I was born in '72 so my childhood Christmas memories are late '70s or early '80s. In the run up to Christmas we'd go into Dublin city to see Santa in Clerys department store. We'd queue for hours outside the shop and eventually make our way inside where we'd be entranced by some animatronic elves and reindeer. I suspect they'd be less impressive in this high tech era but they were magical to us. We'd see a glimpse of red up ahead and excitement levels would reach fever pitch. After seeing Santa and getting our presents, we'd go shopping for our Christmas clothes and then go to a cafe for something like chips and fried eggs (no McDonalds back then). We weren't very well off so we didn't eat out much and this was a major treat. The street vendors in the city would sell sheets of wrapping paper - "Five for fifty for the wrapping paper, get the last of the wrapping paper". There were no rolls of wrapping paper back then. I don't know how we wrapped big items - mixed sheets of wrapping paper maybe?
In the weeks leading up to Christmas we'd do Christmas crafts at school. I remember making lanterns one year with toilet roll tubes and red and yellow cellophane sweet wrappers which represented the flames. The lantern was supposed to be the the one Joseph carried on the walk to Bethlehem. Another year we used potato prints and paint to make our own wrapping paper.
At some point in December the foil lids on our milk bottles would acquire a festive design. Oh, the excitement......
As well as our main present, we'd get tubes of jelly tots and square boxes of smarties. Nobody did Christmas stockings in Ireland. They were something I read about in books. Annuals were a big thing though. My eldest sister would get Mandy, the next would get Bunty and I'd get Twinkle or Penny. When we'd finished reading our own annuals, we'd swap over. When we were finished with the girls' annuals, we'd move onto my brother's Roy of the Rovers and Beano but I didn't enjoy them as much. Oh and we also got the stocking shaped selection boxes mentioned by previous posters. We loved everything except the Turkish Delight bars. They were always the last to be eaten.
Santa brought the Sindy dining room set one year (I think a previous poster mentioned it) and I was enchanted with the tiny plates and glasses. Another Christmas I got a plaster mould set and made a cat from Beatrix Potter. Another year I got a board with tiny spikes. There were little coloured tiles which fitted onto the spikes - I spent hours making pictures with the tiles and then taking them off the board and starting over. Oh and I got fuzzy felt when I was very small. I spent hours painting one year with my new paintbox and got paint all over the sleeve of my new blouse. I got a walking talking doll another year. She had blonde hair and a cord in her back. When you pulled the cord she said a few phrases in a robotic voice - "Please play with me/Please comb my hair/I love you very much".
After breakfast we'd reluctantly drag ourselves away from our toys to go to mass. Very few people had cars back then so we'd see all the children walking up the road with their new toys - dolls clutched in their arms or riding their new bikes to mass. Everyone would smile and say, "Happy Christmas", as they passed. This only happened on Christmas morning - strangers didn't usually greet each other in the city. Mass seemed like it would go on forever but finally we'd hear the magic words "Thanks be to God" (Catholics will get this 
).
Before leaving the church, we'd stop and admire the newly arrived Baby Jesus in his crib.
We'd call into my Granny's house at some stage. My youngest aunt and uncle weren't married at that stage and they still lived with my Granny. Sometimes they'd have a game for us to play (Buzz was a big hit) and sometimes we'd bring toys or games with us to show them.
The main Christmas film on RTE was always 'The Sound of Music'. We'd sing along to all the songs and cheer as the Baroness got her marching orders. Oh, the tension when the Nazis searched the convent for the Von Trapps!
The next few days passed in a blissful haze of playing with our toys and board games, eating our Christmas goodies and watching Christmas TV. We got a box of Tayto every year and we'd have a few bottles of minerals a.k.a. soft drinks. When the bottles were empty, we'd fight over who got to bring them back to the shops and pocket the 10p refund. Mam was a SAHM so I'm afraid we took her presence for granted (I feel guilty about that now) but it was so nice to have our Dad at home every day.
New Year's Eve was another celebration, albeit not quite on the same scale. As we got older, we were allowed to stay up until midnight and stand in a circle and hold hands while singing Auld Lang Syne.
After New Year's Day time would accelerate and school would start to loom on the horizon.
Thanks to the OP for starting such a lovely thread and to all the posters who have shared their memories. It's made me nostalgic for a simpler time and I've also been thinking of family members who are no longer with us.