Christmas traditions are my favorite. Stockings, breakfast, pajamas . . . the list goes on and on. However, the most important tradition in the Witemeyer house, happens on Christmas Eve night.
From time the kids were little, we’ve spent Christmas Eve reading the birth story of Jesus from the Bible. At first, my husband and I read the story to our children. Then as the kids got older, they would read passages, with mom and dad helping out on the tricky words. Now we all read together, jumping between Matthew to Luke to get the full story.
Here are the passages we read:
- Luke 1:26-38
- Matthew 1:18-25
- Luke 2:1-20
- Matthew 2:1-12
We have a prayer together then end the night by opening one gift each. It’s a precious family moment, and one I wouldn’t miss for anything.
What are some of your Christmas Eve traditions?
Candlelight service, dinner at home, family time.
My Christmas Eve’s can change from year to year, but if I am at home, then it is watching Its A Wonderful Life and White Christmas.
Just a candle light service
We don’t have a specific Christmas Eve tradition since we may have a party that night or not. It changes every year. But we do make a special family night with movies, hot chocolate, pajamas and fun!
Our church started many years ago setting out luminaries around the church and town (as many as 5000) on Christmas Eve before the candlelight service
I am so spontaneous! We come up with something different every year.
On Christmas Eve we always spend time with my side of the family. We go to my home place where my mother use to live and then my sister and her husband lived and I was raised there. My sister passed away a few years ago so just her husband lives there now, but we all go home for Christmas. I enjoy spending time with my family, we have a big meal, open gifts and sometimes play some games.
We used to go to my mother’s for our family Christmas, but now she’s 86 and she goes to our families’ Christmas. I have Christmas whenever it is convenient for grandchildren schedules so we Christmas last Saturday.
Going to church on Christmas Eve.
Candle light service then couple of table games. Presents on 25th after the holiday meal.
We had a similar tradition. We would go to Christmas Eve service. Come home and have dinner of their choice. Usually pizza or hot dogs. (they didnt get either of these too much so it was a treat) with chocolate milk. Earlier in the week I had baked a lamb cake. We would pull the cake in from the garage where it was very cool. We would sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. And as we were eating the cake, my husband would read the Christmas story. We would all say a popcorn prayer, thanking God for sending his son Jesus to Earth for us. Then we would discuss the story and what it meant to us individually. And as the children got older they would help read the story. Soon they would both be reading the story. It was so beautiful to see how their reading came along and how their discussions grew and became more in-depth and meaningful. then we each would open one gift. For the kids I always got a book for them. They knew they were getting a book, but which one? Then we would all stay up in our pajamas and read for an hour. We would say a prayer together and go to bed anticipating the next day.
When my now 2 adult children were very young , we would let them open a gift on Christmas Eve. Now, we have dinner either at our daughters house or at our house, we just hang around and play some games or listen to my husband play Christmas music on the saxophone , clarinet and flute. We’ll see if our granddaughter and our grandson who also play the clarinet and the saxophone will join their papa play Christmas music. Our son and his girlfriend and our youngest grandson live 6 hours away, and they will be arriving here Christmas Eve at night , and we are very happy and Thankful for that. We will be opening presents and getting our stockings on Christmas Day and we will eat dinner at our house and we will be decorating little bird houses with Christmas scenes. We will also be decorating a gingerbread house which we also do either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. For sure we will be leaving the Christmas tree lights all day and all night on Christmas Eve and all day Christmas Day until Christmas night. May you and your family have a Very Merry and Blessed Christmas.
Candlelight service on Christmas Eve. Chili on Christmas Day at our son’s house with the grandkids.
Hello, Karen! This year we are in Abilene (wish we could see you!!!) When my kids were growing up, Christmas Eve meant opening one gift, having a little talent show that each person had to participate in (some years were quite interesting!), having strawberries & whip cream waffles and reading the Christmas story in Luke. Now that my kids are all adults, if we get together, they don’t want to do the talent show anymore but my son has new traditions in his family. They have a movie/popcorn/hot chocolate night and read the Christmas story before bed. They still do strawberry & whip cream waffles too! We will all be together this year (my 2 adult daughters too) so it’ll be a houseful and it will be joyful!!!!!
Candlelight service.
Such wonderful traditions (or creative spontaneity!). I pray you will all enjoy a safe holiday filled with joyful memory-making celebrations. Who knows . . . maybe this will be the year a new tradition is born. 🙂 Blessings to you all!
Our family has Christmas dinner together and then open our gifts.
Christmas Eve we go to Candlelight service, weather and animals permitting (It’s 20 miles to town and the roads aren’t always safe this time of year.) If we don’t go to church we have our own candlelight service by the fireplace. My husband or the grand children will read the passages from Luke and Matthew, we will say a prayer and then sing carols. Our late night supper is tamales a tradition brought to us by our customers many of whom buy a pig to make tamales for Christmas. This year we will be celebrating on Monday to accommodate the grandkids’ schedules and the house will be full and very noisy.:)
I don’t have any CHristmas EVe traditions but it’s not too late to start some! 😀 I did get Christmas PJ’s fro myself.
When I was young, my mother’s family would attend midnight services together. She was one of nine siblings, all married and with multiple children. Not everyone went, but we usually had 30 or so at church. Afterwards, we would go to my grandparents’ for brunch. It was great chaos. We would get home by 2 am. By some miracle Santa would have arrived while we were gone, so we would open presents before going to bed. That was smart on my parents’ part. They could sleep in in the morning and not have children begging to open gifts.
I hope you and your family have a joyous Christmas and a wonderful 2022.
When I was young, we would go to Christmas Eve service. We would go to two different relatives houses after church. Later on, we would go to a friend’s house after Christmas Eve services. For the last four or five year, we have not been able to go to Christmas Eve service due to being disabled. I read from Luke 2. Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
Well, one of our traditions is watching The Christmas Peace Declaration on TV at 12:00. For the residents of Turku the tradition has been to go see the Declaration live, except last year and this year for obvious reasons. Even the residents of Turku have to watch it on TV now, just like the rest of us.
Joulurauhan julistus 2020 – The Christmas Peace Declaration 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM8M5TD4F5k
English translation::
“Tomorrow, God willing,
is the graceful celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour;
and thus is declared a peaceful Christmas time to all, by advising devotion and to behave otherwise quietly and peacefully,
because he who breaks this peace and violates the peace of Christmas by any illegal or improper behaviour shall under aggravating circumstances be guilty and punished according to what the law and statutes prescribe for each and every offence separately.
Finally, a joyous Christmas feast is wished to all inhabitants of the city.”
After the announcement, the audience and the male choir sings the Finnish national anthem and the Navy band plays marching music “Porilaisten Marssi”.
Declaration of Christmas Peace in Turku has a long history. Reportedly Declaration was read for the first time in the same place, Old Great Square of Turku, in 1320.
Turku is Finland’s ancient capital.
Merry Christmas! Reading the Christmas story is a major part of our Christmas celebration. For many years my husband read the story. When he was no longer able to read it I read it. Our Christmas tree is decorated with ornaments that have religious significance to us and each person in the family has a personalized ornament. My husband’s ornament is the one the funeral home gave us personalized with his name and the years he lived. We also carol every year.