Christmas Eve can be stressful, especially when you have little ones. Get them fed, cookies and milk for Santa, reindeer food on the front lawn, then trying just to get them to bed. It’s a struggle for sure. Then of course there is the wrapping and putting together of bicycles. It’s enough to make you want to knock back a bottle of holiday wine, and just watch A Christmas Story all night.
Thankfully for me and my wife, our kids are now a bit older, at 21 and 15, so we get to enjoy something I have made a family tradition of our own over the past few years. We go to our church’s late afternoon/early evening service, which is a good one, because that’s the one with the live electric band. Pretty rockin’ way to welcome in the New Born King, if you know what I mean.
Later, it’s off to a nice family dinner, where the rule is, get whatever you want, but eat whatever you get. I have to put that rule in or else my son would be getting octopus just to see what it looks like when it comes out, then eat bread the rest of the night.
Furthermore, I adhere to my own personal rule. I get a cocktail that I rarely if ever have had. A special martini perhaps. Maybe a Manhattan, or an Old Fashioned. You know, just to get into that old holiday spirit. So whatever you are doing on Christmas Eve this year, whether it be a party at your relatives home, or a quiet night with the family, I hope it’s a good one, my friend.
However, if you do want to take the gang out for an early Christmas Eve dinner, here is a list of some great places in Ocean County! Some are a bit more fancy than others, but they all are solid staples in the Ocean County restaurant scene. Merry Christmas! Here’s to Season’s Eatings!
