Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

Christmas Eve Traditions :-)

Options
13567…20

Comments

  • Options
    #62
    Shegull
    Registered Users Posts: 47 ✭Shegull


    leahyl wrote: »
    Aaaw that's lovely :-) i love watching the news at 6 on RTE as well cos they always show "Santa heading off from the North Pole" ahem! Lol! I love that RTE have kept that tradition!

    Did you know that you can watch him travelling around the world as well

    http://www.noradsanta.org/

    Its really good - you can see him arriving in different countries


  • Options
    #63
    Birdie086
    Registered Users Posts: 1,435 ✭✭✭Birdie086


    For years my christmas eve was spent in the family business - a take away and cafe followed by drinks after a major clean up, then back home for two whole days off - christmas and st stevens day, because the shop would be closed and we had two whole entire days together.

    Cue lots of eating, whiskey's, bailey's, arguments, presents,(my mam did santa untill I left home - she would sneak down after we had gone to bed and put out me and my bro's presents.).

    Sadly me step dad passed away four years ago and not long after my mam gave up the business, made us all redundant(10 staff). did us all a fabour reallly, was a very tough job.

    after spending a year on the dole, and two on a FAS scheme, I finally got a part time job this june past and just last month I was promoted to manager.

    The job is in a very busy coffee shop, and I have to say I am sooooo loooking forward to the mentalness that leads up to christmas in this type of work.

    It is just rush rush rush, but people generally are in great form.

    Sorry for the long winded post but it has been a tough few years for me(as a lot of others), I am far from over the worst yet(mortgage arrears etc) but I am so looking to this christmas being a turnaround one for me.

    thanks for reading, birdie


  • Options
    #64
    allyano16
    Registered Users Posts: 45 ✭allyano16


    Love it, Living in Dublin but love heading home to the 3 other siblings and the auld pair Christmas eve.

    5pm making the Turkey stuffing with the mother, no matter what this will always be my job coz I liked using a blender when I was younger!

    7pm The neighbors call into our house and exchange gifts and things,

    9pm The men of the house go down to Salthill and have pints in the Office pub with the old friends

    11pm Back home and get ready for mass (Half cut)

    12pm Midnight mass (Full Choir) Handel's Messiah - Halleluiah

    2am Home, hot whiskeys for all, everyone opens one gift...

    Never has this series of events changed since its start in my teens...I'm 29 :):D


  • Options
    #65
    dammitjanet
    Closed Accounts Posts: 711 ✭✭✭dammitjanet


    Growing up- charity lunch, home to set up for christmas party, patry time with relatives and family friends, exchange presents with best friend and cousins, freak out little cousins with ghost stories, get in trouble for freaking out little cousins (always saying it was so they couldn't sleep and would see santa!), midnight church, carried back into bed after sugar crashing during church

    In recent years- work til 5, pub til 9, bring the OH and his dad to Mass at 10, collect my drunken parents from a party and bring them to church at 11, home at 12 for hot whiskey and open santa socks!

    I love christmas eve!!!


  • Options
    #66
    shefellover93
    Registered Users Posts: 1,102 ✭✭✭shefellover93


    Fantastic thread. Love seeing all the different traditions!

    For me the 23rd is the first day off from school so it's straight outta the uniform asap and hide the books for a week at least! I think my brother and I have started an odd tradition of watching tv and sitting in the same seats every night of the 23rd. We usually raid a DVD drawer if there's nothing on the box :pac:

    Christmas Eve doesn't really get going until about fiveish when we all head down to the church for Christmas Eve mass (I'm not of a persuasion but to be fair the mass is beautiful and has little plays and songs in the middle) Then it's off to the pub with a family we're friendly with and see the same faces and catch up with everyone we see once a year. (This'll be my first year old enough to drink so will be necking a few Beamishes :pac: )

    Then it's back home and put the baby Jesus himself into the cot of our manger in the hall and off to bed (Something very homely in that tradition when my mom does it)

    That tradition of Christmas Eve has been going since before I was born and I wouldn't change it for the world!


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #67
    The Lovely Muffin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,595 ✭✭✭The Lovely Muffin


    Love this thread :D

    Xmas eve, mam and I normally head into town for a look/walk around (and to get some last minute pressies!). Usually get a Chinese/chipper takeaway.

    Then home, wrap each others pressies :D Watch TV in the evening and then head to bed.

    Xmas Day (if we stay at home), normally get up around 10-11, open presents, go online/watch TV/clean/do washing etc, have dinner, talk to the relatives over the phone.

    Xmas Day (if we go to my aunties house): Get up early Xmas day (somewhere between 4-7am:D), open presents, go back to bed for a few hours, get up, have something to eat, watch TV/look through our gifts etc. Have dinner, watch TV, then the aunties relatives/friends etc call around, then they go, myself and my cousins usually watch TV while the aunties/uncles/ grandparents play cards.

    The past few years we've stayed in our own house as my granny won't travel anywhere, so it's usually a pretty boring day, same as most days to be honest.

    I love going to my aunties house 'cause it's always such good fun and we can have a laugh etc.

    We're hoping this year my granny will travel to my aunties, but knowing her she probably won't and it'll be another boring day at some doing the same usual day-to-day stuff.


  • Options
    #68
    niceoneted
    Registered Users Posts: 463 ✭✭niceoneted


    Loving the thread. Something about this year seems different. I'm normally a bit of a bah humbug!!
    In our house it has been tradition from a child to exchange presents and then just have santa on xmas day. So as we all became adults we still all got together on the eve of christmas to exchange presents. As siblings got married and of the ones who stayed in my home town it alternates between there houses and my parents.
    It's always family only - no outsiders and we have a right old laugh. Two of us work in some element of front line emergency services so don't always get home - sister is on call this xmas so won't be home.
    We normally cook the turkey too on that day so we have warm turkey and stuffing sandwiches on the night.
    To our family the eve of xmas is way more important than the day itself.


  • Options
    #69
    fussyonion
    Registered Users Posts: 7,818 ✭✭✭fussyonion


    Lovely thread!
    When I was a kid, we'd spend the day watching cartoons, then my mother would come home from work and shut the front door and it was then Christmas would begin

    We'd have a bath, then get in our new pyjamas and have dinner-usually something like cottage pie and chips, then sit at the fire (the days before central heating came to our house!) and watch something like The Generation Game or Noel's House Party or something else Christmassy.
    We'd go to bed at 9pm but we'd never be tired.
    I'd wake up at about 5am and feel for the stocking on the end of my bed and get a thrill to feel it bulging.

    I'd go back asleep and then wake again at 8am and run down the stairs so excited with my sister.
    The living room was always locked cos my Dad is OCD about safety, so we'd turn the key and we'd be greeted by two piles of presents under the tree-one pile for me and one pile for my sister.
    We'd shout for our parents to get up cos we didn't like opening them without them there.

    They'd come down all dishevelled but happy and put the kettle on.
    We'd open our presents and be so thankful and so grateful for everything we got.

    I remember one time there was a joint present for my sister and I and it was a large box wrapped in a Playstation bag.
    My mother smiled and said "It's not what you think, might only be the bag" but of course we opened it and it was a Playstation.
    To make it even better, she'd gotten us a portable telly to play it on.
    I remember being so happy.
    We'd go to Mass at 10.30am but we'd be dying to get home to our presents. We'd spend the day eating Quality Street and eating the gorgeous meal our Dad made.
    Sorry this went on a bit long, but it's been nice to reminisce :)


  • Options
    #70
    Azureus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,131 ✭✭✭Azureus


    Christmas Eve means heading to the pub at about 7pm with the OH and all our friends. Exchanging pressies, having the craic with xmas songs and back to the house with the bf at 12 to give eachother our main pressies, getting into fresh jammies and throwing on a cheesey Christmas film and curling up on the couch.

    Then getting woken up by lots of phone calls from himselfs dad at 9am to get our asses over for the obligatory Christmas fry up :)


  • Options
    #71
    touts
    Registered Users Posts: 6,434 ✭✭✭touts


    - Up early in the morning
    - Light a fire.
    - Search through the fully stocked Fridge for whatever takes your fancy for breakfast.
    - Watch some old black and white classic movie on TV while eating.
    - Quick run into town just as shops open for the last bits (bread, cream etc)
    - Back home and do some prep for the Christmas dinner with Christmas music playing in the background (used to cook the Turkey and Ham but recently we just get a cooked turkey and ham from a local butcher as it really frees up time on a day when you don't mind spending the money for more time to enjoy things).
    - Back into town with the kids for a walk around to savour the atmosphere. Hopefully cold but dry. Carol singers and buskers randomly popping up here and there. Crowds of people rushing about but yet more smiles on faces (in particular young ones) than any other time of the year.
    - Quick soup and sandwich for lunch somewhere in town where you can hear christmas music and watch the crowds pass by.
    - Back home and lay the table while listening to Santa and his elf reading letters on RTE Radio 1. Derek Mooney has destroyed this in recent years so hopefully since it is a weekend he will be off doing his shopping.
    - Crack open the tin of Quality street, box of tayto and tin of biscuits
    - Watch the news to see the little faces as Santa departs Lapland
    - Again raid the fridge for a light dinner (after snacking all afternoon)
    - Get everyone in the house showered and dressed for mignight mass (at 9pm)
    - Meet the grandparents at the church. Mass and then show the kids the Crib.
    - Back Home. Milk, cookies, carrots and water left out for our important visitors.
    - Get the overtired and over excited kids to bed.
    - Christmas music on the ipod as the room gets "prepped" for Santa's visit (making sure the hard bits were done in the days before if at all possible).
    - Exchange presents with herself with glass of mulled wine, dying fire and something nice on the TV.
    - Late to Bed in anticipation of an early start

    Best day of the year.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #72
    leahyl
    Registered Users Posts: 14,244 ✭✭✭✭leahyl


    touts wrote: »
    - Up early in the morning
    - Light a fire.
    - Search through the fully stocked Fridge for whatever takes your fancy for breakfast.
    - Watch some old black and white classic movie on TV while eating.
    - Quick run into town just as shops open for the last bits (bread, cream etc)
    - Back home and do some prep for the Christmas dinner with Christmas music playing in the background (used to cook the Turkey and Ham but recently we just get a cooked turkey and ham from a local butcher as it really frees up time on a day when you don't mind spending the money for more time to enjoy things).
    - Back into town with the kids for a walk around to savour the atmosphere. Hopefully cold but dry. Carol singers and buskers randomly popping up here and there. Crowds of people rushing about but yet more smiles on faces (in particular young ones) than any other time of the year.
    - Quick soup and sandwich for lunch somewhere in town where you can hear christmas music and watch the crowds pass by.
    - Back home and lay the table while listening to Santa and his elf reading letters on RTE Radio 1. Derek Mooney has destroyed this in recent years so hopefully since it is a weekend he will be off doing his shopping.
    - Crack open the tin of Quality street, box of tayto and tin of biscuits
    - Watch the news to see the little faces as Santa departs Lapland
    - Again raid the fridge for a light dinner (after snacking all afternoon)
    - Get everyone in the house showered and dressed for mignight mass (at 9pm)
    - Meet the grandparents at the church. Mass and then show the kids the Crib.
    - Back Home. Milk, cookies, carrots and water left out for our important visitors.
    - Get the overtired and over excited kids to bed.
    - Christmas music on the ipod as the room gets "prepped" for Santa's visit (making sure the hard bits were done in the days before if at all possible).
    - Exchange presents with herself with glass of mulled wine, dying fire and something nice on the TV.
    - Late to Bed in anticipation of an early start

    Best day of the year.

    LOVE it:D!


  • Options
    #73
    Sala
    Registered Users Posts: 1,494 ✭✭✭Sala


    Loads of people here seem to have a tradition of getting a chinese take away on Christmas Eve.. think I'll adopt that one! :D

    I personally go home to the parents Christmas eve, arrange all my presents under the tree (my favourite part :p), help out with any food preparation, and go for a walk down town with to get any last minute bits and bobs, or just look at the lights. I go to midnight mass with mam, and then chill out in front of the fire with a glass of wine.


  • Options
    #74
    daniels.ducks
    Registered Users Posts: 492 ✭✭daniels.ducks


    -Have a good sleep in because i'm usually only finished school around the 22nd/23rd.

    -Have a good tayto sandwich and a few roses.

    -Help with all the chopping of the vegetables, of which there are a lot. We cook for a about three days and take into account people picking at the dinner before they are supposed to.

    -Make the stuffing as by father bones and rolls the massive turkey. We always pick our biggest turkey as nobody else will take it or has an oven enough bigger for it. Hence we have to bone it. One year we had a 36lb turkey :D Never seen the father so proud as he plucked the turkey.

    -Give out to my younger brother as he prepares the ham. Mustard, brown sugar and honey. Dressed with cloves also.

    -Take in mounds of visitors, as we sit around drinking tea.

    -Have a walk around the fields, check are the cattle alright and have water. Bring the dogs for a walk (bring the gun if the weather is not too sharp) lovely time of year for this. Also might call into some of the older members of the community while i am doing this. The smell of burning turf/coal is amazing.

    -Come home, snuggle up in a blanket, have hot chocolate, play a game of poker with the family or if we are not in the mood we turn on the TV.

    -Get ready for midnight mass.

    That's my Christmas eve finished! I fell all warm inside. The sooner these exams are over the better ;)


  • Options
    #75
    Fergality
    Closed Accounts Posts: 69 ✭✭Fergality


    Love this thread!

    Christmas eve might be my favourite day of the year, because it's mine, my twin brother's and my nanny's birthday :)

    My tradition starts on the twenty third at twelve o clock. Myself and most of my friends work in the local cinema, and the only days we close are from Christmas Eve through St. Stephen's day, so our staff Christmas party is always on the night of the 23rd. We have a meal and go out for drinks that night, and at twelve o clock it's my birthday, so I step it up a notch and usually have to give away drinks to get rid of them.

    Wake up EARLY on Christmas Eve, wish the brother a happy birthday and open presents with the bugger. Go up to my nan's then to celebrate our birthday's and the entire family is always there for the day, which makes it lovely/hilarious.

    Around Lunch time we'll go down town to finish up the Christmas shopping and to just observe the Christmas atmosphere in town. I normally meet up with the OH at this stage and go for some Christmas lunch.

    In the early evening we all meet up in my parents house for some birthday/Christmas Chinese, after which some of our friends will call up for a drink. We then go to the Sky and the Ground for drinks for around seven or eight. (This needs explaining. It's a Christmas Eve tradition in Wexford to spend it in the Sky and The Ground, and the place is always packed with everyone who you haven't seen since last Christmas in festive and jolly mood - it's fun!)

    Finally, we'll all go home at around half ten or whenever the Sky closes, and walk past people going home from ten o clock mass wishing EVERYONE a happy Christmas on the way home. Normally when we get home my parents will be returning from their friend's house and we'll all have a little catch up before retiring to bed.

    LOVE IT!! :D


  • Options
    #76
    That_Guy
    Registered Users Posts: 51,342 ✭✭✭✭That_Guy


    Christmas Eve >>> Christmas Day - FACT.

    Depending on the weather this year, I'll head into town and soak up the atomsphere with coffee in hand watching and secretly laughing inside at all the stressful shoppers doing their last minute shopping.

    Sounds strange but I like getting the bus home on Christmas Eve with people who are also heading home to families to spend the holiday with them.

    When I'm home, I usually head to Dunnes/Tesco with my dad to help with the alcohol purchases while my mam and sister do a bit of prep work for the feast the following day. ;)

    Do a bit of last minute cleaning after that and then it's chill time.

    That evening we get a bit of dinner. Usually a Chinese and then head down to the pub with the family for a drink.

    Parents usually head home after a couple of pints and I head across the road to my local with my mates. Pub is always jammed but everyone's in a great mood and is one of the only times that I can tolerate a crammed pub. :)

    Walk home with a mate and we've forged our own wee tradition whereby we'll break open a bottle or two and stand outside chatting away whilst munching on ham sandwiches. :pac:

    One or both parents are usually still awake so I'll have a natter and a drink with them before retiring to bed.

    Christmas day is nice and all especially with mates around that evening for drinks and a laugh but Christmas Eve beats it hands down for me.


  • Options
    #77
    eskimocat
    Registered Users Posts: 1,204 ✭✭✭eskimocat


    I have just spent the past hour reading this thread start to finish, and I didn't want it to finish! Love the stories and traditions. Made me smile :)

    So here is my contribution

    I am so looking forward to this Christmas this year. There will be some old traditions honoured and some new ones forged i hope!

    Well I am normally up early enough on Christmas Eve and spend it with my Mum. The tradition is generally the same whether she is here with me or I am there with her. We chat and laugh for a couple of hours in the morning, planning what final prep needs to be done. A quick tidy around, then its usually wrapping a few last minute pressies and off to deliver them. My mum is usually the new Pj's supplier so we visit friends and family on Christmas Eve to deliver them to all the good children... I'm telling you she has a list and she also checks it twice!
    I am happy to report that there is usually a new pair for me too... cause i am a good girl too.... :P

    Then maybe drop into the shop for a few bits and pieces, typically fresh parsley, lemons, cream and a loaf...

    We tend to have a few visitors on Christmas eve, so all production stops for a chat and a laugh. Once the door closes again, off we go again. All the while the radio is up top volume with Mum singing at the top of her voice... love it!
    Dinner is typically an old favourite and while she makes that I get a start on the prep for Christmas Dinner. Making sausagemeat stuffing, prep the veg, defrost the prawns, make the marie rose sauce etc.... ... (making myself hungry here!)

    The evening is spent in front of the fire, then its off to nearly midnight mass (10pm), listen to Daniel O'Donnell singing in the church, (don't knock him, he does a cracking version of Silent Night). The church is lit with candles, its beautiful.

    Home and cut the first slice of Christmas Cake! YUM! Sit chatting again and watching tv or reading. After a bit of a search (every year, as he is always away 'safe' somewhere!) I put the baby Jesus in the crib before heading to bed in my new PJ's reading my new book. If in my house there is new sheets and covers on the bed too...

    When I wake up on Christmas morning, its always to discover that Santa has put a little pressie on my locker.... :D And Mum finds that he has put a little pressie on hers too! Happy Christmas Everyone!!!!


  • Options
    #78
    leahyl
    Registered Users Posts: 14,244 ✭✭✭✭leahyl


    eskimocat wrote: »
    I have just spent the past hour reading this thread start to finish, and I didn't want it to finish! Love the stories and traditions. Made me smile :)

    So here is my contribution

    I am so looking forward to this Christmas this year. There will be some old traditions honoured and some new ones forged i hope!

    Well I am normally up early enough on Christmas Eve and spend it with my Mum. The tradition is generally the same whether she is here with me or I am there with her. We chat and laugh for a couple of hours in the morning, planning what final prep needs to be done. A quick tidy around, then its usually wrapping a few last minute pressies and off to deliver them. My mum is usually the new Pj's supplier so we visit friends and family on Christmas Eve to deliver them to all the good children... I'm telling you she has a list and she also checks it twice!
    I am happy to report that there is usually a new pair for me too... cause i am a good girl too.... :P

    Then maybe drop into the shop for a few bits and pieces, typically fresh parsley, lemons, cream and a loaf...

    We tend to have a few visitors on Christmas eve, so all production stops for a chat and a laugh. Once the door closes again, off we go again. All the while the radio is up top volume with Mum singing at the top of her voice... love it!
    Dinner is typically an old favourite and while she makes that I get a start on the prep for Christmas Dinner. Making sausagemeat stuffing, prep the veg, defrost the prawns, make the marie rose sauce etc.... ... (making myself hungry here!)

    The evening is spent in front of the fire, then its off to nearly midnight mass (10pm), listen to Daniel O'Donnell singing in the church, (don't knock him, he does a cracking version of Silent Night). The church is lit with candles, its beautiful.

    Home and cut the first slice of Christmas Cake! YUM! Sit chatting again and watching tv or reading. After a bit of a search (every year, as he is always away 'safe' somewhere!) I put the baby Jesus in the crib before heading to bed in my new PJ's reading my new book. If in my house there is new sheets and covers on the bed too...

    When I wake up on Christmas morning, its always to discover that Santa has put a little pressie on my locker.... :D And Mum finds that he has put a little pressie on hers too! Happy Christmas Everyone!!!!

    Aaaw that was so cute!! You're a kid at heart ;-) like myself!! I wish I still believed in Santa for gods sake!


  • Options
    #79
    eskimocat
    Registered Users Posts: 1,204 ✭✭✭eskimocat


    leahyl wrote: »
    Aaaw that was so cute!! You're a kid at heart ;-) like myself!! I wish I still believed in Santa for gods sake!

    Leahyl, I will ask him to give you something special this year.... maybe some snow and a snowman???? ******8*******


  • Options
    #80
    leahyl
    Registered Users Posts: 14,244 ✭✭✭✭leahyl


    eskimocat wrote: »
    Leahyl, I will ask him to give you something special this year.... maybe some snow and a snowman???? ******8*******

    Ooooh do you think he could manage it?!:D


  • Options
    #81
    goldenhoarde
    Registered Users Posts: 858 ✭✭✭goldenhoarde


    :) this year i've gotta do the putting together of the presents as the other years they just needed to be wrapped! - a bike in this case Christmas Eve for the young man (2 1/2) Really looking forward to that! That and the new bundle of joy that as of now is overdue!!!! :):):)


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #82
    Posy
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 27,523 Mod ✭✭✭✭Posy


    All my traditions are out the window this year because I'll be working Christmas Eve. :(

    Ah well, it'll give me time to walk around, have a last 'pre-Christmas' look at the lights and buy some bread on the way home for the following evening's turkey sandwiches. I'm determined to make the best of a bad situation!! :o


  • Options
    #83
    mental07
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭mental07


    Christmas Eve = greatest day of the year!!!!

    We have ham sandwiches every Christmas Eve, without fail. :)


  • Options
    #84
    El.duderino
    Registered Users Posts: 388 ✭✭El.duderino


    mental07 wrote: »
    Christmas Eve = greatest day of the year!!!!

    We have ham sandwiches every Christmas Eve, without fail. :)

    Note`

    Buy Ham everyday

    Then everyday = greatest day of the year!!!!


    :pac:


  • Options
    #85
    Buceph
    Registered Users Posts: 2,059 ✭✭✭Buceph


    Christmas Eve is very much a family thing for me. My close friends are from all over the country so they've usually headed home to their families for Christmas.

    The mother generally wakes us early (9/10am) because she's in a panic that she has so much to do and the house needs tidying and asks, "You will be good and help me won't you?" and I say, "Don't I always help you?" At which point we have a little hug and she makes me and my brother breakfast.

    After breakfast it's usually hoovering and tidying around the house for me and my brother while my sister does the polishing. At this point my mother has an argument with my father that he absolutely will put the heating on because the house is freezing and she's not going to have a freezing house on Christmas Eve (During the winter my father reluctantly puts on the heating about 7pm, no cozy daytime heating for us, but Christmas is where my mother lays down the law.)

    After hoovering has been done, it'll be a few computer games with my brother and checking up on forums and things to make sure all the internet people are having good Christmases. Then myself and my sister will sit down and watch whatever Christmas film is finishing up before offering to pluck the thyme for my mother. Plucking thyme is done while watching The Santa Clause (great Christmas film, terrible but terrible and good.) At this point my father will tell us to pluck lots of thyme because we can't have enough because he loves thyme in his stuffing. This will cause an argument between my mother and him because he gets her to make his families traditional stuffing and not normal stuffing (his is thyme, mashed spud, onion and breadcrumbs, I honestly don't even know what normal stuffing is made of.) My mother will be angry for a bit then, and give out to us for not plucking the thyme properly and letting twigs get into it. This will cause an argument between me, my sister and brother over which one of us failed to pluck the thyme correctly, all blaming each other until two of us three form a pact and agree the third person is to blame.

    At this point my mother should be nearly done with the ham and spiced beef, and will offer me a taste of them in return for me peeling spuds and other veg. (Because the food generally isn't to be touched until Christmas dinner the next day.) Once the food prep is done my father will get my mother a glass of wine, while myself, my brother, my father and my mother all sneak the presents around the house into my sister who is the only person who can wrap them properly apart from my mother (also she likes feeling important by knowing who is giving who what.)

    After that it's dinner, something non-Christmassy because we'll be having ham, spiced beef and turkey for dinner and in sandwiches for the next week (this will raise an argument between my father and me over whether the leftover turkey gets primarily kept for sandwiches or he takes it for his turkey curries.)

    The night wears down at that point, so we'll generally slouch in front of the TV, before our parents get ready to send us to bed so Santa can come. But this is after we leave a beer out for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph out, and of course not forgetting the cheque our father writes for Santa, because Santa is a businessman who has to pay the elves (and he's been getting more and more expensive since the elves unionised.)

    Then we all head to bed, to let the parent's prepare the room for Santa.

    And that's our Christmas Eve.


  • Options
    #86
    fishy fishy
    Registered Users Posts: 3,456 ✭✭✭fishy fishy


    get up early. Have breakfast, pack up the kids and the car and head off early morning to various relations with our christmas presents. spend about half hour with each, back home about one o clock. Start the prep for the Christmas dinner next day, kids either head to their little friends house or vice versa, and watch a traditional Christmas movie. Hubby heads out to do a "bit of business" which means grabbing some last minute surprises and having a couple pints with the friends - back home about six - have something quick and easy for tea, bring the dog for a walk, then come home, relax with some mulled wine, or brandies and port. Family call over, have a bit of a laugh, chat and sometimes a singsong. Off to bed about eleven. Up Christmas morning, prepare the fry before mass, open presents and then come home, make a leisurley meal and veg out.


  • Options
    #87
    sunrise91
    Registered Users Posts: 190 ✭✭sunrise91


    We have so many Christmas Eve traditions, love all of them!!

    First of all, the parents, my sister and I always go to town for a look around the shops and just to generally get in to the Christmas mood..

    Then me and my sister help mother dearest prepare the Christmas dinner, peeling the brussel sprouts is my speciality ;) And usually have the 6.00 news on to see Santa set off from the North Pole. I remember getting so excited over that as a child!

    And we always go to mass on Christmas Eve with my grandparents, and we always have to wear our best clothes to make a good impression on the rest of the parish :p Probably because it's the only time most of them set foot in a church all year..!!

    Then after mass, mam always has the Christmas ham cooked so we all have proper ham sandwiches. Grandparents live next door so they come over for a nightcap and then it's into the xmas jammies and off to bed to wait for Santy..:P


  • Options
    #88
    pencilsharp
    Registered Users Posts: 408 ✭✭pencilsharp


    Early Christmas Eve my dad wakes me and my sister and we head into town, my grandad did it with my dad and aunts and uncle, so now my dad has carried on the tradition. We look around the shops and help my dad pick out a present for my mam and dad lets us pick something small for ourselves, either an item of clothing or a small piece of jewellery. When we are finished shopping we go for breakfast and then head home. My dad always gets his car washed on the way home for some reason!

    When we get home we help mam hoover and wash the floors and do a general tidy around and then we all call into my aunts for a turkey or ham sandwich! Usually myself and my mam will head to the shops then and get any last bits and pieces and any bargains that have been reduced!

    Then off we head to 18.30 mass and when thats finished we get a chinese and veg out on the sofa catching up on the soaps! And my mam and dad will allow us open one Christmas present which is always a pair of pyjamas and slippers!!


  • Options
    #89
    Shoe Lover
    Closed Accounts Posts: 671 ✭✭✭Shoe Lover


    This is the nicest thread :D

    I love Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day. I think it is the air of anticipation! I'm back at home with my Mam and Dad at the min so Christmas traditions are resuming :) We will get up early, the brother will be at work. We'll turn on Ray D'Arcy on the radio, then will follow a flurry of cleaning and changing sheets, hoovering. Then we'll start on the dinner. Mam will make the sausagemeat stuffing, I'll get stuck into the veg, the sprouts are my speciality and Dad looks after Dustin! Then Mam will go get her hair done.

    Then Christmas Eve night is chillaxing, no dinner will be made, it's grab what you can or else get a take away, check Santa's progress on the 6.01 news and watch a Christmas film!


  • Options
    #90
    leahyl
    Registered Users Posts: 14,244 ✭✭✭✭leahyl


    Loving all the tales of tradition guys! Keep it up! Delighted this thread has been so popular!

    Can't believe it's 5 days to Christmas!!:eek:


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #91
    hdowney
    Registered Users Posts: 12,921 ✭✭✭✭hdowney


    leahyl wrote: »
    Loving all the tales of tradition guys! Keep it up! Delighted this thread has been so popular!

    Can't believe it's 5 days to Christmas!!:eek:

    oh my gawd i know. next to no time now. delighted. can't wait. christmas eve night i can NEVER sleep - and i am 26! like every five mins i roll over and check the clock and see is it time to get up yet. it is mad. if and when i have kids they will love me. i will be more excited than them :o


Advertisement