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

We're often away for Christmas but we still always find time to watch Polar Express and of course leave stockings out along with goodies for Father Christmas and his Reindeer.

We always do an activity because the children are wired and need something to do. One year we went to the Sealife Centre in Brighton and had the place to ourselves. Apparently nobody else wants to look at fish on Christmas Eve! We have a takeaway for dinner so no preparation and minimal washing up.

I get as much as possible of the meal prep for Christmas Day done - peel the veg, make gravy, bread sauce, brandy butter etc, stuff the goose and ice the cake if I haven’t already done that - preferably with a mix of cheesy Christmas music and classical carols.

Then a very easy meal of snack type party food - from the freezer to the oven style - and once the boys go to bed, dh and I do stockings (they are 21, 23 and 25, but still need stockings), before we go to bed.

I forgot to say - when the boys were younger, we used to have a party on Christmas Eve - our friends and some of the boys’ friends - in the hopes of tiring them out before bedtime.

Then, once the party was over, and everyone had gone, we would read ‘T’was the Night before Christmas’, and some bits from the Nine Lessons and Carols, and sing a carol or two, to help them settle down before bed - so they could get to sleep quickly, and dh and I could get the stockings done, and not have too late a night ourselves.

Have a lazy morning.
Kids get little xmas eve boxes - new pjs, sweets, new book.
Walk into town after lunch.
Pantomime matinee - eating sweets from Xmas eve box!
Church to light candles and look at Xmas trees and nativity.
Dinner out at restaurant.
Walk home.
Bath, new pjs, stocking up, story and bed!

We don't have a routine. Sometimes when the children were small we'd go out to a soft play centre or similar. More often than not it is last minute preparation and calm family games at home. We both struggle when little ones are hyper!!

Sleep in and wake up at 12pm and then check out the TV guide for the Xmas movies

New pj's and hotdogs for tea with a movie. Then leave out the mince pies, carrots (6) milk and the all important Baileys.

We go out for an evening meal with friends to a dog friendly restaurant, so that the furry friends can join in the fun and festivities with us.

Sometimes travel away to relatives for christmas. When at home we usually go to a panto and then for something to eat. In the evening they can lo,ok after Mum & Dad who are taking a well deserved rest infront of the TV, only the eldest is allowed to make hot drinks at the moment but the younger ones can keep up a supply of snacks.

Depending on the day of the week I'm usually working. But every Christmas Eve I get the veg and meats prepared for the next day. Then I have a last minute vacuum round. I then order a takeaway for me and the kids (DH often goes out for an Xmas drink with his mates) and we watch a Christmas movie, then read How the Grinch Stole Christmas before shuffling the kids upstairs. DH then comes home and we both watch something together with a glass or two or three before going to bed.

We have a dark picnic in our garden grotto

Where we used to live, our church had a Christmas Eve service, so we used to go to that in the afternoon. Where we live now, our church doesn't, and I really miss it. We've not developed any new traditions yet, as some years we're at home and some we're away visiting.

I always like to watch the Snowman with my children and listen to Carols from Kings, though.

We get all cosy in our pyjamas, watch Christmas films, play Christmas songs and then leave a mince pie and drink out for santa, and a carrot and a bowl of water for the reindeer.

We do many things and they change from year to year but we have one unwavering task - the DC paint a plate between them. We then display the plates from past years on the sideboard (there will be 15 this year) and share our memories.

We stay in watch Christmas movies

Nativity, lunch out, family fun in afternoon 😃

I'm usually at work on Christmas eve, then getting last minute shopping

If my husband is working (he's emergency services) I'll usually spend the morning getting the house clean and tidy.

Then around 11am we meet with my friend and occasionally her teenagers (my kids are 9,7 & 6) and go for a long walk across the town common. This ends at the high street where we go into one of the little cafes for some lunch and hot drinks and then walk back home across the common. Occasionally we stop off at my friends.

If my husband isn't working he will head out to the suoermarkey and he'll maybe join us for the walk.

Then it's home where I prepare the veg whilst the kids chill out. Dinner is always something easy be it pizza or cereal. Whilst the kids eat dinner the elves deliver their new pjs. So it's a bath, new pjs and sometimes a Christmas movie or if we've done all this too late then it's straight off to bed.

If dh is home by now we'll drink champagne and watch a movie whilst waiting for all the kids to fall asleep and the operation Santa begins. We usually get to bed around 10pm ready for the early start Xmas day brings.

If dh worked late shift i used to stay up to wait for him, especially if he was working Xmas day as well. But these days with the kids up at the arse crack of dawn I just don't have the energy.

We set a treasure hunt around the house which keeps my DS ocuppied for the day

In the morning i normally go last minute christmas shopping if ive forgotten anything needed. Then i come back and pack anything ive bought. I tend to chill out for the rest of the afternoon/evening and start preparing vegetables for christmas dinner. We have a tradition in our house that every christmas evening we all sit down as a family and all watch a muppets christmas carol. Really gets you feeling all christmasy!

Usually at work on Christmas Eve but on the night have a chilled night, something nice to eat and maybe a Christmas drink. When the kids were little it was usually Christmas film, takeaway and new pjs on after bath time ready to put out our mince pies and carrot and milk for Santa .

we invite all the neighbours round for mulled wine and minced pies, along with carols playing, then we all set off for midnight mass. we then all come up tukc up the kids in bed, and stockign at the ready

On a bad year, last minute shopping in the day and frantic wrapping in the evening. On a good year, Christmas films in the day and feet up with a glass of wine in the evening admiring all the presents I wrapped in advance.

We like to go out for a family lunch to a restaurant followed by walk along the seafront (weather permitting) then often we'll go and see the latest family blockbuster at the cinema afterwards, especially if there's a new Star Wars film just out, before returning home for the excitement of Christmas eve after dark, and preparing for the big visit by hanging up stocking and putting out a mince pie and a few carrots