Changing Christmas Eve Party

When my dads family grew to be over 40 people it was way too much work to coordinate a "real" meal for everyone. So Grandpa orders 30 pizzas (the dominos guys look forward to this every year. He orders a few days in advance and the 2 delivery guys usually make $100 tip). His kids are responsible for bringing 2 salads of some kind (garden, fruit, jello, etc) to feed about 10 people (he has 6 kids, usually 4 who make it so each person gets about 2 sides) all the grand kids who are adults bring a sweet/dessert to share. cookies, fudge, toffee, krispie treats, etc. if there are extra sweets we all informally swap different things to take some goodies home. We visit and sing carols and read the story of the nativity. Its the best night ever! Those that dont have to get things ready for Santa ;0) sometimes stay and watch Christmas Vacation or something. So fun. So easy. WE ALL LOVE IT!

Wow...this sounds like a lot of work and fanfare. I know you are locking in traditions here but I think you could do so without all the angst and extra work. I come from a very large Italian-Irish family. Our middle name is party with a side order of spectacular...hahahaha! However, with a growing family of my own, there are six of us, I have decided to control the mayhem and madness and keep it to a dull roar. My tricks? Well, for starters, I have switched all serving utensils and plates to throw away for the dinner portion of our day. Yup. Paper and plastic that go right into the garbage. You'd be surprised how much cute and fancy-looking sets there are that are made by Chinet, Dixie, or even at Sam's Club and Costco! I cannot stand the huge mess and clean up so now all dinner stuff goes right into the trash can when we are finished eating. Second, I have asked for help from my guests. I have Christmas dinner at my home and I will cook the main dish but each family member gets assigned a side dish or dessert to bring. This eliminates me from becoming the Chef Slave in the kitchen all day and also gives my family a reason to help contribute to the festivities. After all....who died and left me the Chef Slave and also financial bearer of all burden? No thanks, I didn't win the lottery this year so until I do, the family coming over is helping me out. Yankee Swap is a fun thing to do and very entertaining. We also love to reminisce on the past year, tell old stories, talk about anything funny that happened recently and just relax and hang out. Sometimes we even fire up the ancient Christmas movies like Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol, or The Grinch that Stole Christmas and have some downtime after dinner watching those. If we are in the mood to go outside and we have had a white Christmas, the kids like to sled, build snowmen, or make igloos in the yard. Whatever floats our boat. I am very laid-back and easygoing for the holiday affairs. I like to help keep traditions integrated into our family but I don't go overboard and get all crazy on people. Less is more and help is wonderful. I think I would have to shoot myself if any of the kids or adults started a craft project in my house on Christmas Eve with all our guests, food, and what not! LOL!! Half the fun of our gatherings is just seeing each other, kicking back, and letting the good times roll!

Just do a get together family style meals watch Christmas movies make home made hot cocoa

I grew up as the second oldest of 5 kids. We always had taco's. This tradition has carried on with my kids as my husband as well. Christmas Eve is when we go over to my parents house, have taco's, and open the gifts from my parents to everyone and our gifts to them.

This gives us time to enjoy family and gifts, but still make Christmas Eve services. And it's fun!

In my family only one of us actually has a house big enough to fit us all, and none of us could afford to feed everyone in any case. When it comes to food we all pitch in. Everybody brings at least one dish. Our hostess always makes the meat, and what kind of meat is always her choice. The rest of us bring the various sides. And because we are an adventurous group, most of us make those sides something we've never had before. Pinterest has made this so much easier :)

A few of us also bring a variety of games, some kid friendly, others not. We do have separate rooms so the kids don't get traumatized by our adult antics, although most of the kids are teenagers now so we can get away with more. We can get pretty rowdy.

And instead of a Yankee Swap, we have started doing a White Elephant instead. In fact I think I got that idea from this site. The personal family rules we set down are that we can't spend any money, and the gifts have to be all ages appropriate. Last year I scored a pair of gel shoe inserts and my daughter got a regulation length tug-of- war rope. It was so much fun and their was no pressure to find "just the right gift".

My husbands family does Christmas Eve and it is always a huge group of people - kids under 7 and all. Everyone brings something to eat. Doesn't matter what it is. We end up with lots of appetizer type stuff, snack stuff, chips, dips, etc. Someone usually brings a ham and rolls for sandwiches. We just graze, visit and we do a Yankee Swap. We also have the kids open their gifts from aunts & uncles. Ends up easy on everyone and alot of fun.

Buy some chafing dishes and do a bunch of appetizers. Play Christmas carols in the background and let people mingle. Doesn't need to be so formal. You can always bring out some fun games like "Would you rather?" for adults or just do the gift exchange. You can have a few organized things for the kids and maybe put on a Christmas movie at some point in the evening but kids that young usually just play with toys and don't do as well with organized games.

There are family style games like, minute to win it. Google it or look on pintrest.

You can let everyone bring a dish

You can serve soup and subs or chili or just deserts.

Good for you for recognizing the need to change because of the needs of the people you are serving! It's a very loving thing to do.

Christmas Eve is a time to sit back, enjoy a nice dinner and enjoy each other's company. Let the kids do their own thing. You have all year for crafts etc. enjoy the meaning of the season

How about a ham? It's easy.

Then add some kid friendly food:
-chicken nuggets
-mini carrot sticks & ranch
-mini subs for the kids w/salami slices, cheese
-goldfish crackers in little bowls set out for them
-desert brownie bites

For the adults you can still make some fancy stuff:
-mini quiches for apps
-spinach dip (you can buy already made in frozen section), w/bread cubes
-mashed potatoes to go w/the ham
-Caesar salad
-rolls

Be sure to have non-breakable plates for the kids. My fave? Kid plastic
plates w/diff compartments for the diff food so they don't run together.
You can buy them at the Dollar Store.
You can still serve your pretty plates for the adults.

Games:
I like what you have for the adults.
You can, also, do pictionary. Easy & fun.
The Guess Who Post It Note game for the adults (you put movie star
or singer names on the post it note, the grown ups wear them on their
back & they get to ask each person 3 questions until they figure out who
they are).
-guess how many choc Kisses in a small jar

For the kids:
-pin the red nose on Rudolph
-cracker treats (put little fun toys in an emply toilet paper roll, wrap in tissue paper & tie the ends w/pretty ribbon.) Fun to open.
-construction paper Christmas trees to decorate

We typically have a sit-down dinner where everyone is assigned a dish to bring, and then do the Yankee Swap game. All the kids look forward to it all year and it is a simple affair. We always rent out the local fire station as they have a nice big party room with kitchen and bathrooms as well as tables and chairs. It makes things so much simpler in terms of seating, parking and clean up.

My other side of the family always does a casual brunch where we socialize and make gingerbread houses. This is a bit messier but we do just use the kits to make it easier. This year we are going to change it up and have a pie party (everyone brings pie) then we are going to see the Christmas lights downtown.

Mostly I think the kiddos like things to be unstructured. They want time to be able to play together. As a kid, I liked the Yankee swap game and there were a few years that my aunt did all the girls nails in Christmas colors and painted little Christmas decorations on them and that was fun. A few times we have done an ornament craft. But I think it is totally fine to leave it simple- everyone contributes a dish, plan 1 activity, and leave plenty of time for both the adults and kids to socialize.

If you get snow outside, you can organize some kiddie games in the snow. snow men, snow forts, snow balls, painting snow, snow angels, stop the snow, sledding, snow relay races, spoon races etc. make and hang bird feeders in the neighborhood. Get the kids suited and booted and outdoors twice, once before dinner, and once again afterwards. it will get them out of your hair while you set the table, and again when you clear and set for dessert. In each case, you run them around, they have fun, don't make a mess of your house (perhaps the foyer), and come back to something warm in their bellies.

After they divorced my MIL decided she would no longer be doing a formal X-mas dinner and asked the kids what they each wanted. One wanted curry, the other wanted icecream, and the third wanted roast beef and that's exactly what they had.

Sounds like you'll have a fun xmas.
best,
F. B.

For my son's b-day party we did a hot chocolate "bar"- set up big containers with hot water, baskets with different flavors of cocoa, trays with marshmallows, "dunker" cookies, mini candy canes, booze for the grown ups. It was a big hit! If you have a Trader Joe's near you, they have a couple of different flavors of chocolate covered marshmallows.
Maybe a holiday version of Headbands? Put different holiday characters/items on papers, tape one to each guest's back, have them ask questions to try to figure out who/what they are.