What do you do on Christmas Eve?

[Grenko]

This is my first year hosting. Have family coming to stay with me from 23-26th. No kids.

Just trying to come up with an itinerary.

I was thinking I’d go to one of the posh towns near us for some lunch and a last minute mooch around the shops for wine, snacks etc. Then pub? Dog walk at some point.

Then home for some food prep.

Chinese for dinner? Booze.

We have a xmas eve breakfast for the dc, normally have to collect some food from M&S and any other bits. Dinner is often a selection of party food, xmas eve mass and the pub.

Watch a Christmas movie, sometimes our local cinema has a classic on.

Our Christmas Eves aren’t all that exciting, we spend the first half of the day tossing away anything we don’t need out for Christmas, toys from downstairs to upstairs because they’re not going to want to know them tomorrow 🤣

then the kids get their Xmas Eve boxes, usually have something crafty inside that we can sit to the table and do.

after that in the early evening we always order a Chinese for dinner, then the kids get bathed, Xmas jammies on and then we sit and watch a Christmas movie with the snacks they had in their box. Then they put their sacks out on the lounge floor, put out a carrot, drink and cookie for Santa and Rudolph and go to bed..

then we stay up wrapping the last of the presents, spreading glitter in places I’ll still find next Christmas too and drinking too much Ameretto 🤣

I’m working a 13 hour shift, will get home at 2030 hopefully bundle the kids into bed and sort presents out when they’re asleep.
If I wasn’t working we’d probably go see some family, run around a park, movie and snacks.

Sorry I read kids, rather than no kids 🤣 my plans aren’t too suitable in that case..

if I didn’t have the kids, it would be a mooch around the local Christmas market, Chinese for dinner and a trip to the pub!

Last-minute shopping in morning, usually meet friends for lunch, festival of carols and chants at the cathedral, drop in on whichever family member is doing open house on Christmas Eve, then home to wrap presents, watch old films etc. We host Christmas Day.

We go for a walk every Christmas Eve with friends and dogs, take the afternoon off, sometimes have lunch out and end up in the pub about 4-ish. It's the highlight of my Christmas, it's a lovely way to start off a couple of days off. So I highly recommend. There's only one year in about the last 15 that the weather was so bad we didn't go.

Then we pitch up at in laws to eat and play board games. it's usually something like lasagna and garlic bread or a curry. It's chilled.

It also normally means everyone very hungover on Christmas morning - they come to ours to eat so we do dinner at about 4pm...to give them time to recover.

We accidentally started a family tradition when they were really little (and I was broke!) where after a dinner of melty cheese and things to dip in it, the children put their jammies on, they all pile into my car and we drive around for about an hour looking at all the Christmas lights on houses. Whilst we drive around, we have Christmas music on full blast to sing along and the kids make up ‘awards’ for each house (most sparkly, most effort, biggest lights etc).
Then when we’ve seen 100 decorations, we go home and make massive hot chocolates with squirty cream and marshmallows, make popcorn and watch Home Alone.
Even now, the older 3 are older teens and they were horrified last Christmas when I commented about potentially not doing the drive anymore as I thought they wouldn’t want to now they were older…they were weirdly more enthusiastic on the drive than when they were tiny 😂 They still wore PJ’s but one had a turkey hat and the other wore flashing glasses. The eldest rode his motorbike alongside / with us with a full Santa outfit on too 😅

Nothing different from any other day.

We'll be spending most of Christmas Eve on the motorway, but in previous years when we've had family (adults) coming up on 23rd, Christmas Eve has been spent doing the kind of things you've mentioned - drive out to an old town where there are nice shops and cafes/pubs for a stroll round, maybe a takeaway in the evening.

I think the last time we had my parents up for Christmas, we went for a stroll in a country park and then went for a big lunch in either our local Turkish or Thai restaurant - basically somewhere with very different food from what we'd be eating on Christmas Day. Then we had a cheeseboard and nibbly stuff in the evening. At some point I would have left people relaxing with a drink while I sorted a bit of food prep for Christmas Day, I think.

Obviously it can be a bit weather dependent. A country park stroll / mooch round a nice town is a lot more pleasant on a cold, crisp, frosty Christmas Eve than one where it's blowing a gale and lashing down with rain.

I often see people saying Christmas markets as a Christmas Eve activity - but where I live, the Christmas markets come down on 22 December, so people should definitely check the dates if that's what they're planning!

7am collect M+S and Sainsbury's orders.
Then general clean/tidy up of house and put venison casserole on for evening meal.
Mid-morning go on 2-3 hour dog walk with DD followed by hot chocolate + cake at the local cafe.
Afternoon put log burner on, DH comes home + we break open first bottle of champagne to settle into Xmas.

Oh then evening service at our village church. Not religious but love the carols and community gathering.

I love Xmas eve, very chilled and relaxing.

This sounds so wonderful! Made me well up a bit!

Pre kids we would always go for a long walk to a countryside pub. A couple of drinks and snacks and then head back as dusk was falling. Then generally a picky dinner, more drinks and chatting into the evening.

Have grown up Dc who will be with us for Christmas
DD and I have a tradition of going to Tesco in the morning , we don’t really need anything , just buy anything that looks nice !
We usually have lasagne for dinner ( that I make in advance and stick in the freezer )
Its a bit of an in between day as it’s DH birthday on 23rd
We will go for a walk , just potter around a bit as it’s not often the four of us are together

Dread the next day

I work until lunchtime, go home and prep food for Christmas Day, DD her DH and SD come over in evening for food and games with DS, DP and I - probably drink too much and fall asleep

I comfort myself with the thought that it'll all be over in a couple of days and it's too late to worry about stuff.

I go to Marks and Spencers just before closing and make out like an absolute bandit. Legacy of working there as a teen and taking home carrier bags full of food for my single mum and family.

We have an autistic child who hates town but just before closing on Christmas eve when everything is empty and dark except for the Christmas lights is a special exception.

Starts emptying freezer to make space for discounted stilton and smoked salmon

We give out 750 Christingle oranges across our church’s three Christingle services on Christmas Eve afternoon, then order takeaway as the last service wraps up, and collect it on the way home.
It’s an unusual way to spend the day, but raises thousands for The Children’s Society and is lovely and peaceful after all the frenetic busyness of December.

Oh! Me too… thought I was just having a “meno moment”

OP you are so lucky, cherish every moment! 🌸