Christmas Photo Camera Settings Nikon D700?

I plan to take loads of photos throughout Christmas day including presents being opened, Restaurant lunch and then wherever we end up. I will be using a Nikon D700 along with a 24-120mm lens. Could anyone recommend settings that would be appropriate throughout the day? ISO, WB setting, aperture and shutter speed. Appreciate that this is not the ideal camera for a relative beginner.

Really appreciate any helpf, tips or advice.

Hardly any time to learn! Use Auto for WB and exposure, and hope for the best.

Then why on earth… Oh never mind.

Sigh…

WB depends on the light, you can try incandescent, otherwise shoot either a custom from a card or shoot auto and correct on your computer (if you shoot raw)
iso, as high as it needs to be
Aperture, wide open makes for nice subject isolation
shutter speed, whatever you can get away with.

I'd slap a sb-600 in the hotshoe, stick it on iso 400 and in aperture priority on f5.6. IF that cuts out all ambient light then go up with the iso, it's a d700 so 1600 is no issue whatsoever.

Next time spend slightly less on your main camera and more on your education!

You might be better with an 18-55mm lens (because of the closeness to the "action")… But if you have a 24-120mm keep it at 24mm unless you need to zoom into the action…

ISO should be set to 200 or 400 (maybe 800)… WB keep to AUTO (unless you know if you are in a tungsten or fluorescent environment)

Aperture should be set the the lowest (3.5 to 4.5)…

Setting the camera to Aperture Priority will get the shutter speed…

Maybe set the flash to "red eye removal" too…

There's no single setting that you can keep throughout the day - it's the whole point of a camera like that that you can get the most out of every situation by choosing the right settings for that particular moment.

Anyway, you'll encounter lots of low light situations. Fortunately, the camera that you have is pretty much the non-plus-ultra in terms of low light capability that there currently can be bought for money. The lens is a serious limitation though. (And it has a poor reputation. Drop it in favor of the new 28-300mm VR and a set of fine prime lenses as soon as possible).

In low light situations i usually shoot in full manual mode, but with ISO auto on. Since you have VR, choose the shutter speed at the inverse half of the focal length, i.e. 1/25s if you're shooting at 50mm focal length. That's just a rough figure though, use more or less as you find out that you can get away with.
Use the widest possible aperture to keep the ISO low. That particular lens is reported to be not very sharp wide open though, so if you can step the aperture down a bit while retaining ISO below 1600 or so and without compromising the shutter speed too much, then that may be a worth a try.

White balance… Keep it on auto and/or shoot RAW and do the fine tuning in post-processing.

Googling for a quick introduction to the "photographic triangle" (shutter speed, aperture, ISO) would be a good idea.

@Forlorn Hope:
The 18-55 DX would be automatically cropped on that camera and thus retain its crop factor that it would have on DX cameras. The 24-120mm will provide a wider angle of view.

I'll trade you a D90 for your D700. You can bang away in auto in every situation. Problem solved if you're in the Chicago area.
Otherwise select the "A" setting. Dial the aperture down as low as you can for your lens and focal length, use auto ISO and auto WB and hope for the best.