How do you spend Christmas Eve??

i love Christmas Eve, love the build up to the next day, its my favourite day!
i spend it watching carols by candlelight wrapping all the presents, i soooo wish it was christmas this week and not next, i cant wait!

We spend it the same way as you Olive :)

pretty much the same way here too.

when i was young(er!) i used to love going out with friends on xmas eve - it was such a happy, friendly atmosphere. but those days are long gone :lol: im looking forward as well to when DS is a bit older & we can do more as a family in the evening :)

curled up on the couch watching carols, then i play santa and fill the kids sacks

Well last year I spent it cooking up a storm and getting everything ready for ****tails then at the last minute ended up at the ER with DD

This year DH has to work, then we'll drive down to mums, unpack all the presents and put them under the tree, after that I don't know.

In past years we've had people over for drinks or gone to his sisters place, nothing huge though.

Cleaning the house before the rellies decend on us on Christmas morning.

I watch the carols & hopefully wrap presents but it all depends on DD last year she was up with me.
We sometimes have the IL's here or family friends, but we don't go anywhere

I'll be working Christmas eve. And Christmas day. And Boxing day. And the day after (you're getting the drift). :cry:

when i was a kid we'd go over to who ever was hosting christmas day (so our place or my aunts) and watch the carols well try to while my dad drank and started getting shirty with ray marton :rofl:

its pritty much the same now - but we have kids in tow and my 90 year old nanna joins in with dad hanging it on who ever is on!

We go and look at the lights, then watch carols on TV and hang out together.

We always spend Christmas Eve with my Mum and brothers because Christmas day is always with DH's parents and family. But this year that will be up in the air so we will just stay home this year at this stage. Because Mum lives in town we would always drive around the Christmas lights after tea and the kids loved that.

we have no set way to spend Christmas eve - kinda depends on what we're doing for Christmas day! if it's at our place we do the last of the table set up etc so that christmas day is stress free (well, as stress free as it can be with people turning up late with food that needs to be heated etc lol). when it's not at our place, we finish off the food we need to cook for the next day (our family all put in to take pressure off the hosts), then just chill. we may have carols on, we may not.

this year we will be wrapping presents and setting up play gym for DD outside and waiting on the arrival of a special BB friend who is going to spend Christmas with us! yay!

This year, I'll be going to church with a special friend and family, then into the car for a drive to go visit another special friend & their family who I will be spending Christmas day with (alcohol involved so will be going home on Boxing Day).

I honestly can't wait for this year.

we head to church for a wonderful family service, then have some drinks ( not me this year!) and spend some time with friends.. drive home looking at christmas lights get kids to bed and play santa! I love Christmas xx

I take the kids to go and see the christmas lights, come home watch the carols, put the kids to bed, and the wrap wrap wrap :-D

We usually listen to carols, have dinner, then go for a walk to check out the Christmas lights. Once the kids are in bed, we put all the presents under the tree.

We watch the Carols by Candlelight on tv with some champagne, once the kids are in bed we get all the presents out, and I set the table up for the next day.

We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve we celebrate a traditional American Xmas with our US family. Usually Family Mass then a big Xmas dinner, then drinks, then present exchange, and bed. And then Christmas Day we celebrate again the Aussie way.

I HATE the carols!!! Hahahahahaha.

I spend it sobbing endlessly into my ****tails and wrapping pressies whilst Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra croon away in the background. I can't help crying like a baby every single Xmas eve. It's a happy/relieved/I love my family so much kind of sob - so that's my tradition.

The last few years we have taken DD to see a house near us that has a huge light display after dinner (we just walk around the corner). THey have a sausage sizzle and Santa and give out goodie bags to the kids. It's really lovely.
This year though that's thousands of kms away so not really sure. DH could also potentially be sent out bush this week, so we aren't planning anything.

I always watch carols though and let DD stay up late, and then I stay up much later to be Santa. Those are my favourite few hours of the year. I wrap pressies and set up toys, and leave out reindeer dust and chewed up carrot. Am panicking this year, because Santa is bringing a trampoline and if DH goes out bush I may have to erect it on my own.....

Usually go to my parents, for dinner, Mum has Sinatra and Bing playing. We then watch the carols on TV or go for a walk around the corner to the lights.

My DH's family is Chilean and they celebrate Xmas on Xmas Eve so we'll be at their place for food, drinks and present exchange :)

:lol: olive im just the same hun ill be wrapping all the prezzies and we will have a bbq for dinner put out our stockings watch some tv and go to bed and wait for santy:D i too am sooo excited i just love watching the kids opening the prezzies and getting all excited about santa coming aaaawwww i cant wait .

Watching the carols on the tv with the kids.. getting our cookies, milk and carrots ready for santa's arrival and just having fun with the kids at home. We put the presents out just before we go to bed.

We usually go to the inlaws for dinner and european custom is to have no meat, so it's usually seafood...nom nom nom. Then DH and I head off to mass. This year we will be taking DD to the childrens mass, I cannot wait. The priest invites all the children up onto the alter, so will be interesting to see what DD thinks of it all.

Then its home to wrap the last of the presents, and being DD's first chrissy, we will need to leave some milk and cookies out for Santa. Oh and I just realised, DH will need to put together some of DD's pressies before he heads off to bed. Ohhhh, I cannot wait for xmas morning!!!!!

This Christmas Eve we're pretending it's Christmas Day :D DH is working all weekend so we'll be doing presents etc on Christmas Eve so he doesn't miss out. It'll just be the three of us as my family meet up the week before and MIL is going to visit her sister.
We'll wait for Santa to come by on his firetruck and watch the Carols too.
I'm attempting my very first roast lunch!

This is my first year celebrating Christmas (apart from when I was a toddler!)
I will be hosting Christmas Eve dinner, serving turkey and rice and potato salad.. prawns, salmon pancakes and of course, Christmas pudding with brandy.
Thought I'd go all out.
I'm looking forward to the challenge, especially as it will be just me cooking all day with DD stuck to my arm, whilst DH is at work.

We're hiring a beach house with friends in NZ this year so not sure what it will entail yet, although I'm sure it will be festive and I'm really looking forward to spending it with kids around - our DD, and their DD who's five and DS who's 13 months - what fun!

Usually we would head off to church for the kids play, then we would head home and open all of our presents (friends thought we were weird, but Dad say's its a German thing)...we would stay up all night playing. As we got older we would go to church, then off to the pub for some festive drinks.
This is the first time in 3yrs we will be home with our family and DS1 really gets it...so we want to start our own tradition. It will be Church, then home for a kids christmas movie/nibbles/drinks.....then into Christmas pj's, leave out a cookie & beer for Santa - then off to bed. I'm super excited this year for soooo many reasons.

Watching Carols by Candlelight, eating mince pies and cooking! Usually involves drinking champers, but not this year! lol
Also making cookies for the Fat Man, and doing the first tray for santa with Charlotte this year, I am sooo excited!
Like Lu our Christmas Eve also usually involves Elvis, Bing Crosby and Frank, a bit of Dean Martin and Judy Garland and right before bed, I will read Charlotte the very special copy of The Night Before Christmas my mum bought for her that she can no longer read for us.
My sis will be over from Melbourne, and Daryl will be home from work, so really looking forward to it this year :)

My Mum is danish, so we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve - have done my whole life. We have all the traditional danish food (so, so yummy) and open presents. Christmas Day used to be a chill out day, but now that I'm married it's spent doing the rounds with DH's family.

We will be going to church then going to my mum's house where we will be staying the night with mum, nan, and 2 of my sisters and their 1 year old boys, so we can all wake up xmas morning together :) I will be watching the carols on telly, while my sisters wrap pressies (I have wrapped all of Archies already, didnt want him to catch me doing it on xmas eve!)

We have Xmas music playing.. doing very quick tidy ups in preparation for the next few days..

We also go outside with Rolled oats and glitter and sprinkle it on the grass for the reindeer. Set up Santas table with milk and cookies :)

Usually with the carols on, wrapping last minute gifts for the kids and having a drink! This year we are having my family dinner so it will be nice and drawn out over 2 days! Woooo exciting!!

This year I have Christmas Eve off. So DD and I will spend it making biscuits for Santa. And cleaning the house so Santa doesn't trip over anything ;) Christmas Eve night, we always watch Carol's and I read her a Christmas Story. She has a few but Jingle Bells is always on the read list on Christmas Eve!

2 traditions:

brisvegas: shelling prawns for Chrissie Day lunch, and making prawn sangas with fresh bread with the parents. Then Midnight Mass (or vigil) followed by late supper at a seafood restaurant. If we're not doing the vigil mass, then while we're shelling prawns we're baking the ham :)

Melbourne: baking the ham and making eggnog, with vigil or midnight mass.

We just relax, the kids stay up late and everyone just chills out.

We celebrate Christmas Eve with my family at my parents house as mum kept the Christmas Eve tradition up when coming over from Poland. I love it cause it means that on Christmas Day we can go to DH's family or see friends and not need to rush from one place to another!!

We usually spend it wrapping presents, but this year we are going to celebrate a 'European' themed Christmas Eve with our Danish friend, and her friends and family....
Then we will come home and wrap presents :D

Don't traditionally have anything for our family yet but this year i intend to make biscuits for Santa with DS and set up a table for Santa , reindeers etc. We will do carols if in can find some and I'll be putting out pressure after DS is in bed....

And go for either a walk or a drive to see Christmas lights !!!,