CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve is the Day before Christmas Day, which is on December 24, according to the Gregorian calendar. It is not a public holiday in the United Kingdom but it is a day of preparations for the Christmas season.

What do people do?

Christmas Eve is the last day for many people to shop and prepare for Christmas.
People may attend a church service, often called midnight mass, on Christmas Eve.  The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast on radio throughout the United Kingdom and across the world from Kings College Cambridge.

Many families with children end Christmas Eve by hanging Christmas stocking up. These were traditionally socks, but are now often oversize sock-shaped sacks. Children hope that a mythical figure, called Father Christmas or Santa Claus, will visit the house during the night. He enters homes by climbing down the chimney and, if he thinks that the children have been well-behaved all year, fills the stockings with presents, gifts and sweets.

Public life

December 24 is not a public holiday. However, schools are closed for the Christmas holidays and many people have a day off work or leave earlier than usual. Stores and post offices are generally very busy, but may close earlier than usual. Many people travel to spend Christmas Day and Boxing Day with family or friends.

Symbols

A wide variety of things symbolize Christmas Eve. These include Christmas trees, including the decorations and lights that people hang on them, and other evergreens, such as holly, ivy and mistletoe, which are used to decorate homes and other buildings. Other symbols are: the Christmas stocking; and Father Christmas (or Santa Claus), who travels on a sleigh pulled by reindeer, to fill these stockings with gifts; as well as the glasses of sherry and mince pies that people leave out for Father Christmas.

 http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/uk/christmas-eve