Qotd: how do you spend Christmas and Christmas Eve? (12/17)

[Saar]

How do you spend Christmas and Christmas Eve?

Are you visiting family?
Or do you have family coming over to your house?
Do you to a Christmas concert or would you rather have a quiet day/evening at home?

[renatasluis]

Christmas eve i spend alone.the boys are with their dad.
Watching the final of serious request and a christmas movie.
Firts en second day of christmas they are with me.
Maybe we go to their grandparents for coffee/teatime and then back home for christmasdinner.just the 3 of us.nice and quit.

[jak]

It varies from year to year. We don't have any family here so one year we might go visit my parents, then we stay home for a year (just the four of us), the next year we might visit the in-laws, then stay home the next year... We don't do anything special Christmas Eve (that's when I wrap presents, after the kids are in bed) and Christmas Day we just stay home... eating Christmassy food and not doing much at all!

[tjscraps]

This year will be way different for us - we are traveling from Alberta (home) to Arizona to spend Christmas with my parents (snowbirds) and my sister and her family, who are traveling from Knoxville. It's the first time we've done this so now idea what the new tradition will be lol Usually we have cabbage rolls and perogies, even though we are not Ukranian, watch Christmas movies or play cards.

[carrie1977]

We spend our Christmas Eve with friends. We just hang out, have dinner and drinks.

[Neverland Scraps]

We see a movie at the theater on a Christmas Eve.

Before bedtime the kids open one present, which is always pajamas. They wear them that night and sometimes when opening presents but lately everyone has been getting dressed by present time

[adi&co.]

We make sugar cookies and decorate them on christmas eve. It ends up being an all day thing since the kids help me make the dough, then roll the dough out and cut the shapes out, then frost them when they're cooled.

[cherrygutz]

Back at home we wake up at 12midnight, open our presents, eat, then sleep so that in the morning we could visit our family (my side and my husband's) then distribute gifts to our godchildren who live nearby. But living here in the states, we have no family so we make do. Last year we spend the whole Christmas vacation at home then going to some places near by. This year we planned on going to Kalahari a day after Christmas, then we also plan on watching the New year's ball in NY.

[LeeAndra]

We all (my parents, my grandmother, my sister, my nephew, my husband, my kids, & me) go to my mom's church service which is usually around dinnertime. We go back to their house for a late dinner & then go home. I get the kids to bed, wrap their presents, and then go to the 11 pm service at my church. It's so incredibly peaceful & moving to be driving home early Christmas Day in the dark and with no other cars around, either.

On Christmas Day, we open gifts at our house, have a quick breakfast (or just eat candy from the stockings), get dressed, and then go to my parents' house to open more gifts. We have lunch there at noon and sometimes watch a kid movie afterwards before we go back home.

It's one of my favorite 24 hour periods of the year.

[Hpgirl]

We alternate Christmas between my mom's and dad's parents. They live on opposite sides of the country, so there's no going back and forth on Christmas Day. This year it's my Dad's family's turn. Christmas Eve is mass, dinner, and possibly one present (now that we're older and there are fewer boxes, this may change). The order of Christmas Day is always stockings, breakfast, presents, decompressing, then big Christmas late lunch.

But this year, I am so excited because I managed to get five days off for Christmas (which shouldn't happen based on my seniority, but somehow did based on regular days off switching around plus a very lucky shift giveaway). I'm so happy that I was just able to change my flights to get the maximum time with family without any additional charges!

Originally Posted by Neverland Scraps

Before bedtime the kids open one present, which is always pajamas. They wear them that night and sometimes when opening presents but lately everyone has been getting dressed by present time

This was one of the most disappointing little things about how Christmas changes when growing up. The grandparents have downsized so we can't stay in one house any more (which means getting ready at a hotel), but even so as a teenager we expected to be patient enough for presents that everyone could get dressed before the festivities started.

[biancka]

Well, on Christmas Eve we are just the three of us. We just bought a new monopoly board game so we will probably do that and maybe play some other board games. At night we will do raclette for dinner. On our first Christmas Day (as you might know, we have two in The Netherlands )....my parents are coming over for Brunch so that means lots of baking/prepping and just enjoying nice food. The rest of the day we will just watch movies.....and I bought a lot of Christmas finger food so I don't have to cook (I always stress about this so usually.......it's a disaster ) and on our second Christmas Day we are going to my inlaws and more board games and at night also raclette

[ttt83]

We celebrate Christmas on the 24th together with my kids, parents, grandmother, aunt, two uncles and the dog.
On the 25th my older son visits his dad and family and stays there until New Year´s eve. The little one and I will stay at home, eat cookies and watch movies.

[NeverendingJen]

This is the first year we've been home to celebrate the holidays since we got married more than a decade ago, so all our traditions are changing.