How to make a Christmas Eve box
Your Christmas Eve box can be as lavish or as simple as you like. A simple shoe box, covered in festive paper will do the job admirably, but if you want it to last for years, you could buy a plain wooden lidded box or apple crate and then paint and stencil it, or decorate it in other ways.
If your art skills are limited, things like Scrabble tiles and stickers are an easy way to personalise the box. But remember that it doesn’t even have to be a box: a sack, basket or similar will work just as well and can be reused year after year.
Grab an empty box, sack or basket
Decorate it on the inside and outside or personalise it with your child's name
Fill it with a handful of thoughtful presents
Where can I buy a Christmas Eve box?
If you're not the crafty type and would rather buy a ready-made Christmas Eve box than decorate and fill one yourself, you'll find them on sale almost everywhere, including popular supermarkets like Tesco and ASDA.
For personalised boxes and sacks, head to Not on the High Street, Etsy or Amazon, all of which sell customised boxes in various designs.
And if you want one to embellish, a craft supplier like Hobbycraft sell wooden boxes and hampers that you can add your own stickers, stencils and more to.
How we chose our recommendations
We surveyed Mumsnet HQ parents for their best Christmas Eve box ideas, and scoured the internet to find the most creative and Christmassy buys as well as the most fun and festive boxes themselves.
We then trawled the Mumsnet forums for ideas about how to fill Christmas Eve boxes for every age group and whittled those down to five of the best ideas in each age category.
All you need to do now is sit down with a sherry and wait for the big guy in red to arrive from the North Pole. Oh, and peel four million sprouts, wrap 63,000 cubic square feet of presents, locate the trestle table, buy the emergency Aunt Bessie's and finish writing your Christmas cards.
Why you should trust us
Mumsnetters and Mumsnet HQ have lots of experience in making Christmas special on a budget. We’ve seen what goes down well in Christmas Eve boxes and what piques less interest, and we’ve put together more reindeer hot chocolates than you could shake a candy cane at.
About the author
Poppy O'Neill is a Content Editor at Mumsnet and a mother of two. She's been researching and reviewing baby and child products for 2 years, with a particular focus on baby essentials, toys and books for toddlers and outdoor play equipment. From potties to paddling pools and bunk beds to bedtime stories, she loves to deep-dive into research and find the best products out there.
Poppy is also an award-winning, best-selling children's and parenting author of books such as Don't Worry, Be Happy, The Extraordinary Book That Makes You Feel Happy and Mother Power. She specialises in children's mental health and her books are used by therapists, teachers and SENCOs across the UK. She won a The Week Junior Book Award in 2023, her books have been translated into several languages and she's been featured in The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Sun.
After earning a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Leeds and a PGCert in Fashion and Lifestyle Journalism from University of the Arts London, she worked in fashion for most of her 20s. When her children were young, she undertook an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Chichester and re-trained as an author and freelance writer.