Christmas Eve Box ideas for an extra touch of Christmas magic

Christmas Eve boxes are a fairly new trend in the UK so if you’re after Christmas Eve box ideas then I’ve got a load for you!

I think we’ve adopted Christmas Eve traditions from a few different countries and made our own new tradition which is a lovely little box filled with goodies on Christmas Eve.

What is a Christmas Eve box?

A Christmas Eve box is a special box you give to your loved ones on Christmas Eve. It’ll usually contain a few special little treats that will make Christmas Eve even more exciting! I’ve got a list if ideas for things to put in your box further down.

But first, let’s start with the box….

Christmas Eve box ideas -The box!

Your box can be anything you want it to be but lots of people opt for personalised wooden boxes. I find it’s really nice to have the same quality box each year, but there are also much cheaper disposable boxes too.

You could even use a shoe box wrapped up in Christmas gift wrap! Don’t forget that young children in particular rarely recognise the monetary value of presents so there’s often no need to spend a fortune on luxury goods.

We have these personalised boxes from Amazon for each of our kids. 

Christmas Eve box ideas – What to put inside them

Children’s Christmas Eve boxes usually contain things like:

• Special Christmas pyjamas 
• New slippers
• A Christmas story to read before bed
• Christmas chocolates or sweets
• Hot chocolate to help you sleep when Santa comes
• Reindeer food
• A letter from Santa
• Colouring pencils or crayons and a Christmas themed colouring book
• A hot water bottle
• Christmassy bubble bath
• Fun bath time toys for that Christmas Eve bath
• Christmas teddy
• Christmas themed cookie cutters for Christmas Eve baking
• Fun Christmas baking decorations
• Christmas socks
• Christmas blanket
• Family Christmas-themed game

Christmas Eve box ideas for adults

Adult’s Christmas Eve boxes are often more food and drink orientated and might contain:

• New PJs/slippers
• Hot water bottle
• New mug
• Hot chocolate (or favourite hot drink)
• Wine
• Baileys
• Port (or other Christmassy booze!)
• Cheese and crackers and nice chutneys
• Yummy biscuits/dessert
• Bubble bath/bath bomb
• A gift for your other half that you’d rather your family/kids didn’t see!

It may seem like an extra stressful task on your Christmas to-do list (and more expenses!) but it’s often a few bits and bobs you would have bought anyway. A Christmas Eve Box is essentially a few stocking fillers packaged up into something really exciting.

I actually don’t give my kids any stocking fillers on Christmas Day because those little gifts are always forgotten in the excitement of the ‘big gift from Santa’ so it’s nice to give these a little earlier.

I do try and steer clear of too much of the materialistic ‘buy, buy, buy’ mentality at Christmas but I love the Christmas Eve box tradition.

It extends the excitement of Christmas, especially because Santa’s elves deliver our boxes!

Why we’re adapting the Christmas Eve box tradition – December 1st Christmas Box idea

We’ve given our kids Christmas Eve boxes for the past two years but last year I changed the tradition and I’m going to do the same this year because it worked so well.

They’ll be getting their ‘Christmas Eve box’ on December 1st.

The reason for this is simply to extend the exciting, magical time before Christmas and to get more use out of those Christmas gifts.

It seems a shame to buy Christmas books and new PJs for them to only be worn or read a few times before they end up being tucked away at the back of a draw! The Christmas books will come out again next year but the pyjamas will probably be too small.

So that’s why we’re doing ‘December 1st Boxes’ this year.

What’s in a December 1st Box?

A December 1st Box is very similar to a Christmas Eve Box, you just get it on the 1st December with your advent calendar. The elves will be delivering our boxes when they drop off the kid’s advent calendars and they’ll be popping in to make sure everyone is behaving!

I’ve put in ours:

• A letter from santa

• Christmas PJs (from £5 at B&M and available for the whole family)

• A Christmas colouring book (99p from Home Bargains)
• A Christmas activity/sticker book (89p from Home Bargains)
• A Christmas notepad (£1.99 Home Bargains)

• New crayons (£1 for 24 from B&M)

• A chocolate santa (£99p Asda)

• A gingerbread man cookie cutter (£4.49 from Amazon for a family of gingerbread people so we can make some biscuits this week!)

• A toothbrush (because Santa likes children who brush their teeth and Joseph needs a lot of encouragement!)

So that’s what we put in our Christmas Eve boxes and I hope you’ve got some ideas for your Christmas Eve boxes this year! And if anyone else is joining me with handing them out early, do let me know!