With all the typical preparation and organisation required for Christmas Day and its merry festivities, the festive season can get a little hectic at times. But once the presents are wrapped and the meals are well-planned for the next day, Christmas Eve can be the perfect opportunity to share in a few much-needed magical hours of fun (or time out) with family and friends.
It is never too close to Christmas Day to create some wonderful, new Christmas Eve traditions too. To help inspire you to get involved, our gurus at The Christmas Cart have put together some of their favourite Christmas Eve traditions to help boost the fun and excitement of the big day in your household into this neat little list.
Bake and Decorate a Gingerbread House
If you are attending a Christmas party, a gingerbread house is a timelessly traditional Christmas sweet treat that is perfect for taking along with you as an extra Christmas party activity.
You can source an array of gingerbread house recipes and tutorials online. But if you would prefer to leave the baking part for someone else, you can often locate a gingerbread house kit from stores such as ALDI, Kmart or Big W. These kits come packed with the gingerbread already in the shape of a house. All that is required is to stick it together with icing and then get decorating! Just grab a bunch of smarties, musk sticks, freckles, and more tasty sweet treats, then build the house of your dreams. This is a lovely Christmas Eve tradition to start with the kids.
And of course, don’t forget to leave some cookies for Santa!
Visit Christmas Lights
A house covered in Christmas lights is a sight to behold – let alone when you see a street full of such houses. Many towns and suburbs have a street where festive friendly competition has set in and each house seems to be better than the last, with flashing lights timed to music and life-sized moving Santa and reindeer.
You can look online to find the best areas in your city or town, then pack the car with the kids and family for a night filled with more lights than you can find in Tinseltown! This is a beautiful way to embrace and share the spirit of Christmas in your local community and is a Christmas Eve tradition that will sure to be asked for every year.
Watch a Favourite Christmas Film
Whether you’re feeling naughty with The Grinch, Bad Santa or Home Alone, nice with Miracle on 34th Street, or a bit romantic with Love Actually or The Holiday; there are hundreds of beautiful Christmas movies that were just made to set the festive mood. Find your favourite, then put your feet up with a bowl of popcorn, a tasty Christmas Eve cocktail or mocktail, and soak up this Christmas Eve tradition with the magic of home cinema.
* Tip: for some Christmas Eve drinks inspiration, take a look at these ‘cool Christmas drinks’.
Make a Christmas Eve Box
A Christmas Eve box is the perfect way to create a magical Christmas Eve tradition. This is a tradition that encourages everyone to spend some special time together to enjoy the spirit of the season and prepare for what fun lies ahead. What will be inside your Christmas Eve box this year?
See how to ‘get your family Christmas keepsake box ready’.
Get Ready for Santa!
Getting ready for Santa is definitely one of the most important Christmas Eve traditions around. And word on the street is, you can get ready for Santa, no matter what age you are!
With many homes across our country being void of a chimney, you might just need to reinvent the wheel a little for Santa to deliver his loot to your home. All you need is an old “magic key” to place under your doormat to finish the job perfectly.
Following are some other ways that our team like to get ready for Santa as part of our Christmas Eve traditions.
- Don’t forget to lay out your Santa sacks or hang your Christmas stockings
- Santa and his reindeer will need some treats to get them through the night. A popular choice is leave cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. But why not change it up a little this year – we are sure that Santa would appreciate the variety. Take some inspiration from our article ‘Christmas kitchen fun for all ages’.
- Don’t forget to include Elf of the Shelf as part of your Christmas Eve traditions and festivities too. For inspiration, see ‘our favourite Christmas Elf on the Shelf ideas’
* Tip: for more Christmas Eve traditions and fun, see our ‘night before Christmas to-do list’.
As the saying goes, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. There are so many opportunities to make lasting memories and beautiful Christmas Eve traditions with the special people in your life. And that is exactly what makes the entire Christmas season so special – good company, good times and creating wonderful memories.
The Christmas Cart has an amazing variety of Christmas décor, gifts and keepsakes to help you create magical Christmas Eve traditions. Visit our website to shop the range and explore our Inspiration Gallery for plenty more ideas to help boost your Christmas traditions.