Alternative Christmas celebration

[AmyAmoeba]

So for reasons that aren't worth going into in any great detail I've realised that I'm going to have to concede Christmas Day to my ILs for the foreseeable future
But I love Christmas, or at least I did until the ILs sucked the joy out of it, and I'm thinking that I could have a special Christmas celebration, maybe on Christmas Eve, at our house and just for our little family. I'd like to at least keep some of our special traditions going and have something to look forward to to keep me sane in the days to follow
Does anyone else do this, or similar?
I'm thinking of having a nice roast not turkey , setting a poncetastic Christmas table, having choc biscuit pudding and a snowy pavlova for dessert, or maybe a gingerbread house. I don't want to just have Christmas dinner a day early though it's tempting to upstage the main event but I want to create a special tradition not a petty battle so I might leave off on the crackers.
Would love any ideas for making meal, which is basically an ordinary roast dinner, into something special and worthy of the season.

[HandbagCrazy]

How old are your DC OP?
My dn is 5 and my sis spends Christmas absolutely inundated with family from both sides who all want to see him - he's the only child in both families young enough to believe in Santa and old enough to understand and be excited. He gets lots of presents and enjoys the visits but it's a busy day.

On Boxing Day, she (or my dad) will get a message from Santa saying that he's very sorry, he thinks some presents may have fallen out of his sleigh and could dn please go and collect them? They magically land in either sis, parents or my garden. While he is out tracking them down, sis does her own little traditional dinner - sausages, cheesey mash, veg and onion gravy and a nice pudding. She tends to invite either our side or her partners side of the family for this and it works for her - the Christmas she wants while keeping everyone happy.

[elQuintoConyo]

Have a Catalan Christmas log on Christmas eve:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti%C3%B3_de_Nadal

Here he is...