How do others from around the world celebrate christmas?

Well here down under the tinsel and decorations have been out for 6 weeks now and its only 4 weeks to the big day......

I havnt a great deal of family around and what i have are all over the country so for me this year it will be up at the crack of dawn to do the present thing with my little 6yr old boy. My favourite time of the whole holidays is watching his face as he rips the paper off each of his gifts and then has the confused look on his face, not knowing what to play with 1st lol

Then because of the weather here (stinking hot) it will be a trip to the fresh fish market for Kgs of prawns, crab, Morton Bay bugs, some nice fish and a heap of mussels.
This is the menu for our christmas lunch. Very rarely have we gone the HOT turkeys, pork and the traditional food for christmas. Because of our weather.
Will do the obligatory phone calls to rest of family but apart from that will be a nice quiet time round my mates for lunch, and watching the kids go crazy. The real reason for christmas haha
Our big day is Boxing Day the day after where it will be leftovers and beer watching the Boxing Day Test. (cricket for those not in the know)

So how do the rest of us plan the big day.. ???

Well for most of us in the US..it's cold..and depending on the seasonal pattern, snowy/snowing/windy. But..I don't know..it depends on people's habits I guess. Most people buy either Turkey, Ham, Roast Beef..sometimes other meat.

We have parades (courtesy of Macy's) during the morning hours, some cities and towns have them locally, and then (at least in my family), most people sit around, and do whatever's interesting (like playing on that new Mac!). In my town, nothing remotely interesting happens on Christmas Day..nothing. Everyone might go out to a Christmas lunch by noon, if there's a place open (some places are). And some people just snooze until mid afternoon, like um..my Dad. LOL

And yes, family does come over, but due to economic problems here Stateside, well, my family doesn't know what to do for Christmas this year. Heck my parents and I aren't heading to my grandmothers this Thanksgiving..I have two grandmothers: Mom's real mother and step mother. Her step mother separated from my grandpa, so..she's living in Missouri, and we can't afford the drive nor the flight..so..the family remains separated. My other grandmother (lives in the same town) is heading to Phoenix.

I have three (now two) grandmother's in El Paso, TX, and one grandfather who is not doing so well (aunt is taking care of him).



My parents have about three years of videos and pictures from when I was 3 til I was about 6. I haven't seen them in years. And I guess I can't wait to have kids, but that'll be a few years plus off.

I think you are kind of forgetting why people celebrate Christmas to begin with. >_>"

Going to church with the family. Everything else is secondary.

CrimsonRequiem said:

I think you are kind of forgetting why people celebrate Christmas to begin with. >_>"

Going to church with the family. Everything else is secondary.

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I wasnt forgetting anything...... Personally im Agnostic and as stated above i love to see the joy on my kids face when he opens his presents as he is too young to fully understand the true meaning of christmas.
For him its all about the presents and if that makes him happy that makes me happy and everything else is secondary .....

We still need to have Thanksgiving first!

Well, I'm still thinking about Thanksgiving next week. Tomorrow I'll start thawing my Turkey. I took off on Wednesday and am going to make yet another attempt at making gravy with the giblets and pan drippings (previous attempts have been less than perfect, and I have jarred gravy as a backup). Wish me luck

Aside from that, I probably won't start doing the outside Christmas lights until next weekend. Although most American companies only give their employees off for Christmas day, for some strange reason, we get Thanksgiving (always a Thursday) and the next day off (referred to as "Black Friday", the official start to the Christmas shopping season here). Although a lot of people hit the big sales on Black Friday, I'm not too keen on crowds and prefer to spend the time off getting the house ready. And if I don't get around to it next weekend, it'll probably be another week until we get the tree up and start decorating the inside of the house.

On Christmas day, we typically have the parents, in-laws and my wife's grandmother over so that we don't have to cart the kids around (I have two boys, one 4 and one 19 months). Our tradition, as silly as it might seem, is to have party trays with cold cuts and hot appetizers. We open gifts from Santa in the morning with the boys, and the extended family doesn't come over until later in the day. At which point, we usually sit around, eating and talking until later on in the evening.

It's usually pretty cold here by December (although we've had quite mild winters over the past few years - I can't remember the last time we had snow on Christmas). I usually get a fire started in our wood-burning fireplace on Christmas, but that's mostly for the ambiance. Our home is heated with natural gas and that makes the fireplace pretty redundant, but I do use it a handful of times a year, mostly when we have family over.

This year, my gf and I are going to her parent's house on Xmas day. Then on thee 26th (Boxing Day), my mom, her boyfriend/fiance are coming and bringing my younger brother with them.

They're staying for the day and I'm going to be the one cooking dinner with the basics to go along with it.

This will also be my mom's first visit to my new apartment since we've been moved in since the 1st of September.

I love cooking, especially for other people,b and I haven't baked a turkey in a while, but I'm sure it'll be like riding a bike, you never forget.

Another side note is, my mom's bf/fiance is a working musician, so we get along in that sense as well.

I'm stoked!