Christmas Eve Box Ideas for Every Age, Even the Ones Who Say They're Too Old | Bluegrass Gifts

The Box That's Open by Six and Empty by Ten After

Most Christmas Eve box ideas fail in about four minutes. The box gets packed like a second stocking, the kids rip through it before supper is cleared, and the long evening it was meant to fill is still sitting there, with a sugar rush, new pajamas on backwards and nothing left to open.

A good Christmas Eve box holds one thing for each part of the evening: something to wear, something to watch or read, a treat, a warm drink and something for the room. Match each piece to who is opening it and how your night really goes, and leave out anything that won't get used before morning.

For that last part, the room, our honest pick is a bag of Cookie Crumble Blues snickerdoodle wax melts for the grown-ups' half of a Christmas Eve box. It smells of snickerdoodle, cinnamon sugar and cake frosting, so the house smells like cookie night whether anybody baked or not. In a box for little kids, the melts are for the grown-ups' warmer, not the kids.

A Christmas Eve box is just a box opened the night before Christmas, usually holding new pajamas, a treat, a movie or a book. The tradition is loose on purpose, which is why it so often turns into a pile. So treat it as a decision: what the night is for, who is opening it, then what goes in.

Decide What the Night Is For Before You Buy a Thing

Christmas Eve looks different in every house, and the box should fit yours. Most nights are one of three kinds:

• The early night. Small kids, and somebody needs them asleep. The box is a wind-down: pajamas, a bedtime book, something warm to drink, and no sugar after the plate goes out for Santa.
• The late night. A candlelight service, a long supper at the in-laws', a drive home in the dark. The box is something to come home to, opened in the front room with the coats still on the chairs.
• The night away. Opened at Grandma's or in a hotel room. The box has to travel, so it stays soft and small, with nothing breakable.

Once you know the night, the box has five jobs, and every item should do one of them: something to wear, something to watch or read, something to eat, something to drink, and something for the room. Anything that does none of those jobs is filler, however cute it looked on the shelf.

The room is the job most boxes skip, and it is the one that works on everybody at once. A warmer going in the kitchen or the front room changes what the whole evening smells like. On the late night, switch it on when you get home, not before you leave: a warmer is never left on in an empty house.

◆ From the Workshop: Every 9 oz bag of our tarts goes into a clear stand-up zip bag, and our label goes on dead center. It is a dark square that says hand-poured wax melts and Made in Kentucky, and it is the first thing you read when the bag comes up out of a box. On Christmas Eve, when the bag may ride beside real snickerdoodles and a stocking's worth of candy, the label, not the smell, is what tells a grown-up which one is wax. Around it, the clear sides show the shape you picked, every one poured from the same coconut-soy blend with fragrance oil at ten percent by weight, so the bag can go into the box exactly as it ships.

Christmas Eve Box Ideas by Age: A Checklist to Pack From

Here is the list, sorted by who is opening the box. Copy the part you need onto the back of an envelope and take it shopping.

Little kids, about 2 to 6

• Pajamas one size up, because they will still be wearing them in March
• A picture book about the night before Christmas, read in bed with the lights low
• A small flashlight for checking the sky for reindeer from the window
• A cup for warm milk, one cookie, and a carrot for the reindeer plate
• Nothing with small parts for the under-threes, and no wax melts: those go to the grown-ups

Big kids, about 7 to 11

• Pajamas or a hoodie in a color they picked
• A card game the whole table can learn in five minutes
• A chapter book or a joke book for reading in bed
• Cocoa packets and a mug of their own
• A family movie chosen ahead, so nobody spends the evening fighting over the remote

Teens

• Lounge pants in a plain color, not a cartoon print
• The full-size bag of the snack they would buy themselves
• A puzzle book, a paperback or a sketchbook, anything that is not a screen
• Thick socks, the one gift a teenager never calls corny
• A note saying they may sleep in until the little ones wake them

A couple

• Two mugs and the makings of whatever they drink after dark
• One movie they have both been meaning to watch
• A game for two, cards or dominoes
• One dessert to share, one plate, two forks
• Something for the room, for after the house goes quiet

A grown-up spending the evening alone

• The good pajamas, the kind they would never buy for themselves
• A book by an author they already like
• Good tea or cocoa, and something sweet still in its sealed package
• A handwritten letter marked "open tonight"
• A time on the card when you will call, and then that call
• Something for the room, so the house feels like somebody is home

The whole family

• Matching pajamas, if yours is the matching kind of family
• One movie everybody can sit through, youngest to oldest
• Popcorn and one big bowl to share it from
• A board game with short rounds
• Cocoa for the kids, coffee for the grown-ups
• A bag of wax melts for the grown-ups' warmer, packed where small hands won't find it

Before you close the lid, check every item against the night. If it won't get used before morning, it goes under the tree instead.

The Myth Behind Most Christmas Eve Box Ideas: Bigger Is Better

The myth is that a Christmas Eve box should look like a second Christmas. Once the box is the size of a laundry basket, it competes with the morning, the kids wind up instead of down, and the grown-ups spend the evening bagging wrapping paper.

What's true is that the box works because it comes back the same every year. Use one sturdy box you bring down each December, with a name on the lid, and keep it to five or six things. The sameness is the point, not a shortcut.

If you are really building a gift for all winter rather than one evening, we wrote a guide to cozy gift basket ideas that get used instead of admired. A Christmas Eve box can be smaller than that, and better for it.

Save the Last Thing in the Box for the Grown-Ups

The room is where we would spend a little, and Cookie Crumble Blues is the scent we would put there. It is snickerdoodle, cinnamon sugar and cake frosting: a stack of cookies beside a slice of frosted cake, with enough cinnamon that it never reads as plain sugar. On Christmas Eve that is the smell of cookies already baking, even in a year when the cookies came from the store.

It comes two ways, both $16.99 with free U.S. shipping. The 9 oz bag of tarts comes in your pick of five shapes: boots and hats, flowers, squares, hearts or bears. The tarts are a coconut-soy wax blend and fragrance oil, natural and plant-based. The 8 oz squeeze pouch is soft wax you squeeze straight into the dish, with a stronger throw and no crumbs. It has mineral oil added, so it is not a natural product, and its color varies from batch to batch while the scent stays the same. If the grown-up already runs a warmer most nights, the pouch is the one.

Now the plain part. If the box is for little kids, the melts are not for them. They go to the grown-ups' warmer, a warmer made for wax melts, kept away from children and pets and never left on unattended. They look a lot like candy and they are not food, and a bag that smells like snickerdoodles beside a plate of real ones is asking a lot of a four-year-old. With little ones in the house, we would pick boots and hats or squares over the bears.

We don't sell warmers, so if the grown-up on your list doesn't own one, put one made for wax melts in the box too, and our guide on how to use wax melts without making a mess is worth printing and tucking in for a first-timer. We are a small Kentucky shop with 5,000+ customer reviews, and we pour these melts by hand in the same shop where we carve our signs. Packing boxes for more than one house? Any two or more melts or signs earn up to 20% off at checkout, and every one of the 30 scents in our wax melts collection has its notes listed, so you can pick one per house by smell instead of by name.

Pack the pajamas, pick the book, and tuck a bag of Cookie Crumble Blues wax melts into the grown-ups' half of the box. When the last stocking is filled and the house finally goes quiet, it will smell like the cookies just came out of the oven.

Frequently Asked Questions

What to put in a Christmas Eve box?

Put one thing in a Christmas Eve box for each part of the evening: new pajamas to wear, a movie or a book, a treat, a warm drink and something for the room, so every item gets used before morning. Five or six things is plenty. Match each one to the person: a picture book for a toddler, a puzzle book for a teen, the good pajamas for a grown-up. Anything that is really a Christmas morning gift belongs under the tree instead.

What goes in a Christmas Eve box for adults?

A Christmas Eve box for adults usually holds good pajamas or thick socks, a movie or book they have meant to get to, a drink they really like, something sweet and something for the room, such as a bag of wax melts for their warmer. For a couple, double the mugs and add a game for two. For someone spending the evening alone, add a handwritten letter and the time you will call.

Can Cookie Crumble Blues wax melts go in a kids' Christmas Eve box?

Only as the grown-ups' part of the box. The melts belong in an adult's warmer made for wax melts, kept away from children and pets and never left on unattended, because they look a lot like candy and they are not food. Choose the 9 oz bag of tarts in boots and hats, flowers, squares, hearts or bears, or the 8 oz squeeze pouch, soft wax you squeeze straight into the dish with a stronger throw. Both are $16.99 with free U.S. shipping. The tarts are natural and plant-based; the pouch contains mineral oil, is not a natural product, and its color varies from batch to batch while the scent stays the same.