Christmas Eve Traditions
One custom per card for the night of the 24th, from books in bed and an almond in the pudding to a lit tree behind a closed door.
- Time
- One evening
- Players
- Couples, friends or a whole household
- Best for
- The night of December 24 and the week before it
- Deck
- 60 traditions in 5 categories
How to use these Christmas Eve traditions
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the tradition on the top card aloud. If the people you spend the 24th with like the sound of it, plan it for this year.
- Swipe the card away, or tap “Next tradition”, for another. Traditions do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save a tradition on this device, or tap “Make a 10-tradition list” to copy the plan for the evening and share it.
When to pick your Christmas Eve traditions
Christmas Eve is one night with its own pace: the shops close, the cooking slows down and the hours before bed are free. A few traditions chosen together give that night a shape everyone looks forward to.
The weekend before the 24th
Draw from every category on the couch and save the ones that fit your home, so the pozole is planned and the bakery order is in before the shops get busy.
Your first Christmas Eve in a new place
A new home or a first year together is a good time to start fresh. Pick one tradition from your old Christmas Eves and one that nobody has tried, like a door kept shut until a bell rings.
Late on the night itself
When dinner is over and nobody wants to go to bed, Late night has an answer: a film started at ten, a log that has to last until midnight, a last song on the radio.
Ways to choose your Christmas Eve traditions
One from each part of the evening
Draw one card from The evening meal, one from Cozy at home and one from Late night, and the whole evening has a shape: what you eat, how you spend the hours after and how the night ends.
Everyone brings one
In the week before, let each person in the house heart one card without telling the others. On the 24th, read the hearts out and do every one, even if the evening ends up with a sauna, a brass band and every broom hidden in a closet.
Try it twice before it counts
A custom becomes a tradition the second year you do it. Keep the cards you liked on a 10-tradition list, then bring the list back out next December and keep the ones everyone asks for.
Tips for a Christmas Eve that feels like yours
- Shops, bakeries and markets close early on the 24th in many places. Check opening hours for anything in Out in the cold a week ahead, and order special bread or fish in advance.
- Pick the dinner tradition first. Pozole, salt cod and oyster stew each need hours on the stove or a trip to the shops, so they decide how the rest of the day runs.
- Leave one card for whoever joins late. A guest arriving at nine can still hunt for a coat pocket gift, sit by the fire pit or stay up for the last radio song.
All 60 Christmas Eve traditions by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and pick there.
The evening meal
Seven small fish dishes, fried chicken, pozole, an almond in the pudding and other suppers people keep on the 24th.
- Cook a seafood dinner of seven small dishes, the way many Italian American families do on the 24th.
- Serve fried chicken for Christmas Eve dinner, a holiday favorite for many families in Japan.
- Live where it’s summer in December? Grill prawns outside and eat Christmas Eve dinner in the warm evening air.
- Hide one whole almond in a pot of rice pudding. Whoever finds it in their bowl wins a small prize.
- Simmer a big pot of pozole all afternoon and set out radishes, lime and cabbage for everyone to add.
- Cut an apple crosswise at the table and see whose seeds make the neatest star, an old Czech custom.
- Keep supper simple with potato salad and sausages, the easy Christmas Eve meal many German families swear by.
- Cook salt cod with potatoes and greens, the dinner most Portuguese families sit down to on the 24th.
Show all 12 in The evening mealShow fewer
- Serve oyster stew for supper, a Christmas Eve habit in plenty of Midwestern and Southern homes.
- Let a different person plan the menu every year and keep each course a surprise until it reaches the table.
- Eat dinner early, at four or five, so the whole long evening is left for everything else.
- Use the good plates that only come out once a year, even if dinner turns out to be soup.
Cozy at home
Books in bed, a cartoon at three, a tree trimmed on the night itself and other quiet rituals for the house.
- Give everyone a new book on Christmas Eve and spend the evening reading under blankets, the way Iceland does.
- Watch the same cartoon special at three o’clock every Christmas Eve, like the Swedish families who never miss Donald Duck.
- Hide every broom in the house before dark, a playful old Norwegian custom from the days of folk tales.
- Pick one album that only gets played on the 24th and put it on the moment you wake up.
- Save the last few presents for the 24th and wrap them together on the floor with a holiday film playing.
- Keep one board game that only comes out on Christmas Eve, and let the winner hold the title for a year.
- Leave the tree bare until the 24th and trim it that evening, the old German way.
- Join hands and walk in a circle around the tree while everyone sings, as Danish families do.
Show all 12 in Cozy at homeShow fewer
- Keep the living room door shut all afternoon, then ring a small bell and open it on a fully lit tree.
- Put on the holiday film everyone has seen twenty times and say the best lines along with it.
- Bake the same cookie every Christmas Eve from one handwritten recipe card, splatters and all.
- Put fresh flannel sheets on every bed in the afternoon, so the night ends somewhere soft and warm.
Out in the cold
A bakery line, the last afternoon of the market, paper-bag lanterns and other reasons to put a coat on.
- Line up at the bakery early on the 24th for the bread or pastry it only sells once a year.
- Go to the holiday market on its very last afternoon, when the stalls are packing up and the treats sell off.
- Walk a neighborhood that lines its sidewalks with luminarias, the glowing paper-bag lanterns of New Mexico.
- Make the rounds: drop in on three friends for ten minutes each, with one small treat for every door.
- See a brand-new movie at the theater every Christmas Eve afternoon, then talk it over at dinner.
- Walk downtown after the shops close, when the streets are empty and only the lights are still on.
- Find an outdoor brass band playing holiday tunes and stand close enough to feel the tuba.
- If you’re ever in south Louisiana in December, watch the Christmas Eve bonfires burn along the Mississippi River levees.
Show all 12 in Out in the coldShow fewer
- Warm up in a sauna late in the afternoon, then step out into the cold, as many Finns do on the 24th.
- Play a short game of backyard football or soccer before dinner, everyone still in scarves and hats.
- Sit around a fire pit after dinner, wrapped in blankets, with nothing planned but staying out until your toes get cold.
- Climb to a lookout at dusk on the 24th and watch the lights of the town switch on below.
Small gifts and surprises
One gift opened early, a note on the pillow, a prize wrapped in ten layers and other little things to give.
- Pack a Christmas Eve box for each person with thick socks, a hot drink mix and a film for the evening.
- Let everyone open one present on the 24th, chosen by the person who gave it.
- Draw names before bed for next year’s gift swap, so everyone has twelve months to find something good.
- Slip a tiny gift into each guest’s coat pocket during dinner, for them to find on the way home.
- Give each person a new ornament with the year on it, so their tree slowly fills with Christmas Eves.
- Leave a short handwritten note on each person’s pillow for them to find at bedtime.
- Send one person on a treasure hunt of rhyming clues around the house that ends at their present.
- Make the last gift of the night a ticket for something you’ll do together in January, like a concert.
Show all 12 in Small gifts and surprisesShow fewer
- Give one gift each that cost nothing: a skill you’ll teach, something you made or a thing you found.
- Wrap one small prize in layer after layer of paper and pass it around, each person peeling off one layer.
- Fill a jar with the dry ingredients for your best cookies and tie the recipe to the lid for each guest.
- Give each person a small stack of printed photos from the year that they appear in.
Late night
A dinner that starts at ten, a log that lasts until midnight and other ways to see the night out.
- Eat late, the Spanish way: sit down to dinner at ten and stay at the table past midnight.
- Choose the biggest log for the fireplace and try to keep it burning until midnight, an old European custom.
- Call family in a faraway time zone at midnight your time, when their Christmas morning has already begun.
- Open every present at the stroke of midnight, the way many families in Latin America do.
- Start a long holiday film at ten and see who is still awake for the final scene.
- Wash up the dinner dishes together near midnight with music on, so Christmas morning starts with a clean kitchen.
- Stay up until midnight just to be the first to say “Merry Christmas,” then go straight to bed.
- Leave the tree lights on all night, the one night of the year they glow until morning.
Show all 12 in Late nightShow fewer
- Write one wish for next Christmas on a slip of paper, roll it up and tuck it into the branches.
- Tune in to a late-night holiday radio show and play cards until the last song of the broadcast.
- Once everyone else is in bed, slip one last small present under the tree for each person.
- Before bed, write down the funniest line anyone said all evening and keep the slips in the ornament box.
Frequently asked questions
How many Christmas Eve traditions are there?
There are 60 traditions, 12 in each of five categories: the evening meal, cozy at home, out in the cold, small gifts and surprises, and late night. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
Are these Christmas Eve traditions religious?
No. Every card is about food, home, small gifts, the outdoors or staying up late, so any household can use them. Some borrow customs from other countries, like books in Iceland or hidden brooms in Norway, described in a sentence each.
Are there Christmas ideas for couples?
Yes. Christmas date ideas are written for two people planning dates across December. The traditions on this page are for the night of the 24th itself, with a partner, friends or a full table.
What games can we play on Christmas Eve?
After dinner, try Christmas charades for a loud room or Christmas questions for a slow evening by the tree. Both use a card on a phone, so nobody has to prepare anything.