Christmas Eve hampers

[Everyonelovessparkles]

Frame my name have some nice Christmas Eve boxes on offer (still £30 but they are personalised). My DC are 3 and 5 so just starting to get interested in Christmas. Just wondered what kind of stuff people put in a Xmas eve box to see if it was worth starting. Thanks.

Christmas Eve is my favourite, we have large gift bags and it's just pj's, dressing gowns, sweets, and perhaps an age suitable mag or dvd

We started this last year. DD aged 2 last year got Christmas PJ's, sweets and a Christmas cup.
This year she'll be getting a book, Christmas PJ's, popcorn, sweets.
All stuff we'd get her anyway, just put in a box.

Pjs for all of us, a Christmas Children's book to read before bedtime, a murder mystery Christmas book for me, a family board game that we can all play before bed, hot chocolate, marshmallows, some sort of snack (sweets, christmas themed chocolate bark etc), a decoration for the tree, a dvd or similar for DH. I usually decorate special mugs for Christmas Eve too (just plain white ones and draw on them with sharpies).

We don't have boxes but all five of us have pressies left by the elves on Christmas eve. They always leave us new pj's and festive socks to wear out on Christmas eve. When the kids were younger they would also get left something like an annual or some sort of activity such as festive colouring set. Now they're getting older they're just happy to have new pj's to wear to bed and festive socks to wear to the in-laws during the day.

Mine are teenagers (though we did do CEH for years ) , last year we did the Hampers on Dec 1st (which they liked better)

CEH are great for the winding down and getting them off to bed. Christmas Eve is a lovely day but they get hyper excited so just to do the whole bath/pjs/drink adds a nice touch.

Last year:
DD had a shorts+vest set from Victoria Secret Pink (that she still wears now)
They both had PJs (Primark fleece and Primark stag print)
Dressing gowns
Kilner jar of sweets
Bath bomb
Bar of chocolate
Mug
Underwear (much to DS disgust )
Annual or Zen colouring book + nice pens (that she can use at school)

I'm going to do a Christmas Eve box for the first time this year. It will contain - Christmas pj's, marshmallow toasting kit and a giant colouring sheet for us all to colour in. Plus pens/pencils/colours. I'm stupidly excited about it

PJs
Christmas story
Hot chocolate, whippy cream and marshmallows
Puzzle to complete together

Someone said buy a really nice copy of The Night Before Christmas so that it can go in every year

I've never heard of this before, I might do this!

My son will only be 2 but I want to start a nice Christmas Eve tradition with him - I love Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day.

This sounds like a really nice idea and £30 isn't too bad for a box that will hopefully be used over and over again.

We have;

Pjs
Snowman soup (hot chocolate)
Magic reindeer food
Bath bomb

Following for inspiration!

We have:

PJs
Toothbrush
Chocolate Santa Lolly
Mini bottle of baileys each for me and DH
Magic reindeer food
Christmas story
... and whatever other sweets etc are lying about

Mine will be 3&4 so thinking of doing one this year. I have two scandi sacks that I was thinking of using instead of a box. They are small (about 40cm) rather than the large sacks for Santa.

I am putting in paw patrol books (b&m for a pound) a present each - maybe a dinosaur each. Few sweets and DVDs - maybe. Maybe the gruffalo and the snowman.

We always have -
Xmas pj's
Xmas bath bomb
Xmas DVD
The night before Christmas book
Xmas cups with hot choc sachets and mini marshmallows in
Mini bags of popcorn
Santas plate for his mince pie etc
Reindeer dust
Santas Magic key

Dds who is nearly 3 has

Pjs
New story book
Small orchard game
Hot chocolate
Reindeer food
Small choc santa
Magical key
Personalised door hanger for santa
Personalised Santa plate
Snow man nightlight

Oh brilliant idea about the reindeer food and plate for Santa. Thank You. The orchard toys are great and might get them too.

We used the orchard game as a way to wind down with dd before bed.

We'd been to the reindeer farm on Xmas eve to see santa and wave roudolph and co off on their journey

Big mistake dd was like a box of fire works when we got home 😂

We tried this but it didn't really work out, which is a shame as I liked the idea. I think for mine it was just too much on top of everything else, it didn't really add anything to the Christmas experience and they weren't that interested in wearing new pjs. I found the problem with a new Christmas DVD was that it only got watched once, so I now get one for the 1st Dec and it gets plenty of use. Likewise we get out Christmas mugs, teatowels etc on the 1st to get a full months use. We do put mince pies/carrots/drinks out for Santa and watch a Christmas DVD plus put stockings out though.

I changed mine 2 years ago and do it on the day the tree goes up instead. The tree is decorated and the kids have gone back to their rooms and suddenly a parcel appears from the elves!! You get the idea...this way they enjoy their Christmas PJs for longer and the Christmas film for longer

Pjs and film in our house aren't Xmas themed just snuggly this year we're cupcake print and movie was trolls

Xmas pjs are delivered by elf and we stream Xmas movies from around Nov

That's another thing, elves stay in the North Pole or with Santa on his sleigh, they don't visit on their own I struggle to maintain the fiction of Santa let alone elves

Christmas pjs
Christmas Lush bath bomb
Christmas book for bedtime story
Christmas plate (same one every year) to put Santa snacks on
Reindeer food to sprinkle on the path
Stockings (same ones every year) to hang up

Once - we love our elf me dh and I plan his antics in about oct

Some times he plays tricks and some times brings treats

We have an elf too. He comes on the last day of term with a North Pole breakfast then stays until Christmas Eve s a whole 5 days this year. That's about all I can cope with. Maybe he will deliver our boxes on the first day of the school holidays, so the 21st, which will probably also day we get the tree (when the garden centre knocks the price down by 75%)

Thanks for all the suggestions. I like the idea of something on either Dec 1st or when the tree goes up as I think my thing with the Christmas Eve thing is that they won't get the wear out of Xmas pjs and other stuff is a bit like they might get in a stocking - so all a bit close together, whereas at least on 1st dec/ day tree goes up / visit to Father Christmas it does spread out the excitement a bit .

@Everyonelovessparkles I'm thinking the same now for this year - perhaps get the Christmas duvets, PJs etc out the beginning of December, and just make sure everything is clean for Christmas Eve (obviously, santa doesn't visit if you are mucky!)