Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas Eve is traditionally our spiritual celebration. We have a nice dinner. We invited friends to join us this year. We can't forget the traditional cranberry sauce. Alex likes the kind that conforms to the can when you take it out. I prefer Trader Joe's fresh cranberry sauce, so we compromised.


After dinner we had a Christmas Eve devotional put on by Megan and her friend. We sang, Dylan played the trumpet, I played the cello and the children re-enacted the nativity story. It helped that our friends have 5 children, so we could fill more parts. Here are the highlights.

Joseph is confident that everything will work out.

Mary and Joseph and a very wiggly baby Jesus.


Shepherd keep watch over his toys. An angel appears to him and his is sore afraid (note the sucking of the fingers in the mouth.)

The wise men visiting the finally calm baby Jesus and playing the trumpet for him.

Another Christmas Eve tradition we have is that the children get to open one present--It's always new pajamas. This year the pajamas weren't even a surprise since they were home on snow days when I was trying to sew them.

The boys matched and the girls matched.

Finally everyone sat down together to read "The Night Before Christmas."
By the way the only creature stirring in our house on Christmas Eve was Lily. She still gets up 3-4 times a night.