What do you do on Christmas Eve?

This sounds AMAZING!!! Can I come 🤭🤭😆😆

My husbands works over Christmas. Christmas Eve I just watch some Christmas movies or maybe take the dog to the beach for a walk. Christmas day he will probably do 7am until 8pm 😭. But it is what it is and I shall buy myself a bottle of Baileys, get some snacks and chill out in front of the TV and if it's not too hot, take the dog for a walk.

We dont have children so it will be a relaxed sort of day. I wish he wasnt working though.

Our church has a crib service. I love it.

When the kids were little we put out reindeer food and milk and mince pies for Santa.

I love Christmas Eve.

Go to church for a carol/crib service .

Well what we do isn’t going to help you but since you asked…
My DD (20) will probably not appear until lunch time. She’s in charge of Christmas dinner so might get some prep in.
My son (22) lives about 70 miles plus a ferry away and is working so I’ll drive to the ferry to collect him in the evening - he’s got the turkey and Boxing Day ham! During the day just chilling probably rushing to finish the throw I’m giving him in his favourite footie team’s colours.
So then latish takeaway supper and a movie - probably Love Actually or similar. Then bed!
When kids were younger I don’t think we did much on Christmas Eve - nothing planned other than getting ready to host my parents the next day. My DH might have taken the kids swimming or something.

Don't most churches have Christmas Eve services? Ours has had one - a family mass - for as long as I can remember. So why not go to one of those?

Office closure on 24, 25, 26 Dec and 1 Jan (govt dept)

First Vespers then Midnight Mass.

We go for a dog walk in the afternoon then stop for a hot chocolate in the local pub.

We (DP and me), have our Christmas on Christmas Eve so do presents and a proper fancy dinner (not a traditional Christmas dinner as neither of us are keen on a roast).

We do the same thing every year.

we got to the 10.30 panto show with kids and cousins family (as it’s her birthday). Then we go for lunch, have some bubbles and come home to polar express, Christmas PJs and hot chocolate and marshmallows. I attempted to offer a change of film but got swiftly out voted because it’s our tradition.

Christmas Eve is my favourite day of the whole year. We don’t set foot inside a shop and I try so very hard to have everything wrapped before then. I like to think Christmas Eve is for anyone who has to work hard to make Christmas magically for their family. Yes I peel all the veg at some point, but generally speaking I organise ahead so I can take a moment to breathe for myself and actually enjoy the day.

🤣🌿

How do you all manage to fit in the arguments and panicking, which seem to be quite a major feature of our Christmas Eve?

We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, so we do all that stuff. On the eve of Eve though, we eat pizza and watch a Christmas film and go to sauna. I've asked for the day off on the 23rd this year so maybe we can do something nice in the day too, maybe go sledging if there's decent snow by then.

Work until 5pm then have dinner. If I'm not working the following day I will indulge in some mulled wine and watch Xmas TV.

Try and find time to prep Xmas dinner veg if we're having Xmas dinner at home.

I've never cooked a Christmas dinner but in my many years of watching my mum, MIL and DH do it I've never known any one of them do any prep the day before.

Wrapping we do as things arrive snd don't buy that much anyway so not much to do there either.

Christmas Eve is a pretty quiet day really.

We don’t do much as in organised activities but there lots to do. We prep the veg for Xmas day have a tidy and clean so it’s sorted, lay the table, and I cook my ham which we snack on with other bits for tea.

We generally nip out for a drink to see friends or family depending on other people’s plans and ds5 gets some Xmas activities to keep him occupied.

Theres usually some last minute dash to the local shop for drinks or any bits missed off the big shop.Some years family pop round do we have a bit of a buffet but it’s generally a relaxed no set plans day

I’m always flat out on Christmas Eve, preparing all the food for Christmas Day, cleaning the house, last bits of wrapping etc. It amazes me that people have time for anything else!

Think thats good, we are getting nearer and nearer the New Year.

It's usually just me and DP and one or two elderly parents on Christmas Eve. We don't have a particular routine but in previous years we've done things like gone for a walk in a country park that has a nice cafe, been for a drive out to a nice town that we know will look pretty and festive to wander round the shops and have lunch/afternoon tea or whatever, or we've been out for a boozy lunch to somewhere like a Thai, Turkish or Indian restaurant (basically anywhere that does cuisine that won't be anything like what we'll be eating on Christmas Day). Evening would be drinks, something like a cheeseboard to eat, maybe a board game or some festive telly. I usually have some food prep to do for the next day, so at some point I'll invariably be trying to make stuffing or assemble a trifle or whatever.

As much as I love our parents and family in general, I do secretly dream of a Christmas where it's just me and DP in a gorgeous rented cottage somewhere in the middle of nowhere, where we'd rock up on the morning of Christmas Eve and hole up until New Year.

DH and I frantically tidy and clean the house, take the kids on a long woodland walk, have a small buffet for our main meal and bath the kids, leave a carrot and mince pie for Santa and pop some reindeer food in the garden before watching a film and taking the kids to bed. Usually finish wrapping, sort stockings and lay presents out once kids are fully asleep. Very last thing before we settle down for bed we shower and sit down and give our gifts to one another and enjoy a glass of wine and a movie. Christmas Eve is manic in our house!

Dh grew up celebrating on Christmas Eve as his dad was German. So we now have a nice meal on Christmas Eve at around 7, after dc get in from work. This year ds has the whole day off so he’s in charge of food - we usually have steak or venison.

After dinner we light the final candle on the advent wreath, do our Christmas Eve readings from the Northumbria Community prayer book and talk a bit about what Christmas means to us this year. Then dh reads a highly personalised version of “Kipper’s Christmas Eve” that we’ve been doing since dd1 was a baby. Now they’re all grown up, Kipper is often drunk or on drugs!
We don’t stay up too late as I’m a big kid when it comes to Christmas and want to get up early!

We go out for brunch, then head home and have a glass of bubbles watching a christmas movie. Bit later we have a specific dinner and then more bubbles and watch Elf usually. Done same thing last few years and it’s a lovely special day.

We all pile into the in laws house. Too many people in one house. Very noisy with lots of food and fun. The bairns love it as they get to play with all their cousins. We go home with hyper but tired children that are all moaning because they want to stay and play 😂Then we get home and spent the rest of the night sorting the living room. Every year I say I am going to be more organised so I am not up most of the night wrapping presents. I of course won't and end up watching die hard, eating chocolate, while I wrap up all the presents before falling into bed. I love it 😍

Time outside if weather is not completely awful. Then we have Chinese for dinner. Sometimes a takeaway, but often I just make it with bits thrown in from the shop. Then we watch a Christmas film.

Sometimes family visits us, but it’s really too much to ‘do’ something like a day out.

As a clergy family its a busy day. Between us we have 3 crib services and midnight mass.
There eill be the usual chip shop tea that our girls have become accustomed to, bath and new pj's and then we'll get the girls back up for midnight mass. I'll then hope and pray they go to slep quickly once we get home so we can do stocking and presents under the tree!