OT: Christmas Eve ......what does your family do?

[Misty89]

for the first time ever, my Inlaws are having Christmas on Dec 25th.
so that leaves DH, ME and DD home for Christmas eve, and i am looking for ideas to have a special " Family night"

what do you do?

here are 2 things i do know.....
will not open any gifts ( santa comes that night)
i will make a special dinner for us.

 

[Miss LD]

I love Christmas Eve.
During the day (I am off on mat leave, but always take it off of work) we usually go downtown and look at the Christmas lights and go for hot chocolate.
We go to an early Christmas Eve service at church - ours is from 5-6, and then we have a special dinner.
It's usually something like and hors d'ouevres dinner. DH wants to make fondue this year.
Then we take time putting out the cookies and milk for Santa. We listen to Christmas music, etc.
If it's nice we try to go for a walk to see the lights or a drive.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

DH grew up in a family that opened family gifts Christmas Eve and still insists that's when they should be done.

So we open gifts and watch a fun christmas movie or two. Plus instead of a nice supper - I make soup which we eat around 4pm and then make all different types of appetizers which we enjoy while opening gifts and watching the movie.

I sure hope I can get him to change the whole opening gifts Christmas Eve thing when the kids are older and Santa doesn't come but he's been doing it for over 40 years so I doubt that'll ever happen.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

Three years (since moving into our house) we held and open house for extended family and close friends with desserts and the kids would exchange presents/open with friends. Last year we blocked in 2/3 our porch so slimmed down to my DH's family with cookies and the kids opened non-"santa" gifts. CE morning we go to my parent's house for brunch and the kids open their presents from them. CD is church (if there is service...don't ask) and a family day...our community also does sports for children on CE, CD, Boxing Day (we live in the Bahamas), NED. BUT this year we will be at WDW for all of it!!!! YAHOO!!!
*We are planning to move north so next year we are hoping for a white Christmas*

 

[Steve's Girl]

We have a family pajama party. We see all the family on Christmas Day so we reserve Christmas Eve just for us. After we go to the early Christmas Eve service at church, the kids are allowed to open one present (something small), we have a special dinner, decorate Christmas cookies, do a craft (this year we will be painting ceramic Christmas ornaments. We date them and have the kids paint their name on them as well.) And we always watch the movie Polar Express while we drink hot chocolate and eat the cookies we decorated. The adults have special drinks too! My kids really look forward to this all year long. They decorate the family room ahead of time, make menus, placecards for the table, special center pieces, etc.

 

[averysmom]

We go ice skating, then home for dinner - I usually do a crockpot soup - homemade cookies, new PJs, The Night Before Christmas, and bed..

At the ice skating area we go to, they play Christmas music and lights - it's beautiful

 

[kldmom2000]

Growing up, my parents always hosted a big family buffet/get-together that was always something I looked forward to so much-even more so than Christmas Day!!! My grandfather would take us to the 5pm mass while Mom finished the last of the food preparation.... There were relatives and friends that I sometimes only saw that one night a year that would come and visit We'd get to stay up late since our guests were there and we'd leave Santa cookies and milk....

DH and I married in 1994 and then we took over the tradition when we bought our house in 2000 and our 1st DD was 3 months old. I did it for 4 yrs, but we live 45 min. from most of our family and we'd get fewer and fewers guests..... then in 2004, my 2 girls and DH had the flu-the full-blown influenza.... (that was the year of the flu shot shortage).... I had to call Christmas Eve off

Everyone found an alternate plan.... so for 2005, I had to as well.

In 2006, my older DD (in 1st grade CCD at the time) got the role of Mary in the Christmas Eve nativity pageant for the evening mass My parents came up and we all went to see her in her first acting debut Sadly, my younger DD ended up w/ the stomach bug so she was at home with DH.... my parents came back to our house and we had a mini-buffet and my mom read Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls.....

We repeated it in 2007 except DD was an angel in the pageant and younger DD was NOT sick this time

Doing it again this year.....

 

[Dallas_Lady]

I love Christmas Eve! We go to chruch with MIL then we head home where we cook a yummy appetizer dinner. We light a fire, eat desserts, have hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies all while wearing our new cozy pajamas. Then its off to bed! FIL passed away a few years ago, so MIL spends Christmas Eve at our house so she doesn't have to be alone.

 

[snoopy5386]

ooh I am soo joining in on this thread I need ideas too. We moved away from our family so it will be just our immediate family on xmas eve and starting next year xmas day too (we have decided not to travel until the 26th starting next xmas). We don't go to church, so that is out for us. And I would like to have special meals to cook each day but without any leftovers since we will be leaving for 1 week starting the next day. DD is still very young so it is hard, but in the future I see us doing volunteer work on xmas eve and the movies on xmas day. This year we are either going to go to the aquarium or zoo on xmas eve, we have memberships to both and I figure it will be pretty empty. Then perhaps a holiday movie, some kind of special dinner and of course packing for our big trip. Keep the ideas coming.

 

[LisaMommy]

We go ice skating, then home for dinner - I usually do a crockpot soup - homemade cookies, new PJs, The Night Before Christmas, and bed..

At the ice skating area we go to, they play Christmas music and lights - it's beautiful

That's our schedule too, although we usually throw a movie like A Christmas Toy or A Muppet Family Christmas in there too.

 

[bas71873]

We bake cookies, have a special dinner and I let DD open her Cmas PJs that evening and 1 gift from mommy & daddy (poor kid has to stare at all the presents under the tree all month so one won't hurt . DD did inform me yesterday that we "have" to open presents on Cmas Eve to make room for Santa. This is at 5 years old? She cracks me up. We also watch Rudolph and read Twas the Night Before Cmas before she goes to bed.

 

[lubbockfolks]

Christmas Eve Church service. Then out to see some Christmas lights. Home to put on PJs, watch a special movie, and leave cookies out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer! Have a special evening with NEW traditions for you and your family!

 

[4lilpoohs]

Our normal Christmas Eve is going to church. Then the in-laws come over and we open their gifts. After they leave we watch a Christmas movie. This year will be different because we will be in DisneyWorld!!

 

[phins_jazy]

We do a fondue for supper, slowly wash every dish in the house lol (I remember it taking an eternity to wash those dishes when I was little so of course I have to do that to my kiddos too! I'm so mean. LOL!) , go look at christmas lights, then we open presents. Santa comes the next morning.

 

[mom2disprincesses]

We have a family pajama party. We see all the family on Christmas Day so we reserve Christmas Eve just for us. After we go to the early Christmas Eve service at church, the kids are allowed to open one present (something small), we have a special dinner, decorate Christmas cookies, do a craft (this year we will be painting ceramic Christmas ornaments. We date them and have the kids paint their name on them as well.) And we always watch the movie Polar Express while we drink hot chocolate and eat the cookies we decorated. The adults have special drinks too! My kids really look forward to this all year long. They decorate the family room ahead of time, make menus, placecards for the table, special center pieces, etc.

i love this idea. my family is still young and for the first time we are on our own for christmas eve and day(we moved to a different town). although at first i was sad now i am excited and looking forward to quality time wth my DD's and DH. instead of all the driving and running around we usually do. Happy Holidays!

 

[kacaju]

we don't do too much because we host Christmas Day so I always end up running around getting ready for Christmas Day. We used to do the early Christmas Eve Mass but it was so crowded we hated it (plus my kids are the ones saying...how come Church is never this busy every other Sunday??)
So we started going to the later Mass (not midnight, but we have a service at 8) and it is great....

 

[Deffenm]

We celebrate DD's birthday after breakfast. I make a special breakfast for her and then we clean up and get dressed and throw her a party with just us. Then we have church service at 4:30, come home have dinner - which is pizza (dd's favorite food), after dinner the kids get to open their X-mas Eve presents - new pJ's and book. They take baths, put on new PJ's, we watch a christmas movie and eat cookies with hot chocolate, then I read their new book and then they are off to bed.

It is a really busy day, but we stay home on Christmas Day with just us so we can take our time and rest. Family comes on Dec. 26th.

 

[albertamommyof4]

Well when i was growing up we used to have a family get together on christmas eve, it was ewither at our house or at one of are aunts and uncles, we opened gift christmas morning
My husband's family used to go to bed at about 8 on chrismtas eve then wake up right before midnight and open all gifts and the stockings wre filled only by family members and were not from santa

Well when we got married and started having a family it was hard as we both have different views , of course i ended up in the end getting everything my way lol well almost.
THe first couple of years we had to go there on christmas night to open there gifts as they wanted to see or go on boxing day and they only live a couple of blocks away , they baught stockings and filled them themselves and said santa didn't do it , so i didn't want my kids brought up like that so we had a chat.
So what we do is chrismtas eve is just for our family and i cook lots of oudouves and we watch a movie and then the kids stay up till about 10 and then we go to bed, all gifts get opened christmas morning including stocking .

 

[andysgirl360]

It depends on the year....for a few years we lived very far from immediate family, so DH and I were on our own (pre-DD). Once we flew back to surprise everyone, that was great. Since DD was born, we've had CE at home alone, or visited my parents and gone to church, visited my aunt for dinner. Last year we moved into our first house, but didn't get to spend Christmas there at all because we were all at my parents (I live 2 hours away) and my sister and her family were visiting from overseas. It made for a very cramped house but we loved it.

This year, I am working until noon (but work from home so it feels like I have the day off). DH will be home early afternoon. We're planning to have a nice dinner (complete with "quiet Christmas music" requested by DD) and make a fire. I am also planning to surprise DD with The Polar Express, we watched it on TV last year for the first time and loved it. So we'll probably make hot chocolate and eat cookies and watch a movie. Then off to bed to wait for Santa...no presents before then. CD morning is opening Santa's presents, a nice breakfast and if we have time, watch the Disney parade. We then travel to our hometown on CD to my aunt's for our usual xmas dinner...and probably stay in town for 3 or 4 days to visit extended family and friends before heading home.

I did have certain out of town family members try to "invite" themselves over to stay for CE and CD, but DH and I put our foot down...we wanted to spend this time just our little family in our new house...plus I don't think I have too many more years left of DD believing in Santa, so I want to hold on to these memories as much as possible.

 

[princesspiglet]

We have had the same tradition for 4 years now, since we moved about 4 hours away from my family.

We sleep in (well, DH does!) while DD and I get up and start breakfast- usually pumpkin pancakes with bacon and eggs. We go ice skating at the local rink from 1-3 where they play xmas music then we come back and relax for a few hours. We head to the Hershey Sweet Lights around 5pm and drive through the lights. We then come home and I cook dinner while DD and DH finish wrapping presents for nana and papa. After dinner, we watch Rudolph and Frosty by the fireplace. DH then reads "Twas the night before Christmas", we put out the cookies and milk for Santa and head to bed.

Then DH and I get busy putting out all the presents and eating cookies (along with some wassail!).

Christmas morning after we open the presents from Santa, we drive 4 hours to my parents in Pittsburgh and stay there through the weekend.