Christmas Eve traditions

[Zanetta]

Hi everyone, I'm a curious person, so I'd love to hear about your interesting and inspiring Christmas traditions. Share what's been a part of your Christmas traditions for years.

Family dog walk whatever the weather
Bake cookies for Santa & decorate
Bath with bath bomb from lush & get into new Christmas pjs then snuggle on sofa with a hot chocolate (baileys for mum!) and watch The Polar Express the Father Christmas before bed.
Read T’was the night before Christmas in bed together.

Christmas Eve is HAM NIGHT here, my husband cooks a big gammon, we sign the ham night song from an old cartoon film about pirates, usually some last minute jobs but we try to settle down to play a game/watch something together

Garden centre in the afternoons for a hot choc and a browse through their Christmas bits- all the fancy baubles in our local one get heavily reduced on Christmas Eve, so always choose some nice ones to put away for the following year.
Then in the evening, we have a big festive buffet tea, get cosy in new pajamas and watch a Christmas film, and track Santa on the iPad!

Nativity/crib service at local church. They are usually in the afternoon and last about half an hour, that’s an absolute must for ds and I - and he’s 16 now but still wants to go.

Morning food shop, nibbles for lunch, walk & church service for Christmas Eve, then home and a film!

We have a big cooked breakfast at my parents and exchange all the presents to put under our trees at home. I leave them in the car so kids don’t see them. Then I finish cleaning the house whilst I attempt to keep dh and both DD’s from making a mess.

Showers for all around 6 then dh takes dd1 in her pjs to pick up a Chinese whilst dd2 stays with me. After Chinese it’s getting milk and cookie out for Santa and a carrot. Dd2 in bed between 7 and 8. Dd1 can stay up until 9. Once they are all asleep I have the task of getting all gifts out of hiding and putting under the tree. I don’t even let dh help as I want him to be surprised too. He loves it. Oh and fill stockings before I go to be to hang on door handles!

We do loads in the days up to Xmas eve so eve is really a bit more relaxed. I’ll be making biscuits/cookies this weekend to decorate and we’ve got a Xmas market planned.

DS and I leave the house at 7.30am to collect orders from the butchers, deli and bakery then we stop for a coffee on the way home. We bring back pastries for everyone.

DD, SIL and DGC are due to arrive at lunchtime and we have a late lunch booked for 3pm in a local restaurant.
Home for DGC’s bath, story and to leave mice pies and a carrot out for Father Christmas.

Later we will have some party food/cheese/sweets and watch a film before bed.

When my generation of my family was born it transitioned from a "young people go out to the pub" to a family party at home, and it has stayed like that ever since.

The exact form of the party has changed over the past 35+ years, depending on whether the family has young children, who is hosting, who is organizing activities, but the gist is always the same. Family all get together, do some type of entertainment/activity, eat a buffet style dinner together somewhere in the middle, then do stockings/Santa traditions with any kids present before bed.

Its evolved a lot though, so apart from all of us being together, it is hard to pinpoint a single activity/thing that has happened each year.

Opening post is phrased a bit oddly/ AI style but I love a Christmas thread so why not?

I do most of the food prep across the course of the morning, usually have either some baking or craft activity to keep DD occupied.

Try to get out for a walk at some stage, there's a lovely big park near us that always has a nice Christmas tree so usually there, and feed the ducks too.

Christingle at the church - this year DD wants to go to the one nearer her school as they went on a school visit there and the Vicar gave it the hard sell, but we went there once and I thought it was really odd! I like the one we usually go to, so we'll see.

Usually home for a kind of buffet dinner which incorporates a glazed ham. However I've been rethinking this a bit for this year and I'm contemplating just doing a big beef stew in the slow cooker as I can whack that in in the morning and not think about it again. The buffet/ party type food was supposed to be the easy option but it never works out like that.

We used to live on a road that had a little gathering of the neighbours in the street every Christmas eve and we'd have a few drinks and the kids would play/ ring bells for Father Christmas. We've since moved but have been asked if we want to go back for it - I'm trying to decide if we can fit that in.

If at home, I'll be making myself a fair few Snowballs to enjoy.

Read The Night Before Christmas. Set out mince pies and a drink for FC, carrot for the reindeer and we also leave a bit of cheese for the 'Christmas Mouse' which DD insisted we do when she was 2 years old and we've kept up ever since.

It used to be that DD slept in our bedroom on Christmas Eve (and all over Christmas actually) as we had visitors and only a 2 bed house. Now we've moved, she can stay put but has said she wants to sleep in with us that night still - again we will see nearer the time.

We pop to my parents for a cuppa and some Christmas chocs. Then dog walk, and home for party food dinner! We get Christmas paper plates then settle down with lots of picky bits to watch Home Alone and then Die Hard 😊 Then leave out the obligatory mince pie, milk and carrot!

We have a busy couple of weeks in the lead up to Christmas with parties and days out so Christmas Eve is usually quite relaxed.
We usually take the dogs for a walk then go to my parents to prepare some of the food for Christmas dinner, my dc loves this.
In the afternoon, we usually then do an activity, bath and a film, probably Home Alone!
We might pop in to a nearby pub this year if any friends/ neighbours are there.
Then milk, treat and carrot on a plate, dc to bed.
Baileys for dh and I, then the mission to get the presents down! Stockings stuffed and off to bed.

Prep for christmas dinner then pub then grab a chinese on the way home then a christmas film and hot chocolate then put milk, carrot and mince pie out for santa and reindeers then bedtime with few christmas story books.

Other than a midnight service, none (I'm not religious, but there's something about doing something that people have done for many hundreds of years, hearing a good choir, that I enjoy).

I've almost been working either half day or full day on Christmas Eve. The only other thing that tends to happen is rushing to the supermarket to get fresh veg.

Christmas Eve morning I cook the turkey and prep the veg. Afternoon pub visit. Come home in the evening for party food and watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. 🥳

I always peeled all the veg growing up (big family)…most of my DSiblings went to the city with DF for his shopping and lunch while DM and I stayed home. Dinner was always the gammon, potatoes and carrots.

In our house, I still prep the veg but with DH. DD has always baked cookies for Santa - some years from scratch and some years just sliced and baked from a frozen roll of dough that I’d made earlier in the month (I always have some in the freezer in December). We try and get a good walk in, and often have lunch out somewhere before heading home for the prep. And dinner is “open fridge, throw a mix of nice things to nibble at the table” rather than an elaborately cooked meal.

Thank you all so much for your responses. Very inspiring, I'll definitely be adding something new to my holiday routine.😍

New pjs and game or book. We used to go to crib service and magically 'the elves' would have left them out for them when we returned. Now they are teens/tweens so no crib service and I just put them under the tree for them to find in the morning.

New tradition is a take away curry xmas eve dinner!

We go out for lunch, usually with some relatives. The past few years we've gone to a beautiful old pub which is all decorated and it's so christmassy. We've booked it again this year. Dinner is then something like a cheeseboard or party food at home. I appreciate that it keeps all the cooking and cleaning up very minimal!

Your all so lucky to be off Christmas eve. I'm only off if I book it as leave and that isn't allowed every year to have the same days

We usually watch Die Hard and eat our own body weight in chocolate. This year, we're having friends round for a buffet and games.

Baking to Carols from Kings on the radio (DM used to ice Xmas cake but I tend to make mince pies).
Muppets Christmas Carol everyone snuggled on the sofa with those fresh mince pies and gingerbread cookies.
New PJs.
i read Night before Christmas to DS, even though he will be 16!
If at my parents then DB does the afternoon baking and we go to Midnight Mass.

As a child we always went to the cinema. So that's what I do with my daughter, and then to pizza hut or pizza express.

We go for a walk around to look at the lights then home for Chinese - duck and pancakes - don’t want to eat to much before the next day and Home Alone

I make a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie, plus tiramisu in the morning. We go to Christmas Eve Mass, then home for a festive dinner I've made ahead, along with dessert (usually something like buche de Noel), followed by a family gift exchange. When the DCs were small, we had gifts from the cousin secret Santa and from grandparents and godparents to open, but it's now narrowed down to family (DCs plus significant others). I do Santa later in the evening.

Yeah i have mostly ended up working a half day.

Someone on here before said they took their kids swimming in the afternoon which i thought sounded a good idea, so might try that with my kids.