Christmas Eve ideas for little ones please!

[Itsalljustapuzzle]

On my own with my two under 5’s tomorrow. I don’t want to take them out somewhere busy or expensive. Christmas is small in our house so we will prep the food together and do some Christmas Eve box activities but I would love to hear anyone else’s plans or ideas for an easy and special Christmas Eve.

(Yes I know I should have thought about it in advance but I tend to go with the flow depending on what we’ve been doing / what phase we are in / how tired we all are).

Thank you!

Depending on their age I’d try a crib or carol service. Mine were usually participating in them on Christmas Eve!

I bought a pack of ready made gingerbread dough from Aldi for £1.25, DS (3.5) had a great time rolling it out and cutting out star shapes & far less messy than trying to bake properly with him. I might let him loose with some icing to decorate them tomorrow if I can face the clean up...

Play baths
Baking
Treasure hunt around the house or garden
Walk around the local area to see decorations or go to the park
Movie and hot chocolate
Kid's yoga, cosmic kids is annoying but great for young children as it is interesting but calming.
Crafting - something simple like handprint snowmen or reindeer, cotton wool snowmen, christmas jumper designs (if you draw the outline they can colour in or stick bits on.)

We’re making mince pies for Father Christmas, decorating a gingerbread house, and probably going for a dog walk/to jump in puddles. Doing a scavenger hunt walk is usually fun too (nothing fancy, can you find a red leaf, a good stick, etc.). Then maybe watch something Christmassy - we did the Raymond Briggs Father Christmas the other day which they liked. I find low key, low expectations, and outside wherever possible is what usually works best for us!

I agree with a crib or carol service. It's a really lovely way to calm things down on Christmas eve and bring things back to the mess commercial meaning of Christmas. DS really loves it.

I would go low key and familiar, park, library or a treasure hunt - find a wreath, a christmas tree, santa hat, star.

If the weather is decent I'd try and get out and run some of the Christmas excitement off.

I'd give them a checklist each of Christmas things to spot in your neighborhood and walk/scoot round checking things off. Stop at the playground for a play. Stop at a cafe for a hot chocolate and a gingerbread man.

At home, a movie with popcorn and/or some Christmas books.

And a craft activity. Paper chains are always a winner. Or making cards and letting them loose with stickers. Also love pp idea of ready made gingerbread dough.

Local community centres may have something on.
I'm taking my son to the cinema. They are doing a polar express pyjama party (added bonus I won't be needing to get him in pjs later that night!) So it'll kill a few hours with travelling there n back.

Something outdoors - eg a walk to forage for pine cones or greenery or if there is nothing like that near you, a walk around looking at other peoples Christmas lights. Crib service in the afternoon, then dinner, bath and a Christmas movie before bed.

Try and find out when the ISS is flying over - DS used to be convinced it was Santa! Also the NORAD app to track Santa.
we always used to go for a long walk and a pub lunch before church and Santa spotting!

It's not raining tomorrow where we are, so I'm trying to get the kids on board with an outside activity (we've been cooped up a lot lately). Currently negotiating if that will be the local park (DS9's choice) or a national trust place half an hour away (my preference).

Take them swimming then watch a Julia Donaldson.

These are great ideas, thanks everyone! There are loads of things suggested here that will keep us going through the next week actually when we’re a bit fed up of the toys/house, for the times when we don’t have any plans.

We made gingerbread biscuits together today together so we can decorate them (and then eat them of
course) tomorrow 😀

I love cosmic yoga, I join in ha. All lovely ideas.

We decorate biscuits for Santa. Sing Christmas songs

You could do Christmas eve boxes and fill them with little things, treats, Christmas pjs etc

We get the kids to help with baking something easy like mince pies (ready roll pastry and jar of mincemeat) the day before and on christmas eve they pop on santa hats and give out to neighbours. Good fun and gets them outdoors!

Our normal routine from 4ish is early bath/ shower then I have snack trays laid out in front of tv and a new pjs waiting. They pop new pjs on, watch a christmas movie and eat a cosy snack dinner. I make up some porridge oats and sprinkles and we get torches and coats on top of pjs and go to garden to sprinkle the reindeer dust in garden in dark 😁 then supper, annual selfie under the tree and check the santa tracker and bed! We have been doing this for 14yrs and even my teen still wants us to do as its "what we do on Christmas Eve"
It's fun making small family traditions and there things I didn't realise are traditions for them until I've tried to alter and they ask to do. Have to find what works for your family.

We do a carol service the weekend before as I like being home and cosy from late afternoon on Christmas Eve and it's a nice wind down with just us. I used to be exhausted by that point when they were little so it was nice to have cosy, cuddle time with them in evenings and no big dinner to make - and still is nice to have that quiet time together now they're older! Enjoy x

I see you made gingerbread cookies. I used to let mine play baking with playdoh and Christmas cookie cutter shapes too, the real actual baking never took as long as I hoped but they loved the playdoh baking.

We get the kids to help with baking something easy like mince pies (ready roll pastry and jar of mincemeat) the day before and on christmas eve they pop on santa hats and give out to neighbours. Good fun and gets them outdoors!

Our normal routine from 4ish is early bath/ shower then I have snack trays laid out in front of tv and a new pjs waiting. They pop new pjs on, watch a christmas movie and eat a cosy snack dinner. I make up some porridge oats and sprinkles and we get torches and coats on top of pjs and go to garden to sprinkle the reindeer dust in garden in dark 😁 then supper, annual selfie under the tree and check the santa tracker and bed! We have been doing this for 14yrs and even my teen still wants us to do as its "what we do on Christmas Eve"
It's fun making small family traditions and there things I didn't realise are traditions for them until I've tried to alter and they ask to do. Have to find what works for your family.

We do a carol service the weekend before as I like being home and cosy from late afternoon on Christmas Eve and it's a nice wind down with just us. I used to be exhausted by that point when they were little so it was nice to have cosy, cuddle time with them in evenings and no big dinner to make - and still is nice to have that quiet time together now they're older! Enjoy x

My son is older (11) but we have always...

1. Baked (i am making sausage rolls, he wants to make fudge for Grandpa)
2. Gone for a walk to the park
3. Tidied up
4. Attended a church service
5. Watched a Christmas movie together before bed time

As its getting dark early, we usually have a walk around the neighbourhood to look at all the houses with Christmas lights.

Thank you all for your input. We found a local family Carol concert in a church, decorated our gingerbread, did some Christmas sticker and colouring books, tidied the toys up (saves a job for tonight!) and we are all set for the Santa / reindeer food bits later on. Loads of things on here I’ve written down to do later in the week too.

Merry Christmas!