Christmas eve

[foodiemama26]

Just wondering what Christmas eve traditions people have and how they started. I love watching a Christmas film in my new pjs with some Christmassy snacks!

DownTheChimney - dd loves animals so it's an easy activity for us also that cold winter air knocks her out

If MIL is wth us for Xmas she and I normally go into town for some last minute shopping. She comes down by train and doesn't like to carry too much so does her Xmas shopping then. It's just for the three of us so not too bad. We go somewhere nice for lunch and a glass of wine. Then we go home and DH and I start cooking the ham and we always have lasagna for dinner. Usually prepped in advance.

MIL watches the soaps while I potter about and we watch a movie.

DS is 16 so grown out of the excitement stage.

In the afternoon dc watch Christmas films while we prep veg etc. Then a walk round to see Christmas decorations on houses (the kids write Christmas cards to the houses with their favourite decorations to say they liked looking at them. We choose favourites as we walk and post the cards). We pick up fish and chips on the way home, or have buffet food when we get back. Then a bath, hot chocolate and leaving out a drink and mince pie for santa. Once dc
Are asleep I sort santa presents while watching a Christmas carol and drinking baileys.

I planned last year my "traditions" I was starting, then my dog died unexpectedly that morning so I spent the day crying instead...

But I am all set for this year. Myself and the DC are going to make our own mince pies for Santa, and some biscuits for them.
We will have a Xmas eve box with pjs, DVD, and snacks and we will all watch together with no phones/iPads etc.

We will also "post" the elf on the shelf back to Santa, who will tell Santa if my DC's have behaved.

I'm soooo excited! :)

we put up the Christmas tree and go for walk up a particular hill in the dark and try and spot father Christmas (flight path to Gatwick is very visible)

Theatre in the afternoon for the matinee performance.

Then a walk in town looking at lights, pop into church and see the xmas trees, nativity, light some candles and remember people special to us- it's been a shit year in that respect.

Pub/ restaurant for 🍷 and early dinner.

Home, bath (need to be clean for father xmas!), pjs, hot choc and film/ festive tv.

Mince pie etc for Santa and up to bed for xmas story (always the night before xmas!).

Mummy and daddy open the fizzy wine!

Does no one watch the soaps!? It’s all I look forward to at Christmas

Cooking ham
Cooking and eating mince pies and sausage rolls
NORAD Santa tracker
Light jam jar tea light runway on drive for sleigh landing
Local village pub
NORAD before bed
Mince pie carrot out for Santa & Rudolph
Stay up til stupid o’clock waiting for DC to fall asleep

Ooh I forgot the books!

22nd we read Olivia’s Christmas
23rd we read Scarrys The Night Before the Night Before Christmas
24th we read The Night Before Christmas

We go indoor sledging and have done for a while to guarantee a white Christmas of sorts. Then we go for a late lunch (Nando's this year) and we will finish up in our local big Mall where we have a hot chocolate and smugly laugh at the last minute shoppers. When we get home we find a pile of presents that fell off the sleigh on its practice run ( pjs and a cheesy annual) and then we watch a movie and the kids go to bed. We always plan to watch something on our own afterwards with a glass of prosecco but usually end up doing last minute wrapping or some other crisis!

We are in Germany. Visit to a Christmas market - ice skating on the town main square. Drive home looking at lights.

Cheese fondu for dinner and delias chocolate bread and butter pudding. Lots of bread!

Then a movie and hot chocolate followed by leaving Father Christmas and Rudolph jos snacks.

Then I wait by the fire waiting for the kids to sleep so I can do stockings and presents under the tree.

They are teens now but we still have the same routine.

Most Germans celebrate on Christmas Eve so the streets are deserted and there is no going to the pub with your mates culture for Teens. So Christmas Eve is family time.

I cook the Gammon and go to Mass to sing in the choir. I go Christmas Day too. It is two different churches amalgamated so I see different people ( same choir) and it always seems quite magical Christmas Eve. The children with their shiny little faces all excited and the exhausted looking parents, the elderly. Oooh just realised I suppose I've joined that crew this year
Home for a drink in the local with other friends and villagers or our house. Last minute wrapping perhaps with DD but hoping to have that done this year as break up earlier.

What a lovely thread.
Sorry about last year Lexie how sad for you.
This year sounds lovely to start new traditions. I hope you enjoy it.
Ah the sledging, Queen! My friend and I used to take all the boys (6)to a nearby spot if it had snowed ( likely) and finished up in the local cafe for hot chocolate and mince pies. Ahh! They are all grown up now. Thank you for reminding me oh that fun!

We go to the panto or a show every xmas eve in the afternoon, then go home, have dinner, bath the kids, the elves knock when they know they are in the bath and leave new pj's, a book and dvd, so after the bath we watch the Christmas DVD and they put on their new pj's before bed.

@showofhands I second your first paragraph (that’s a somewhat awkward way of saying it but you get my drift!) it seems on every thread on the Christmas board someone says “oh is this expected now?” Everyone has their own traditions and ways of marking the season, and these boards are where everyone shares them. Some people might read this and think I’m going to take bird feeders to the park too and that would be a nice outcome, but all the people who don’t can enjoy doing something else.

If my dh is off work we might go out somewhere nice for lunch in the city so we can start on the Christmas snacks later on, but otherwise I stick a stew in the slow cooker and we always go for a good long walk in the woods and come back as it’s getting dark and watch the lights all come on. Then I make mince pies with the children so we have one to leave out for FC and they watch a Christmas film while they’re baking and start tracking on Norad. Then after dinner and pie they go up and have their bath with Matey and sometimes new pyjamas (definitely this year as they are needed) and novelty toothbrushes, and I give them their stockings, then they come back down to do the mince pie, beer and carrot ritual. Then it’s The Night Before Christmas and very excited to bed after hanging stockings on the door. I love it all SO much!

We always have a Christmas eve pj cocktail party at my friend's house, which started out years ago as a way to tire the DC while the DH's did santa runs (used to store presents across several houses). Everyone gets into their Christmas pjs and we have buffet food, card games and watch films from around 4pm onwards. We track Santa on Norad and go home once he's close by, usually around 9:30-10pm.

Now that the DC are older all their friends come over and have a few drinks before disappearing to the local pub 2 mins down the road around the same time we leave (DD is 10, so have to wrangle her home lol ). The staff were a bit surprised the first year but now mark them as they come through the door based on how festive the pjs are

My parents, MIL & her partner come for a buffet tea and swap presents early evening. Then DS gets his new pjs on and we watch Arthur Christmas. No getting things ready for Father Christmas this year though - unless he wants to do it 'ironically' 😏

So MY chritsmas Eve traditionally goes something like;

Spend Day with DS, probably a visit to the cinema. home and we have a christmassy themed tea and then we open the Christmas Eve Box. Said box contains a new DVD, and PJs for both DS and me and usually a bag of sweets for during our film and marshmallows for the hot chocolates.

Before bed DS puts out a G&T and Cheese and biscuits for Father Christmas and an Apple for the reindeer (managed to convince DS at an early age that they'd be bored of the milk, mince pies and carrots ) we read The night before Christmas and then DS hangs his stocking at the end of his bed.

After DS is in bed I polish off the cheese and apple while wrapping presents. A few gins later at around midnight I will run out of sellotape and having popped next door to get neighbour to watch DS I dash across the village in my PJs to my sisters to borrow some more tape. I may or may not stick around for another G&T with her and some cheese footballs while DB-in-law tuts at us about disgusting processed cheese flavour that has never seen cheese

On my return to the house I pay off next door neighbour with a G&T and some homebaked goods, then finish wrapping gifts. Towards the end at around 1am I will realise that I've forgotten to put gift tags on things and will have to go through the pile doing so, before realising that I cannot tell the difference between the now wrapped books/dvds/other uniformly shaped gifts intending for different recipients. As it is now 2am I take a guess and head upstairs.

Just after I get into bed I will remember the bloody stocking. I will spend the next 10 minutes doing a stealth ninja dance into DS's room to fetch his stocking, the following 5 minutes filling it with his stocking gifts, and then another 15 minutes trying to sneak the damn thing back into his room without waking him.

I traditionally fall into bed at around 2:30am whilst promising I will be more organised next year.

Also the tradition of new pj's, a movie and a book gift. Makes it feel just a bit more snuggly and special!

Reading 'T'was the Night Before Christmas' to DS1 and DS2 at some point before midnight. They are now 19 and 17 but know that they absolutely have to take part (and shout the last line) or I will sulk

Soupforbrains - sounds exhausting but funny! A good tip I read on here years ago is to have two stockings the same. He hangs one up and you have the other one ready to fill and then you just need to swap it over rather than try fill it in his room.

@CiderwithBuda i do enjoy it really although it is quite exhausting.

Sadly whilst the duplicate stokcing switch is a genuinely brilliant idea, when DS was small I had the less brilliant idea of making him a homemade and special stocking with his name stitched on in tartan and sequins. Why I decided this was a good idea when i can't sew (got kicked out of home-ec at school because i was "unteachable" ) I've not idea, but although it turned out nicely and DS adores it, there is no way i could face doing all that AGAIN hahaha

Just DP and I, but we do our thing in the day, whether at work or pottering & jobs.

Then in the evening we have Port, Cheese & watch Die Hard 1 & 2 the greatest Christmas stories ever told and exchange cards, (they are the same ones we save each year in the decs box & just get out, it's a bit of a piss take TBH)

Last year we had a late lunch out of a butty van in B&Q car park and had such a laugh DP has suggested we do this again.

I think that the best traditions are ones which happen almost by accident and are not forced.

We do a drop in drinks party on Christmas Eve afternoon for friends, neighbours and family. Few nibbles and mince pies, a vat of mulled wine, beer and prosecco. Lots of people pop in for an hour or so over the course of the afternoon, really relaxed and a good way of seeing extended family to sneakily exchange presents when the kids aren’t looking. PIL and my parents normally arrive during the party and then stay until Boxing Day so a nice arrival for them too.

We tend to chuck everyone else out around 6ish, then it’s Christmas pj’s, some festive TV and kids to bed. Then grown ups have hot turkey and stuffing sandwiches for supper (a Christmas tradition from my family, who always cooked the turkey on Christmas Eve night hence the hot sandwiches - I don’t cook my turkey until Christmas Day but my DM brings a small turkey crown for Christmas Eve sandwiches!)

We bake biscuits and sausage rolls and then give biscuits to our neighbours and go for a walk with hot sausage rolls and a Thermos flask to find the magic of Christmas. When we come home, there will be a bag left by the elf with the stockings, blank thank you cards, a little letter, pyjamas and bath bombs. We listen to carols, prepare the food for the following day and watch festive TV. We have bread and soup and write a letter to Father Christmas and set out the mince pies, carrots etc. The children have baths and go to bed with a story and the adults set out the presents and watch a film, or sometimes take it in turns to meet friends in the pub. I head out to midnight mass and fill the stockings when I get in.

The eldest DC is 11, so we will probably need to start changing things a little bit. We've already dropped the crib service.