Christmas Eve traditions: 24 ideas to start with your kids

Ask adults what they remember about Christmas as children and many will describe Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day: the smell of the kitchen, the walk home in the dark, the plate by the fireplace, the impossible wait. Christmas Eve traditions are the part of the holiday that belongs to your family alone, and most of them cost almost nothing. Here are 24 ideas for families with kids, one for each day of Advent if you like, grouped by time of day. At the end: Christmas morning traditions, what works at each age, and a checklist you can print.

Afternoon traditions

1. Bake cookies for Santa

The kitchen is the warmest room on December 24. Make a simple cookie dough together, or decorate shop-bought gingerbread. The best-looking cookie goes on Santa’s plate later; the rest are for “testing.”

2. Make reindeer food

A handful of oats and seeds in a small bag, to scatter on the lawn or the balcony before bed so the reindeer can find the house. Skip the glitter many recipes add: it ends up in soil and in birds, and the oats alone do the job.

3. A kindness delivery

Take a plate of those cookies to a neighbor who lives alone, drop a toy at a collection point, or leave a thank-you note for the mail carrier. Kids remember who they gave to as clearly as what they were given.

4. Go and see the lights

A walk or a slow drive around the brightest streets in town, with a flask of hot chocolate. Pick a favorite house every year and check whether it has outdone itself.

5. A Christmas Eve service or carols

A candlelight service, a crib service for little ones, midnight Mass for older kids, or carols in the town square. Even for families who are not churchgoers, singing together outdoors in the dark is hard to beat.

Dinner traditions

6. A dinner from your roots

Many families eat their most traditional meal on Christmas Eve: the Feast of the Seven Fishes in Italian-American homes, Wigilia in Polish ones, Nochebuena dinner in Spanish and Latin American families, sausages and potato salad in many German homes. If you do not have one, borrow a dish from a grandparent’s past and start yours.

7. Wait for the first star

In Poland, Christmas Eve dinner traditionally starts when the first star appears in the sky. Give the kids the job of watching from the window. It is a brilliant way to get a hungry five-year-old to sit still for ten minutes.

8. Set an extra place

Another Polish custom: an empty place at the table for an unexpected guest, or for someone who cannot be there. It starts a lovely conversation with kids about who is missing this year.

9. The best thing this year

Before dessert, everyone says the best thing that happened to them this year. Write the answers on a card and keep them in a box; in ten years it is the most precious thing you own.

Cozy evening traditions

10. New pajamas

The most popular Christmas Eve tradition of all, and practical: everyone looks good in the morning photos. Matching family pajamas are fun; a pair the child chose is worn longer.

11. A Christmas Eve box

A box (or a basket, or a pillowcase) with pajamas, a story, a hot chocolate and something small, opened after dinner. It gives the long evening a shape. Our Christmas Eve box ideas guide has fillers by age and budget.

12. A hot chocolate bar

Mugs, cocoa, a jug of warm milk and toppings: marshmallows, whipped cream, sprinkles, a candy cane to stir. Ten minutes of setup, and the kids talk about it all year.

13. The same film, every year

Choose one Christmas film and make it the Christmas Eve film. Repetition is what turns a film into a tradition. Lights off, blankets on, popcorn in a bowl that only comes out tonight.

14. A game or puzzle night

A card game, a family board game or a jigsaw started after dinner. A tradition for families who are not film people, and a good way to keep grandparents and kids at the same table.

15. Open one present

In Germany, Poland, Scandinavia and many other countries, presents are opened on the evening of December 24. If you open on Christmas morning, one present tonight is a nice nod to that, and it lets off a little steam. Make it the pajamas or a book.

16. A book exchange

In Iceland, people give each other books on Christmas Eve and spend the night reading; the custom is called Jólabókaflóð, the Christmas book flood. Each person gets one book and an hour in a blanket with a hot drink.

Santa traditions

17. Track Santa

NORAD, the North American air defense command, and its predecessor have “tracked” Santa every Christmas Eve since 1955, and the tracker website shows where his sleigh is on the map. Kids check it every half hour, and it is a gentle way to say “he won’t come until you’re asleep.”

18. Put out the plate

Cookies and milk in the US; a mince pie, a glass of something for Father Christmas and a carrot for Rudolph in the UK. Use the same plate every year, or let the kids decorate a paper one.

19. Hang the stockings

Stockings on the mantel, the bedpost or the door handle. If you do not have a fireplace, a hook by the front door works. Little kids like hanging their own.

20. A key for Santa

No chimney? An old key on a ribbon with a tag that says “for Santa” answers the question before it is asked. Hang it on the door handle at bedtime.

21. A last note to Santa

A short note left with the plate: a thank-you, a question about the reindeer, a reminder about the bike. In the morning, Santa’s reply is waiting. Our free letter from Santa template fills in your child’s name and prints at home, so the answer looks the part.

22. A message from Santa before bed (our own product)

This is where our product fits, and we are saying so plainly. A short video in which Santa, an Elf, Snowflake or Reindeer says your child’s name, mentions a few things from their year that you choose, and tells them it is time to sleep because the sleigh is nearly ready. You type the details, an AI writes the lines, and you read the script for free before you pay. The English video is 15 seconds long and ready in minutes, so you can make it that afternoon. Play it on the TV after the plate goes out, then straight to the stairs.

Bedtime traditions

23. The same story, every year

“’Twas the Night Before Christmas” (the poem published in 1823 as “A Visit from St. Nicholas”) is the classic, read by a parent, a grandparent on a video call, or by the oldest child to the youngest. For a story where your child is the hero, our 25-page Christmas comic puts their name in the title and the speech balloons, and reads on a tablet in bed; it is a digital flip-book and PDF, not a printed book.

24. The photo on the stairs

One photo, same place, same pose, every Christmas Eve: kids in their new pajamas on the stairs or in front of the tree. In a few years it becomes the best album you have.

Christmas morning traditions

Christmas Eve sets up the morning. A few morning traditions that pair well with the evening ones:

• Stockings first, presents after breakfast. Stockings buy the adults a coffee.
• The wait at the top of the stairs until everyone is up, then down together.
• Check the plate. Crumbs, a bitten carrot and Santa’s reply to last night’s note.
• One present at a time, youngest first, so everyone sees every gift.
• A special breakfast: cinnamon rolls, pancakes or a breakfast casserole made the night before.
• A walk after lunch, new bikes and scooters included.

Christmas Eve traditions by age

Printable Christmas Eve checklist

Choose your traditions and print this page (or just this table) to stick on the fridge. Next year you will know exactly what you did, and the kids will hold you to it.

How to start a tradition that lasts

• Pick three, not twenty-four. A short list you repeat beats a long list you rush.
• Keep the order. Bath, box, pajamas, plate, story, bed. The sequence is the tradition.
• Keep it cheap. The traditions that survive are the ones you can afford every year.
• Let the kids own one. The plate, the key or the reindeer food is “their job,” every year.
• Write it down. A note on your phone or the printed checklist above, so next year you remember.

Still looking for presents? Our gift guides by age start with Christmas gifts for 5 year olds, and the last-minute digital Christmas gifts list has ideas you can still give on December 24.