Christmas Eve, a day just prior to Christmas Day, is the one that is charged with combination of hope, fretfulness and apprehensions. The atmosphere in the house is filled with lots of anxiety on putting an end to final plans about grand Christmas dinner, getting over with final decoration, going out for final shopping and so on. Not to be left behind is the much-awaited day for festivities, joy and high spirits. How can the children hold back about the thoughts of surprise gifts and goodies scheduled for the next day? Children just can’t keep up with the idea to go to sleep, as they are eager to bump into Santa Claus to grab the gifts and candies. The sheer excitement itself may keep them awake for the whole night.
As is found in most of the olden customs and in few of the present day cultures, it is a widespread belief that any festival or religious day or holiday ought to commence from the dawn of the previous day. In line with this popular belief, the actual festivities and traditions for the Christmas day get underway right from the Eve of Christmas.
Apart from the common beliefs and customs, the real significance behind Christmas Eve is the spiritual one. Devout Christians adhere to the traditions of attending midnight mass among other Church services. Even the casual Churchgoers never miss a chance to attend midnight mass during Christmas. Churches thronged by tons of Parishioners and worshipers rightly substantiate the religious significance of Christmas. Several Churches organize additional services to facilitate large number of worshipers and especially for old-aged persons who favor services earlier than midnight mass.
Christmas Eve also marks out various tactics followed by shoppers and merchants. There are tons of smart shoppers, who plan their shopping on Christmas Eve to take the advantage of bargain sales, distress sales and last minute promotions of the shop-owners to push the sales. Likewise, there are tons of merchants, who would exploit the gullible last-moment-shoppers and reckless buyers.
Several retail stores and super stores don’t shut their shops until midnight. The trend of keeping the shops open until midnight probably was started by Macy’s department stores in New York. Macy’s stores for the first time ever was kept open until midnight in the year 1867. Macy’s New York branch is regarded as the store that generates largest revenue in the world on Christmas Day. Shopping season starts with Thanksgiving Day and ends with Christmas Eve, which is supposed to be the day with largest turn over for the retailers all over the world.
As is the common ritual, parents play the role of Santa Claus and quietly stash toys and gifts underneath the Christmas tree when children are asleep. Children on the daybreak rush to the Christmas tree to grab the gifts, toys and candies bestowed upon them by Santa Claus. It was the poem ‘An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas’ by Poet Clement Clarke Moore, which made popular the idea of Santa Claus coming down the chimney on the Christmas Eve to disburse gifts to nice boys and girls. The poem of Moore, written in 1822, is now popular as ‘Twas the Night before Christmas’. It is an excellent piece of poem that narrates Santa Claus as a ‘Right Jolly Old Elf’, going from house to house flying on his sleigh driven by reindeers to distribute gifts to nice children.
Christmas Day Dinner accounts for a larger part of planning and preparations on the Eve of Christmas. Chicken and other meat dishes demand extensive preliminaries in order to serve delicious Christmas Dinner. Puddings, pie, cakes and several other baking dishes take up lot of time and energy. Above all, you ought to put together trendy cutlery in advance so as to organize a la carte Christmas dinner.
All the preparations and stretched out activities aren’t as easy as it appears however, in the end, the Christmas Eve must remain unforgettable through out the year until it’s time for the next Christmas Eve.