I love finding out the different ways that families celebrate with their Christmas traditions. Some of them are very unique and fun, with something random and obscure that was just passed down as a family tradition. Others may be more traditional, like attending a Christmas Eve candlelight service at church and opening one present.

There are also different cultural ways that families celebrate. These may differ from one culture to the next. I have some friends whose family have a mix of different cultures throughout. They all get together for a formal Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. They eat very late, and then they open all of their presents at midnight. Christmas Day is then spent with family and children playing with their toys. If you don’t have to get up early the next day then staying up so late wouldn’t be a problem! This was always such a fascinating idea to me.

Since I love hearing so much about other families and their traditions, I thought it would be fun to share our very own Christmas Eve tradition:

This tradition started 5 years ago. We used to gather up the family and drive to the other side of town for family dinner. We then ended up at another family member’s church for a late night Christmas Eve service. This was always so exhausting with small children, and we really wanted to attend our own home church. Somehow, I was able to entice my in laws to attend our church and have dinner at our house instead.

I have an amazing soup recipe that I have tweaked over the years that my father in law always requests that I make. It is a labor of love, so I don’t make it often. I offered to host Christmas Eve dinner at our house with the promise of Tortellini soup, and a new tradition was instantly born!

Our Simple Soup and Salad Christmas Eve Tradition:

I love making soup, because you can simmer it on the stove all afternoon, turn it off and it’s still going to be hot an hour later. You can even keep it warm in a crockpot, but I like to make mine in a large stock pot. For our Christmas Eve tradition, we attend the early Christmas Eve service at our church. This is usually around 5pm. That give us the afternoon to clean the house, to get it all ready for Christmas and to prep our soup and salad.

The reason this soup is a labor of love is because there is so much chopping involved. This soup has lots of herbs and veggies, and chopping it all up can take awhile. It is totally worth it though! If you love Italian food, and hearty wholesome soups, this is the soup for you. The entire family loves it, even small children! Once the soup has simmered for awhile, the last step is to add the tortelilnis. Since we plan on eating when we get home from our church service I leave this step out until we get home. Our service is short so we are home within an hour and the soup is still hot. If you plan on eating after church and will be gone awhile I recommend putting your soup in a crockpot.

My in-laws will meet us at church, and when service is over we come back to our house for dinner. I love the compliments when they walk in the door because the house smells absolutely amazing! I turn the soup back on and add the tortellinis for the final step. We usually snack on some cheese and crackers while the soup finishes up. This soup is very hot so I like to give it some time to cool off before we eat it. We go ahead and ladle it into bowls so it has some time to cool. While it is cooling down we go ahead and make our salads. I like to make a very light salad with fresh lettuce from our garden, cucumbers, tomatoes, freshly grated parmesan cheese and Olive Garden Italian Dressing. Once we are done with our salads the soup is ready to go!

After dinner there is very little clean up as we only have one pot, and bowls and salad plates. It is super easy and makes for a relaxed and simple evening. When dinner is over we read a Christmas story together, and the grandparents hand out gifts. This is such a cozy, sweet and simple tradition we look forward to each year.

I have included my recipe for you below. You can save the image and print it out for your own recipe book. This has been tweaked over the years to make it large family friendly and is a double batch recipe. You can half this if you need to, but it does freeze very well. This will easily feed 10 people with about a quart, maybe more for leftovers. My father in law happily brings some home with him every single time.

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This year has been pretty intense for many families. The struggle is real and there are many that are worried about the bills, the presents, the tree, and even the food itself for Christmas dinner. It doesn’t need to be an anxiety inducing season though. There is a hope that can be found in help that others offer. This help can come in various forms and may it be found in a quiet moment, a shared laugh, or a restful night. This year I have teamed up with a group of amazing bloggers that want to also be a part of the help during this Christmas season.

We are so excited to share that we are going to be able to bless ONE family this year with $500 in PayPal cash. Together we pray that this will help with any of the worries and anxiousness of the season. All of us are wishing for a wonderful Christmas filled with blessings and sweet memories for you and your family!

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