Christmas Eve Rituals Families Keep, and Where They Come From

The best Christmas Eve rituals tend to be small, repeatable and slightly odd. Nobody plans them as traditions; they become traditions because someone did the same thing two years running and everybody noticed when it was skipped. Several countries have turned the habit into something documented, which makes them a useful shopping list of ideas. Here are four with a paper trail, one for the parents who keep the Santa story going, and a few practical notes on borrowing without overdoing it.

Iceland: a book on Christmas Eve

Visit Iceland, the country's official tourism site, describes Jólabókaflóð, the Christmas Book Flood. Every year since 1944, the site says, a catalogue of new books, Bókatíðindi, has reached Icelandic households in November, and people use it to order books for friends and family. The tradition that has become something of a cultural phenomenon, the site says, is the exchange of books on Christmas Eve, followed by spending the rest of the evening, and often the next day, reading.

It is an easy one to borrow. Wrap one book per person, open them after dinner, and let the house go quiet. Nothing in it requires a plan, a screen or a trip to the shops after the 20th.

Sweden: Donald Duck at three o'clock

Slate described a Swedish tradition in 2009 that sounds invented but is not. At 3 p.m. on 24 December, Swedish television has shown a Disney Christmas special, From All of Us to All of You, known in Sweden as Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul, every year since 1959. The article said 36 percent of the viewing public, around 3.2 million people, watched in 2008, and that a visit from the Jultomte often follows. Whatever you think of Donald Duck, a fixed time that everyone shares has real value on a day when the schedule is otherwise loose.

Poland: the first star and an empty place

Culture.pl describes the Polish Christmas Eve supper, Wigilia, as starting when the first star appears. An extra place is set for an unexpected guest. Before anyone eats, the family breaks the opłatek, a thin wafer, together and exchanges wishes for good health and prosperity. Hay goes under the tablecloth as a reminder of the manger, and the meal is meatless, with twelve dishes to represent wealth, the twelve Apostles and the twelve months.

You do not need twelve dishes. The wafer and the wishes are the portable part: one sentence of good wishes to each person at the table before the food arrives is a ritual that survives teenagers. The spare chair is a nice reminder, too, of how often Christmas Eve ends up hosting a neighbour.

Colorado, 1955: tracking Santa

NPR traces NORAD's Santa tracker to 1955, when a Sears advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper invited children to call Santa but printed the number of Colonel Harry Shoup's secret military hotline instead. Shoup first took the calls for a joke, then put airmen on the phones to answer as Santa. On Christmas Eve the airmen drew a sleigh and eight reindeer on the glass tracking board, and the tradition grew from there. The origin story is the better part of the evening, and it makes a good bedtime tale for an adult audience as well as a young one.

If you keep the Santa story

Britannica notes that, in the stories, Santa refreshes himself with milk and cookies left by the household, and that the modern picture of him owes a debt to the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", first published in 1823. Royal Mail's own Santa page reminds writers to remember the mince pie and Rudolph's carrot. Reading the poem aloud is a clean, short way to mark bedtime, and the plate on the hearth gives a parent a small job to finish before sleeping.

Borrowing without building a project

Choose one or two, not all of them. The customs above work for the same few reasons, and the reasons are worth copying more than the details.

• Attach the ritual to something that already happens, such as dinner or bedtime, so it needs no extra logistics.
• Keep it short. Twenty minutes is plenty, and an evening that overruns tends to end in tears.
• Repeat it exactly. The same book shelf, the same chair, the same wish before the meal: sameness is what turns an idea into a custom.
• Give a job to the oldest person in the room who would otherwise drift to the sofa. Handing a teenager the book table or the wafer is our suggestion, not a researched method.

Say out loud what you are doing, so that next year it feels like an inheritance rather than a surprise. If you would like more ideas on the other side of the story, our post on who brings the presents around the world covers the customs for 5 December and 6 January, and writing to Santa covers the postal side of the season.

Sources

Where the facts in this post come from. Rankings and lists belong to the people who published them; the selection and the stories are ours.

1. The origins of Jólabókaflóð, the Christmas Book Flood, Visit Iceland — Bókatíðindi catalogue reaching households each November since 1944, books exchanged on Christmas Eve, reading that evening
2. Sweden's bizarre tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve, Slate, 2009 — 3 p.m. on 24 December, since 1959, 2008 audience, Jultomte afterwards
3. The 12 Dishes of Polish Christmas, Culture.pl — First star, extra place, opłatek, hay, twelve meatless dishes and their meanings
4. NORAD's Santa Tracker began with a typo and a good sport, NPR — 1955 Sears misprint, Colonel Harry Shoup, airmen answering, sleigh drawn on the tracking board
5. Santa Claus, Encyclopaedia Britannica — Milk and cookies, the poem first published in 1823
6. Letters to Santa, Royal Mail — Reminder about the mince pie and Rudolph's carrot