Christmas Eve Traditions Countdown To Christmas

Christmas Eve Traditions

themechams 16 years ago

What are some of your Christmas eve traditions?
Every year we spend Christmas eve with a big group of friends. We are blessed to have a group that is like extended family. All of us give a family gift to each other. Maybe a game or a book. Every family also brings one Christmas eve present for each child in their family. (It is always PJs) Early in the evening we eat. Every family brings a kettle of their favorite homemade soup. We also bring appetizers, fresh baked rolls and desserts. The families present are all large so there are lots of kids and now we have even moved on to some of us having grandkids there! It is a joyous occasion for all! After eating we do a family talent show. Years ago our family created a song to the tune of Rudolph that good naturedly teased our oldest son and one of the daughters from another family there. Now he and the girl sing it on their own every year! It has become a huge favorite! Each family sings, plays musical instruments, or puts on a skit. Then all of the kids gather and act out the Christmas story as one of the men reads from Luke. Finally the kids open their pjs and put them on. Some of the grown ups do too! We all say good night and head off to dreams of sugar plum fairies! Gosh I love Christmas! God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son!

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pleclare 16 years ago said:

Great tradition. Thanks for getting the ball rolling!

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pleclare 16 years ago said:

Christmas Eve starts at my son's house to see their tree and give an ornament to each granson. From there we go to my daghter-in-law's parents. They are Italian and do a tradtional 7 fishes dinner(some I eat,some I don't). We all go home that night. Christmas morning my husband,daughter from Ny and myself open our gits. Our son and family join us later for gifts and the day. Normally do a Beef Tenderloin roast and all the fixins. Everyone!! stays overnight. Next mornin,we usually have bagels and cream cheeses and coffeecake and coffee. After that,all go to their own homes. We have a wonderful time

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linebb956 16 years ago said:

Well Christmas Eve is a mad house.. as usual at this house! It is our annivisary and my Daughters birthday! So we usually do something at home... have friends over and just relax.. or try to with all the stuff you still have to do for Santa...! Usually a roudy game of Pictionary!

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pleclare 16 years ago said:

Sounds like fun!

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trackwidow 16 years ago said:

My husband and I are both working Christmas Eve this year, so we will be spending it with co workers. We are both off on Christmas Day this year, which is rare for us. We both work in the medical field, so we take our holidays when we can get them and accept the fact that we work most holidays. We just do our celebrating when we can.

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notyourmomma 16 years ago said:

We usually gather at Dad#2's house and have a Polish supper. (It is supposed to be meatless, but we bend the rules here). I make sauerkraut soup with sour cream, roasted beets with walnut dressing, pickled cucumbers and oinions, kielbasa, three kinds of pierogi's (cheese & potato, mushroom' those topped with sauteed onions, prune filled pierogi, topped with buttered sugared bread crumb) Grandma P's favorite cream cheese pastry filled with dates, or poppy seed filling or chopped sugared nuts. The Christmas bread which is similar to the Italian Pannetone.

After supper, we go to the midnight service at Church. After that we tumble off to bed and try to sleep in a little. When my son was alive, there was no sleeping in at all and he would be anxiously waiting for "present time" It never mattered to him what was in the box, God bless him, it mattered most how noisily and messy you could tear up the paper for him. For whatever reason, he loved ripping up paper, and it made him laugh and laugh. Since his passing, we aren't so exuberant in our celebrations. We sit by the angel tree and have coffee and eat the overnight strata or some kind of baked goodie and talk about Christmas' past.

I love making the traditional supper for my Dad#2, my mom used to do it every year and it is one way to be connected to her again by making the same meal. Of course, Dad says "It isn't quite as good as Mom's but you're getting close." Maybe one year, I'll be right on target.

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themechams 16 years ago said:

So my kids are gearing up for the christmas eve talent show. My oldest plays the guitar, the next in ling is our songbird and can really belt out a tune. We next have my younger son on trumpet and our littlest girl plays violin. Hubbt plays teh piano and I am the manager:-). This year they are practicing each day on the funniest version of Jingle bells you ever did hear. Trumpet and violin are quite a match! Can't wait to see how it comes together.

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linebb956 16 years ago said:

OMG.. film it, and put on U tube and post the link here... That would be great! That is so great... both grand sons played trumpet... now the 11 year old who want's to be like them.. has picked it up... Our 5 year old... she loves to sing.. stole the stage at a party where we had kerokee... Gettin her a machine for Christmas!

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snufflebunny15 16 years ago said:

when Dad would make big footprints with his work boots dipped in baking soda and have them tracked around the Christmas tree. The cookies would only be half eaten and he would leave a note telling us that we had been good children for the year and to keep up the grades in school. Mom would do the shopping (and hiding) and Dad would be the designated wrapper. The procrastinator that he is, he would be in the attic, wrapping packages into the wee hours on Christmas Eve. When he was done, he would stand outside my bedroom window and shake the heck out of a big strand of huge jingle bells (they were very loud) and would throw in a few rousing HO-HO-HO's to wake me up and probably a few neighbors too. I'm just sorry I'm too old for those moments anymore. He made the magic last many years longer for both my brother and me.

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themechams 16 years ago said:

Another fun tradition we have is the elves...When my kids were little the elves started coming to my house to decorate the tree. Each year, we would pick out a tree and put the lights on it. Then we would say, oh we are too tired to decorate it, let's do that in the morning. After the kids were snug in bed, the leves came. They made a huge mess of the house and took all the old broken toys and old clothes with them. They even took things like pacifiers :-) They left a note each year telling the kids they wanted to give all their old things to others who needed them. They also would leave a new ornament each year that was an elf on the tree that yep you guessedit, they decorated. It was great for us as we got to clean out all the old stuff and give it to charity with out having the kids fight us on it when they were young. Also the kids loved getting up to the tree and searching for the new elf. Now because our kids are older, they know the elves are coming when we get our tree. They all spend that day cleaning out closets and finding treasures for others. We pack them all up and give them away. I still find a new elf ornament each year, and the kids as old as they are, still want me to mess things up a little as if the leves have rummaged through the house. Fun ,fun!

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tnacndn 16 years ago said:

My hubby is like trackwidow and her hubby and usually has to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This year however he has both days off. Christmas Eve will probably just be my hubby, me and our son as our daughter will have to go to her mother-in-law's . We have a bunch of Christmas movies which we will watch after we go riding around for a while looking at all the gorgeous lights.We will have something light for dinner so we will have room for the Christmas feast the next day. Next year though our grandson will be old enough to really start getting into the whole Santa bit and I am planning on doing all sorts of stuff then. :o)

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batistasbaby 16 years ago said:

Christmas Eve at my house is always NUTS! People think I'm nuts for doing everything but I honeslty look forward to it every year. Tradition in my family involves everyone (and I mean everyone!) coming over for a huge dinner. Last year I had 145 people over and about 90 stayed for the entire dinner, the rest mostly had appitizers and drinks and left after that. This year I've had 120 RSVP so far with a yes. My mother, one of my aunts, and myself do all the cooking. (We're from an Itailan family, we're used to making huge meals) One of my brothers is a pastry chef and he does a lot of the desserts, but I still make a few myself. Basically the entire living room, hallway, and dining rooms are loaded down with buffet tables where everything is placed and people just help themselves. The main courses are served family style in the finished basement on numerous dining tables which are loaned from family members and friends for the night. Besides my immediate family, numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, coworkers, neighbors, and friends are all in attendence. At the end of the evening as the last few people remaining are immediate family members, I allow my sons to open a gift which is usually new pajamas or a new blanket for their beds or something along that nature. Even my boys get into this tradition and have since they were about 4 or so. It's interesting to watch them interact with all the people now that they're getting a little older, they're 8 now. (I have triplets) After that, usually they go to bed, and my parents leave. My brothers and I do as much cleaning as we can before we go to bed as well. Christmas Day night is usually spent with me begining my plans for the following year trying to make it better than the year before.

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themechams 16 years ago said:

How fun! I grew up in a big Italian family and my folks always did the same thing. The party would last well into the evening with folks staying til close to midnight. My dad would always give everyone the 'goodnight everyone' at just about the time the news anchors were telling us that Santa had been spotted over Boston. I think it is wonderful that you have so many who want to share Christmas in your home!

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batistasbaby 16 years ago said:

Thanks!
It's a lot of fun. My parents started the Christmas Eve thing way back when my brothers and I were very small. Christmas Eve was a big deal in both my mother's and my father's families back in Italy which is where both my parents were born. They carried the tradition here with them and I now continue it since I have the biggest house! LOL! This year we ended up with 134 people throughout the evening's festivities and roughly 100 stayed for the main dinner. I've already begun planning next year's!

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