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Christmas Eve Traditions :-)

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    #332
    iguana
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 12,909 Mod ✭✭✭✭iguana


    I need to go have a discussion with my husband about what Christmas eve traditions we want to start. S will be 3 so it's time to get some magical fun locked in. Chinese take-away sounds good or maybe a restaurant would be better. We went out for dinner one Christmas eve (my mum was 8 months pregnant so it was mainly for her to take a break) and I have such great memories of it.

    I'm curious about the PJs. When I was younger we always got new PJs for Christmas eve but they were just normal PJs as Christmas ones hadn't been invented/weren't available in Ireland. But now Christmas PJs exist and if you only get them for your child on Christmas eve are they a size big so they will be worn all the next December or are they only worn for a few days? I have a tradition of getting a few Christmas PJs in November and they come out for the Toy Show and they are worn then until the 5th.


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    #333
    anothernight
    Registered Users Posts: 2,541 ✭✭✭anothernight


    iguana wrote: »
    I'm curious about the PJs. When I was younger we always got new PJs for Christmas eve but they were just normal PJs as Christmas ones hadn't been invented/weren't available in Ireland. But now Christmas PJs exist and if you only get them for your child on Christmas eve are they a size big so they will be worn all the next December or are they only worn for a few days? I have a tradition of getting a few Christmas PJs in November and they come out for the Toy Show and they are worn then until the 5th.

    I will happily wear Christmassy PJs in the middle of June, if the weather calls for it. :p


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    #334
    iguana
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 12,909 Mod ✭✭✭✭iguana


    anothernight wrote: »
    I will happily wear Christmassy PJs in the middle of June, if the weather calls for it. :p

    When I was a child I used to find Christmas stuff a bit extremely depressing once Christmas was over and school was back. It was like salt rubbed in the wounds, Christmas was gone and a month is an eternity to a child never mind the whole year it's going to take for it to come back. It almost physically hurts.


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    #335
    Toto Wolfcastle
    Registered Users Posts: 25,005 ✭✭✭✭Toto Wolfcastle


    I wear my Christmas jammies all the time. I love them. But as a kid I'd I'd worn them all year round it may have taken some of the magic out of wearing them at Christmas.


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    #336
    Posy
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 27,534 Mod ✭✭✭✭Posy


    I won't be working this Christmas Eve for a change.

    I will really have to make it special!! There will definitely be baileys hot chocolate and mallows and Christmas films. :):)


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    #337
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Hollister11


    Posy wrote: »
    I won't be working this Christmas Eve for a change.

    I will really have to make it special!! There will definitely be baileys hot chocolate and mallows and Christmas films. :):)

    Just get gargeled. It's what Christmas is about :D


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    #338
    Toto Wolfcastle
    Registered Users Posts: 25,005 ✭✭✭✭Toto Wolfcastle


    Christmas Eve being at the weekend this year is going to make it even better. Glad you'll be off, Posy!


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    #339
    touts
    Registered Users Posts: 6,438 ✭✭✭touts


    And we're off and running for 2016. Woo Hoooo

    Holidays are coming...Holidays are coming.....Holidays are coming..........


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    #340
    kitten_k
    Registered Users Posts: 6,046 ✭✭✭kitten_k


    Seen these on a page on facebook called SnugglePuff Crafts:

    13962505_1289617364402902_5199580189245844242_n.jpg?oh=3a74d274f7ba9f56c25a3d4a9e61de28&oe=58128D51

    13934593_1289617411069564_7571898623128652370_n.jpg?oh=8969d25ab93bdf050ba720e53c548207&oe=58569212


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    #341
    Loughc
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 24,769 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    Oooh I love the box! Great idea.


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    #342
    Glitzgirl
    Registered Users Posts: 1,737 ✭✭✭Glitzgirl


    Omg that is so cute !!!


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    #343
    Glitzgirl
    Registered Users Posts: 1,737 ✭✭✭Glitzgirl


    I love that this thread has popped up on my notifications :)


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    #344
    Loughc
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 24,769 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    Glitzgirl wrote: »
    I love that this thread has popped up on my notifications :)

    Me too. I was so excited to see it back in my unread threads haha.


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    #345
    Toto Wolfcastle
    Registered Users Posts: 25,005 ✭✭✭✭Toto Wolfcastle


    If anyone wants to to try making their own, it turns out you can get signs like this on ebay.

    s-l300.jpg

    You could make a box for the fraction of the price of that one. (Of course you could make it without the sign but I think the sign is nice!)


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    #346
    Lollipops23
    Registered Users Posts: 5,420 ✭✭✭Lollipops23


    I've only recently started looking in on this forum- I'VE FOUND MY PEOPLE!!!!! :D

    I was just saying to a colleague that, despite not working in retail since 09, I still haven't gotten used to the novelty of not working Xmas Eve.

    And I'm 28 (29 on Tuesday) and my mam still gets me Xmas Eve jammies, as she did throughout my childhood :)


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    #347
    amen
    Registered Users Posts: 2,781 ✭✭✭amen


    Ahh Christmas eve jammies. A tradition in our house. Great craic.


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    #348
    DavyD_83
    Registered Users Posts: 1,991 ✭✭✭DavyD_83


    First Christmas Eve I won't be working in the 8 years I have been with my wife (9th Christmas).
    And we'll have a 2 year old and couple of week old to share it all with.
    Woop woop!!

    Thank you thread for getting me so excited about this already. :D

    Gotta get to work on defining the Christmas Eve traditions;
    Loving the Christmas Eve presents ideas (debating the actual box...), we'll definitely get some family Christmas jammies and hot chocolate in.

    Oh, and have just realised I should actually be home to watch the Toy Show with them this year too. :D:D:D:D:D:D:D


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    #349
    Metmaster
    Registered Users Posts: 56 ✭✭Metmaster


    Family breakfast fry up in the morning with the xmas music playing in the back.. go visit a few relatives for the day..grab a chinese on the way home...by the time were home its dark so we flick on the outdoor lights,tree,put the candles by the window etc, eat the dinner watching elf or christmas vacation...kids usually like to track santa. Showers fresh pjs and bed. Love it.


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    #350
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Hollister11


    Love this thread. It should be a sticky.


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    #351
    SteJer
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭SteJer


    It would be great to read everyone's Christmas traditions. What you do on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Maybe you have some childhood memories you want to share.


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    #352
    Loughc
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 24,769 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    SteJer wrote: »
    It would be great to read everyone's Christmas traditions. What you do on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Maybe you have some childhood memories you want to share.

    Hey SteJer. Luckily your wish has already been granted. We already have a Christmas Eve traditions thread which you are now in. Enjoy reading it from start to finish it's one of my favourite threads on boards and don't forget to add your own traditions. :D


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    #353
    ella23
    Registered Users Posts: 97 ✭✭ella23


    I adore Christmas Eve. So normally I have a sleep in, I always take it off. Get up about 9:30, which really is a sleep in as i'm normally up at six.
    Me and my sister in law since we were 20 years old have gone in to the city shopping to get the last few bits out of the way, we have a bite to eat and for the last couple of years her little daughter comes with us and she loves it.

    I'm normally home in the afternoon. Might go down town for a stroll and do the last bit of food shopping for the things we have forgotten. I always stay at my parents Christmas Eve as do both my brothers. So when i get back home me and my dad start prepping the christmas dinner for the next day. He prepares the turkey and some of the veg. I prepare the ham, stuffing and Beef Wellington (Tradition in our house). This can go on sporadically until twelve at night so we potter about doing other things. Me and my brother make some variation of a cheesecake as well. In between this I call out to my best friend and her kids. Again this is a tradition in both my house and hers. It would be odd if i didn't call out. We exchange small gifts and have a chat. I stay there about 40 minutes only. And head back home.
    At this point we are nearly done with the prep for the dinner, so i start cracking in to a glass of wine or beer, depending what we are in the form for. Me, my brothers (we are all in our late thirties and early forties, some single, some married)and my nephew (21) all sit down with a couple of drinks in the living room with the fire lighting playing ludo. Mam and Dad are in the sitting room watching midnight mass. Married brother heads home about 1am to prepare for Santa.
    It is a hectic day, but one of my favourite of the year.


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    #354
    Vojera
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,812 ✭✭✭Vojera


    My wife an I alternate Christmas between my family and hers.

    In my house my mum makes the stuffing for the entire extended family, so she gets up at about 6am to get started. I like getting up with her (not quite that early, though!) and listening to her giving out the same way she does every year, that she doesn't have enough dishes and Person X promised they'd leave a dish up the day before and she definitely won't be doing all this again, and then she's finished and sits down and has a cup of tea and a cigarette and feels better :pac:
    The whole day has this wonderful anticipatory feeling and we do different bits and pieces to prepare for dinner the next day, visit my granny, call to a few cousins and then we get takeaway that evening (because we can't be messing up the kitchen!). My mum and sister usually go to "midnight" mass (at 9pm) while the rest of us stay home. Then we have a few drinks and reminisce. We used to be allowed to open one gift that night but now that we're adults we've cut out a lot of gift-buying so we leave it till the next day. Then we put on our new jammies (every year!) and go to bed.

    In my wife's house there is a totally different and frantic pace. Christmas Eve is the anniversary of her mother's passing so we usually have to go to mass with her uncle's family. The extended family is huge and they are all terrible time-keepers and couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery, so there's this mad panic on Christmas Eve to buy the things they've forgotten and organise different bits and pieces. There ends up being about twenty people in the house and in the evening Santa visits for the grandkids and gives them a token gift (although last year the oldest one remarked that Santa's hands were strikingly similar to Grandad's hands :eek: ). Then we have a few drinks and those with children head home early. Then we go back to our own house (or help Santa put gifts together if needed) and start it all again the next morning.

    My family home has a really relaxed atmosphere and there are fewer of us, so my first Christmas with my wife's family was a shock to the system, but it's our turn to stay with her family this year and I find myself looking forward to how crazy it gets. EEEEK! SO EXCITED! :p:p:p


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    #355
    Greenduck
    Registered Users Posts: 303 ✭✭Greenduck


    LOVE CHRISTMAS EVE! I think its the nicest time to be in Ireland in the whole year.

    My traditions have changed recently as I am newly engaged and my fiancee had quite a large family! They all came over to ours for cocktails last year at about 4pm then we all went for dinner to a local Indian. Then off to the pub for a few beers.

    Before all that though, new sheets, spring clean our place and listen to Xmas FM all morning! Candles lighting everywhere and Home Alone or Santa Claus the Movie (my absolute FAVOURITE from when I was small, I used to watch it all through the year! :o)

    We then go our separate ways for dinner on Christmas dinner and meet up in mine later that night.

    I cant wait :)


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    #356
    Witchie
    Registered Users Posts: 5,597 ✭✭✭Witchie


    I have posted in here before about our Christmas eve but reading these am getting butterflies in my stomach!

    This year we all hope to be moved to a small house as my parents are downsizing so will be a bit more of a squash but will be fun.

    Another first this year is my eldest son (22) will be bringing his new girlfriend as she can't afford to fly home to Romania, so it will be extra interesting watching everyone get to know her.

    I just booked my hair appointment for Christmas eve. I always go get my hair straightened in the hairdressers and it is like a little moment of relaxation before the storm. We all chip in with the prep, nip into town and get things like salad and fresh cream and then we used to all go into town for a big family meal in the evening. Last year my mum just wasn't really fit for so we ended up just ordering in loads of pizzas and having a few glasses of wine/beer while munching pizza and having great craic.

    I actually feel like I might throw up am so excited!!!!!!


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    #357
    Glitzgirl
    Registered Users Posts: 1,737 ✭✭✭Glitzgirl


    I love seeing this thread so active again! :) I doubt my traditions have changed since the last time I posted bit hey I'm feeling nostalgic ! :pac:
    Here in my house first week of November the Christmas planner comes out and it's followed to a t. Everything from cleaning jobs to shopping lists. The house is decorated before the night of the toy show and each member of the family gets their own little red bag filled with goodies and new christmas pis. The lights on the tree get turned on too :)
    On 1st of December all the lights get turned on outside the house which I love and we watch a Christmas movie every night together right up to Christmas. Recently our elf Jingles has been arriving on the 1st of December to get up to some antics while he keeps an eye on the kids. ,)
    Our of my favourite things to do is one weekend before christmas Mr glitz and I go up to Dublin minus the smallies and have a look around the shop and soak in the atmosphere!
    Christmas eve traditions are usually a fry up or I become a short order cook for the morning ! The boys have their special set of christmas Delph just for Christmas eve.
    We relax for the morning do a bit of baking if the kids want ( all relatives visiting is done by the day before christmas eve ). I change the beds to our nice christmas bed linen. We have a light lunch normally sandwiches and fo for a walk or drive to look at decorations and lights in nearby houses. Watch a movie with some hot choc and our treats and get a Chinese for dinner.
    That nights the kids get a bath and jingles always leaves a Christmas eve box for everyone woth new pjs and a story book and treats etc. While kids are in bed and waiting for santa Mr glitz and I have a drink and watch a film and I set the table for Christmas dinner.

    Love love love christmas eve.. :)


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    #358
    lycan238
    Registered Users Posts: 1,244 ✭✭✭lycan238


    Hi folks just seen this thread. Oh My God post 342 that is one very nice Christmas Eve Box. We usually get a few things in the shops in the morning bread milk etc. go home cook the turkey and ham (well my mam does), watch some TV then go to a friends house (both my parents are my friends god parents we go to her mam's house). Home about 12 then give the neighbours their Santa presents (we hide them in our house for them and have done for a few years now) and head to bed. I don't live at home so Christmas Day after watching the local Christmas Day Swim I go down to my parents house for dinner.


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    #359
    jezzer
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,030 ✭✭✭jezzer


    Lollipops23 wrote: »
    I've only recently started looking in on this forum- I'VE FOUND MY PEOPLE!!!!! :D

    I was just saying to a colleague that, despite not working in retail since 09, I still haven't gotten used to the novelty of not working Xmas Eve.

    And I'm 28 (29 on Tuesday) and my mam still gets me Xmas Eve jammies, as she did throughout my childhood :)

    happy birthday!


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    #360
    OldNotWIse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,468 ✭✭✭✭OldNotWIse


    This year we will be travelling down the country on Christmas morning to be with my elderly gran as she would otherwise be alone since her whole family are fecking off for the festive season. Anyway I don't mind as she was always good to me growing up and we were very close. So, my parents suggested we open the presents Christmas Eve instead of in a rush on Christmas morning! So, we will have "midnight" mass (at 9pm) then come home and have a few drinks (maybe some prosecco) and then open the presents. It will be strange, but hopefully wonderful! :)


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    #361
    Vojera
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,812 ✭✭✭Vojera


    OldNotWIse wrote: »
    This year we will be travelling down the country on Christmas morning to be with my elderly gran as she would otherwise be alone since her whole family are fecking off for the festive season. Anyway I don't mind as she was always good to me growing up and we were very close. So, my parents suggested we open the presents Christmas Eve instead of in a rush on Christmas morning! So, we will have "midnight" mass (at 9pm) then come home and have a few drinks (maybe some prosecco) and then open the presents. It will be strange, but hopefully wonderful! :)

    Last year my sister went abroad with her partner's family for Christmas and my mum's partner's family (who normally live in England) came back for Christmas for the first time EVER so we ended up spending Christmas with them. It was totally different to our usual Christmas but we actually had a great time! Sometimes a little change is no harm, plus I'm sure your granny will really appreciate it. :)


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