Christmas Eve looks different for many families, but one thing we all have in common is to create special memories on the 24th of December. Seasons of life change, you become an adult, move out, and become your own person. Many people think about what sort of traditions they want to keep or new ones to start. In today’s post, we share some personal traditions we do and look at other traditions as we move closer and closer to Christmas Eve.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you click my link but does not change your price. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Preparing for Santa
The MAIN event! I am just going to kick off this post getting right to the man himself, preparing for Santa Claus. We have young children so preparing for Santa’s arrival is a big topic at our house and in the children’s social lives.
Of course, we always write our letters to Santa and have them ready to go by the fireplace next to the cookies and milk. Today, they even make adorable letter kits complete with stamps and envelopes to the “North Pole.” In my house, we even had a small mailbox we set out next to the fireplace to send and receive our Santa letters. A fond memory I have from my own childhood is the letter Santa would write back to me about the wonderful year we had, on North Pole letterhead (that my mom got from an office supply store). Now as an adult, I appreciate my mom taking the time to have Santa also write me a letter and making me feel special. In the internet world of today, there are many free templates you can use for letters back to children from Santa.
Cookies, cookies, cookies- who else has kids currently obsessed with having the perfect cookies for santa (and we cannot forget the reindeer carrots)? A big topic in our house is which cookie is Santa’s favorite. A mystery that the world may never know. Before heading up to go to bed, we ceremoniously place the cookies, carrots, milk, and letters by the fireplace like many children across the country. We didn’t have a fancy plate growing up for this, but now there are so many adorable options. We have one similar to this that is super affordable and I love the milk jar. There are also personalized options! I love this one made like a platter and this colorful round one! Next year after our next child will be here, I plan to make one with handprints.
No Christmas Eve is complete in our house without the infamous NORAD Santa Tracker. I remember in the early days of the internet when the Santa Tracker came out and it was a pixelated grainy clipart of Santa and his sleigh flying around the globe- and it was magical even then! Wow, times have changed (so cliche). Google even has their own Santa tracker with Santa’s village! I remember running to our huge desktop computer checking to see where Santa was located and now you can stream it to your jumbo flat screen TV, to be 4 years old again.
Traditions Outside the House
Christmas Eve is a busy, event filled day that also includes us leaving the house for some of our traditions. Growing up we always went to Christmas Eve Mass and it was a big event, something I continue to do now with my own family. Gathering together, singing Christmas carols, and seeing friends and family all dressed up and excited for the morning ahead.
After Mass, we typically would go to a family or friends house for Christmas eve dinner, and then drive past all the houses in town with the best Christmas light displays. I remember my mom always knowing exactly which houses we had to drive by. Now, with Facebook groups, we can rely on the internet to tell us which houses to drive by.
Giving Back
Earlier in the day (and sometimes on Christmas day- depends on the year) my dad would take us to the local police and fire stations to deliver food, handmade cards, and personally thank them for keeping our community safe. There are many other ways to give back this time of year. We can be so focused on Santa and our own families; but there are many organizations and ways to give back. You can find some locally, such as adopt a family program put on by many churches, and larger national programs like Toys for Tots, St. Judes, and One Simple Wish. Every year I take my daughter to the store to pick out toys for Toys for Tots and have her place it in the box while explaining the reasoning. As she gets older, I hope we are able to do more service events as a family.
Food and Baking
Food is one of the benchmark Christmas Eve happenings that everything revolves around! Do you host Christmas Eve dinner? Go to a friends or family’s house? Go out to eat? No matter what you do, you gotta eat! Growing up, either my Aunt or our very close family friend always hosted Christmas Eve dinner, something I looked forward to as a young child because there were always lots of other kids there. Nowadays, I am actively trying to convince my brother to host Christmas Eve dinner and start a new tradition. If you were invited to someone’s house, ask how you can help/what you can bring. It would also be polite to bring a hostess gift to thank them.
We always spend time together decorating dozens and dozens of cookies. I have pictures of me as a baby plopped on the table as my mom and grandmother meticulously decorated dozens of sugar cookies. This was one of those strong core memories I have and one I looked forward to doing with my own family. In my pre-children adult years, I would recruit some girlfriends to have cookie decorating parties instead of a cookie exchange. This tradition is so important to me, my husband even started his own gift tradition of buying me a cookie cutter each year that was relevant to our lives at the moment (when we moved to a new state, symbol of that state etc.). Now that I have a family and am in charge of the cookie decorating, I have purchased some supplies to make it easier. I always make sure to purchase a new set of icing squeeze bottles to make decorating easier. You will want lots of cookie cutters in a variety of shapes. I also like this multi tiered cookie rack to let the icing dry and set. Do not forget lots of cute storage tins, both for keeping and gifting to neighbors and friends! I also recommend quality food coloring that will actually be the color you intend it to be. To help contain the sprinkle mess, I suggest setting up a sprinkle station over a rimmed cookie sheet with foil. Make sure to have lots of fun sprinkles on hand, especially with little kids.
Whew, that cookie section was a long one! I guess that shows how important of a tradition it holds. Moving on to a simpler one, gingerbread houses! My daughter loves to pick out which one she wants to use each year. We always buy a kit, I do not make them from scratch- who does that?! This year she picked out a donut shop! I do have a pro tip to share- hot glue the initial structure! No one is going to eat the gingerbread house anyway, so go ahead and make your life easier by hot gluing the structure. If you don’t have a hot glue gun, this one is simple and does the job!
If you have a young child, I am going to guess they are obsessed with hot chocolate and “melting snowman” chocolate bombs. My daughter was given this adorable snowman soup set from her teacher that we are doing on Christmas Eve. Every year we also make sure to buy a melting snowman bomb, which she gets a kick out of! Now that she has friends and we do lots of get-togethers, I love this hot chocolate set you could bring to any Christmas Eve party you are going to!
Family Activities
A fun tradition my in-laws do that I think is a great idea is a white elephant exchange on Christmas Eve after dinner. Does your family do something like this? It is a great way to not feel pressured to buy something for every family member and everyone gets a gift. There are many ways you can do this, I will not get into the nitty-gritty of it, but it is a fun way to spend post dinner time on Christmas Eve!
Every year, I look forward to seeing luminaries light up sidewalks and driveways. I have since moved a few times around the country and this appears to be a regional thing to do! Do you put out luminaries on Christmas Eve? We always light ours when we get back from church. I now buy mine in bulk from Amazon, I buy these bags and these battery operated candles.
We always have a Christmas move on in the background at some point on Christmas Eve. You might want to forget you ever read this but yes, we always have on at some point National Lampoon’s Family Vacation (I know, where is my hiding my face emoji when I need it). There are so many sweet classics to watch, but no, my dad always has to watch some part of Christmas Vacation. Now that we have kids, I make sure that it is on mute or I ask him to watch it at nap time, I can’t believe I even admitted this, ha! I am sure years down the road (hopefully a long time) I will think of him and play that movie! What movie do you like to watch on Christmas Eve?
Do you have a Christmas Eve box? I know that is becoming a popular trend! We do not, but we do a lot of the elements that are usually included in the box. We always got a new pair of pajamas growing up. Not always family matching, but the kids always got fun Christmas pajamas to wear on Christmas eve. We, of course, always have to read a special book. Growing up I read the classic Twas the Night Before Christmas, like most, which I will continue to read to my children. However, in the land of preschoolers, my daughter is Grinch obsessed! We will read How the Grinch Stole Christmas and watch the movie at some point. What book do you read?
Whew, I am tired from just typing and thinking of all the fun on Christmas Eve! As I type this, Christmas is in 7 days! I am excited for our traditions to grow and evolve, and to welcome a baby in the New Year for our family. We, Ashley and Colleen, from The Gift Giving Guide wish you and your family a joyous and healthy Christmas Eve.
Merry Christmas!
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you click my link but does not change your price. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.