For many families…Christmas Eve is a time for them to spend together and to enjoy one another’s company. My family is like many of the families across the nation who get together on Christmas Eve to enjoy a nice sit-down dinner together.
After we are done with dinner we give the kids a small gift that they can open and enjoy before Santa Claus makes his visit later that night.
We also enjoy playing a game or two together and then my husband will read “The Night Before Christmas” book to all of the kids. Once that has been completed…my grand daughter gets Santa his plate of cookies ready and his glass of milk. They head home and hopefully are into bed shortly thereafter.
Once all of the hoopla is done for the evening my husband and I love to sit down and watch a Christmas theme’d movie together. He has quite the collection of movies and he always surprises me which one it will be. We snack on appetizers and enjoy a glass of wine before heading to bed.
That has been our Christmas Eve routine for the past 30 years! For the first 24 years it was our daughter who was the focus of attention and then for the past 6 years…our grand daughter. This year though…we’ve added a little grandson too! We are so very blessed!!!
Do you and your family have any Christmas eve traditions? If not…what about a routine? Do you do the same thing over and over, year after year or do you try to incorporate something new? I would love to hear about it!
Around here, the Christmas Eve tradition is trying to wrap last minute gifts & finish up any cooking that can be done the night before Christmas! My niece & nephews come over early Christmas morning, so getting anything done that can be done is a good idea, lol.
This sounds much like the tradition we had with our kids growing up. We would have our kids take naps in the afternoon and then the elves would bring one present that they could open after dinner. Even when our kids were older they would go into their rooms and have an “nap” so the elves could come.
When my daughter was young, Christmas Eve was always such a special time for the 3 of us. I’d be in charge of music, my husband was in charge of food, and my daughter was in charge of the teeny tree that was in our very small apartment. I have such glowing memories of those gone days! Alas, we are now divorced, and my daughter lives 1,000 miles away, and I have never met my 3 grandchildren. And so many loved ones have passed. Now Christmas Eve is spent remembering “the old days.”
We try to spend Christmas Eve with family and either for to church late or first thing in the morning. WE stay up til midnight often watching a Christmas movie or listening to music together. Sometimes we exchange a small gift then and the rest on Christmas Day.
Christmas Eve here is spent with the grandparents and extended family! We have dinner and open presents. The kids play and the adults talk.
Our whole family gets together Christmas Eve and it’s a big group of all ages. Everybody brings a coordinated dish for a fantastic buffet dinner. Everyone talks and laughs, we Skype anyone who couldn’t make it, the children sing Christmas songs for us and everybody open presents. On Christmas day everyone who wants to, gets together for lunch and a movie, which is usually a big group too.
We arent doing it this year, but usually on Christmas Eve we take a drive and look at all the lights. It snowed a LOT today and it isnt quite all plowed, so we will do it tomorrow night maybe. Usually we take snacks and sing carols badly. Then head home for a quiet evening.
I love traditions and since having our daughter just two years ago it’s been fun to decide what we want to keep and which new traditions we want to incorporate. Our family all lives far away, and we couldn’t get home this year. MToday we went for tea at a fancy hotel nearby with some close friends and neighbors- we all had so much fun- and we can’t wait to do it again and again. I’m prepping dinner now and our daughter will head to bed soon and then we have a few gifts to “assemble” and display. I can’t wait for her to walk down the stairs and see what Santa brought for the first time tomorrow morning. I am so grateful today.
A family tradition that we have is to have a nice dinner together. We also open one present and love to watch a holiday movie. We also love to either attend or listen to the local Christmas Christian program on the radio on Christmas Eve. Have a wonderful Christmas and God Bless.