Six Ways to Celebrate Christmas Eve

Christmas is approaching quickly, so it's time to dig through your cluttered closets and pull out the old lights, tinsel and ornaments. If you've been doing Christmas like you've been doing it year after year then it's not just a tradition it's a routine. Sure, routines add familiarity and a certain level of comfort but routines have the potential to turn drab quickly. If you want to celebrate Christmas Eve differently this year take a look below to see how. Tae these ideas and incorporate them into your own celebration.

Be sure to purchase a Christmas tree. Take it home turn on some Christmas music and rock around the tree while decorating and singing. My family and I do this each year and it extremely fun and most importantly it takes the stress out of unpacking ornaments and unwrapping the massive tangle of Christmas lights that may or may not work. Whatever idea you choose, be sure not to skip out on the cookies, milk, and reindeer food.

Idea # 1 The Great Bake Off -. On Christmas Eve have a bake off, with each member of your family preparing a different dessert or dish. Desserts are more fun to prepare as you can get more decorative, creative and showy. Try your take on gingerbread men and gingerbread houses, cookie shaped ornaments, or a triple layered chocolate cake. Take pictures. Make a drawing box where each member of the family can vote for who has best dish or dessert. Whoever wins gets to open their present first or you can even purchase a special gift just for this purpose, and whoever wins gets this golden gift. Afterwards, stay up chatting, marveling at the foods and go to bed with a satisfied sweet tooth. Wake up the next morning turn on that Christmas music, sit around the tree and begin opening the presents.

Idea#2- The Cinema Invasion- On Christmas Eve rent a bulk of Christmas movies for the family, some stand out wholesome entertainment movies include; all of the The Santa Clause movies with Tim Allen, The Polar Express, the Home Alone movies, Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase and the movie Elf. Bake some cookies or brownies, pop some popcorn get some warm milk or hot cocoa and watch the movies until you fall asleep. This is a great way for families to cuddle up and spend some time together, laughing and enjoying good movies. Ice cream sundaes are also another treat you can include if you don't want to bake cookies and brownies. Be sure to leave Santa some of those cookies and leave them out before you fall asleep. Wake up Christmas morning and enjoy your presents.

Idea#3- Theatrical Site- This will work great for large families. To pull this off you will need time to prepare. The gist of this idea is to have each family member put on a Christmas related play. Each member should write down the names of the plays that they would like to see reenacted and then place them all in a Santa hat. Next family members in groups of 2 or 3 pull the names from the hat and that is the play that they will be responsible for putting on. Pop some popcorn, get some drinks and snacks and a camcorder and sit back and enjoy the show. This will be extremely comical if you have a naturally silly family. The laughs will ring throughout the house all night. You might have more play ideas (in the hat) than the amount of people and if this is the case, the family groups will just have to negotiate on which play they should perform. Younger children will love this if they aren't too shy. Keep performing the plays up until midnight.

Idea#4-Caroling and Tales- If you have a musical family, then this is the perfect way to spend Christmas Eve. If there is anyone in your family who can play instruments gather them up and make them the band. Everyone should stand around just singing. Just sing till your heart's content, put a twist on old Christmas songs, add some hip hop into it, or some salsa. Do an opera version of Jingle bells be creative. If there is no one available to play instruments, go purchase a karaoke version of Christmas Carols, or sing along to your favorite Christmas cd. If you don't want to spend any money at all, visit youtube and make a Christmas song playlist and let the music play.

Idea#5- Ornaments and Take out- This is a yummy way to celebrate Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve get the family together and create a list of five fast food restaurants that everyone likes. Once the list is made have everyone chip in and order from the five different restaurants. Use this day to pig out. Have no guilt, enjoy yourself.

Some restaurant take out ideas include pizza place, Chinese restaurant, a sub shop, McDonalds etc... Bring all the food home, lay it out on the table and pig out. In-between or after pigging out everyone should gather around the table and make special cd ornaments.

To make the ornaments all you will need is;

Blank cds
Permanent marker
Scissor
Tape
Glitter
Jewels
Markers
Buttons
Feathers (arts and craft items)
Craft glue
Ribbon
Instant camera (optional)

Take a picture of yourself/family and glue it onto the cd or decorate the cd using the art supplies.

Whatever way you choose to decorate the cd it is important that everyone in the family write something special on the cd.

Loop the ribbon through the hole and present your ornament and hang it on the tree. When it's time to take the Christmas tree down be sure to pack the cd ornaments in a nice box to keep them safe until next year. Do the same thing next year.

Idea #6 Board it out- Board games are not for everyone but the joy they bring is contagious. On Christmas Eve the family can pull out the old board games, sweets, and snacks and sit around and play. Adults can adapt to pretty much any board game but young children will not be interested in games that are too difficult or too extensive. Some great games for adults and teens to play are charades, bogus Battle of the Sexes, scrabble, twister or Monopoly. For children; Elefun the Butterfly Catchin' Game, Candyland, Connect Four, Memory, Checkers, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Operation, and Don't Break the Ice are great games for kids to play.