What you do on Christmas Eve? Share with McDonald’s - £300 voucher to be won

[EllieMumsnet]

Whether Christmas Eve in your household is the calm before the storm or the storm before the calm, it can be a great day to just spend some quality time with family and/or friends. Christmas Eve is celebrated in a whole host of different ways, with traditions varying from going for a long walk, to having chinese takeaway for dinner, to even guessing what the presents around the tree are. With that being said McDonalds would love to hear what you and your household gets up to on Christmas Eve.

Here’s what McDonald's has to say: "“We know it’s a hectic time of year for families, so if it’s a quick coffee when you’re out shopping or popping in on Christmas Eve for some free Reindeer Treat carrots, we are here to help you get #ReindeerReady on your way to Christmas 2018!”

Is Christmas Eve a time where you stay in your Xmas pj’s all day and watch films? Perhaps you like to go to you the pub with friends and family? What about going for a winter walk around your local park? Are you still prepping the presents and dinner for Christmas day? Do you and your family host an annual Christmas Eve party? Or maybe you have a traditional Christmas Eve breakfast, lunch and dinner that you look forward to all year round?

Whatever you and your family gets up to on Christmas Eve share it on the thread below and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Venison burger.

We tend to do a ‘Christmas day’ with the in-laws on Christmas Eve. It spreads the present giving out, we eat Christmas dinner and means we don’t have to rush on Christmas Day.

We read the night before Christmas.
As a family we all take turns to read a page each

We have carol singers that come around the village too

It's lovely x

Just a chilled day I hope - DH will be working a;l day and when he finally gets home, we can relax with a drink and feel Xmas is finally here. With the kids, probably just watch Xmas movies, hot chocolate, listen to Christmas music, get the carrots and mince pie ready for Santa and his reindeer.

Christmas Eve is normally spent frantically wrapping presents, buying last minute fresh ingredients for the big day and once kids are in bed a takeaway & bottle of bubbly!

We go to both sets of grandparents, whilst I sneak home and get the presents down from the loft. We drive home - pop in the McDonalds drive through and get happy meals and fillet-o-fish for me and the OH, then get the Disney Channel on before we go to bed.

On Christmas Eve, we make a gingerbread house and watch The Snowman. I ice the Christmas cake and we get dressed up and have family over for dinner, starting with festive cocktails. Dessert is the gingerbread house with ice cream or the Christmas cake. We sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn and put out a mince pie, carrot and glass of whiskey for Father Christmas. I like it better than Christmas Day!

Oh, we read The Night Before Christmas too! We have a beautiful version where you shine a torch through the pages to project the illustrations onto the wall.

Work mostly! We live local to family so don't have to travel home and I'd rather have the time off afterwards!

I’m usually working but as soon I’m finished we go for a drink with the in laws either at our local or to their house. They always give us one small present each to open then.

When we’re home I lay the table ready for the next day, have a hot chocolate with baileys in, then read the DC’s Christmas books. They’re 17 & 13 but still love this tradition!

Everyone goes to bed early except me, I love to sort out the presents in to piles and sit back with just the Christmas lights on have one more hot chocolate. That’s my favourite part of Christmas.

After tea and a shower we (Myself, DH and 2 boys) settle down in our PJ's and watch The Polar Express, hot chocolates all round at exactly the same point the children in the film have theirs. After the film the boys go to bed and we read The night before Christmas. We've been doing this for several years now, I know as the boys grow it probably won't happen for that many more, such a shame they grow up.

We always go to the local theatre on Christmas Eve. We have a small independent theatre in our town that always puts on a quirky Christmas play. We also will go to a café whilst we are in town either before or after for hot chocolate.

Then it's home for a film, pjs and a takeaway tea!

We go to a grotto in the morning see the real reindeer and Santa. Then we usually go for bacon rolls by the beach for lunch. Then home for an afternoon of films and chocolate before church about 5
Evening is spent trying to get two very excited children to sleep ! Very tricky !!!

We go out for the morning and lunch to an open air attraction with MIL and 2DNs. This year that includes ice skating and Father Christmas :-) We usually treat the children to lunch out. Then Church in the afternoon.

In the evening we put on new PJs and snuggle up with an Christmas film. Before bed we light the Advent wreath and read the Bible.

Christmas eve is my favourite day over the festive season.

Expectation and excitement is high, Christmas is just around the corner.
It is a magical time, but for those organising and cooking it can be very hard work!
I love Christmas eve, for my family it is about preparation and making the home tidy and organised, so cooking is not on the agenda!
So McDonalds is a perfect solution, a late breakfast, OH can take out the kids for lunch and give me time to do last minute wrapping.

Or sometimes we all go- McDonalds' christmas coffee never disappoints- and I saw a poster for Millionaires Latte today! MMMM.

And the bonus is we come home to a clean kitchen.
Perfect.

We normally take the dcs to soft play, so that they can burn off some energy. In the evening, we get fish and chips, kids have a bath, then we all get into new pjs for a Christmas film.

We go to a restaurant for lunch with my parents, siblings, Nan and kids. My mum always does Christmas Day so says she deserves a treat the day before (& we're not complaining!)

I love Christmas Eve! So much anticipation and excitement.
We do the last bits of tidying and sorting for the big day, then we wait for Daddy to get home from work :). We always go to Christmas Eve mass - it brings home the true meaning of Christmas to us. It is lovely to see friends and family at church and wish them a merry Christmas.
When we get home it is straight into PJS, a quick tea and hot chocolates before bed :)

Just chill really if we aren't hosting on a Christmas Day , then we do lots of prep
Dd is 20 and at uni and works when she is home for the hols so she generally works the afternoon shift at a local pub
Ds is 15 and goes with the flow
In the evening we have a few drinks and supper
Funnily enough although the children are older we still do the carrot and mince pie etc🤣
What they would love though is for us to be able to have a MacDonald's breakfast delivered but due to being in a Norfolk village that's not possible!( not like Dd who's uni house often does when they are hungover🤦‍♀️)

We just try and keep the kids calm! Always plan nice things and then end up outside in PJs putting out the reindeer dust etc at last minute while kids are on verge of hysteria. Maybe this year will be different...

It's different every year depending on whether family are up or not but generally we like to have a relaxing day, Xmas jammies on, buffet tea or a Chinese and watch telly 😊👍🏼

If it falls on my work days then I'm at work until late afternoon. My DDs are still small so no traditions yet but I am read reading these to get ideas! Probably a light tea and baths involved!

Christmas eve is my absolute favorite day of the year!! This will be our fourth year going to the local softplays Christmas eve pyjama party. Our morning is normally spent with myself giving the house a quick once over then I bath the kids and put them in fresh Christmas pyjamas. We get to softplay and they have games, something to eat and meet father Christmas. We get home around 4.30/5pm and we either have pizza, Chinese or McDonald's for tea! Then we read "the night before christmas' before bed at 7pm with the kids and they watch a Christmas movie in bed

I am usually working until around 3 or 4pm on Xmas Eve so the daytime is a normal day for the DC.

After work the dc, ex-p and I go out for tea in town, then wander round to look at the lights, there's usually a small funfair and sometimes an ice rink.

Head home around 7.30, kids open their Xmas Eve present which is always new PJs (how they're not bored with this I don't know!), 6 yr old goes to bed around 9.30/10 but the big two are up until all hours!

We have done this for about 10 years so it's a very set tradition for us. Our aim was to tire the kids out and not just be hanging around at home waiting for bedtime.

Ex-p goes home at around 10pm then comes back in the morning around 8am. This works for now, we've been separated three years, but I'm sure it will evolve organically as we meet new partners, youngest grows up etc.

We go to my mum’s house mid afternoon, help to get bits and bobs ready for the next day and just enjoy each other’s company.
In the evening we eat and then watch something together before DD puts new pjs on and goes to bed.

Then it’s a case of frantically finishing off wrapping presents, arranging them under the tree and keeping the dogs away.

This year will be more hectic as my DP and his 3 children will be there too.

I can’t wait!