Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the night the waiting finally pays off. The tree has been up for weeks, the kids have been counting since Thanksgiving, and in a lot of homes the big dinner and the first presents happen on the 24th, not the 25th. This page keeps the count for you, live and down to the second.

The countdown runs to midnight in your own time zone, the moment December 24 begins. For the day after, see the Christmas countdown, and for the last big night of the year, New Year’s Eve.

Why the night before matters

For many Christians, Christmas doesn’t wait for morning. In the Catholic calendar, the Christmas season begins with the vigil Masses on Christmas Eve, and churches fill up that evening for candlelight services and midnight Mass.

The night before got a famous poem, too. “A Visit from St. Nicholas” first ran, with no name attached, in the Troy Sentinel in New York on December 23, 1823. These days it’s better known by its first line, “’Twas the night before Christmas.” Clement Clarke Moore claimed it years later, but Henry Livingston Jr.’s family said he was the author, and some modern scholars agree.

How the world keeps Christmas Eve

In plenty of countries, the 24th is the main event. In Poland, the Wigilia supper begins when the first star appears in the sky, and nobody eats until the family has broken the opłatek, a thin Christmas wafer, and swapped good wishes. Many tables hold twelve dishes, and sometimes a free seat for anyone who’d otherwise spend the night alone.

Iceland has the Jólabókaflóð, the Christmas book flood. Books are the gift to give, they’re opened on Christmas Eve, and the rest of the night goes to reading them. It dates back to World War II, when paper was one of the few things that wasn’t rationed.

In Italian American homes, the night often means the Feast of the Seven Fishes, a seafood dinner with roots in the Christmas Eve fish suppers of central and southern Italy, where the night is simply called the vigilia.

However you spend it

Maybe it’s a candlelight service, a table full of fish, a new book under a blanket, or just the quiet once the kids are finally asleep. Bookmark this page, share it with whoever starts asking first, or put the countdown on your own site.