Last Updated on November 24, 2020 by HodgePodgeDays
A Christmas Eve box is a relatively new tradition for us. I’m not even really sure where it came from. We’ve always done the Elf on a Shelf thing and for the last few years the Elf has delivered a Christmas Eve box to our house from Father Christmas.
I think the idea of the Christmas Eve box is to give little ones something to tide them over until Christmas Day. Something that will help to calm their excitement and enthusiasm for not going to sleep or for waking up incredibly early. We’ve usually been quite lucky with the early morning wake ups, but the going to sleep on Christmas Eve is always a bit tricky.
To us, our Christmas Eve box should be filled with nice things we can do together as a family, things that’ll keep us cosy and things we will just enjoy. We have a small personalised sack we use for ours, but in previous years we’ve used boxes we’ve decorated. You can buy special boxes, but if you have the time and inclination, it’s nice to decorate your own.
Your box can be as simple or as complicated as you want. If you’re struggling to think of what to put in yours, here are some of my suggestions.
25 ideas for filling your Christmas Eve Box
- New Christmas pyjamas
- New Christmas slippers
- A Christmas book to read at bedtime
- A DVD to watch together as a family on Christmas Eve
- A Christmas mug, hot chocolate and marshmallows
- Family snacks – popcorn, chocolate whatever you like!
- A special Christmas decoration to hang on the tree
- The Santa plate to leave a snack out for Santa
- Reindeer food
- Christmas crafts to make together
- A magic key if you need one
- Christmas cookie baking kit
- Nice list certificate (which you can download for free here)
- Christmas colouring or activity books
- Letter from Santa
- Novelty Christmas socks
- Christmas bubbly bath, for Christmas Eve bath-time
- Your Christmas stockings to hang up for Santa
- Christmas colouring or activity books
- Christmas socks
- A Cuddly toy
- Gingerbread House decorating kit
- Candy canes
- Some fun Christmas crackers for kids
- A novelty Christmas jumper
Obviously you don’t need all 25 of these ideas, pick and choose what works for you and create a box which suits your family. What will be in your Christmas Eve box this year?
Updated on 16th November 2020.
I love the idea of a Christmas Eve box. New pyjamas are a must for my family on Christmas Eve.
Lovely ideas! We put similar things in our children’s Christmas Eve boxes too – it’s a tradition we have done for the last couple of years and the children love it – I even get one too!
I have to admit that we have avoided the Christmas eve box, they get enough on Christmas day
I love that your Christmas Eve box focusses on time spent together as a family. My girls don’t particularly get a box as they get given PJs from their Grandma at her annual Christmas Eve party & we snuggle down to watch a Christmas movie. Hope you had a wonderful day yesterday x
So many great ideas – I’d love to make one next year
I need to remember all this for next year as I’d love to make one for my sister x