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Christmas Eve Traditions :-)
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H3llR4iser wrote: »It is actually like that in most, if not all, Continental Europe. Same in Italy; The "big dinner" happens on the evening of the 24; Depending on personal/family preference, there could also be present opening and so on.
Christmas day then is more like a Sunday...sometimes with family reunions, sometimes not. The games however...the games I can't stand
Yeah saw this in my OH's family. She thought we were remarkably sedate when she stayed with us Christmas eve! Hate the games too, but I felt sorry for her brother that year who has very little english and got roped into charades. Fair play he gave it his best shot..though I don't think any of us were playing the same game 0 -
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Always go into town with my parents and brothers, bit of shopping/browsing and soaking up the atmosphere. Then we go off for lunch/dinner and relax.
Even with me being 18 and my brothers 15&13 my man still does presents on Christmas morning. She's nuts but I love it 0 -
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As a certified Christmas fanatic, I can't believe I haven't hung around here before!!
I've a large family on both sides, so our Christmas Day is spent visiting, so Christmas Eve is generally our immediate family day!
I've been working retail for the last few years, so I'll be in work till about 6 (sometimes we close earlier if it's not busy). I actually don't mind it too much, as we have a bit of craic and people are generally in a good mood!
Then home with the family, finish wrapping any presents, watch The Snowman (LOVE it
) and head down to the local with the gang which is always nice! Then have a lovely walk home in the cold with my friends and shouting "Don't forget to turn the lights off!" as we drop each person off! 0 -
December2012 wrote: »
NORAD santa tracker on all day!
At bedtime the kids plant seeds (aka tictacs) in a magic jar of snow (aka flour) and if each child has enough magical Christmas cheer, by morning the seed will have grown into a candy cane!
I am so stealing this idea!!! It is adorable
I forgot about NORAD, I love looking at that too.0 -
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OldNotWIse wrote: »Our family still have Santa, only now he comes to the parents too Cue Christmas morning my 67 year old Dad is banging on bedroom doors to get everybody up so that he can open the presents
"Santa" mightn't be a bad idea for grown ups. Writing a letter listing what you actually want might be better than relying on people who should know you better getting rubbish you don't want.
That said at 67 I think it's time you broke the bad news to him or he's in for a big shock in the nursing home.0 -
Jamaican Me Crazy wrote: »I am so stealing this idea!!! It is adorable
I forgot about NORAD, I love looking at that too.
I'm tempted to put the NORAD santa tracker up on a flat screen TV via Chromecast and leaving it on all day....0 -
"Santa" mightn't be a bad idea for grown ups. Writing a letter listing what you actually want might be better than relying on people who should know you better getting rubbish you don't want.
That said at 67 I think it's time you broke the bad news to him or he's in for a big shock in the nursing home.
We don't do letters, but still manage to hit the nail on the head each year 0 -
Jamaican Me Crazy wrote: »I am so stealing this idea!!! It is adorable
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Do it! Your kids will be so proud of their magic skills and tell everybody! Mine talk about it during the year too. I'm looking forward to them being older and reminiscing about Christmases of their youth!0 -
I got a good laugh out of this article.
I think we can all relate to it as well.
http://deisesupes.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/christmas-eve-and-christmas-day/
CAN you feel that? There’s magic in the air today because boys and girls, today is Christmas Eve, and that calls for a bumper edition of the View from the Blue. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you choose to feel the magic of course. I hear a lot of people tell me that they hate Christmas and when I ask them why, they give a number of reasons that really don’t amount to anything at all. They hate having to buy presents for others, they hate all the crap on the telly and some of them even hate having to see relatives that they don’t think a whole lot of. There are people out there that have genuine reasons for hating Christmas, they may be alone or are forced to spend it in a place that is a far cry from somewhere they once called home. If you are surrounded by people who love you this Christmas, you have cause to only be happy and possibly ecstatic actually. And this brings us nicely on to the final part of our Waterford Christmas Countdown.
So, it’s Christmas Eve and that can only mean one thing – you still have half your presents to buy. For me it means cursing myself for trying to be elaborate and extra thoughtful with my presents this year because I now I have to collect things I wanted to get personalised and printed and turned into key-rings and fridge magnets. This is also a day for reflection, especially on all those people who have their shopping done since November and are now sitting in the window of Geoffs sipping on an Irish Coffee and laughing at the likes of me running around like a headless chicken. I suppose we should probably spare a thought for all those people who have to work on Christmas Eve as well. God speed you retail heroes!
So, you wrap your last lynx gift set (this is a horrible present to get for someone by the way – I think I’d rather get socks.)…and you can finally think about putting on some nice clothes and heading out to the pub. For some reason I always associate Christmas Eve with wearing new clothes that are not quite worn in yet. Shoes that are cutting the feet off ya, jeans that are a bit too tight and a jumper that will never again look as perfect as it does at this moment.
We’re all in a pub, possibly eating pub grub but definitely downing festive pints. “What day is it?” someone asks. “I haven’t a clue” is the reply. And you won’t know what days you have again until the tree is taken down and flung into a skip. This is one of the reasons why Christmas is so special, it’s like a bunch of days decided to say “**** this ****” and just quit the calendar, “We’re going to eat and drink and we’re not going to stop til this disastrous year is over,” It says. And everybody agrees.
At about 6pm the kids will start to look to the skies for any kind of sign of Santa Claus. “He’s still in Australia”, someone will say. And then the illusion will be ruined when one of the kids hears him on WLR. Depending on what part of Waterford you’re in, you’ll probably be thrown out of the pub soon. The closer you are to the Garda Station the sooner the pub will close…so if you’re out in Kilmeaden or somewhere like that there’s a good chance you’ll still be drinking when Rudolf and his buddies pass by later on.
And now you’re back home. “Jaysus we should have set the heating to come on…it’s feckin freezing!”. You put the new pyjamas on the kids, leave the milk and cookies out for Santy, the carrots for the Reindeer and cart the kids off to bed. You sit down, feeling very tired and very tipsy and thank God that you final have a break from it all. “It’s nice to final be able to sit down,” you’ll say to yourself. And you will deserve the rest. The house is looking like a winter wonderland, there’s a big-ass ham in a pot in the kitchen, there’s enough food to last til August and all the presents are wrapped under the tree. That is of course, all the presents but the ones from Santa, which have been up in the attic for the last few weeks. Getting stuff down from the attic is a traumatic experience at the best of times, but doing it while inebriated and trying to not wake up the kids is a whole other things altogether. I know of a fella who, after about eight pints, climbed up into the attic, forgot the golden rule of only stepping on the wooden beams, fell through the ceiling and landed on his seven-year old daughter. The poor girl thought she was being attacked by Santa (the fool was still wearing his Santa Christmas jumper).
If, by some Christmas miracle, you manage to successfully retrieve the presents, you’ll then be overjoyed to realise that the bike, and the scooter, and the play desk still have to be put together. I can barely use the remote control when I’m drunk so how in the hell am I expected to attach screw A4 to Divet F. Inevitably after about two hours, you will realise that you assembled the handlebars back to front and the whole process will have to be done again. And then, about 20 minutes after you finally get to bed, the kids will be jumping on you declaring that it’s time to go down to see what Santa has brought!” In reality, Santa has brought a pretty debilitating hangover on himself and Christmas is beginning to lose some of its magic. That is of course until the kids open the sitting room door and their faces turn to pure, unadulterated happiness. This is Christmas, summed up in one very brief moment. Ten minutes later the room is covered in wrapping paper and dangerous plastic packaging. “When is the recycling bin out next?…”
And so it’s Christmas day. There are a couple of kids out cycling on the street, but most of them are on their iPads and Xboxes, which you will now have to tear them away from with the frightening news that it’s Mass time. The lighting of the last Advent Candle…the singing of the Christmas Carols and the placing of the Baby Jesus in the manger…sure isn’t it only beautiful. It’s a pity then that all the kids can think about is their presents and the parents, the turkey in the oven and how they’re going to find a shop open so they can buy some cranberry sauce.
I’m not sure what’s on the telly these days on Christmas Day. I can remember some years ago, when the mother was busy making the table like something out of Buckingham Palace, we’d all be watching Top of the Pops to see what was going to be Christmas Number One. “What is it?!” Mam would shout in from the kitchen. “Mr Blobby!” a voice from the sitting room would retort. “Ah jaysus…” Nowadays nobody cares who’s Christmas Number One and I think we all know why.
It’s great to think that between 2pm and 3pm, almost every family in Waterford are sitting down as a family and eating Christmas Dinner. And it’s funny to think that almost 50% of those families will only think of lighting the candle on the centrepiece when the dinner is over. 70% of Waterford families will then pull the crackers, tell awful jokes and find at least one beer opener and one deck of mini playing cards in the crackers. A surprising 40% of Waterford people will announce that they are too full for dessert and a staggering 90% of families will contain a father that will announce “That’s it for another year now”…
The rest of the day will be spent on the couch, watching the worst telly imaginable and occasionally dipping your hand into a box of Roses. A worrying 39% of Waterford families will play board games and engage in family fun. The other 61% will be watching the Christmas extended edition of Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm, where they have been holding on to a story for the last 6 months in order to depress families everywhere on Christmas Day. Let’s put an end to Christmas Soaps and embrace the Hungry Hungry Hippos!0 -
These past few years, my family have developed a tradition of getting a Chinese on Christmas Eve, because so much goes into preparing Christmas dinner the next day on my mam's part! Also, we have a long-standing tradition of being allowed to open one present each under the tree on Christmas Eve, but generally speaking it's not supposed be the one you're most excited about opening, or already know what it is. My two sisters are still of a believing-in-Santa age, so we still leave out a carrot for Rudolph and milk and a mince pie for Santa. We always drop presents into our neighbours and we generally prefer to go to Mass on Christmas Eve rather than rushing out the door with excited kiddies who still want to play with their presents the next day.
Can't wait for Christmas now!
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Acciaccatura wrote: »These past few years, my family have developed a tradition of getting a Chinese on Christmas Eve, because so much goes into preparing Christmas dinner the next day on my mam's part! Also, we have a long-standing tradition of being allowed to open one present each under the tree on Christmas Eve, but generally speaking it's not supposed be the one you're most excited about opening, or already know what it is. My two sisters are still of a believing-in-Santa age, so we still leave out a carrot for Rudolph and milk and a mince pie for Santa. We always drop presents into our neighbours and we generally prefer to go to Mass on Christmas Eve rather than rushing out the door with excited kiddies who still want to play with their presents the next day.
Can't wait for Christmas now!
Apart from the Chinese (we go out for dinner in a local hotel instead) this sounds like our Christmas since I was a kid. There are no santa believing children in our house now and the next ones are likely to be my grandchildren someday, but its still a magic few days.0 -
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Sounds lovely sugar man!!!!
I love our Christmas Eve tradition. Myself and my mam both work Christmas Eve but I get to take a half day and I go home and load my car and go to Mams then and I make up some mulled wine and depending on the weather we either go for a meal or we get a chinese and then go for a walk with the dog 0 -
Aww love this thread. Reading it with my 8m asleep on my chest as she had a cold and won't go into cot
I adore Christmas and Tradition was always home to parents house as early as possible, out for lunch and afterwards a baileys coffee in the local pub. Home then and either a Chinese or lasagne ( Dad decides) and then new Christmas clothes and off to midnight (10pm) mass, home for new pjs, mulled wine and homemade sausage rolls, with all of us sneaking ham bits while mam pretends not to notice.
Since marriages and kids came along these have changed a bit but this year we are all home and we all have small kids so it's going to be mad but fab!! Will be off work myself on Christmas Eve and sitting outside husbands with the motor running to get on the road home Midnight mass is being replaced by 7pm but hopefully a lot if the same will happen. Can't wait 0 -
I haven't had a proper Christmas in 2 years (been away) So I am sure as hell gonna enjoy this one.
My Christmas eve is usually always the same, and I really love it. I will be working this Christmas eve until about lunch time. After that I like to take a walk around the city center and take in the Christmas atmosphere, maybe pick up a couple of last minute things :P
I'm not married yet (mid 20's) so I will head down to my parents house for Christmas eve and Christmas day. After town I will get a MacDonalds on the way home. Its a xmas eve tradition for me, I have to have a big mac meal, I've just always done it. After that I will go home and help my dad do some preparation for Christmas day dinner (he has to feed about 15). I always have to watch a Christmas movie in the afternoon :P Next is the present wrapping. Again, I could do this earlier but I like doing it on Christmas eve.
In the evening I go to the local pub for a couple of drinks. I go with a few friends (its a tradition) but my family are usually there too (and friends of family) so its a always a great night, great atmosphere.
Then I just go home and go to bed. Might sound a bit boring but I love it. I just love the whole atmosphere of the day and the fact that everyone is in a good mood.
This year will be even better because my girlfriend is coming here (she lives abroad) and I'm planning on proposing...****ting myself
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If i'm home with the family in Australia (i was last yr and will be again this year ) Christmas eve for me starts with an early trip to the shops to pick up the fresh fruit & seafood orders and then normally buying Dad's present to give to mum! Cleaning and making desserts in the afternoon and then sitting down in front of the tv to watch the Sidney Myer music bowl Carols by candlelight tv programme. Lights off in the house with just the christmas tree lights twinkling. Some years we'll go to our local carols as well and then come home & watch the end of the tv carols. They put on all the performances for the kids - high 5, wiggles, santa etc first so the kids can go to bed early i love it when they show shots if the audience with babies asleep in parents arms. Carols by candlelight is one thing i really miss when i stay in Ireland for Xmas - it just doesn't feel like christmas eve without them.
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December2012 wrote: »At bedtime the kids plant seeds (aka tictacs) in a magic jar of snow (aka flour) and if each child has enough magical Christmas cheer, by morning the seed will have grown into a candy cane!
I love this idea how cute! I think in a few years we will be doing that in our house!
I love the present opening part of christmas- just the excitement of opening the paper. I might buy myself a few bits that I know I can wait a few weeks to use ( new scarf or a bath set) and wrap it up and put it under the tree just to have more bits to open in the morning haha 0 -
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This is the first time in 6 years that my dad won't be working christmas day. I've worked the last 2 aswell so this christmas will be extra special
Christmas Eve we usually have a busy day cleaning and prepping as we always host our extended family of 10 on Christmas day. Then in the evening we still go to the 6pm children's mass even though my sister and I are in our twenties! Then we pop into my nanny who lives beside church, pick up a chinese and then home to watch Christmas movies.
Can't wait for Christmas !0 -
This will be the first year I don't spend the night in my parent's house on Christmas Eve but I'm kind of excited. It means I get to have Christmas morning with my boyfriend for the first time
We're both working Christmas eve but will probably be finished by about 12. Then we'll head out to my home town and do some visiting, might go for a drink with friends and will then head back to our place. Christmas Eve is also my birthday, I think it makes me love Christmas even more!
Love this thread!0 -
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty1fYzZAWjo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ21jzPRYtk
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