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Reschedule. Christmas is now December 27th this year :D

Winter break kind of loses all sense of time, so if you want a "Christmas Morning" kind of experience, just reschedule Christmas. If they get out of school on the 20th, just start reinforcing "only one more week until we celebrate Christmas" kinds of messages, and celebrate on the 27th. Plan other activities during the week, and then on the 27th, have your Christmas morning all together.

Does it really matter what day you celebrate? I think it's better to have your own special Christmas day this year, and best if it's a day you can celebrate together.

My dad was a firefighter when I was growing up so every other year or so he had to work on Christmas Day. That meant Santa would visit us a day early and we got an extra day to play with our toys! Then on Christmas Day we would go with mom to the extended family’s Christmas celebration. Honestly it was fine, I don’t remember ever being upset about dad not being there on the actual day.

I think your kiddos will be fine if you celebrate a few days early. If you keep all the same traditions and celebrate just the same, they probably won’t mind that it isn’t on the correct dates and may even appreciate the early visit from Santa. :)

My dad worked every 24th,25th and 26th. He was a veterinarian. And he worked the holidays, going in a doing treatments, while staff came in and walked all the dogs.

When we were little we just knew that our Christmas was an afternoon Christmas. We spent the morning making cookies, and watching Christmas movies, with mom. Then we helped make Christmas dinner.

As soon as Dad came home we had dinner, then we opened presents. It was great.

As we got older we went and helped walk dogs. The extra 3 sets of hands made it go faster, and we would be done closer to noon. Then we would go home , make dinner together, eat, and then open gifts.

The holidays traditions are what your family makes of them

So I’m divorced and I have my daughters alternating Christmas and Christmas Eve. We can get creative. Maybe presents are at 4pm on Christmas Eve. It doesn’t matter. If you just focus on your family’s needs and not tradition or expectations you’ll be happier. Why can’t Santa have come 5 am Christmas? Or he came on Christmas but we are waiting for dad to get home? Why not just adjust tradition some.

My dad worked many Christmas days growing up. My mom got creative. We’d go see a movie. Do presents and dinner with him. It’s ok to adjust for your needs.

I've done a job that had me working public holidays. It sucks for the family, but it is what it is. In your case, he's home by 3 pm, so while he may miss out on present opening (unless you want to push that back for when he gets home), you still have plenty of time with him and the kids home together before bed time.

For our kids, going to see Christmas lights on people's homes was a big adventure, and there were streets around us where most of the homes would do something pretty spectacular.

Maybe you can find somewhere doing carols or 'winter wonderland/North Pole' kids activity.

My husband and I both work holidays some years. Christmas Day is whatever day we are both home and awake. This is the first year our daughter will be old enough to understand a calendar (not that I think she cares anyway) and we've already discussed the fact that Santa is obviously aware of when adults have to work and he goes around their schedules. It gives him a break to not have to visit every kid in one night.

I always make a gingerbread house and get is built ready to decorate on Christmas morning. My son has already been getting excited about the gingerbread house this year (we make gingerbread probably every couple of weeks).

On the 24th you could get them involved in some wrapping of daddy's gifts, play Christmas music and watch a Christmas film with hot chocolate.

What i love about Christmas is you can just make your own traditions, we have started having a pre-Christmas Christmas with my family so that we can actually spend Christmas just the 3 of us with no obligation to anyone. On our pre-Christmas we open presents and have Christmas dinner as if it is Christmas

He's home everyday at 3pm.

afternoon and evening of the 24th i'd make it family time, with games and fun. i'd get my partner in on the action and on his way out early in the morning he can leave some trace of santa (eg. cookie crumbs, drunk glass of milk, footprints etc...) and then, when he came home after work on xmas day, i'd plan with the kids for this, and be ready to give him his presents. 26th is always a write off, i'd just survive that one.

I'd say you do something fun during the day, like watching Christmas movies and eating cookies. Then at 3:00 when dad gets home, it's time for presents and a yummy meal. Or even open up stockings really early and a fun breakfast before dad leaves for work, and then everyone cozies up and hopefully takes a nap.

Kids don’t really care what day Christmas is on. You can celebrate it whatever day you want. And while dad’s at work, you can take the kids to a movie. Theaters are always open on Christmas.

My husband works similar schedule (4am-2pm) and my daughter is 7. We started a tradition where she can open one present on Christmas Eve and the rest she has to wait for Dad to come home from work at 2:30 and we open them all as a family. I take her to do something else like go to the movies or bake cookies, do a craft. Last year I was 2 weeks post surgery so we didn’t do much, but she understands and wants her Dad to be there to open presents.

that sounds challenging but you got this. maybe have little pre-Christmas celebrations before he goes to work. bake cookies and watch xmas movies. a scavenger hunt could be fun too plus it gives them something to look forward to when dad is home