I don’t know about you but I love hearing about other peoples Christmas Day routines. I love how we all do things so different and how we all have our own traditions and things we must do every year to celebrate the season. My Christmas Day routine has obviously changed in the years, there’s no waking up at 5am to see if Santa has visited or not being able to fall asleep due to excitement, but none the less its still exciting!
As the title suggests, I’ll be going through my Christmas Day routine for you, and I want to hear about yours in the comments too!
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
I know this says a Christmas Day routine but I wanted to include some traditions of what me and my family do on Christmas Eve. Usually if we can, we’ll take Christmas Eve off of work. We head to our local supermarket and buy the last minute items that we know we couldn’t have got any earlier. Things like cheese and fresh fruit and vegetables. This is a tradition for us, and even though the supermarket is so busy, its part of our routine. The local supermarket we go to always has a live brass band performing Christmas songs whilst you shop, and its so magical. Once we get home, we dress the table with our fancy silver ware and wine glasses in anticipation for the next day.
My mom then usually prepares the food for the next day, such as the stuffing and other desserts we have on Christmas Eve too!
CHRISTMAS DAY
As I mentioned earlier I no longer get up at 5am wanting to open gifts. I still live at home at the moment, so my parents end up getting before me now on Christmas Day. We wake up around 9am, and get ready for church. Church is at 10am until 11am. Once we get home, we then wait for lunch time. We aren’t the family who open presents right away in the morning, we are afternoon present openers haha. To some people thats really weird, but my siblings and their families come over and we love to do that all together.
Once my family all come round, we eat Christmas dinner, which for me consists of the vegetarian option. You can find some yummy Christmas recipes here.
PRESENTS
After our food is all digested we get down to opening gifts with one another. I really love waiting to open them, it gives you something to look forward to later on in the day. Its also really nice to wait so that we can all open them together rather than opening them on our own. I’m sure Christmas this year will be alot different with the current circumstances, but I’m hoping at least we can have some family cover to see us, so we don’t break the tradition!
What is your Christmas Day routine? What do you do every year?
I hope you liked that little Insight into Christmas in my household! I would really love to hear how you celebrate, or if you don’t what you do on the 25th December instead!
Missed Blogmas Day 6? Click here to go back and read it.
Olivia x
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Afternoon opening presents here as well. After eating what feels like everything, (note everything) have to eat orange chocolate while watching a Christmas film✨ xx
Hahaha loved this🤣 You’re allowed to eat everything! Its Christmas after all! xx
I don’t have a routine anymore since getting married, but I suppose we’ll make one this year 🙂
Yesss create a new one this year! 🙂
Family gatherings always come at this time of the year. Spending time with friends, siblings is the best thing to do.
I just discovered your blogsite and I am amazed
Agreed! The quality time is probably my favourite thing about the holidays!
Thank you so much!!
Having most of my family gone now there seems to be very little reason to celebrate in the ways we once did. For me I pull out a tree skirt mom and I made in the 70’s and place a little white ceramic tree the one with lite brites inserted she made in ceramics also in the 70’s. I add a simple wreath at the door. For the 2 of us we just exchange what we really could use and I usually cook a ham dinner not sure about this year yet but I can assure you I feed the wild birds all day as they are the true gifts for me. Merry Christmas.
This is so lovely. My dad is a bird lover, we have so many bird feeders in our garden. He really loves them, so I can relate! I Hope you have a great Christmas, whoever and wherever you spend it!
We will make the best of it like everyone else Merry Christmas.
My Christmas Day Routine is thinking about the days from Thanksgiving Day leading up to Christmas Day and how the anticipation of Christmas Day are more exciting than Christmas, but on Chrismas Day, I enjoy my sons opening their gifts and talking about how good Santa Claus was to them and their smiles and happiness, and enjoying family and friends stopping by for Christmas meals and all of us singing Christmas Carols and the adults driking eggnog spiced with gin and everybody celebrating Jesus Birthday and all of us thankful for such group love and happiness!
I love this! I agree, the build up is really exciting! For me its gifting others presents to them. I really love gifting!
Your response conincide with my giftgiving as well and your post is on point with the goodness and happiness comprising Christmas. Thank you!
Your response conincide with my love of giftgiving, and your post is on point comprising the goodness and happiness of Christmas. Thank you, Ms. Oliver!
I loved this blog post and your blog so much!
Thank you so much Hannah!
We are really unconventional and have Christmas dinner in the evening! We do a buffet lunch with finger food and bucks fizz. My sister now lives in Canada and last year made us wait till when she came to visit after Christmas to do the buffet lunch!! Just shows how important and sentimental all our Christmas traditions are xx
Thats so cool! I love hearing about the way others structure their Christmas days! I love that its family orientated too! xx
Growing up, my parents and I would open one present on Christmas eve. Usually, I would open the gift from my oldest aunt, because she always sent pajamas. Then, I would wear those pjs to bed that night.
We opened everything else first thing in the morning!
Later, that “one gift opening, the rest Christmas morning” was carried on with my two children and I.
Now, my husband and I don’t even exchange gifts. Adopting an “everyday is Christmas” mentality, where appreciation is the gift, and we surprise each other with tangible or non-tangible gifts often. We find Christmas too commercialized. We do send gifts to my children and granddaughters though, and they follow the same opening routine as I stated before. Merry Christmas to ALL, everyday. ❤️🦋🌀
My cousins do a similar tradition and know others who do the open one gift on Christmas Eve tradition! I love that you and your husband do that. Thats so lovely! You’re so right. We choose to follow these traditions of giving gifts at certain times of the year. But we shouldn’t need a special occasion to give gifts to those we love.💛
This is such a lovely idea for a blog post! 🥰 x
Thank you so much Bethany 🙂 x
You have amazingly wonderful traditions. I don’t follow a routine anymore. This year, I think we should all be mindful of the potential for virus spread and protect ourselves and family members. Have a blessed Christmas.
Thank you! Yes, we have to change our traditions slightly this year to keep everyone safe!
My family does Christmas Bingo the Sunday before to get our Christmas week started!
That sounds like so much fun!!! Can none family members join 🤣?
Come on! 😂
Asking for a friend🥺(me lol)🤣
The more, the merrier!
Sounds like you have a very traditional Christmas! I sometimes work Christmas day…but I’ll have my parents over for Christmas dinner usually the last day I’m off beforehand. We do gifts with each other after dinner as well.
I love this! It sucks sometimes when you have to work on Christmas 😞I hope you don’t have to this year!
This year is the first in the last 4 which I have Christmas off 🙂
Wow! I’m so glad! You can enjoy the holidays this year!
Loved reading about your routine! My family is from the Dominican Republic. People from there typically celebrate on Christmas eve. We get together, have food and drinks and desserts. The kids get to stay up until midnight and then they get to open gifts before finally going to bed! Christmas day is typically just a lounging around type of day for us, enjoying just our immediate family, in our own homes, and kids playing with their new toys.
Is there a reason its celebrated on Christmas Eve? I have never heard this before! Sounds interesting😊
To be honest, I’m not sure! Lol I always thought it was the norm while growing up in a mostly Latin community. Haha
On Christmas, we cook for hours. Everything from scratch. Fresh artichokes, vegan meatballs, Italian tomato sauce on pasta, spinach sautéed with garlic and EVOO, roasted chestnuts, and vegan cannoli cheesecake. And drink red wine of course! At night, we watch old episodes of The Honeymooners! Have a lovely holiday season, Olivia! 🌞
Wow! This sounds incredible! One of my friends is vegan and would love the sound of this🤣 Same to you!
I loved reading about your Christmas routine 😊 My Christmas routine has changed a bit over the years. We always went to Christmas eve service at church in the evening. As kids we opened gifts Christmas morning at home. Then went to one grandparent’s home, had lunch, and opened gifts. Then went to the other grandparents home, had dinner, and opened gifts. Once my parents moved away and my grandmother fell ill and went to live with my aunt and uncle, my husband and I would stay with them on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We attended Christmas Eve service as usual. Christmas day we would open gifts aftef breakfast and have Christmas dinner when my aunt’s family came over. Last Christmas and this Christmas will just be my husband and I at our home because I can’t travel. But we still call and talk to oyr families on Christmas day.
Its cool to hear about how your routine has changed over the years! It can be hard as you get older to still stick to traditions but I guess they are just new traditions that you have created! Christmas spent with those you love are important 💛
Thry celebrate Christmas in Germany on the 24th and I can’t get used to it 😆 the brass band in the supermarket sounds amazing!
Really?! I wonder why??
No idea but it’s the same throughout most of Europe apart from England and Ireland I think!
Our Christmas day routine changed over the years when my grandparents passed away as they were always part of our Christmas day and spending it at our house. It’s usually pretty chill. I like to get up early to go and visit my aunt on Christmas morning though x
I love how its stayed quite the same for you over the years! I think its important to keep traditions going!
Awe, what wonderful traditions! I love that you guys go to church on Christmas Day. I just posted our Christmas Traditions on Monday!
Its something we make sure we do! Its a really main focus for our Christmas season!
I’ll go check it out 🙂
Loved the wonderful blog. Very homely.
Thank you!
I loved reading your Christmas Day routine, are you LDS? X
Thank you! No i’m not ☺️ x
My routine is getting tucked right into the cans of cider and getting royally trashed as I hate Christmas and spend the day drinking haha!
Reading this reminded me of Christmas with my family.
This will be my fourth Christmas without family so reading this brought back memories as your traditions are very similar to mine lol I miss all these little things!
Good post Olivia!
Merry Christmas 🎅🎄
https://theathoolikaonline.wordpress.com/2020/12/18/to-december-with-love/
Growing up I never really had a Christmas routine, as in my family we weirdly did presents on New Year Day (maybe it’s a cultural thing? I’m from Greece). My 5 years in UK I’ve always worked on Xmas Day, so usually I had dinner with friends on Christmas Eve and dinner after work on Christmas Day and we opened presents then. Today though(day off), I woke up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep 😆. Felt like a child excited to open the presents but sun rises at 8am and it was too dark to start the day. Eventually managed to sleep until 8:30, presents were opened by 9:30am.🙈 I’m too inpatient for afternoon present opening when I’m at home! 😝Merry Xmas! 🎄
“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others.” ~ Bob Hope
Have a wonderful Christmas and joyous days ahead with warm laughter. Take care.