Christmas Eve Traditions

[Joanne1991]

What's everyone's Christmas Eve traditions here's my Christmas Eve tradition.

I'm 26 and have no children so Christmas Eve for me I visit my dad with his presents (I still live at home) (my Mam and dad are divorced) then I come home have a shower pyjamas on then we settle down to watch the telly with a tub of sweets.But this year Christmas for me will be different as i will be visiting my boyfriends family on Boxing Day so I'm looking forward to that as it's my first Christmas being with Nathan but I'm stuck on what to buy him for Christmas

I'm a self employed childminder so set my own hours. I do occasionally work the morning, but never past 1. I only take 4 weeks holiday a year and even then often have one or two of the children (this year I'm still doing 2 days as a favour to a client and have a friend's kids over as DD asked for a sleepover / playdate.)

We tent to have a day at home with visitors if they want and dh prepares Christmas lunch as much as he can.

Usually a walk in the afternoon followed by hot baths, new pjs and Christmas movies, always finishing with a Christmas carol before we set out drinks and snack for santa then bed for the kids.

For the first year in 9 years in my current job I've managed to book Xmas eve off, not just Xmas eve but the whole week after it too!!
I like others struggle massively to get leave as we have a leave policy too and minimum staffing levels all year round. Last year I worked Xmas eve till 1am so Hubbie wrapped the presents etc. I'm so excited this year to make some plans with the kids!!!

I'm sorry, I have to ask. What is the deal with "Christmas pyjamas"?

I have never heard anyone in RL even mention such a thing before joining MN, where it seems that they are the law.

Are the festive pyjamas, or just new, or what? And why? Surely all you do is sleep in them and then you get up and get dressed properly anyway? (I do think sitting round in sleepwear for hours after getting up is grim though, when you could be all nicely showered and fresh)

I have a nice lunch with friends then Christmas Eve mass

We brave the massive supermarket queues at 7am for fresh seafood, get fed up still being in the queue at 7:45 so call FIL to pick some up from his friend with an oyster farm and another friend with a prawn shack.

By 9:15am we're all packed up and on the way to the inlaws (15 mins away!) where we cook all the meats ready for the next day.

At around 3pm we remember we've forgotten to buy stuff so send FIL back out with one of the kids and a list.

By 6pm we're generally completely over it all and are already on our 2nd bottle of wine while poor FIL is sent out (again) to pick up the Chinese takeaway.

Bed then happens sometime around 11pm, although that depends on if FIL has had time to put the tents up for the kids - if not there's lots of drunken 'hushed' whispering trying to put tents up in the dark while not tripping over the dogs.

Not sure what will happen this year as we're having everyone over to ours and we live 35mins from the nearest shops!!

Wayfarersonbaby - A small village (think 45 houses and two farms) on South Downs.

UsedToBeAPaxmanFan dh works for a big corporation that's been around over 100 years. Complete shut down between Christmas and new year and the week leading up to most of his team go back home to various European countries. Very old fashioned but wonderful.

I'm in secondary education.

I know we are stupidly lucky, I've been sat at a desk until 6pm on Christmas Eve in previous years so I don't take what we have now for granted.

DH is normally at work so it's usually just the DC and I (I'm a Teaching Assistant at the DCs school so I'm always off when they're off).

In the morning I lay out a treasure hunt for them with simple clues, which eventually leads to the Christmas Eve box. This contains their stockings, new pjs, a bath bomb, magic reindeer dust, a craft activity and the tub of Christmas sweets (celebrations or similar).

We then make cookies for Santa, do the craft activity and make the pizza dough for tea. After a light lunch I try to get them out in the fresh air for a run around so either go to the park or have a walk along the beach. Then we come back, open the tub of chocolates and watch a Christmas movie and I'll prep the pizzas (we each get our own individual one with our favourite topping, vaguely resembling a Christmas tree). After that we'll head to evening mass then home for pizza (DH will be home by this point), we'll then lay out the cookies and milk for Santa, put the carrot out for Rudolph and scatter the magic reindeer dust, then the DC will have their bath with bathbomb, Night Before Christmas book and another Christmassy book then bed for them. DH and I will then share a bottle of wine, watch a film and put out the presents once we know the DC are asleep.

I forgot the stockings by the fireplace!

We have our Christmas dinner on Christmas eve so that at can just reheat leftovers on the big day. It works really well as we get to spend the big day playing with the dc, not in the kitchen.

DH usually works Christmas Eve, if it's a week day. I'm a teacher so I'm always off work.
Breakfast is a treat, last year DD1 and I made cinnamon swirls. Or we might have Christmas crumpets or something. Might do crossoints this year. We have Christmas tv on with breakfast (usually CBeebies or the CBeebies panto).
During the day we bake mince pies, maybe take a walk to the playground near our house, chill out in front of the tv. We most certainly do not go anywhere near the supermarket! I made that mistake in 2015, with a baby and a toddler. Never again!!!
In the afternoon we go to church with my parents. This is when Christmas really starts for me. I often shed a tear during the service, seeing the church I've been attending since I was born lit by candles, as everyone sings Away in a Manger. Then it's back home for a trash dinner of frozen pizza and party food, eaten on the sofa in front of the tv. Bath time for the DDs and then stories and bed as usual. DH and I flop with wine and chocolates and the Christmas specials.

paxman my dad works for a global company that shuts down from 23rd to 27th, my mum worked term time, i work in a primary school

shots we got new pjs as we had to be fresh for santa my genius mum said Santa wouldn't go into messy houses so we had to have tidy rooms, then bath, new pjs and clean bedding. Also so we looked cute on the xmas morning photos. Not in old mismatched too short pjs

paxman I'm a SAHM/postgrad student now so am finished for the semester anyway by Christmas Eve (but when I was working I'd book my annual leave for Christmas and new year in around June, and I'd always happily work through July and august instead) and my DH works for a European company that is ridiculously relaxed about time off and basically shuts down from mid December to January

This will be our first Christmas not going the parents for Christmas dinner so Christmas Eve will be a bit different too. We will watch Christmas films and have a chilled out day, maybe get a last few bits of food in. Then something nice to eat and kids in bed reasonably early after putting out the mince pie and carrot. Then as soon as they are asleep we start putting their presents out. We don't wrap everything but give the kids a sofa each with their toys on. We trail celebrations chocolates from their beds down the stairs. We'll have all the veg peeled ready to go on the next day. This year we will have a 3 month old boy to add to our brood, so this probably won't all go to plan

Some of these are lovely.
Ours are/were when the children were younger. Making gingerbread houses, being given an annual, wrapping, popping out to the shops for last minute items, Carols from Kings, seeing friends, hanging stockings, Christmas films, leaving mince pie, carrot and wine out.

Christmas Eve is the main celebration day for us. In the morning we eat rice porridge with one almond hidden in it - whoever gets the almond is supposed to have a lucky year.

Then we listen to the Declaration of Christmas Peace which is an old tradition here where special peace is declared for Christmas time and warning that anyone who breaks the law during the peace will be in extra big trouble

Then a few hours of waiting, making sure the food is cooking ok, play some board games or go for a walk or whatever and then we have dinner about mid-afternoon.

After dinner we go to FIL's and Father Christmas (i.e. the neighbour or grandma's gentleman friend dressed up as Father Christmas) comes round with the presents and hands them out and we open them.

Our Christmas Eve tradition is still emerging, as DSs will only be 2 & 5 this Christmas. We tend to finish tidying the house etc in the morning, then bake some biscuits for Father Christmas. Until last year, we had always attended a puppet service at a local church, but DS1 was so over-excited he ended up screaming and laying in the ground outside church, so I think we'll give that a miss this year . We'll probably go for a walk instead. Late in the afternoon, small Christmas Eve bags arrive with the boys' pyjamas, a small Christmassy toy (last year, spiny, light-up things on sticks), a Christmassy chocolate treat and a Christmassy bath thing. We then start tracking Fagher Christmas in NORAD, while having tea, bathing the boys etc. Before they go to bed, we put out some homesmade reindeer food, biscuits and bottle of ale for Father Christmas (he apparently prefers it!), then hang stockings on the mantel piece. The boys day finishes with a marathon of Christmas stories and final look at NORAD.

DH and I usually just relax during the evening, playing Santa just before we head off to bed ourselves.

We like to go to the beach for a walk if its nice. Or ill go for a run with my friend. We take a pic of the kids in front of the fire and DH and i will have a drink and watch tv. Waiting for the kids to sleep (15/13/9 which is really difficult!)
I have the fire place photo in a montage on a wall. I have 15 of them. Only time i get them together!

We normally have a nice walk with the dog, maybe stop somewhere for a drink. In the evening when DS is in bed and the presents have been sorted, I do a little meze, and I finish icing DS birthday cake ready for Xmas day, then it's a large G&T and bed.

Oh and we have to all watch Santa clause the movie!

We don't do Christmas Eve boxes but the elves do leave a present on the end of the kids' beds at some point during Christmas Eve. The present always contains new pjs and slippers.

We bake something for Santa and, I have no idea how this tradition started, jam tarts for the reindeer to go with their carrots.

The rest of the day is usually spent making a birthday cake for my H (he's a Christmas baby) and we play Christmassy board games, do Christmassy crafts etc. We always go for a giant walk to tire the kids out.

Depending on who is coming to stay for Christmas we'll get rooms organised etc but that really varies from year to year.

I love Christmas Eve.

I love reading everyone's traditions not ready to admit that I'm so excited for Christmas even though it's only August!

For the last few years, me and DP have travelled to my mum and stepdad's house on Christmas Eve afternoon. We usually have something very un-festive for tea (normally curry). Then we go to the pub with friends, before heading back early(ish) and getting comfy in front of the TV with a Baileys.

I definitely fall into the camp that loves Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day.

Christmas
Morning we get up and the
Christmas Eve hamper is opened.
Then we clean the house too to
Bottom. Make sure everything is put away
Ready for the next day

In the afternoon we visit
My sil and exchange presents. Then back home for pizza. Then individual baths with the bath stuff from
The hamper and new Jammie's
Go on. Then we sit down as family with hot chocolate and watch the snowman. Then babysprouts goes to bed with a story
From his hamper book. The sproutstheelder an hour later. Then sprouts the eldest helps me put the wrapped presents out and then she goes to bed. Then it's wine, last presents out and bed!

We always try to go out somewhere kid orientated in the hope we will tire the kids out. I always suggest somewhere lovely like the petting farm and am outvoted by the kids and we go to soft play or the adventure playground.

When we get back a hamper will have magically appeared (nothing to do with me popping to the loo before we leave, honest). It will contain bath stuff, pjs, some sweets, a dvd and a game or activity. The kids then do the activity while the adults do boring food prep. Then we decorate the gingerbread house (which I will have forced dp to put together the night before).

Then we have a buffet tea, bath (with new bath stuff) and watch the new DVD while eating sweets. Following that put out snacks for fc, stockings on bed and go to sleep (bedtime story is the Robert Salbuda version of the night before christmas).

Then we traditionally have a last minute panic trying to construct toys and find things we have lost, while unwisely drinking booze. Sometimes this simulates in the traditional Christmas argument (the year of the trampoline was not a fun one).

We crawl into bed far too late and the children then wake at dawn.