Christmas Eve Traditions

This post is about 3 weeks late but better late than never I say!

We started a Christmas Eve tradition a few years ago with our kids that we hope to carry on until they are grown and have families of their own:

We start the evening out by baking sugar cookies for Santa

While they are cooling we pull out the scriptures and read the Christmas Story in Luke.
This year I wanted something a little bit more visual and interactive so I found some cutouts that helped explain the birth of Jesus and laminated them. I bought a foam board so the kids could tape the pieces up and help tell the story as their dad read it.


Afterwards we bring out a present for each boy to open from us:
Matching Christmas jammies!
For some reason this really riled them up and they ran around like crazy for about 40 minutes.. (looking adorable in their jammies of course!)

Then it's time to frost those cookies!!
We know from previous experience that Santa likes LOTS of frosting and LOTS of sprinkles so we don't hold back. We lay them out on Santa's special plate and set them next to the tree.





Next we make sure to hang Santa's magic key outside our front door so that he can get in. (Since we don't have a chimney we had to make sure there was a way he could safely get in..don't worry it only works for Santa)

(This picture is from last year but I had to post it to show the key)

Clayton and Adam then went outside to sprinkle "Reindeer Food" (Oatmeal) on the lawn. (Santa's Reindeer deserve a little treat too!)

The last thing we do is snuggle on the couch and read a Christmas book. This year Adam picked a book called "Santa's Reindeer Games", a funny story about how all the reindeer have to try out in special games to see who can pull Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve.

By now the level of excitement and anticipation at our house is reaching the boiling point! Everything is as ready as it can possibly be for Santa to come!!

Finally, the children are nestled snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums dance in their heads...And mom and dad? We can finally sit down and catch our breath! :)

Until Christmas morning that is...