what to do you do on christmas eve.

[arieljasmine]

We always go to an early midnight mass service at church at 7.30 pm and then both sets of our parents and my brother and sister come round for drinks and nibbles afterwards. I will be making my traditional Christmas Eve dip, tzatziki (I know, I know, not Christmassy, and yet still traditional for me!)

ArielJasmine

 

[Booknut]

Christmas Eve for us is the 'big night', we celebrate it as the Portuguese do. We don't eat meat that day, only fish and seafood. Our dinner is usually a table full of seafood as a starter. We'll also have some 'caldo verde' soup which is made from potatoes and shredded kale (delicious!). For the main course its always dried cod (boiled) with potatoes and greens, lots of olive oil with garlic and bread and of course lots of wine, port and sweets!

The tradition is to open our gifts after 'midnight Mass' but now we tend to go to Mass around 9pm and then open our gifts when we get back. Our parents used to leave out shoes for 'Baby Jesus' to fill with our presents We have little kids in the family now so we usually start opening our gifts around 9pm that evening and just go to Mass the next day. Any excuse to open gifts early

We hide a few gifts and save them for Christmas Day and say Santa delivered them and then we celebrate Christmas day the same as here in England (with a bit of Canada thrown in i.e. pumpkin pie!)

I love Christmas!!!

 

[jns]

After the christmas photo under the tree we each open a present
then I head to WORK

]

 

[Lizzybear]

I wish we could still go to Midnight Mass but my mum's church stopped doing it =[ I know I shouldn't speak badly about the priest but he upset a lot of people by doing this and I honestly think it was for selfish reasons.

 

[wils]

I'm running the kids service in the afternoon again this year and after that the kids will have a early night (I hope) and then DH and I will open the wine and get wrapping!

 

[AlanUK]

Up until Joseph was born DW and I always used to go to the cinema on Christmas Eve - once we had grown out of getting hammered in the pub with old school friends

Now though we are going to visit some friends and then just have a quiet evening, making sure Joseph gets to bed on time so that Santa can deliver his presents :

There will be plenty of years to come when we can start to establish some new exciting family traditions and DW and I are really looking forward to this, but for now we will just keep it fairly quiet and enjoy the leisurely pace

 

[wils]

There will be plenty of years to come when we can start to establish some new exciting family traditions and DW and I are really looking forward to this, but for now we will just keep it fairly quiet and enjoy the leisurely pace

I know what you mean - it's nice establishing your own traditions. I look forward to taking the kids to the cinema on Christmas Eve in a few years time.

 

[UKDEB]

The demise of midnight mass is a real shame - I'd completely forgotten that I attended throughout my mid-teens when I was a regular church-goer - but I suspect it's happened through lack of interest. The Minister of my church also had a tiny little chapel in his parish and that's where we always held midnight mass. It was the perfect setting and lit entirely by hundreds of candles. Feeling terribly nostalgic now. :

 

[ely3857]

We had our first date at the Hard Rock Cafe in Leeds at 13.00 on Xmas eve 4 years ago and have returned at roughly the same time every Xmas eve since and this year was no exception

In the evening we used to go out with friends but as they all seem to have broken up or be having relationship problems we stayed out of their way and had a quiet night in Sky+ everything we wanted to record from the Xmas day TV guide.



Jodie

 

[Claire L]

Depends as to if DH or I are working. Some years we coudl relax at home after working the day. Last year we were off so went out for a nice meal with another couple we are great friends with, but this year we were both working until midnight!

Claire

 

[Ware Bears]

We had our first date at the Hard Rock Cafe in Leeds at 13.00 on Xmas eve 4 years ago and have returned at roughly the same time every Xmas eve since and this year was no exception

How romantic

 

[jillrobinson]

For the past 10 years we've had our Christmas meal early evening on Christmas Eve.
I started this after my eldest's 2nd Christmas, when I complained to my boss that I missed so much of him playing with his toys because I was stuck in the kitchen. He mentioned that when his 3 were little they ate Christmas Eve leaving Christmas Day free for both of them to play with kids.
I haven't looked back since, my mum in law comes around, we eat about 6.00ish with 3 or 4 courses, the kids are allowed to choose a present from under the tree, this year one of them got Singstar which proved to be bags of fun and ended up with the kids not going to bed until about midnight, at which point they both fell asleep straight away right through until 8.00 Christmas morning - perfect.
On Christmas Day we had cold turkey, microwave chips, chocolate and paper plates, which means I get a Christmas break too

 

[ely3857]

For the past 10 years we've had our Christmas meal early evening on Christmas Eve.
I started this after my eldest's 2nd Christmas, when I complained to my boss that I missed so much of him playing with his toys because I was stuck in the kitchen. He mentioned that when his 3 were little they ate Christmas Eve leaving Christmas Day free for both of them to play with kids.

Sounds like a great idea



Jodie

 

[KayleeUK]

Jill what a great idea

 

[Cyrano]

For the past 10 years we've had our Christmas meal early evening on Christmas Eve.
I started this after my eldest's 2nd Christmas, when I complained to my boss that I missed so much of him playing with his toys because I was stuck in the kitchen. He mentioned that when his 3 were little they ate Christmas Eve leaving Christmas Day free for both of them to play with kids.
I haven't looked back since, my mum in law comes around, we eat about 6.00ish with 3 or 4 courses, the kids are allowed to choose a present from under the tree, this year one of them got Singstar which proved to be bags of fun and ended up with the kids not going to bed until about midnight, at which point they both fell asleep straight away right through until 8.00 Christmas morning - perfect.
On Christmas Day we had cold turkey, microwave chips, chocolate and paper plates, which means I get a Christmas break too

Sounds like great fun