The most magical Christmas Eve traditions you have heard off...

[3littlemincemeatpies]

I have one full Santa believer, one who I think is on the edge (all eye rolls and excitement when parcels arrive from delivery companies but doesn’t want to sleep in her room on her own on Christmas Eve ) and one who definitely knows but all 3 absolutely still love the magic that comes with Santa and the day before Christmas!!

Over the years we have done all the usual traditions on Christmas Eve, gingerbread making, pony rides singing with Santa hats singing Christmas carols, Polar Express breakfast, Christmas Eve boxes, walks in the dark to see all the lights etc etc and still do many of them but as the 1st year I’m all my children's lives where it’s just been the five of us looking for some that might be less known but very memorable for them for years to come.

I read last week about a family who take fairy lights, a big blanket, a flask of hot chocolate and “The Night Before Christmas” into their local woods and sit reading all warm and twinkly and I absolutely loved the idea so much that it made me think how many other memorable and magical traditions do people have on Christmas Eve that are just theirs.

I think the most magical things can be the most simple. I make Welsh cakes in The morning and then clean up and get sorted. Christmas Eve service in the afternoon at 4pm and then it's dark when you come out so everything is twinkly and frosty and exciting. And then home for tea, fresh PJs and twas the night before Christmas. Not before leaving a mince pie and a drink out for Father Christmas with a carrot for Rudolph. I've done the same thing my entire life and love repeating the tradition with DS now.

I do the same with my dc as my parents did with me. Church at some point, sometimes a carol service. Christmas film & book before bed. Carrot, mince pie for Santa & Rudolph.

Invariably one parent is rushing to the shops to get something that's been forgotten.

We go to the crib service after dinner, then to the same Christmas eve party every year. When we get home ds is allowed to choose one tree present to open before bed which he usually takes to bed with him.
Santa fills a stocking and brings a main present over night but he's not really so much of a massive deal.
We love it especially the party there are always lots of kids there.

I thought this thread would be all about bloody elves on shelves and Christmas Eve boxes but these are lovely things to do. My oldest DC is just turned 4 so just starting to really get Christmas and get excited about Santa etc. I love the sleigh ride idea although a bit labour intensive!

The only thing I absolutely insist on is watching The Snowman. It's when Christmas really begins for me and it always gives me goosebumps. And now I have my own children, just watching them watching it makes me well up.

We always go to the pantomime matinee on Christmas Eve at a theatre on a pier. Afterwards we walk down the beach in the dark and look at the lights along the esplanade and twinkly villages down the coast.

@DuggeesWoggle watching the Snowman is going to become our Christmas Eve tradition. My DD is 4 also, she will not entertain the idea of watching anything but peppa pig usually, but she watched the snowman for the first time last year and was mesmerised! I was welling up watching it with her too. But it doesn’t take much to set me off crying 😂 there’s alway a tear in my eye watching her open her presents on Christmas morning. I will be an emotional wreck watching her when she does her first nativity play.

Love reading all your traditions, some of them sound great, what I also think is wonderful is that our world changes so much it's lovely to have that tiny part of the year where everything stays the same.

We order Dominos and eat our body weights in chocolate while watching a Christmas film.

That's it, but it's my favourite day of the year!

DD2 constantly asks if it's time to go to bed 😂.

Used to do walk, 2 nativities, crispy duck pancakes for tea, neighbour’s house for drink, stockings up, bed!

I'm usually at work on Christmas Eve but when I get home we have dinner, put the carrot out for Rudolph and a drink and mince pie for FC. Then the DC have their baths and the elves go back to the North Pole, but leave a note and some new pjs for the DC on their beds. Then I read them The Night Before Christmas. My mum used to read it to me every Christmas Eve. Like a PP, she still used to read it when I was in my 20's!

When they're asleep DH brings the presents downstairs and I go out to midnight mass (usually 9pm where we are!). When I get in, we sit and have a drink with just the tree lights on.

Christmas Eve doesn’t start in our house until after our evening meal. This is because it is also DH’s birthday so we split the day between the celebrations. We tend to buy him a different family game each year and play that at lunchtime. Last year we did an escape room.

When dd was younger we would do the whole hot chocolate, plate for Father Christmas and ‘Twas the night before Christmas. When she was 16 though we changed to embrace the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod. (We do still leave Father Christmas a nice large glass of something though )

In Iceland they send each other loads of books and on Christmas Eve you get comfy, eat chocolate and read a new book. DH just enjoys having the sports channels all to himself but Dd and I love it. 📚

I'm a bit bah humbug about it all. There's seems to be increasing pressure to make everything "magical" and "memory making".
Polar breakfast - Christmas Eve boxes - why??

I can barely remember Christmas Eve as a child but I'm not scarred by that.

mumtobe193 I felt a lump in my throat just reading the phrase 'lights go out and we sing away in a manger' in the post about the Christingle . Everything sets me off at Christmas!!

The storytelling in the woods sounds amazing. Movie-esque. Can't imagine it being so perfect in reality though

In reality it would be cold, wet and windy. The kids would be tired and over-excited. Someone would definitely fall over in the mud, spill the hot chocolate on the blanket and need to go to the toilet within 2 minutes of being there.

Oh and knowing my luck the fairy lights wouldn't turn on

We bake in the mornings, then go for a run around the park. Home, have a 'picky' dinner (which I may turn into a tree picnic now!) Then early into pjs, watch a Xmas film and leave out snacks for Santa.

Read TNBC, then bed!

Oh & I forgot to mention that we move the stockings from the fireplace to their bedrooms. My parents did this & I remember how baffled I was that Santa could get all my presents into my room without waking me up. Once I got a bit older, the stockings stayed downstairs.

@DuggeesWoggle I’m exactly the same - I was tearing up when I wrote that post and feel a bit emotional reading how it made you feel!

Love Christmas