A book can carry a Christmas Eve tradition in its margins: a date, a name, a pencil mark beside the line Grandpa always read in his loudest voice. Next December, that same page is waiting.
Christmas Eve traditions give December 24 something your family can return to: a poem before bed, cookies for Santa, a familiar dinner, or a walk to see the lights. Choose from these eleven ideas, learn which are old or recent, and use the free printable to make your own evening plan. Jump to: family plan printable · eleven traditions · dinner ideas · Nochebuena · starting a tradition
How can we plan Christmas Eve together?
Pick one activity you want to share, then let your child choose another. A third can stay optional. Write what you’ll do, when it fits, and who will help. Print “Our Christmas Eve Plan” on US Letter or A4 paper, at actual size, in black and white. Read the choices aloud and let a younger child circle a picture or dictate an answer.
You can fill the page like this:
| Part of the evening | Our choice | Who helps? |
|---|---|---|
| With dinner | Soup and sandwiches at the kitchen table | You heat the soup; your child sets out napkins |
| After dinner | Look for neighborhood lights | Your child chooses a color to spot |
| Before bed | Read a Christmas poem | You read; your child joins in on a favorite line |
These are suggestions to move around your evening. If you’re visiting relatives, choose a book that fits in your bag. If someone works late, the shared part can happen before they leave or after they get home.
Day 24 of the advent calendar printable leads into this plan. Keep the last card beside it so your child can see where the countdown ends.
What Christmas Eve traditions can we start with our kids?
The ideas below include older customs, traditions recorded in individual families, and new rituals you can begin tonight. We’ve chosen activities that give children something to do alongside an adult, with options for staying home and using what you already have.
1. Read “A Visit from St. Nicholas” aloud
A nineteenth-century classic: the poem commonly called “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” first appeared anonymously in 1823. It is traditionally attributed to Clement C. Moore.
Make it your last shared reading of the evening. You read the narration; your child can take over the reindeer names or make the sound of hooves. Pause at the miniature sleigh to look at the illustration together.
The complete poem is free to read in Project Gutenberg’s illustrated edition, with pictures by Jessie Willcox Smith from the 1912 Houghton Mifflin edition. The tiny sleigh, rooftop clatter, and sudden arrival give you plenty to do with your voice.
If your family prefers a different reading, choose from the Christmas poems for kids or open a familiar book. Write the title and year on your plan.
2. Leave cookies and milk for Santa
An established Santa custom: leaving a snack has several origin stories. Cornell Cooperative Extension describes the practice and the competing explanations for how it began.
Tonight, let your child choose a cookie, arrange the plate, and dictate a short thank-you note. You can bake with a recipe you know, or use cookies already in the kitchen. If you’re baking, you handle the oven while your child helps with mixing or decorating.
For a child who wants to write more, the letter to Santa template offers space to tell him about the year as well as gifts.
3. Follow Santa with NORAD
A twentieth-century tradition: Santa tracking began with the Continental Air Defense Command, or CONAD, in 1955. NORAD continued it after forming in 1958, long before families could follow a website.
Open the official NORAD Tracks Santa website together on December 24. Let your child choose a place on the map and help find where you live. You can wonder aloud about the distance between the two.
An older child might find the same place in an atlas; a younger one can point out land and water. Follow the website’s current information for that year’s tracking.
4. Open a Christmas Eve box
A recent custom: a Christmas Eve box holds things to use that evening, such as a book, pajamas, a snack, or a game. Its exact starting date remains uncertain.
Use a box or basket you already own. Put in tonight’s book and one activity, then let your child open it after dinner. A folded note can announce whose turn it is to choose the bedtime story.
For a paper activity, tuck in one of the Christmas coloring pages or a page from the Christmas activity pages, with crayons from home. Your child can color beside you while you talk or read. Save the box for next year.
5. Open one gift to use that night
A contemporary family tradition: a Seattle account in USC’s Digital Folklore Archives describes opening pajamas every Christmas Eve, putting them on, and taking a family photo. It records one family’s custom.
If this fits your household, choose the evening’s gift beforehand and say when the rest will be opened. A book can become the read-aloud; pajamas can go straight into the bedtime routine.
Let your child help gather the wrapping paper, then use the gift together. You might write the date on the book’s inside cover or take a photo if everyone wants one. Families who save gifts for Christmas morning can use the same moment to choose a book from the shelf.
6. Choose a repeatable Christmas Eve dinner
A new family ritual you can start tonight: choose a meal you enjoy preparing and eating together. Repeating a familiar dish gives your child a part of the evening to recognize next year.
For simple Christmas Eve dinner ideas, work from what’s in the kitchen:
- Soup and sandwiches: you warm the soup; your child chooses sandwich fillings and puts out napkins.
- Pasta night: use a familiar sauce and let your child draw place cards while you cook.
- Breakfast for dinner: make your usual pancakes or eggs, with fruit prepared by you and arranged by your child.
You can also keep a dish your family already makes on the 24th. Ask the person who taught you to cook it about their version, and write down one detail.
7. Share Nochebuena through a family dish
A tradition passed through families: Nochebuena is Christmas Eve in Spanish. For many Hispanic families, the 24th is a central gathering, with foods and schedules that vary between households.
One account in USC’s Digital Folklore Archives describes relatives gathering to make tamales in a family of Mexican heritage. The speaker remembers both the work and the chance to see extended family.
If Nochebuena belongs to your family’s celebrations, give your child a manageable role in a dish you know. They might help fold a prepared corn husk with you or set places while relatives cook. Ask someone to explain how they learned the recipe.
The Las Posadas guide explains the Mexican celebration leading up to Christmas Eve. If you’re a guest at another family’s Nochebuena, ask what you can bring or help prepare.
8. Make time to look at Christmas lights
An older regional tradition, with many local forms: New Mexico’s farolitos and luminarias are one example. The National Park Service’s “Luminaria Traditions” describes Christmas Eve lights that symbolically guide the Holy Family in New Mexican Catholic practice.
Your own lights tradition can be a short route near home. Before heading out, let each person choose something to spot: a star, a blue light, or a decorated tree. Take turns pointing out what you find.
You can also look from a window or spend a few minutes beside your tree. With electric lanterns you already have, choose a place to display them together. Draw your favorite sight on the plan.
9. Sing a song someone in the family knows
A longstanding Christmas custom: singing together takes different forms across communities. Smithsonian Folkways describes traditions including Puerto Rican parrandas and Ukrainian Christmas Eve caroling.
At home, ask someone to start a song they remember. Your child can join the chorus, hum, or keep the beat by clapping. If your family sings in two languages, take turns choosing which song comes next.
For relatives far away, arrange a call and sing together or listen while one person takes a turn. Ask who taught them the song. You can note its title on the plan so you’ll remember what to ask for next December.
10. Spend a moment beside the Nativity scene
A medieval Christian tradition: the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops traces the Christmas crèche to Francis of Assisi’s Christmas Eve celebration in 1223. Its family blessing for a Nativity scene can take place on Christmas Eve or another suitable occasion.
If your family observes this tradition, gather beside the scene and read a short passage from the Nativity story. Let your child point out a figure or ask about an animal. You can place the baby in the manger according to your family’s custom.
A drawing of the scene can accompany the reading. If you attend a service, fit your other plans around the gathering you’ve chosen. Families planning a secular evening can use this time for the poem or a family memory.
11. Keep one memory from the year
A new family ritual you can begin now: give each person space to remember something they enjoyed together. A question helps: “What’s one thing you’d like us to do again?”
You write while a younger child dictates, or let everyone draw. Add the year and keep the page with the Christmas decorations. Next December, you can read it before filling in the new plan.
An older child might ask a grandparent about their own Christmas Eve as a child. Record the name of a game, a dish, or a person who came to visit. If the conversation turns toward someone you want to thank, the kindness advent calendar has small gestures you can choose together.
You handle ovens, hot drinks, candles, and difficult cuts; stay alongside young children using craft materials.
How to start a tradition that lasts
Choose one part of the evening you can repeat, and give your child a choice within it: the book, the song, or what to look for on a walk. Tie it to something that already happens, such as dinner or getting into pajamas. Afterward, ask what they’d like to do again and write that on the plan. Keep a smaller version for busy years: a poem over the phone, a song before someone leaves for work, or the same dinner in a different home. The details can grow with your family.
Idunn’s take
At Idunn, we want to nurture curiosity in children and in the adults sharing the evening. A poem can leave you wondering about an old word; a family dish can lead to the story of who first made it. Our plan leaves space for your child to choose and for you to keep a detail you’d otherwise forget. Start with the part you’d like to share tonight.
Sources
- Library of Congress. “Today in History—December 24: Time for a Visit from St. Nicholas”, undated. The poem’s anonymous publication in 1823 and Christmas Eve reading tradition.
- Moore, Clement C. (credited author); Jessie Willcox Smith (illustrator). A Visit from St. Nicholas. Houghton Mifflin, illustrations copyright 1912; Project Gutenberg ebook 17135.
- Couse, Alyssa. “Why does everyone leave Santa cookies and milk on Christmas Eve?”, Cornell Cooperative Extension, December 16, 2017. Custom and several origin theories.
- North American Aerospace Defense Command. “NORAD Tracks Santa”, undated. Program history: CONAD in 1955 and NORAD in 1958.
- Christmas Shop24. “Christmas Eve Box Ideas: What to Put Inside for Children, Couples and the Whole Family”, 2026. British retailer’s contemporary description; historical origin remains undated.
- USC Digital Folklore Archives. “A Friend’s Family Tradition: Christmas Pajamas”, collected by fijman, May 14, 2024; “Nochebuena”, collected by Ebi Penawou, May 9, 2026. Individual family accounts.
- National Park Service. “Luminaria Traditions”, updated December 15, 2021. New Mexican traditions and modern electric lanterns.
- Smithsonian Folkways. “Songs to Make Winter Bright: Traditions of Singing at Christmas and Other Winter Holidays”, undated. Caroling traditions and Las Posadas.
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Blessing of a Christmas Manger or Nativity Scene”, undated. Francis of Assisi in 1223 and a blessing for use at home.
Sources consulted October 15, 2026. The plan, dinner choices, and activity adaptations are Idunn editorial suggestions.
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