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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

Christmas Eve Plans

31 replies

HalloHello · 23/12/2021 09:10

What does everyone do Christmas Eve to get in the spirit? I have a 3 year old and a 3 month old 🙈 DH working until lunch time! We always have fish finger sandwiches for tea Christmas Eve as we know everyone will eat that and it's easy and quick! But other than that, no traditions!

OP posts:
greenweepingwillow · 23/12/2021 17:02

we're going out for lunch. will be me and dh and our 6 dc, including adult dc (23, 21 and 19 all home from either working abroad or at uni) and 17, 15 and 13.
Then home for Christmas eve bags (new pjs and bath bombs and books and hot choc stirrers) I finish off Christmas baking, then we will watch polar express, dc have hot choc then we have to read the night before christmas as is tradition, they put out stockings and leave milk and mince pie out for santa! And yes, they are all way too old for this!
Younger teens then drift off to bedrooms/pretend to go to bed
Older dc mybe have a drink with us. then all off to bed.
I love Christmas eve and cant wait. Grin

BiddyPop · 23/12/2021 17:12

OK, I am going to try and adapt my thoughts for a baby and toddler.

We always bake on Christmas Eve - cookies for Santa. We do more elaborate baking other times in December but on Christmas Eve it's a simple recipe that rolls and slices. And I always have a batch done earlier in December so I freeze half the batch, to slice and bake from freezer if things are not going well on the day.

That might be asking too much this late on, but you could get the ingredients out tonight and pre-weigh them so it is easier to supervise the toddler tomorrow. Also, because it works better to bake after a period in the fridge, you can do the mixing and roll into a sausage to put in the fridge as 1 slot of time, and then slice/place on baking tray/put in oven as a separate slot of time, and then the quality control testing (once cooled) with a glass of milk or similar is another slot of time spread throughout the day.

Carpet picnic to watch a favourite cartoon, seasonal movie, something on tv, with a snack and a juicebox could be fun too.

Do you have any Christmassy stories to read together?

If you have a printer, you could print some colouring pages from various websites (Santa update certainly used to have these, and places like DLTK, but I am not sure which currently have free printables but a google search should find them for you). Or organise yourself tonight when they are in bed to put a craft kit together for tomorrow - say a couple of paper plates, string and red and black crayons to make a Santa mask, or some plain paper and kid friendly scissors to make snowflakes or a string of paper angels to hang in the window....it's a "kit" because you have grabbed all the bits and pieces you want for a Christmas craft all together in 1 place, so tomorrow is about taking out 1 bag and getting toddler involved to do it, without having to pull things from 6/7 different places before you get started and toddler finds a favourite toy or wants to do something else they've seen etc.

Also, some fresh air is great. A walk in a local wooded area to see what the birds and animals are doing to get ready, how the trees look different in winter and birds are grabbing berries to eat....or along the seafront and splashing in the tiny waves (wear wellies, waterproof trousers if you have them, and bring a change of clothes in the car as well as a snack for after the exertion)...or somewhere local that is doing something special for Christmas Eve etc. Gets you all out of the house and also wears out DCs a bit more for a nap in the afternoon or an early night.

I started this at lunchtime and got called away with work, so there are probably loads of great ideas by now. Enjoy!

HalloHello · 23/12/2021 23:19

Some lovely Christmas Eve Plans all round! Thank you for some great ideas! My DH needs his booster tomorrow and a last minute booze shop then has to do a bit of work so think me and the kids will get wrapped up and go for a beach walk, home via Costa for a hot chocolate and then cosy up with some Christmas colouring and wait for Daddy to finish work, then it'll be fish finger sandwiches, watch Arthur Christmas, baths, Christmas jammies, read the night before Christmas and then poor DH has a bike to build but we will do it watching Die Hard, with Bailey's and then put out all the pressies! Then collapse with exhaustion ready for the madness of our first Christmas with 2 kids 😀

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fallhappy1 · 23/12/2021 23:42

Christmas eve is usually a hectic, jam packed day for us but this year I'm suffering with horrific morning sickness so it'll be a slow, quiet day. We'll all probably have a nice lie in, we need to take some gifts to my aunt, MIL is coming over in the afternoon for a bit, we'll probably pop in to see my DM in the evening. We might bake some cookies if I feel up to it. We will watch some xmas movies. Wear our new pyjamas, make hot chocolate and have an early night.

Luredbyapomegranate · 24/12/2021 00:02

Read the night before Christmas.

Put out mince pies, carrots and beer for F Christmas

Do a conga around the house while singing jingle bells

Then when they are in bed one of you go out and ring some bells while the other gets the 3 year to see if they can see F Christmas. Cue massive excitement.

(Don’t forget to authentically finished the beer and mince pie and bite the carrot for the morning)

Then pre-prep the veg while drinking wine and watching a Christmassy film.

thismeansnothing · 24/12/2021 00:10

Nothing overly Christmassy. It's DHs birthday so it's a day about him :) this year is a big birthday so we're having a small gathering with family in the evening.

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