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Christmas Eve traditions · ages 3 to 8

Christmas Eve

Tonight, for once, going to bed early is the whole point.

Plan the evening together and print it. Then there's a card for Santa's plate (cookies and milk, or a mince pie for Father Christmas), a stencil for his boot prints and a key for a house with no chimney. Further down are Christmas Eve ideas from 15 places, starting with Iceland, where everyone gets a book, and every Christmas page we've made, from the first letter to Santa to the last sleep.

Plan the eveningFree printablesAll of Christmas

The Christmas Eve plan

Plan the evening together

The wait is easier when kids know what comes next, and they love ticking things off. Pick about five things, give each one a rough time and print the plan. Nothing you pick or type is sent anywhere.

Make

It prints in time order, from the first thing to bedtime, with a box to tick beside each one.

It never leaves your device: nothing you type is sent to us or anyone else.

From our Christmas pages
Borrowed from around the world

4 picked, up to 8. Where each one comes from is further down.

Your evening

  1. The Christmas Eve box · What goes in it
  2. Reindeer food · The safe recipe
  3. A new book each
  4. A plate for Santa
  5. Bedtime
Paper
Ink

To keep a PDF, choose “Save as PDF” in the print window. Stick it on the fridge, with a pen on a string for the ticks.

As it prints

Print · free, no sign-up

Free printables for Christmas Eve

The plan with lines to write on, the card for Santa's plate, his boot print stencil and Santa's key, in US Letter and A4. Print the color ones as they are, or the black and white ones for the kids to color first. The stencil only comes in black and white, since it gets cut to bits anyway. The labels and the checklist for the box are on our Christmas Eve box page.

  • Our Christmas Eve plan

    Seven lines for the times and what you'll do, a box to tick for each, and bedtime at the bottom. The maker above fills it in for you.

    Ages 3 to 8 · 1 page · PDF

    ColorUS LetterA4

    Black and whiteUS LetterA4

  • A card for Santa's plate

    Fold it and stand it by the plate. One says For Santa with cookies and milk, the other For Father Christmas with a mince pie, and both have our poem on the back.

    Ages 3 to 8 · 2 pages · PDF

    ColorUS LetterA4

    Black and whiteUS LetterA4

  • Santa's boot prints

    A left and a right boot print, as big as the paper allows, to cut out and dust with flour. Page two says how.

    2 pages · PDF

    Black and whiteUS LetterA4

  • Santa's key

    Tie one of the two tags to a real key for a house with no chimney, or cut out the paper key that comes with them.

    1 page · PDF

    ColorUS LetterA4

    Black and whiteUS LetterA4

Free for home and classroom use. To pass them on, please share the link to this page and not the file.

For the night

Cookies, boot prints and a key

Once the kids are asleep, the cookies vanish, boot prints appear by the tree and a key turns in the front door. All three are a grown-up's job, so here's how.

Cookies and milk for Santa

In America it's cookies and a glass of milk. In the UK it's usually a mince pie, and a carrot for the reindeer: when YouGov asked British children aged 6 to 10, 77% put out a carrot and 64% a mince pie. Nobody knows exactly how it started. A children's magazine already mentions it in 1896, and it became a big American habit in the 1930s.

Our poem for the plate
A plate of cookies, one, two, three,a glass of milk beside the tree,a carrot for the reindeer's crunch,and that is Santa's midnight lunch.Now off to bed and shut your eyes,no peeking at the starry skies.He only comes, as you all know,when everybody's sleeping. Go!

It's on the back of our plate card, to read aloud while the plate goes out.

Sources, checked 12 Oct 2026: NPR, how Santa got hooked on cookies and milk (2015); History.com (archived copy); YouGov (2017); NPR (2017).

How to make Santa's footprints

  1. Cut out the boot prints. Cut out the gray shapes on the stencil, the sole and the heel of each boot. A craft knife is quicker, and it's a grown-up's job.
  2. Wait until they're asleep. Santa's footprints appear after bedtime. Lay the stencil on a hard floor near the tree, or by the door, where he would have walked in.
  3. Shake on the flour. Shake flour or baking soda through a sieve over the holes, lift the paper straight up and move it one step along. Left, right, left, from the door to the tree.
  4. Or use a real boot. Put flour or baking soda on a big plate or a baking tray, press the sole of a big boot into it and step it across the floor. If it won't stick, brush the sole with a little water first.
  5. Sweep up in the morning. On a hard floor it sweeps right up. On a carpet, be ready for some serious vacuuming. We'd skip the glitter.

Flour is a raw food, so little ones look and don't taste, and everyone washes their hands after sweeping up.

Sources, checked 12 Oct 2026: Romper, how to make Santa footprints; the FDA, handling flour safely.

Santa's key

A Santa key is for a house with no chimney. It goes on the front door handle on Christmas Eve, Santa lets himself in with it, and he leaves it somewhere easy to find for next year. It's magic, so it only works for him, which is worth saying out loud to a child who worries about locks.

Some families have their child write Santa a note saying where the key is. It's a newer custom, and nobody can say when it started. Our key tag, in the printables above, says it works for Father Christmas too.

Sources, checked 12 Oct 2026: Hallmark Ideas, what is a Santa key; Mother&Baby.

All of Christmas

Every Christmas page, in the order it happens

Each page is free and has something to print. They're sorted by when you'll need them, starting a few weeks before.

In the weeks before

Letters go to the North Pole, the countdown starts, and somebody has to learn the reindeer's names.

The day before Christmas

Most of the getting ready happens today, while they're far too excited to nap.

The night

The plan goes on the fridge, and the evening ends with a story that happens on this very night.

Around the world

Christmas Eve ideas to borrow from around the world

Fifteen ways other families spend the night, starting with our favorite, since we make books. Some are religious, and we say so. Each one comes with a small way to try it at home.

  • Iceland

    The Christmas book flood

    In Iceland the Christmas present is a book. Every November a catalogue of the year's new books goes to every home in the country, and it has done since 1944. Then on Christmas Eve, after dinner, the presents are opened and lots of people spend the rest of the night reading. It goes back to the war years, when most gifts were hard to bring into the country but paper was easier to get. Ask in Iceland and you'll hear that not everybody reads all night, and also that it's still very much a thing. They call it Jólabókaflóð, the Christmas book flood.

    A book on Christmas Eve is where our own book comes in, and if you'd like more to choose from, there are 36 in our Christmas picture books list.

    Try it at home: Give everyone a new book on Christmas Eve and read together until bedtime.

  • Iceland

    A shoe on the windowsill

    From December 11 until Christmas Eve, Icelandic children put a shoe in their bedroom window, and the 13 Yule Lads, folk characters a bit like trolls, leave small presents in it.

    Try it at home: Put a shoe on the windowsill tonight, with something small in it by morning.

  • Norway

    The almond in the porridge

    Rice porridge is often served in the middle of the day on Christmas Eve, with one almond hidden in it, and whoever finds it wins a marzipan pig. In old farm stories every farm has a nisse, a little gnome who lives in the barn, and some people still put out a bowl of porridge with sugar and cinnamon to keep him happy. At five in the afternoon church bells ring, and Christmas has begun.

    Try it at home: Hide one almond in a bowl of rice pudding. The finder gets a small prize.

    The five o'clock bells are church bells.

  • Denmark

    Dancing around the tree

    Danish families celebrate on the evening of December 24. Dessert is risalamande, a rice pudding with cherry sauce, and again one whole almond is hidden in it, with a present for whoever finds it. Then everyone holds hands and dances around the Christmas tree, singing, before the presents are opened.

    Try it at home: Hold hands, circle the tree and sing whatever you all know. Out of tune counts.

  • Germany, Austria, Switzerland

    Presents on Christmas Eve

    The presents are opened on Christmas Eve, not on the 25th, and it's called the Bescherung. In some places they're brought by the Christkind, the Christ Child, and in others by the Weihnachtsmann, Father Christmas. Many families go to church in the afternoon or evening, and supper is often something simple, like potato salad and sausages.

    Try it at home: Let everyone open one present on Christmas Eve.

    The Christkind is a religious figure and church is a religious custom. Opening presents on the Eve is a family one.

  • Poland

    Waiting for the first star

    Wigilia, the Christmas Eve supper, traditionally waits until the first star shows in the sky. There's also an empty place at the table, laid for an unexpected guest. An ethnologist at the University of Łódź links it to old customs about visitors: a wandering stranger, or someone in need.

    Try it at home: Send the kids to the window to spot the first star. Supper starts when they do.

    The supper has religious parts too.

  • Finland

    The Christmas Peace

    At noon on December 24, the Declaration of Christmas Peace is read out from a balcony in Turku, in Finnish and in Swedish. Scholars think the first one was in the 1320s. It's shown live on TV and online, all over the world.

    Try it at home: Watch it together online. Noon in Finland is 10 in the morning in London and 5 in the morning in New York.

    Its words begin with the feast of Jesus's birth, so the text is religious, though the event is a civic one.

  • Catalonia

    The Christmas log

    From December 8, Catalan children look after the Tió de Nadal, a log with a painted face. They feed it and keep it warm under a blanket. On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day they tap it with sticks and sing it a song (a rather rude one, which is half the fun), then lift the blanket to find sweets and small presents.

    Try it at home: Give a log or a box a face, tuck it under a blanket and hide sweets underneath.

  • Mexico

    Las Posadas

    From December 16 to 24, neighbors go from house to house asking for shelter, the way Mary and Joseph did on the way to Bethlehem, with music, food and a piñata for the children. The last night is Christmas Eve.

    Try it at home: If you'd like to borrow just one part, a piñata goes down very well.

    This one is religious: it retells part of the Christmas story.

  • The Philippines

    Noche Buena

    After the Christmas Eve Mass, Misa de Gallo, families go home for a midnight feast, with queso de bola (a big round cheese), Christmas ham and hot chocolate. Then everyone sits under the tree and opens the presents.

    Try it at home: A late supper with hot chocolate, for anyone who can keep their eyes open.

    It follows a church service.

  • Italy

    The vigil supper

    In Italy, Christmas Eve is la vigilia, and supper is often fish, from the old Catholic custom of not eating meat before a holy day. The famous Feast of the Seven Fishes is mostly Italian-American, and nobody knows for sure why it's seven.

    Try it at home: Fish for supper, and the kids count how many kinds made it to the table.

    Its roots are religious.

  • The UK

    A mince pie and a carrot

    When YouGov asked children aged 6 to 10 in 2017, 77% put out a carrot for the reindeer and 64% a mince pie for Father Christmas. A glass of milk came next, and cookies a long way behind. A little sherry often goes out for him too, and in Ireland a pint of Guinness, but those are the grown-ups' idea.

    Try it at home: Our plate card has a mince pie side and a cookie side.

  • Ireland

    A candle in the window

    In Ireland a candle in the window on Christmas Eve was, for a long time, a sign of welcome for strangers, and especially for Mary and the baby Jesus.

    Try it at home: A battery candle in the window, and a talk about who you'd like to welcome.

    It began as a religious custom.

  • Greece

    Kálanda at the door

    On the morning of December 24, Greek children go from door to door with little metal triangles and ask, "Shall we sing?" They sing the kálanda and get a little money (it used to be sweets). They do it again on New Year's Eve and on January 5.

    Try it at home: Sing one carol at the grandparents' door. The triangle is optional.

    The Christmas kálanda's words tell of Jesus's birth.

  • Australia

    Carols by Candlelight

    In Melbourne, Carols by Candlelight fills the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on Christmas Eve, and it's on TV too. It's a charity concert for Vision Australia's children's programs. In 2026 it's on Thursday, December 24, at 8 pm.

    Try it at home: Light a few candles (battery ones are fine) and sing along at home.

Not on Christmas Eve: in the Netherlands, Sinterklaas brings the presents on December 5, into shoes put out in the days before.

Sources, checked 12 Oct 2026: Visit Iceland, the book flood; the Icelandic Publishers Association; NPR (2012); Smithsonian Magazine (2022, archived copy); Visit Iceland, Christmas in Iceland; the Royal Norwegian Embassy; Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian); Visit Denmark; Denmark.dk; Goethe-Institut (archived copy); the University of Łódź; Yle News (2024); Yle News (2014); Catalan News; NPR (2021); Rappler; NPR (2018); YouGov (2017); NPR (2017); Ireland.com; RTÉ Brainstorm; Greek News Agenda; Vision Australia, Carols by Candlelight; I amsterdam.

For grown-ups

If they ask whether Santa is real

There's no single right answer, and the experts say so too. Child psychologists suggest asking first, “What do you think?”, and then following your child's lead. In a 2023 study from the University of Texas at Dallas, children stopped believing at about 8 on average, though it varied a lot. About a third of the children remembered feeling a bit sad when they found out, mostly not for long, and it didn't make them trust their parents much less. Most of the adults in the study wanted to do Santa with their own kids.

When the time comes, some families make the older child a helper who keeps the secret for the little ones, or start something new, like choosing a toy to give away.

Sources, checked 12 Oct 2026: the University of Texas at Dallas (2023); University of Miami Health System (2018).

Our own book

The Christmas Secret

A Christmas Eve picture book with a read-along · ages 3 to 7 · out on October 20

Iceland gives books on Christmas Eve, and we think they're onto something. Ours happens on that very night: a girl on a freezing bench sees Santa's red balloon float over the Golden Mountains, and off she runs after it. Read aloud, it lasts about eight minutes, which is just right for a Christmas Eve bedtime story.

In the book's words
This is the story of the best Christmas of my life!

The read-along inside the book gets something new every Christmas Eve, the same way the little glass box in the story does.

Out on October 20See inside the book

Questions

Grown-ups ask

What can we do on Christmas Eve with kids?

Pick a handful of things and spread them out, so there is something to look forward to every hour or so. Open a Christmas Eve box after dinner, put out reindeer food and a plate for Santa, read a story in bed, and borrow an idea or two from other countries, like a new book for everyone from Iceland or watching for the first star, as they do in Poland. The plan maker on this page puts your picks in time order, with bedtime at the end, ready to print.

What do you leave out for Santa?

Cookies and a glass of milk in the US, a mince pie in the UK and Ireland, and a carrot for the reindeer almost everywhere. The custom is older than most people think: a children's magazine mentioned milk and cookies for Santa back in 1896.

How do you make Santa's footprints?

After bedtime, lay a boot print stencil on a hard floor near the tree, shake flour or baking soda over it through a sieve, then lift it and move it one step along. Or press the sole of a big boot into flour on a tray and step it across the floor. It sweeps up in the morning, though a carpet needs the vacuum. Keep little fingers out of the raw flour, and wash hands after the sweeping.

What is Santa's key?

It's for homes without a chimney. The key hangs outside on Christmas Eve, and because it's magic, only Santa can use it. Nobody knows who thought of it first, and it seems to be a fairly new idea. Our tag to tie on it is free to print on this page.

What is Jólabókaflóð?

It's Icelandic for the Christmas book flood: books given on Christmas Eve and read that same night. It took hold during the Second World War, when paper was one of the few things Icelanders could still get easily, and a catalogue of new books has gone to every home each November since 1944.

What games can kids play on Christmas Eve?

A bedtime treasure hunt with clues that end at the bookshelf, the hidden almond in the rice pudding from Norway and Denmark (whoever finds it wins a prize), spotting the first star from the window, as Polish families do, or tapping a Christmas log for sweets, the way they do in Catalonia. Pulling the last link off the paper chain counts too.

What time should kids go to bed on Christmas Eve?

Close to their usual bedtime, if you can manage it. Christmas morning starts early, and a tired child doesn't enjoy it much. Make the last half hour calm, with a bath, a story in bed or the reindeer food going out, and remind them of the old rule: Santa only comes once everyone is asleep.