Christmas Eve is quite possibly THE most thrilling day of the year for children. The anticipation is almost too much for some kids (and their parents) to bear!

What can you do with hyper and excited children to help pass the time on Christmas Eve? We have compiled our 10 favourite family time activities for making special memories at this magical time of year.

1. Put on Christmas music and have a sing-along.

2. Bake and decorate Christmas-themed cookies or make a gingerbread house together.

3. Get in the car and go for a drive around to check out all the neighbourhood Christmas lights.

4. Make super-duper hot chocolates. This is one of my favourite recipes – it’s so simple - https://www.fifteenspatulas.com/best-hot-chocolate-from-scratch and the kids will love decorating it with cream, marshmallows, smarties, broken up Oreo biscuits and sprinkles. Chocolate heaven for all the family!

5. Attend a family service at church.

6. Make a magical Santa key. If you live where there isn’t a chimney then a magic Santa key is perfect. Here’s a template for you to print out and decorate with the kids. You can leave a little note on it saying something like – Santa, we don’t have a chimney, as you can clearly see. Just sprinkle this key with your magic dust so you can leave the gifts under the tree.

7. Make magic reindeer food. This can be sprinkled on the grass in the front garden for the reindeer to find their way and have something to eat whilst Santa is busy delivering gifts to the house. Get the kids to mix up some muesli with mini marshmallows, sprinkles of different colours, and sunflower seeds and sprinkle it before bed.

8. Watch your favourite family Christmas movie together.

9. Read a special Christmas-themed book at bedtime. Some of our favourites are:

The Night Before Christmas,

Bear Stays Up for Christmas,

How the Grinch Stole Christmas and

Room for a Little One, A Christmas Tale.

10. Track Santa online. You can see where Santa is in the world during the evening at https://santatracker.google.com/

If these are not already Christmas traditions in your household, hopefully, you will find inspiration for some of them to become traditions of your own and give your kids great family memories for years to come.