What do you do on Christmas Eve

[HollyBollyBooBoo]

I want to make it magical and special but am stuck for ideas.

We will go for a nice walk and then my DM will come over in the afternoon, dinners sorted. Not sure what else?!

We try to do something active in the morning as the kids are always a bit giddy and need to burn off the energy - this year, Ice skating and an ice slide, but in previous years, a good walk up a hill or going to the adventure park in the woods. Then a pub lunch, but nothing too heavy or Christmassy - cheese ploughmans usually for me or a sandwich and chips.

After lunch, the DC and I walk to the greengrocers to pick the perfect carrot for Rudolph. Then we are home and have the ceremonial locking of the door. We all stand around chanting 'lock the door! lock the door!' Then DH locks the front door and we all cheer 'Christmas has begun!'. It's one of my childhood traditions and it sounds a bit odd now I'm writing it down, but I grew up with it and I love it.

From then on, we stay inside with only Christmassy music and TV allowed. The DC do Christmas crafts and play board games, and we watch films/TV of their choice (usually Ice Age Christmas, something Julia Donaldson and Cbeebies Christmas specials). They have dinner at 5 ish, usually a mini buffet/picnic. Bath and Bed is normal, apart from leaving Father Christmas' mince pie and Rudolph's carrot.

Once the kids are asleep, we order the Chinese (both DH and I had this as a family tradition weirdly!) and watch a Christmas Carol (the Patrick Stewart version). I arrange the Father Christmas presents and drink a couple of several glasses of Baileys. And there's usually a posh dessert involved, one of the centrepiece ones that serves 6 or 8 from the M&S Christmas food catalogue, which DH and I demolish between us.

It's lovely reading everyone's traditions! I love the sound of the Danish rice pudding, although I'd probably swallow the whole almond!

DH and I invariably work on Christmas Eve, but this year I am on Mat Leave and he is off (just the way his shift pattern fell) so we are making a day of it.

It's also our first year with DD, she will be 10 months and won't have the first idea as to what's going on, but we want to make it special nonetheless.

It's my DH's birthday, so we usually go and see his family and then have a huge dinner out in the evening...

But this December we're away for a couple of weeks so have to squash our usual Christmas activities into a couple of days... so we're meeting family at the local garden centre for breakfast and so the kids can see Santa... then off to Panto with friends, then meeting everyone for a late lunch for DH's birthday... then back home for Christmas Eve night in for the first time ever, I'm so excited! Have 6 and 3 year olds and usually have to just carry them in asleep!

I always book leave.
Do some food prep or bake a ham if going elsewhere for Christmas dinner.
Buy lottery scratch cards to finish off our homemade crackers.
Mass with the DC then home for Chinese which must include crispy shredded duck.
Help the DC set out Santa's plate, maybe do a candlelit landing strip and reindeer food in the garden although they are a bit old for all this
Track Santa on NORAD.
Shoo the DC to bed, then DH and I have to wait until they are asleep to do the stocking magic, so have a Christmassy drink or two, maybe a movie.

We don't put our tree up until Christmas Eve so it is a really big deal in our house.

Dh normally has to work but I have an agreement with my boss that Christmas eve is the one day I am guaranteed in the year. This year dh is not working so the plan is:

Last minute tidy up of the house then I take the children out for brunch and to watch The Snowman. Dh will put up the trees and swear when it turns out I've bought one that touches the ceiling again

When I get back I'll decorate the main tree while the children do their one in the playroom. They'll finish before me so dh will take them out to pick holly and ivy which is used to decorate the fireplace and front gate.

I listen to Carols from Kings (for the music not the lessons) and either me or dh will do mince pies and gingerbread with the children.

When it gets dark the children will fill jam jars with candles and we will line the garden path with them to make a runway to guide the sleigh. The children will find a parcel in the garden from the elves containing new pjs, books and dvd. (This is done as an attempt to get them to calm the fuck down and go to sleep some time before 3am)

Once they are in bed me and dh will have crispy duck pancakes and champagne while barricaded into the living room to wrap the presents that we've been putting off for weeks. Dh will stay up til silly o'clock to sneak the presents in once the children are finally asleep.

I bloody love Christmas eve.

Oh, I forgot tracking santa on Norad and the mice pie, carrot and whisky left by the fireplace.

Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year, the anticipation is the best!

I am currently part of the youngest generation of my family, so I get to be a child on christmas eve. My siblings and cousins are all 15-23 but we still do the same things we did as when I was 6.

Wake up, sing the christmas eve song obnoxiously loudly all morning as we give the house a final clean.
Have lunch, soup or sandwiches - something light.
Make the gingerbread house with my sister, don't let my brother touch it as he will "wreck" it. (an old standby from our younger years where he may have knocked it over just as the masterpiece was complete)
Go to the cinema, when we were very little it used to be the panto.
Go to my grandmas house for pork and stuffing batches, quiche, carols from kings and several snowballs.
Go home and the magic elf box has appeared! Weird right?! new pjs, toothbrushes, tea bags/hot choccy and a DVD
Shower and PJ's for everyone followed by Christmas film, hot chocolate/tea/horlicks.
Put out the mince pie and whisky for FC.
Watch the tailor of Gloucester in bed with my sister.
Fall asleep in my sisters bed because we are too excited to go into our own rooms.

I am in my mid 20's what is wrong with me!?

we don't do anything special - just welcome whatever family and friends are staying and have a fairly light supper because of the feast the following day. Some of us watch Carols from Kings in the afternoon and we're usually just sorting out last bits and pieces and explaining to any visiting children that Santa will know where they are.

Christmas eve stuff happens in different orders depending on our organisation that year. I used to nip to the supermarket about 5.30am - dead quiet, but can get everything I need easily. I do all the prep for Christmas dinner so that it's just a case of popping stuff in the oven at the right time. Always have Christmas music playing in the house. We do what we've dubbed 'the Santa run' - going round and dropping little presents/ treats we've made on the doorsteps of people we know who've had a rough year for one reason or another, then ringing the bell and running and hiding. The boys love it.

Lunch is sometimes a ham, but more often nibbly things like crackers with nice cheeses that we wouldn't normally have, pork pie etc.

Then we will usually sing some Christmas carols round the piano, go and look at the Christmas lights in the city, back for more Christmassy fun at home. Make a Gingerbread house or similar. We have a Christmas eve hamper which always has new pyjamas for the kids to wear for Santa coming, some hot chocolate (I have bought Maltesers hot chocolate this year) a short game for us all to play and a film (which sometimes gets watched on Christmas eve but we usually run out of time!)

Some friends locally always have a Christmas eve open house so we try to show our faces there in amongst the madness.

Children leave out a mince pie, milk and carrot for Santa and Rudolph and sprinkle their 'Reindeer food' outside the front door then we sit and read the Christmas story together, maybe sing another carol then children go off up to bed and DH and I unwind with some TV, probably just something funny on Dave, with some non-alcoholic mulled wine and Lebkuchen, and once we're sure the children are asleep, we do the stockings. Christmas Eve is probably my favourite day. I prefer it to the big day itself, something about the anticipation in the air and all the Christmas preparations. Ooooh I'm all in the mood for Christmas now!

I am feeling a bit inferior here! How do some of you pack it all in?
I usually have a final whip round house, prepare as much as possible for xmas lunch. We do carol service at 4pm then mince pies after.
Then by the time we have had nice tea i put littlies to bed followed by mamoth present sorting and stocking filling etc.
After that i fall into bed and stagger back out again at crack of dawn to start dinner!
I sometimes think it is a shame that by the time i get to the big day i am sometimes too knackered to get the best out of it.
However i usually have a big houseful for the whole 2 weeks so it is my own fault!
Every yr i say lets have a quiet one next yr but as soon as sept dawns i am in full christmas mode. I just love it all and wouldnt change a thing!

Listen to the Nine Lessons and Carols on Radio 4 whilst baking/ doing veg prep.

Tidy up lots - mostly if we have guests

Sort out stockings once DS1 is in bed

Nibbly food rather than proper food

Visit my parents

I love this thread

How come everyome gets to take Christmas Eve off work? It's a Saturday this year, so I won't be working but usually I'm at work. We do get to shut the office early on Christmas aeve - 4.30 rather than 5.30 - but that doesn't allow time to do a lot before dinner.

I'm a SAHM, but previously I worked in retail and always worked until closing on Christmas Eve. The atmosphere in the shop was always buzzing because people were excited for the next day, even dealing with customer complaints was easier. DP works for a big company, but he always takes two weeks AL around the bank holidays because there's no point in him being there - that many people use their holidays that if you don't, it's almost seen as a waste of time being in because nothing progresses until January due to the stakeholders all being off.

Our Christmas Eve involves - me making dessert for Christmas Day, last minute bits and bobs to buy from the shops quite early on. Normally we go for a coffee/light lunch and go for a walk in the woods/park. We visit relatives, and come home for tea and watch films/Carols at Kings. After DS and DD go to bed, we sort out stockings and get the room ready for the morning. Bliss.

Pantomime.

Midnight mass (I'm atheist but always go because I loved going as a child and enjoy a good carol sing!).

Christmas film at the cinema.

THis year is different as it's Saturday - but I normally have to go to work in the morning. DCs are welcome though, so DH wanders off for a quiet coffee and meets us in the late morning. We have a last look at the Live Crib, any last minute shopping (including DD's birthday cake) and a family lunch (sandwich and coffee) before heading home.

Some years, we manage a walk either now or after the jobs get done. But not always.

We usually all work together to peel veg, make cookies for Santa (whether that's from scratch if we have time/energy, or just slice and bake from a previously frozen batch of dough that I always make sure I freeze a half batch in Nov/early Dec, just in case), clean and set the fire and any other jobs that need doing.

We usually try and have a movie together, whatever is on tv. Then a relaxed dinner, generally a buffet type meal, before our Christmas Eve evening.

We get out the Christmas candle, and the youngest lights that (per Irish tradition). We take some time to remember and talk about family members and friends who are ill or no longer with us, or that we'll miss this year because they're not home etc. We remember the year gone and the good and bad of that. We say a couple of prayers.

Then the Christmas Eve box comes out. New PJs for everyone, lush bath bombs for DD and I, naice hot choc, DD's snowman hot water bottle, her Christmas plastic plate and glass, her stocking and the family copy of Twas the Night Before Christmas. She puts out the cookies and milk for Santa and her stocking, then heads up for a festive bath and new PJs. Comes back down for hot chocolate and snuggles up in bed with her HWB to be read TTNBC and maybe another story.

The years that we are travelling "down home", we often travel on Christmas Eve straight from work, so no veg prep and jobs, but we always try to do the candle and box ourselves. But we also have visiting to do before we get to that stage, and there will be unpacking as well.

Bit of last minute preparation and cooking, especially if people will be staying. Pea and ham soup for tea, because of the ham stock. Candlelit crib service, which I usually lead. Home for wine, mellow evening, presents of new pjs/towelling robes/slippers for anyone who needs them. Last minute tweaking of stockings, which we put out in the lounge (don't fancy random bloke in red suit meandering in children's bedrooms while they are asleep). Kids are 16+, now.

Depends what we are doing. DH is always off work, the company closes on 23rd until the next working day after New Years Day.
Sometimes we have all DH's family and or our friends over for dinner (14-18 people)so it's a busy day with lots of cooking and prep then a party.
Other years we go visiting others taking presents.
Or we do something just us, last year we went for a big walk, had lunch out and went to the cinema.
We usually get an invite to family friends who have a big party so some year with go there with my parents.
Unlike, it seems the whole of MN we try and get the kids in bed as late as possible and as tired as possible. There is no quiet relaxing with DVD's and hot chocolate or leisurely bubble baths. They do get new PJ's on their advent calendar in the morning though.

I'm mainly doing food prep - Ham in coke, rocky road for Santa, baked cheesecake for Christmas Day and Boxing Day pud and marinating the Boxing Day pork in rum and drinking wine. If OH is home he takes the DC on a tour round various older aunts to deliver a plant or flowers. We track Santa and have looked for him in the sky (space station) the last couple of years. I'm not sure DS2 really believes. DS1 who is 18 and has ASD would still dearly love it to be true and won't quite let it go.

Dinner is the coke ham, egg and chips and then it's Christmas Eve telly and wine

We have some friends round or we go to theirs. Last year we did it on the 23rd as our friend is a policeman and he worked christmas eve.

I love the idea of candles in jam jars aslanding lights! I'm going to have to steal that one, I think!

All adults here.12 of us. Usually get all the prep done in the morning for Christmas day dinner including sausage rolls, trifle etc for the tea. Then we all go ice skating in the afternoon then down to village pub for Carol singing and a few drinks. Home for swanky candlelit dinner [Fillet steak and all the trimmings and posh desert]. Incorporated in the dinner is naff Christmas jumper competition with suitably naff prize [Selection box].
However, this year we are having a firework party with hotdogs and jacket potatoes. [We live in a very remote place but will make sure the fireworks are done by 6.00pm so as not to disturb anyone, particularly parents trying to settle their little ones for the big man's visit!] Will then go to the pub for aforementioned Carol singing and drinks.
Miss having little ones around as ours are all grown up now so do our best to make it as much fun as possible despite that.

We've had or been to a Christmas Eve party for the last few years but things have changed this year so we're not.

We're hosting Christmas Day this year so there will be preparation for that in the morning. We're going to church at 5 I think, then back to my sister's for hot chocolate. I'll leave cooking something in the slow cooker for tea for when we get back.

Then it's the usual, mince pie etc for Santa, bath, new pjs, story and bed for DS (7).

I'm not exactly sure what else we're doing yet, but there will be nice food and some fresh air.

We go for a walk around our village admiring the lights

if its a weekday i book the day off, its my dh birthday so we have presents in bed, a lazy morning making fairy cakes, ssusage rolls and trifle. we usually visit dh nan and take presents. my parents come ours at about 4 for a buffet tea. once the parents have gone dc have baths and get into the new pjs the elves have bought, we read twas the night before Christmas and then they go bed. we then crack open the Christmas booze and watch national lampoons Christmas vacation. santa brings the presents around 11 just as we go to bed

I love Xmas eve. I clean and prep Xmas day food in the morning. Then the kids and I meet their friends and parents for a pub lunch before going to children's mass. When we get home hopefully the Xmas eve hamper would have arrived with new pyjamas and treats. We'll probably make some biscuits and watch a Xmas movie or two.

Our evening meal will be a buffet of party food to pick at followed by a family boardgame.

Dd aged 5 will leave treats out for Santa, the older boys dont believe but secretly I think they appreciate our efforts to keep it up for dd.

After they've gone to bed we'll be doing last minute wrapping and stockings and boozing. I love sitting up till late with the fairy lights and candles and thinking about the year gone by. We're not there yet but always feel so grateful to make it to another Xmas

I love Christmas Eve. The majority of the day is taken up with a 3 hour round trip to bring ds1 home for Christmas. Before we leave ds2 gets to give our Elf a good bye cuddle (the only time he gets to touch him) and while they are getting in the car, I bring out the Xmas Eve box ready for when we get home.

Once home, dh and ds2 build their gingerbread house while I start prepping veg for Christmas Day while listening to carols from Kings. We then enjoy fish and chips with champagne, watch a Xmas film with hot chocolate in our new pyjamas before going outside to sprinkle the reindeer food down and to watch Father Christmas heading off to deliver presents (ISS). We then put out our mince pie, carrots and whisky before hanging up our stockings and ds2 goes to bed. Ds1 is usually glued to his PlayStation by this point. Dh and I finally sit down to a glass of Baileys before we play Santa and get all the gifts out ready for a 5.30 start

It never goes to plan I should add 😬