When do you celebrate Christmas?

[blankita719]

We go out looking at Christmas lights with my mom and my sister's family on Christmas Eve but Santa comes during the night after my son goes to sleep and he opens presents on Christmas Day.

[Haley53]

Christmas Eve (24th) is generally spent pretty low-key, usually a walk on the beach if the weather is nice, and the celebration[s] happen more near the evening, when we generally go out for a nice dinner with my grandfather at a fancy schmancy restaurant, and then when we come home, both my sister and I are allowed to open one gift each. My grandfather may or may not spend the night - occasionally we have Christmas there, but it's rare - and both he and my mother are generally up by 5am, so when my sister and I wake/are ready, they're already up and there's no waiting involved! When we were younger, we were only allowed to open our stockings, then it was breakfast, and then presents, but these years, it's a toss up as to whether we get to open presents first of if we have to eat breakfast beforehand.

[Ms.Justine]

Christmas Eve is when I will be going to my SO's family's house to open presents and eat supper. But on Christmas day my SO and I will be doing the same with my family. DOUBLE PRESENTS

[Yaaamiii]

In Latin America we celebrate Christmas on the 24th It seems like the 25th is more like an ordinary day. We wait until midnight on the 24th to open any presents we may have gotten and go to bed. Most hispanics drink to their merry delight on the 24th lol. Growing up we always held the tradition of opening gifts at midnight on the 24th We also celebrate el dia de los tres reyes magos...three kings day, on January 6th. Traditions traditions.

[Sora1101]

On the 24th we have a family get together, a nice dinner, and then gifts from relatives are opened so that thank you's can be given and then we open all of our Christmas gifts from Santa/parents on the morning of the 25th. I always thought this was a nice balance, the celebration of family before Christmas, a way to enjoy love and then the next morning it's like you're opening up gifts that come from all the love expressed in the night time festivities.

[Jgui]

We celebrate on Christmas day with families. I have celebrations with my friends few days before.

Since my birthday is 26th my Christmas season celebration lasts 1 week

[nicole]

My SO has family christmas' the past 2 weekends. Usually he spends christmas day with his immediate family.

My family goes out to to the pub we own on Christmas Eve and we hang out with our family friends for a few hours. We celebrate with presents and a MASSIVE Christmas dinner around mid-day, then spend the afternoon chilling. Then in the evening we have finger food and watch whatever DVDs we got for Christmas. We stopped doing the big family get-togethers and presents when I turned 18.

My SO will be here for Christmas this year. I think once we are CD, the only time we will be with other people on Christmas Day is when we are visiting my family. When we're spending the holidays in America, we'll go see his parents the weekend before, then spend Christmas Day by ourselves, because neither of us want to drive that far and back on Christmas Day, and they don't make as much fuss as my family do- seeing as it is the only national Holiday I celebrate, we will do it PROPERLY!

[BlueCat]

My family has always done the present thing on christmas eve. We go to church in the evening, come back, have a delicious supper and then open presents. I've always loved doing it that way. My SO is the traditional christmas morning family like in all the movies.

[Tanja]

So many different ways of doing it!

A lot of people in the States (and elsewhere?) seem to be going to church... It's not a huge thing in here, pretty much only the older folks go for it. Personally (being an atheist) I don't see Christmas as a religious holiday, I think of it more like a day when friends and family come together and enjoy each others' company, exchange presents and stuff themselves with delicious food

[nicole]

So many different ways of doing it!

A lot of people in the States (and elsewhere?) seem to be going to church... It's not a huge thing in here, pretty much only the older folks go for it. Personally (being an atheist) I don't see Christmas as a religious holiday, I think of it more like a day when friends and family come together and enjoy each others' company, exchange presents and stuff themselves with delicious food

^^^ same. I think my SO's family usually go to church on Christmas Eve actually; last year my SO said "My Mom said the only thing that would have made church better was if you were there" and I was like "....." and he said "Don't worry, I told her you'd probably spontaneously combust if you set foot in a church"... so they had a nice talk about atheism on Christmas Day last year lol Midwinter was celebrated in the British Isles long before Christmas came along anyways so it's a cultural tradition as well as religious over here.

[snow_girl]

We celebrate on the 25th and then boxing day go out to see my dads side of the family. This year my SO and I will celebrate on the 23=24th before going to his parents for Christmas to celebrate with everyone.