging about eating drinking and playing games/watching movies. My mum always buys a new game and puts 'to everyone love santa' on the label. Last year we got hungry hippos and it got very aggressive haha.

Boxing day: go to pil's about 10, they will have a cooked breakfast ready. Do presents with them. Go see dp's granparents (usually tipsy all xmas) he will bond with his grandad in the shed talking about wood or something. I will watch tv and eat sweets with his gran. Back to his parents for tea. Back to ours in the evening, usually asleep on the sofa by 8pm as we are so full!

Love christmas :) and the best bit is i've never had to cook a dinner yet!

[curiousgeorgie]

Christmas Eve is DH's birthday... We usually wake up about 9, he has presents in bed and we all get ready and walk the dog in the park. We spend most of the day playing with DD, (though this year we also have DD2 so possibly less leisurely all round!) watching Christmas movies and eating. I'll try to make sure the house is tidy at some point and drop presents to where they need to be. Then we go out to a restaurant about 3.30 to meet my parents, 3 of my brothers & SIL's, all their kids, DH's parents, his brother, SIL & son, two aunts, one uncle and about 5 close friends and have a massive festive birthday / Christmas meal and more presents for DH. Then home for bath, the night before Christmas & bed...

Christmas morning we get up and this year will have stockings though don't usually, pack up dog & DD's and drive 10 mins to my mums and get there for about 8.30am, meeting parents, grandparents, brothers and their families. All open presents together culminating in giant mess!! (Already all dropped there by everyone the previous day so my mums entire living room is literally filled wall to wall with people and presents!) All kids play together and we eat traditional roast dinner with turkey, pork and beef about 1, play games, chat and laugh. Tea about 7 when my mums brother and his whole family and a few of our friends come to join us for more games, drinking and christmas TV.... we mostly all stay over.

Boxing Day we wake up and pop to DH parents for an hour & breakfast, then back to my mums, walk our dog & her dog with usually everybody's kids! Then back for Boxing Day racing, my grandad takes all the bets and someone more technical places them all on an iPad. We eat and cheer on our horses, then eat gammon, pickles, bubble & squeak and more turkey, then games, drinking and even more family come over!

Day after Boxing Day I shop with my mum and DD and SIL's and the boys play football then we all meet again for dinner, then pack up the cars and go home.... Till new year when we all come back

I love Christmas. So manic and busy and so many people.

[TheSlug]

your stores are making me all teary and excited!! (blaming pregnancy hormones...!) This will only be our second Christmas at home, last year we got married a couple of days before and moved straight into our new house so it was all a bit hectic. I'll be on Maternity leave from Mid Dec, so hopefully this year will be the start of our Christmas traditions! It will involve Christine service at 4pm Christmas eve though, and probably dinner at my parents. Boxing day will be at Nanny's!

[NeverQuiteSure]

buzzgirly I love the gift wrapped door! I wonder if I can convince DH to let me partake in that little slice of madness genius this year?

Our children will be 3 and 5 this year, plus 10 year old DSS who we have on Boxing Day. Because we only have DSS on Boxing Day we have 2 Christmases; Little Christmas (25th) and Big Christmas (26th). For the past 2 years it has gone something like this...

Christmas Eve
I can't remember what we spent the last 2 years doing, probably visiting family. This year we will be starting the festivities at about 4pm with The Mumsnet Christmas Eve Hamper (TM) which will contain a DVD, 2 books, reindeer food, new dressing gowns, hot chocolate and biscuits. I am doing a second hamper with some little foodie and naughty bits for me & DH to enjoy when the children are in bed.

Christmas Day (aka Little Christmas)
The children wake up at god-knows-what-o-clock and descend on our bedroom with their stockings. We have American pancakes for breakfast, then the children open a joint present and an individual (big) present from us. We then get showered/dressed. The children play with their new toys and a few members of our extended family pop round bearing gifts at random intervals throughout the late morning/early afternoon. We have a cold lunch and the children choose their favourite meal for dinner. DH and I start to prepare the Big Christmas Meal for the next day.

Boxing Day (aka Big Christmas)
Everyone wears smart clothes ready for DSS, grandparents and aunts and uncles to arrive mid morning (bearing yet more gifts). We have a traditional Christmas meal at about 1:30pm and everyone stays until after sandwiches at 6pm ish. It's big and noisy and very hectic, but the children love it!

[BaconAndAvocado]

Love your idea of a "second" Christmas Eve hamper for the adults neverquite will definitely add that to our Yuletide festivities.

Christmas Eve: morning is spent making mince pies, watching Christmas stuff on tv and sharing Christmas books. DH gets home from work at 1ish and we go for a big family nosh up at the local Italian. Back home at 3ish, shortly after that the Elves Hamper mysteriously arrives on doorstep. Early bath, more Christmas books then bed.

Christmas Day: Wee ones usually wake at 6ish and shuffle into our rooms with their bulging stockings. Oldest DS still on land of nod. DH goes downstairs to get tea and shortbread biccies. DCs open stocking pressies taking turns. Brekkie for adults is bagels,with smoked salmon and cream cheese with bucks fizz, I can't remember what the kids usually have! Oldest DS then comes down and opens his stocking then we start opening the big presents from under the tree. At midday ish the grandparents arrive. Dinner at 2, more presents, tv, more presents, buffet at 6ish, play with presents. DCs to bed at 8ish, board games out for bigguns, lots of Baileys, grandparents go home at midnight ish, then we tingle into bed. Phew!

Boxing Day: go to my parents for more presents (we are very spoilt!) and a steak dinner, home at 8ish.

[BiddyPop]

Most years it looks like:
Christmas Eve. I go to work for a couple of hours, DD comes with me while DH goes for a nice coffee nearby (main shopping area very near my office). We meet DH mid-morning, and pop into M&S if we didn't do it before work for last minute food things. We may have a couple of things we'd like to get but no urgent needs are left at that stage. Lunch if we can get in somewhere, then home. I peel spuds and veg, DH makes stuffing, dd watches movies, plays outside or with friend up the road. We go for a walk mid-afternoon if weather is k, and make cookies for Santa (from scratch if we have time and energy, just sliced off frozen dough from an early Dec batch if necessary). Nice dinner, might be spiced beef, last year we did tapas type feast. Light Christmas candle, have our little thoughtful ceremony, put out stocking and cookies, milk, carrot. Box with new pjs for all, bath bomb for dd and nice hot choc mix comes out, DD goes for her relaxing bath and bed, DH and I relax a little before hopefully an early night.

Boxing Day: after sorting out the turkey stock early in the morning (getting cold stock from crockpot to freezer) and any cleanup abandoned the night before done, we clean the house for visitors and set the fire. Head out for a walk, then get ready for afternoon "at home" to neighbors and extended family for DDs birthday, with a cake late in the afternoon (drinks and nibble bits before that). A day of relative peace and slowness, and aiming for early nights for all after all the excitements.

This year, we will be staying down near our families in a rented cottage, so our day will be slightly different. We will have to see both families on the eve, we may go to the city or nearest town for coffee/shopping, but may avoid it altogether. We will probably be involved in prep work for both mothers! W will be able to walk on a beach. I don't know yet about eating (except that on Christmas Day, it will probably be turkey at lunch in 1 house and turkey for dinner in the other!).

Candle, thoughtful ceremony, new pjs, stocking etc will all happen on the Eve but I need to try to make sure we are not delayed getting "home" for those (I would prefer to eat as just us 3 on the Eve). Boxing Day we will be hosting mboth our immediate families for DDs birthday, and it's a tiny cottage so that will be fun! My family have a traditional walk and we may go on that, or do our own walk earlier. But it's much more fluid this year yet.

[BiddyPop]

Oh, I nearly forgot the bedtime book on Christmas Eve is the first reading of the year of Twas the night before Christmas, which I put in the hamper of pjs etc. we don't add a DVD as we have a few that we watch during December. The hamper is produced by me when we are getting ready for bed rather than things to do in the early evening - it marks a good transition for DD to bedtime that day.