Christmas Eve

American

noun

the evening or the day preceding Christmas.

Christmas Eve British

noun

the evening or the whole day before Christmas Day

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Christmas Eve

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

On Christmas Eve, Nvidia paid $20 billion for a perpetual license to Groq’s inference chip, which is called an LPU.

From Barron's • Mar. 18, 2026

My father left my mother with five young children on Christmas Eve in 1978.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 25, 2026

In Polish cuisine, it’s known as Gołąbki, often served for Christmas Eve dinner, weddings, or on dining tables year-round, depending on the region.

From Salon • Feb. 21, 2026

The sender of the 2002 Christmas Eve email wrote they had sent a FedEx to another potential contributor and then listed Trump, the Wall Street billionaire Black, former U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 10, 2026

There never was such merrymaking as took place in the Hall that Christmas Eve.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023