It’s the final countdown to Christmas and as we approach Christmas Eve, the excitement and anticipation are as palpable as ever! The elves are wrapping the last gifts and loading Santa’s sleigh, and the reindeer are warming up their legs for the long journey ahead. While the North Pole is in full swing, Kristy’s family is celebrating with some pretty fun traditions. See their Christmas Eve customs below.
First thing’s first – what are we wearing?! Coordinating family outfits are a must-have for our Christmas Eve get-together, and this year we went with a camel, black, and cream color palette. Gorgeous hues for the winter, we also used these outfits for new family photos at a Christmas tree farm!
I went with a camel cowlneck sweater dress with black tights and black knee-high boots, and I chose a cream quarter zip pullover with black jeans for my husband! For my kiddos, complementary outfits – a black sweater and camel pants for my son and a black and cream checkered dress with black leggings for my daughter.
Every year on Christmas Eve, our Elves on the Shelf bring my children the “elf box”. After spending all night with family, my kids come home to find the boxes waiting under the tree. They are filled with all of the necessities for Christmas Eve night and specially curated to their favorite obsessions of the moment.
My favorite part of these boxes is the special ornaments they receive for their Christmas tree! Every year when we decorate their tree, we can reflect back on the year we were obsessed with Minnie Mouse or Spiderman…cue the tears. The boxes always have a new pair of pajamas to wear for Christmas morning, a Christmas book we can read before bed, some hot cocoa to go with the Christmas story, and a little figure or plush of their favorite character (since they can’t play or go to sleep with the ornaments). This year our elves brought a little memorabilia to remind the kiddos that they’ll be back next year, and it’s so adorable!
It’s been our favorite tradition for the last 6 years and I can’t imagine it’s going to stop, even when they’re adults and they have their own kids!!
And while traditions are usually tried-and-true, sometimes you need to introduce new ones to spice things up! This year, we’re implementing the Saran Wrap gift ball, and this one is definitely going to be a quick family favorite. How does it work? You take a bunch of small gag gifts (pictured below), and you wrap them in Saran Wrap around and around and around until you have a giant wrapped ball of goodies!
Everyone sits in a circle and the first person to go dons oven mitts (yes, they must be worn!). The person to the starter’s left rolls two dice until they roll doubles – as they’re rolling, the oven mitt wearer unwraps the ball to reveal gifts, and whatever they unwrap they keep! Once the dice roller rolls doubles, the ball is passed to left and the game continues until all the gifts have been unwrapped! This is definitely going to make for a few laughs and a lot of chaos.
These are some of the things wrapped up in this year’s Saran Wrap ball! I included candy, gift cards, scratch off tickets, beauty products, games, and more!! I’m so excited to start a new family tradition and make tons more memories.
Thanks for reading! What are some of your holiday family traditions? Let us know in the comments below xo.
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