Christmas Eve Traditions

What do you for Christmas Eve?

For the past 25 years or so we have always made Prime Rib for dinner and after we eat we open one present.

When I was little our family always opened one present on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning always started early as there were 8 kids so we would watch cartoons until 6am then we would wake my Mom and Dad up. Of course my Dad would stay in bed until the coffee was done maybe longer he liked to see us squirm.

I miss those days, I still get up early on Christmas even if hubby is still asleep I will to drink a cup of coffee and enjoy the lights on the tree before the sun comes up.

According to my Great Grandfather, way back when Moby Dick was still a minnow and Jesus Christ was still a Corporal, the rules of a Lutheran Christmas ritual were set in stone. On Christmas Eve all faithful Lutherans gather at their respective churches and observe the Christmas service. Once the Christmas Eve service is over the faithful are free to return to their homes and celebrate.

After church we have an informal meal and enjoy some snacks and adult beverages while the kids sort out the presents. The only gifts under the tree on Christmas Eve are gifts that family members have given to each other. Every family member is encouraged to open the gifts they have received, make note of each gift, and commit to sending a thank you note to the gift giver it they aren't there when the gift is opened.

After everyone has opened their gifts, made the appropriate "thank yous" and consumed enough food and booze they peel off and go to bed. The little guys run out of juice first most of the time so they're easy to collect and put to bed. Us older folks resist for a while and eventually hit the sack too.

Sometime in the wee hours Santa arrives and delivers all of the things that family and friends didn't give directly to anyone. These gifts are normally the ones that go to an entire family or to a specific person who has an obvious need for that particular gift. Santa's gifts are always toys and fun stuff, no socks and underwear or other boring stuff.

A common issue/"problem" at my little brother's house on Christmas Eve is that the "elves" get a few beers in them and the "some assembly required" toys don't get put together exactly right the first couple of times around (reading the destructions is cheating). I blame the tools and the conflicting opinions between the "elves." I always throw out the instructions except for the Chinese ones; why didn't I get that thing put together correctly? Here - you read the instructions to me and I'll try again.

Mid morning I'll bust out a brunch, pancakes, waffles, eggs in any variation you want, ham, sausage, bacon, hash browns - what ever you want I probably got it. After brunch it's nap time. Early Christmas day afternoon means it's time to clean up the mess from the Christmas presents and do the dishes from brunch. Hand off the evening meal work to the Sister outlaw and spend a few moments with the boys and the mutts on the deck enjoying a fine cigar, some Cognac, and a few snacks.

The party continues between Christmas Eve and New Years day. We eat, drink, and party until the season is over and then we come back and do it all over again next year!

Wishing everyone the best this Christmas and New Years no matter what your traditions are. The holidays are what you make them, make sure you take the time to appreciate those around you, make sure they know you appreciate them, and pay it forward everywhere you can. Show appreciation for every gift you receive and reciprocate when it's appropriate.

For almost 40 yearss Christmas Eve was at Grandma's. We'd go to her place, hang for a while, open the presents she got us, and then order pizza from a take out place. Then I moved to Colorado. So for two years she got to come to my house for Christmas. We still had pizza.

To this day, I crave pizza on Christmas Eve.

Dad usually got his Christmas bonus on Christmas Eve and they would let him off from work early. He would go out, drink the bonus away until 4 in the morning, come home and beat us up for Christmas. True.

It got better when we moved from Brooklyn to northern New Jersey in the country. The bars closed by 2:00 AM so he would get home earlier, beat us up and then sober up by Christmas morning.

Growing up we always had oyster stew (made with EAST coast oysters, thank you very much) and played board games on Christmas Eve. Our stockings were delivered by Santa sometime in the wee hours and we were free to go through them when we woke up but were not to wake our parents. Once they were up we had breakfast and opened presents.

As young adults my older brother decided that since he couldn't wait his family would open gifts on Christmas Eve. All we siblings would gather at my folks' house on Christmas Day to open gifts together. Not all at once, mind you, one at a time. There are pranksters in our family and some of the openings required observation to get the full benefit.

My first son was born Christmas Eve and from then on, for our household, the 24th was his birthday celebration and Christmas was celebrated on the 25th.

Then hubby changed jobs and the days of celebrating any special occasion on it's day were over. We celebrate, just not on schedule. This year he's working both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so our celebration with our kids and grands will be on the Saturday after. We've learned that the day doesn't matter so much as the reason.

Mtn Gramma wrote: Growing up we always had oyster stew (made with EAST coast oysters, thank you very much) and played board games on Christmas Eve. Our stockings were delivered by Santa sometime in the wee hours and we were free to go through them when we woke up but were not to wake our parents. Once they were up we had breakfast and opened presents.

As young adults my older brother decided that since he couldn't wait his family would open gifts on Christmas Eve. All we siblings would gather at my folks' house on Christmas Day to open gifts together. Not all at once, mind you, one at a time. There are pranksters in our family and some of the openings required observation to get the full benefit.

My first son was born Christmas Eve and from then on, for our household, the 24th was his birthday celebration and Christmas was celebrated on the 25th.

Then hubby changed jobs and the days of celebrating any special occasion on it's day were over. We celebrate, just not on schedule. This year he's working both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so our celebration with our kids and grands will be on the Saturday after. We've learned that the day doesn't matter so much as the reason.

My birthday is on the 24th... just made things worst.

Walter hope you Christmases are much better nowadays.

ScienceChic wrote: Yowsuh Walter. I'm so sorry. Have you created some new happier traditions?

Yep... I raise a toast to his death.