We will be with extended family on Christmas Day. However, on Christmas Eve it will just be the 4 of us, unless one or both of the GF’s visit for awhile. We are unaccustomed to this. I used to host and due to several family estrangement so, deaths of the older generation, and relatives not in town, this day seems sad to me and DH. It used to have a party atmosphere, that lasted all day until early evening.
i have a few ideas of what to do, but nothing set in stone. My do plan ob making my beef tenderloin, whether it is lunch or dinner I don’t know.
So…for just you that are just parents and kids…what do you do to make the day a little more special than just every other day. I think next year we may travel.
Christmas Eve we eat a particular dinner together with the fancy dishes, etc…then go to church, drive around and look at lights with bags of cookies to eat, come back and watch one of those Christmas specials. We open one present and go to bed (okay, my kids are pretending to go to bed, they are undoubtedly skyping or texting or working or playstationing). Youngest is in charge of getting us all up, we open gifts in our pjs, skype grandparents, eat nothing but cookies. Showers, make lunch together, and then, in the afternoon we either go to the movies, or play one of the games somebody got. One year it was really nice and we went for a hike. It is extremely lazy and you do feel like you should do Something Important but my children, especially, seem to just want to be home, together, doing nothing.
Or…you could talk as a family and see if church is something everyone is comfortable with. Or if they have other ideas. You shouldn’t have to be the Christmas cruise director!!!
Christmas Eve, we’ll have our traditional dinner of cheeseburgers on the grill.
Christmas day we’ll get up, have a yummy breakfast table with fruit salad, egg strata, bagels, etc. while we open gifts.
THEN…(and I posted this in the “what don’t I do for xmas” thread) this year I decided to NOT make Christmas dinner! We are just going to have appetizers and snacks for the rest of the day (I’m so excited). None of us particularly cares about dinner, and usually we’re full from breakfast anyway. My mom, who usually is with us on Christmas day, is going out of town to my brother’s…
It’s supposed to be unseasonably warm here in Conn., so maybe we’ll go for a hike or something.
I’m totally and completely discombobulated (sp?) this year. It is the first time the 5 of us have not been together on the Eve and the Day and I’m not handling it well. I need to gel some ideas in my feeble brain and carry on and paste a smile on. I hope there will be programs on TV on the Eve since we’ll be not doing our usual family socializing.
For us it has almost always been just nuclear family: H and I and S. S’s godfather moved up here a few years ago, so he is here also. We were expecting S’s GF, but I found out yesterday that she will be visiting a relative in CA instead.
Since I sing in the choir, I am always at the Christmas Eve candlelight service, which is at 4. I will ask H, S, and S’s GF to come with me, after which we will go to a friend’s for post-service hors d’oeuvres, then home for dinner. S’s GF and I will undoubtedly be playing a board game and trying to get S to join in. (H is a lost cause.)
Dinner - generally soup of some kind and yummy dessert. Open some gifts. Church - of, course, we have multiple musicians in the family, so “church” was not necessarily the same for each family member, depended where the evening’s gig was! This year it’s just DH and me. Should be easier, we can head to the same location.
It’s been just my nuclear family for a few years on Christmas Eve and Day (with extended family celebrations before and/or after those days), and we’ve developed new traditions we enjoy: on Christmas Eve, a seafood feast (we were unaware that this is actually a Catholic tradition, btw), walking around a life size nativity and watching them put the Baby Jesus in the manger, and a candlelit church service; and, on Christmas Day, leisurely opening of gifts (my kids have always liked reveling in their gifts somewhat slowly), eating cookies and later, eggs and bacon, eating good Chinese for lunch, playing games, playing with whatever people got, going to a movie… These are in addition to the traditions we’ve always had, including the last advent ornament on the tree, reading The Night Before Christmas. It’s all relaxed, meaningful, and fun! If we felt something was stressful or not fun/rewarding/meaningful anymore, we’d drop it.
I thought that spending both days only with us might not be as fulfilling as the Christmas’ past, when we spent them with extended family, and I do miss those times in a way (and the people that are now gone in a big way), but I appreciate and cherish this time with my nuclear family. Plus, it nicely clears the times for the holiday in the future so that, as my kids start having SOs, they can have flexibility, and, hopefully, they will choose to spend part of those 2 days with us!
It will only be the 3 of us which is the norm in our family. H will make dinner - which the last few years has been lobster. Don’t know what he’s planning yet but we do the seafood thing on Xmas Eve. . S will drive in from Boston. Xmas Day we always go to the movies. Then I’m making a roast w/ roasted potatoes and probably asperagus. Saturday H & I will schlep to Syracuse to see his parents and we will cook a dinner there. If S doesn’t go back to Boston he’ll probably join us since he hasn’t seen his grandparents for awhile. H’s brother and family will probably come over at some point while we are there,
Another one here who has a really small family. Some love cooking and all love eating so we just laugh and talk from one good thing to the next. We’ve done movies, gone to see Christmas lights, just sit and enjoy. Board games are fun too.
We do lobster on Christmas eve too. And steak.
This year it will just be our family. Quite frankly I am happy for the break from 18+ years of a too busy holiday season.
Christmas Eve Day we will go skiing and then I am doing Christmas Eve dinner at home - have not yet decided on Turkey or a filet of beef. Finish wrapping any stray gifts. Midnight mass will follow - it is the only religious thing I do all year - I love the music.
Christmas Day - open gifts in our PJ’s and do a huge brunch. I ordered Danish Kringle from Wisconsin as my children still love it. S will be on the mountain again snowboarding - rest of us will relax with a mimosa or two. Barn Caroling at 3 pm. Christmas dinner will be out this year at one of my favorite places.
Most years it has been just the 4 of us here. On Christmas eve we go to church and then come home and have a prime rib dinner before unwrapping gifts from extended family. We finish the evening by watching White Christmas. We get up “whenever” on Christmas Day, open the remaining gifts. Lunch is at a local Chinese restaurant and then we go to a movie (I buy tickets in advance).
Just 4 of us as well. Our Christmas Eve we go to church and then out to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. After that we might watch a Christmas movie or go looking at lights. Christmas morning is for opening gifts. The rest of the day varies each year, but is usually low key as well. We like playing games so we often end up doing that.
Just 4 of us. Christmas eve is always the fancy dinner in the dining room with the spode and crystal, etc. I buy everyone Christmas pajamas every year that we open whole eating dessert. Then we’ll watch something like Elf and go see the Christmas light display.
Christmas we open presents, then something like eggs benedict for breakfast. Then we play games and watch movies and go for a walk together. Eating Christmas is appetizers and snacks. This year I’m making beef bourgignone the day before, cheese fondue, shrimp cocktail and potstickers along with the cake I buy every year from Williams Sonoma.
we always spend christmas eve as just the immediate family (3 of us), we typically have a very nice dinner, go to church (candlelight mass), open some gifts, watch a holiday movie (the classic christmas carol with alistair sim or christmas in connecticut)
We have Christmas Eve here for the most part…with just our kids. For several years now, we have had an appetizer buffet. Each person makes one appetizer. We have sparkling cider, and champagne. We listen to holiday music and just relax. We also watch a Christmas movie…this year it will be Elf.
We go to a neighbor’s for a very short time to sing Christmas carols.
Not a big holiday person here. If we have no other plans, we just prepare food we all enjoy, make it a bit festive, and then enjoy the ritual of hanging the stockings by the fire. Fire in the fireplace if it’s cold enough (no luck with that this year). Christmas morning is similar. Easy breakfast nibbles we all enjoy, low stress, relaxing with gifts, then a nice dinner later.
We love Christmas morning. When we had kids, we stopped going elsewhere for Christmas. We just get up, open stockings and gifts, and have a nice breakfast. Then we relax.
