Christmas Eve Tradition

Cherokeekid88

Cherokeekid88

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Location
High Point, NC
My daughter is 4 and this going to be her first Christmas where she is sort of fully aware of what's going on and I feel like that this is the year to start a new tradition or at least attempt to. We used to go over to my Grandmas house for Christmas eve every year, but we haven't done that in a couple of years now due to her being in assisted living. My family usually gets together during the day on Christmas Eve, but am looking to do something away from the house that will be memorable for us. Thought about going to Tanglewood, but I know its going to be packed. I just want to do something that takes a couple of hours that would be fun, instead of just sitting at the house waiting for her bed time.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
My daughter is 4 and this going to be her first Christmas where she is sort of fully aware of what's going on and I feel like that this is the year to start a new tradition or at least attempt to. We used to go over to my Grandmas house for Christmas eve every year, but we haven't done that in a couple of years now due to her being in assisted living. My family usually gets together during the day on Christmas Eve, but am looking to do something away from the house that will be memorable for us. Thought about going to Tanglewood, but I know its going to be packed. I just want to do something that takes a couple of hours that would be fun, instead of just sitting at the house waiting for her bed time.
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Ride around looking at Christmas lights.

Go to a Christmas Eve church service.
 
LBarr2002 said:
Ride around looking at Christmas lights.

Go to a Christmas Eve church service.
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We are going to a Christmas service tomorrow night and I was thinking about us riding around looking at lights as well. Might be what we do. Bring some snacks/hot chocolate/coffee with us and just make a night of it.
 
Moravian love feast service was always a highlight of OUR kids memories.

We're not Moravian, but they LOVED the coffee and the cookie. We use to always go to Union Cross Moravian Church on Christmas eve. It seems they only had the thanksgiving one this year though.

Then we'd come home and allow the kids to open ONE GIFT on Christmas eve. We'd usually pick the gift so we didn't spoil any surprises. And then read the Christmas story (Luke 1:26-38)
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
My daughter is 4 and this going to be her first Christmas where she is sort of fully aware of what's going on and I feel like that this is the year to start a new tradition or at least attempt to. We used to go over to my Grandmas house for Christmas eve every year, but we haven't done that in a couple of years now due to her being in assisted living. My family usually gets together during the day on Christmas Eve, but am looking to do something away from the house that will be memorable for us. Thought about going to Tanglewood, but I know its going to be packed. I just want to do something that takes a couple of hours that would be fun, instead of just sitting at the house waiting for her bed time.
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Your referring to the lights in Winston area right? My wife says Christmas Eve was always the best. Drive right on in. Less crowded. I'm gonna take her word for it. Me and twinkling lights have a hate for each other.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Your referring to the lights in Winston area right? My wife says Christmas Eve was always the best. Drive right on in. Less crowded. I'm gonna take her word for it. Me and twinkling lights have a hate for each other.
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Yeah. those are the ones. And you know I was thinking they may not be too crowded on Christmas Eve as well.
 
YotaOnRocks said:
Make some Christmas cards, snacks, and grab a couple blankets and go find some people that need a helping hand, and help teach her about truly loving thy neighbor's
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We participated in the Angel tree this year and let our daughter buy for another child and pick out all the gifts to try and teach her about giving back to those less fortunate. It was really a humbling experience listening to my daughter constantly tell us that these presents are for a little girl who might not be as blessed as us.
 
The gift we always let the kids unwrap on Christmas Eve is always pajamas. Then they have nice new pajamas that they are wearing Christmas morning. They are now 17 and 14, and they still look forward to getting their pajamas Christmas Eve.

When our oldest was little, she would put reindeer food in the front yard.

Also, gifts that we didn’t want to wrap, like a Barbie playhouse, those would be unwrapped next to the tree when she got up on Christmas morning. Those were the gifts from Santa. Mom and Dad wrapped all the gifts that were from them. 😉
 
We do angel trees for the boys. We spent christmas eve with family growing up, and thats what we do now.
 
VortecJeep said:
The gift we always let the kids unwrap on Christmas Eve is always pajamas. Then they have nice new pajamas that they are wearing Christmas morning. They are now 17 and 14, and they still look forward to getting their pajamas Christmas Eve.

When our oldest was little, she would put reindeer food in the front yard.

Also, gifts that we didn’t want to wrap, like a Barbie playhouse, those would be unwrapped next to the tree when she got up on Christmas morning. Those were the gifts from Santa. Mom and Dad wrapped all the gifts that were from them. 😉
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We thought about letting her open a gift on Christmas eve, but I don't know. I feel like it would take away from the excitement the next morning. Maybe when she is older, we can incorporate that in. I do remember being like 8-9 and us opening a present on Christmas eve and it was awesome.
 
Our Christmas Eve goes like this:

4PM - The kids are part of a Christmas show/play...pick a church, churches are always looking for youth
530PM - My side of the family does Christmas, we eat dinner at one of the 3 restaurants that are open. Gift exchange after. (This isn't applicable to you, but is obviously part of my routine/tradition)
11PM - Go to my church's service, where I'll usher, and depending on attendance the kids might collect the offering
12am - Clean up the church
1am - home, read the kids a Christmas story, put kids to bed

The beauty of the 1am bedtime is, the kids are so worn out, wife and I are usually up before the kids on Christmas morning, so we're not being nagged to get out of bed at 6am.
 
Christmas Eve service. Bake cookies for Santa. Then the kids have to find the pickle ornament hidden in the tree. When they find it the prize is one small gift chosen by us for them to open.
 
Last night we went to the Greensboro Science Center for the Winter Wonderlights and I have to say... I have never seen my child so excited and care free. The look on her face the entire time was EXACTLY what I was looking for. The excitement that she had made me feel the closest to how I felt when I was little at Christmas time. If you've never been, I highly recommend it. I think this will be our new Christmas tradition. I think for Christmas eve night, we are going to try HPU's Christmas drive thru and then head over to Sunset hills in Greensboro to look at the lights.
 
My kids are a little older and nobody here cares about Christmas lights and such anymore. So for the last several years we've hosted a Christmas Eve dinner and dessert with several family friends. After they leave the kids will get to open one present, we would boot up the Santa tracker and then wonder about how in the world to say the name of some of the places where he was right then.

For us the real magical traditional Christmas Day.We do the presents thing, just ourselves, then monkey bread for breakfast.
Then we sit around and binge watch a theme of movies all day. Just us. Nobody gets dressed, no showers, no leaving the house. We eat junk food and whatever leftovers we have from the day before.

There is a current debate going on whether this year will be the back to the Future series (which we've done but was so long ago Delaney doesn't remember) or muppets.
 
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