We have gone over to my Grandpas house every Christmas Eve as long as I can remember.
i'm a single guy so my tradition the last 3 or 4 years is find a fast food joint or little diner thats open and get some food then spend some time wrapping presents for my nephews while movie ( bad Santa) is playing on tv.
Work, usually.
We usually go to a favorite aunt's house Christmas Eve (she makes a KILLER peanut brittle!). Christmas morning we have breakfast at my parents' house, with present opening tossed in there somewhere or everywhere as the case may be!
GC goes to work. I stay home, drink a little coffee and kahlua and enjoy the peace and quiet ... 
-First one, that makes no sense, my mother just woke me with. Before cell phones and caller ID, anytime someone would call on Christmas Eve the proper reaction was to say "CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT" before the other person could say it. The implication being the defeated person has to give you an early gift. Made for some confused callers to our house in the pre-caller ID days. By the time I moved out we had caller ID and cell phones, so it makes even less sense now, but my mom still texted me this morning. I tell her texts don't count and now she's arguing. Gonna bring my sister in to decide.
-Growing up we'd always grill huge steaks and have shrimp on Christmas Eve. We'd sometimes go to midnight services, or evening services depending on what was going on. My mom read at all three for years and years. Our church did the candle lighting thing, and our tradition was to drive home with them lit, not letting them go out, and leave them on the porch all night. I remember one year it snowed and was dead calm and we let them burn out on the front lawn by the street. Again, something vaguely unsafe and nonsensical my dad started. If you ever saw a family driving down the road at 12:30 a.m on Christmas morning holding lit candles, that was us literally taking the light of Christ into the world.
-I started my own last year, kinda. My dad's side of the family, descended from Austrian and German immigrants circa 1860s, brought with them a cookie recipe that's been around since who the hell knows when. My grandfather makes them every year around Christmas. He's 86 now. Last year he told me to keep it going, so I made them on Christmas eve. I'm about to run to the store and pick up a few ingredients, throw some Townes Van Zandt on the turntable, and get to bakin'. I'm the last male in the states, at least in this "branch" of the family tree, to carry the family name. I like birth control more than I like kids, so I figure if I'm not gonna give the family a son to keep the name alive, I can at least keep the cookies alive.
Happy times over here this year. Hope the same for all you goobers.
-Growing up we'd always grill huge steaks and have shrimp on Christmas Eve. We'd sometimes go to midnight services, or evening services depending on what was going on. My mom read at all three for years and years. Our church did the candle lighting thing, and our tradition was to drive home with them lit, not letting them go out, and leave them on the porch all night. I remember one year it snowed and was dead calm and we let them burn out on the front lawn by the street. Again, something vaguely unsafe and nonsensical my dad started. If you ever saw a family driving down the road at 12:30 a.m on Christmas morning holding lit candles, that was us literally taking the light of Christ into the world.
-I started my own last year, kinda. My dad's side of the family, descended from Austrian and German immigrants circa 1860s, brought with them a cookie recipe that's been around since who the hell knows when. My grandfather makes them every year around Christmas. He's 86 now. Last year he told me to keep it going, so I made them on Christmas eve. I'm about to run to the store and pick up a few ingredients, throw some Townes Van Zandt on the turntable, and get to bakin'. I'm the last male in the states, at least in this "branch" of the family tree, to carry the family name. I like birth control more than I like kids, so I figure if I'm not gonna give the family a son to keep the name alive, I can at least keep the cookies alive.
Happy times over here this year. Hope the same for all you goobers.
We always cooked hot dogs in the fire place at mom and dads house. Done it every year for as long as I can remember. Good times!
I'm sorry I didn't find this thread until now. My Christmas Eve tradition is to celebrate my birthday.
Don't know how I missed it but I'm just finding this thread also. For many many years my family all get together and have chocolate gravy and home made biscuits. Most of the time on Christmas Morning but this year it was Christmas eve evening. I've ate lots of chocolate gravy in my life.
