What are you planning with the kids Christmas Eve?

[MsMiaWallace]

We're out for dinner Christmas Eve but looking for activities to burn the kids out.
We're thinking bowling but no good for 2 year old, soft play but other kids too old...!

We spend Christmas Eve baking and decorating cakes etc.

We are going to a local museum and for a walk through their gardens if the weather isn't grim. Pop in to see a friend on the way home and home for movies.

I took the kids bowling at Xmas eve last year and it was crazy busy and uncomfortably loud and brain rattling.

We make biscuits for fc, big walk with the dog, drive when it's dark to look at the lights and then home for dinner and home alone

Were seeing family and going to see elf at the cinema. Will drive home past the houses with Christmas lights and then bake cookies for Santa when we’re home. Could you do a trampoline park? Swimming? Ice skating?

Are the older kids the right age for a treasure hunt/scavenger hunt?

The prize can be some hot chocolate for enjoying in front of a Christmas movie before bed.

We usually get outdoors as much as we can on Christmas Eve and wear them out, but that depends entirely on the weather.

If it's dry and not freezing cold, we'll go and build sandcastles on the beach, get hot donuts and have a bit of time in the arcade. Maybe the park on the way home. DH is working so it's just me and out 2 DD's until he finishes on Christmas Eve, so the girls want to make sausage rolls at some point next week to take in to him and his friends.

I'm trying to think of something else to do to be honest, they prefer being busy but I'm already knackered 😂

Park run, then hot chocolate and bacon sandwiches as we walk home, the boys and their cousins will go swimming at lunch. Then in the afternoon and evening we've got some diamond painting sets they wanted to try.

Carol singing and pot luck buffet on the road with all the neighbours at 5. Then Christmas Eve present-everyone gets a magazine/comic related to their interests.

There are 10 of us this year so it's going to be bedlam!

Mine are 14&11, cousins are 8&5.

I have a Christmas Eve baking box so we'll make the biscuits from that, probably also do a lights walk before bed

We usually spend Christmas eve at my mum's house as we are usually home just our little family for Christmas. So, they burn themselves out quite naturally in the furore and excitement of Christmas music, cousins, charades, musical statues, making reindeer food etc.

Then we will sometimes make, sometimes just put out, a special biscuit and glass of milk for FC plus carrot for reindeer, near the tree.

Finally in the evening we make hot chocolate, read a Christmas book and go to bed with a Christmas movie on. I sit with them til they fall asleep.

This year we're actually going to my mum's so I'll be preoccupied with preparing a load of stuff for Christmas dinner at her house. It's actually quite nice because usually I do this on Christmas eve all morning, then by the time we finally get going to mums the kids are quite frantic with excitement, so it will be easier for me to do both things at once and there will be plenty of people there to entertain DC, meaning DP can give me a hand in the kitchen.

We did plan to take them out but quite honestly there is just far too much to do on Christmas eve; I sacrifice a lot of the day time of Christmas eve to make Christmas day more relaxing and enjoyable for myself these days

We will be taking them out on the 23rd though to the big Christmas display we are fortunate to live right by, then out to dinner at a restaurant. Looking forward to that!

It feels odd to not be working on Xmas eve!

hoping to have done all the food shopping by then but might be getting last min bits.

DH, DS and DD going to in laws to make mince pies so that leaves me to get the house in order, tidy/ clean etc. wrap up any last min presents. Go and pick up the bike I’ve been storing in my mums garage for DDs Xmas present and try and hide in our garden.

Then all sit down to watch a Xmas film and I do a party food type dinner every Xmas eve (mini pizzas/ chicken skewers/ pigs in blankets etc).

then my fav part of almost the whole Xmas period: bringing all the presents down to arrange under the tree. Love doing that and then seeing all MY hard work (DH barely knows what the DCs have!) seeing them all wrapped and ready for the next day

Church at 3pm (including the Nativity pageant) followed by a quick reception, then home. Finish off the food prep, then baths/pajamas/Christmas movie.

We always go swimming in the morning to burn off the worst of the energy early doors.

Maybe a trip to the park or some baking after and then everyone to the pub late afternoon where the kids can have an early tea.

My favourite day 🥰

8am DS (21) and I go and collect the turkey/meat order from the farm shop then stop at the deli/bakery/coffee shop to collect our order. We sneak a coffee together (was hot chocolate when he was younger - been doing it since he was 4) then bring home coffee and pastries for everyone else.

The elves have gone but leave a Christmas Eve hamper with pyjamas for all, fluffy socks, snow fairy bath bombs, a copy of a cherished book they are all too old for, a bottle of vintage port and sweets/popcorn for a movie later.

If it’s dry we walk into town along the shore (5k) and have a walk around the shops, late lunch with friends and their families and a glass of festive cheer. Taxi home, into new pyjamas and watch a film.

Xmas eve box, plenty of time with family then hopefully pack them off to bed early and enjoy a glass of wine with feet up.

We're going to a friends house for their annual Christmas Eve BBQ!

Then back home in the evening gor mulled wine for us, hot chocolate for the kids and slobbing out on the sofa!

We put up the tree and decorate it in the morning, bake gingerbread men in the afternoon, go to Christingle at 4pm, watch the 1960s Grinch, eat a picnic under the tree, baths and bed! Bedtime story is 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Swimming! Gets them tired and makes the day go quicker. Watch The Snowman in front of the fire.

Long walk in the woods for holly and ivy. Back home to decorate. Baking early afternoon followed by walk to church and back.

Bath and cocoa before bed.

Agree with trying to wear them out! We usually plan something outdoors, last year it was a castle with huge grounds we had a season pass for, they also had a Christmas trail on so was lovely and festive.

This year we have tickets for a Christmas trail at a country park. Will probably spend the morning there, then home for pottering around, maybe a film then snacky food for dinner.

Lazy morning drinking lots of coffee and then pampering myself in the bathroom. DDs will arrive home late morning (both working part time jobs in their university towns until the 23rd). Our tradition is to then go for a walk in some local woods and eat a very late lunch at a gorgeous pub.

Then it's home for the traditional drinking of hot chocolate and the watching of The Polar Express. I'm excitedly doing Christmas Eve boxes for the first time for our DDs, and in their boxes will be fluffy socks, Christmas mugs and sachets of Hotel Chocolate flaked chocolate to put in the Velvetiser that's wrapped under the tree and that I'm going to get them to open together.