Our Christmas Eve Box

I am sure many of you have heard about Christmas Eve boxes or even given it a go yourself. I love the idea of a Christmas Eve box; this will be my third year doing it for my children. Christmas Eve is possibly one of the longest days of the year because everyone is excited about the following day, so naturally it drags. What I have loved about doing a Christmas Eve box is that it helps to mask that long day. It provides hours of entertainment and some cute little extras. It doesn't distract the kids from knowing that it is Christmas in the morning but it gives them some productiveness for Christmas Eve to save them running around screaming, fighting and annoying you. 

This year I have improved on my Christmas Eve box, I really do feel like I have upped my game and made this years bigger and better than ever. It hasn't cost too much either. Bonus. 

So what's in the box? 

Activities to do....

• I managed to purchase a Christmas Eve Activity Pack from Marks and Spencer, unfortunately I brought it in store and can't seem to find it on the online store for you all. I would just suggest checking out your local store to see if there are any left in stock there. In the M&S Christmas Eve pack, there was 6 envelopes. Each envelope has an activity to do, such as a word search or tongue twisters to say. They also came with some sticker clocks so that you can manually fill in the time that you want your children to open the envelope. I chose every two hours from 10am. There were some spare clocks too, so I used these to stick on other activities I had collected, such as sticker books and PJs. The stickers mean that hopefully the day can run smoothly with the children knowing they have to wait until a certain time to open the items. Fingers crossed this actually works. 
• Snap Christmas Cards. These are recycled from last years Christmas Eve box, originally purchased from ELC. 
• Mosaic Sticker Santa and Snowman Pictures. These were brought from Amazon. 
• Sticker books. Ours were purchased from Amazon. Zac has The Snowman and Dylan has Bing's Christmas Sticker book. 
• A film to watch, again we just ordered ours from Amazon. The film we have chosen is; The Cat In The Hat Know's A Lot About Christmas.

Treats to Eat....

• I have packed some Pombear Snowmen and some Christmas Tree cookies for the boys. 
• Sainsbury's do an amazing selection of Christmas festive snacks, we have got some tree shaped tortilla crisps and some pretzels. These are to be snacked on by the adults too. Another addition for the adults, is some lovely sachets of Hot Chocolate, which I can not wait to sip on curled up in my Christmas PJs once the kids are tucked up in bed waiting for Santa. I may even add a couple of mini alcoholic beverages for the adults too as the next week or so goes by. You can not beat a glass of Baileys on Christmas Eve. 

Preparation for Christmas Day....

• I have brought some gorgeous festive plates and bowls from Marks and Spencer this year. They will be perfect each year for the kiddies to enjoy over Christmas, so I have decided to pack these into the Christmas Eve box along with some paper plates from Morrisons. I will, towards the end of the evening, get the boys to help lay the table for Christmas day and to put their plates and bowls out. 
• In the M&S Christmas Eve pack, there is a jigsaw made of card which is to be laid out for Santa with his snacks on. So again, this is something they will be doing once they are in their Christmas nightwear. 

And to end the evening.... 

• The Last Book of the Christmas Advent Countdown. The 24th book is to be unwrapped the night before Christmas; completing the countdown. The night before is finally here. 
• Some festive nightwear to wear to bed. There is nothing better than getting into some brand new PJs and settling down for the night on Christmas Eve knowing that Santa will be on his way soon. I got the nightwear from Mothercare. This one is for Dylan.  This is for Zachary. 

So that is the contents of our Christmas Eve Box for this year. I just finished the box off by wrapping it in some festive paper and the boys stuck some Christmas stickers all over it. Next year I think I will be either making or investing in a crate so that we can reuse it each year. 

I can not wait for the boys to lay their eyes on the content and for us to enjoy the amazing countdown until the big day. Do you do a Christmas Eve box? What do you usually put in your box? Pop a comment below- I would love to hear from you. I hope this has given you some ideas and inspiration. For more ideas on things to do for the rest of the lead up until Christmas, check out my blog post from last year; Tiny Toes and Big Advent.

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