To not tell my children it's Christmas eve?

[MamaHechtick]

I have this idea, that for this year we won't tell DC's it's Christmas Eve. We don't do Christmas Eve boxes and they are usually disinterested in their advent calendars by mid December so don't really countdown as such. They will be 5 and 6.

My idea is they will get a good night's sleep, and I'm thinking that waking them up early and telling them it's Christmas morning will be a far bigger and exciting surprise.

Would I be unreasonable or mean for doing this? I think it's the only year we'd get away with it. We don't have any plans for Christmas Eve except a fairly quiet day with just us at home. Friends I've briefly discussed this with seem a bit off with it.

As a kid I always found Christmas eve more exciting than Christmas day. It was the anticipation and knowing Santa was on the way. Leaving out the mince pie and carrot for Santa felt magical (and it still does when I watch my kids do it). I think it would be very sad for your kids to miss out on that. Very soon they won't believe in Santa anymore. You've got to keep the magic going while you still can!!

My favourite memory of Christmas is dear Dad leaving out a glass of milk and a couple of carrots for Rudolph. We were SOOO excited!

And then next morning realising Rudolph had eaten and drunk the milk and the carrots, then straight in to see what Santa had left us under the tree.

There should always be a little mystery surrounding Christmas for children.

It's such a short time between them being old enough to believe in santa and being too old. It seems a waste to miss out on doing the mince pie for Santa etc.

no christmas eve is important hanging up their stockings leaving treats out for father christmas they will be excited this year show them the santa cam on the internet so they can see how close he is

If you’re competing for Scrooge of the Year, yes. Otherwise, no.

No, my kids loved Christmas Eve - actually they still do. We do a nice meal and go to midnight mass, only problem is I'm driving so I only get half a glass of champagne. They have already sent me links to the new pj's they want despite being adults!

My boys are 6 and 4 and i really doubt unless i told them it was xmas eve they would know. I must have particularly thick kids!

Last year mine weren't interested in anything christmassy apart from the presents. I tried to do an advent and read a xmas eve story and do decorations and left things out for santa and they didn't want to help. This year the just 6 year old has told me he doesn't think santa exists. All this magic other people seem to have is lost on my scrooges.

No I wouldn't do it, Christmas Eve has such a great atmosphere to it, and I think it's a bit mean as they won't be able to leave a mince pie and carrot out for Santa and Rudolf, and to be honest I'm not sure how you'd get away with it, if they watch Cbeebies or other kids programes they actually mention it's Christmas Eve as do BBC etc, your children are only little for such a short time why remove such a big part of it?

If you want to do some xmas eve with
Norad tracks santa, also helps get them into bed when they see hes getting closer

anniehm.

I love midnight Mass too.

That is the weirdest thing I've ever heard. Your children will be bringing this up on Mumsnet in 15 years time.

Christmas Eve is a big day for us. I love it and so do the dcs. Two of them are old enough to know the date so it wouldn't work not telling them even if I wanted to. But I think Christmas Eve is totally magical and exciting and want to celebrate it always. My DC's are generally very good and go straight to sleep because they know the quicker they get to sleep the sooner it will be morning.

No, it's mean. A family member did this to her child one year, he missed out on the excitement of Christmas eve and a lot of family were annoyed with her on the day because of it.
It turned out to be her last Christmas with him as she died suddenly a few months later.

I used to do this when the kids were under 3, and it worked fine. Not now though- they can take the excitement without burning out, we still keep fairly low key and leave plenty of free time to chill.

We wouldn't be without the excitement of Norad's Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve:

www.noradsanta.org

It lets people track where Santa is and when Christmas happens for family and friends spread over the globe.

I will do the track Santa app with them. Last year they didn't get to see Santa in a grotto as both were poorly in the weeks before Christmas. We've booked to go this year so maybe that'll help their excited too.

I think it would be a shame to do this especially at the ages they are- prime excited for Christmas age.

I don’t think you have to go mad on Christmas Eve with activities to make it special- it just is. Let them enjoy it.

My parents used to do that with me til i was about 5/6. Its only works til they know what an advent calendar is on! I don't with my DC. We go out for a HUGE family walk XMs eve afternoon instead and a quiet evening routine instead. I often have to go in and weeks them Xmas morning. Also don't do any odd the Xmas eve box/ Elf on shelf crap. DC aren't missing out!

My 5yr old reads the calendar, he knows the date better than I do. Definitely wouldn’t work here, and unless you plan to spend the day avoiding other people or letting them watch tv, they’ll figure it out.

My mum used to do this. More a case of having to as a single parent who worked two jobs and was simply too exhausted to have us up at the crack of dawn on no sleep. But she did this right from the beginning so it wasn't like we knew any different.

The surprise of coming down the stairs and realising it was Christmas are some of my favourite childhood memories. However our school broke up for the holidays really early so it was probably easier for us to lose track of the days and this was 30 plus years ago so no iPads etc displaying the date!

DD(6) is already counting down the days until Christmas!! Puts an X on the days that have passed and counts how many are left. Damn kitchen calendar.

Sorry it’s just bonkers.
I think waking up and realising youvmissed out in waiting for Santa will not work and be majorly dissapointing for them and something they mention as adults!
“Do you remember that time mum pretended Christmas didn’t exist”

There’s the chance this could be the eldest’s last year believing, don’t waste a single year of it

Christmas Eve is better than the Christmas day.
My dd always wanted to go to bed early and us too but we ignored that,so thay he could visit.She seemed to think that none would come if anyone was awake.

What a mean idea

Don't do this, xmas eve is the very best day of the year!!!!!