Holiday Poll

ExpatPumpkin

Assuming you celebrate Christmas, on which day do you celebrate the most?  When's the "big dinner/lunch" with the family?  Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or both are celebrated equally?

Thanks for your input and Merry Christmas

temerityjane

My family have always been Christmas Day people. I guess now that I'm getting married I can rebell and do all new traditions and stuff but I probably won't - Christmas day just feels right for me.

pandasquishy

We've always done it Christmas Day.  Usually Christmas Eve is devoted to dusting, vacuuming, hiding our crap from the guests, etc.  Can't wait to get away from that after I get married.  

thesuninherhead

We have a family friend's christmas eve party every year (she's from the Philippines where christmas eve is very big), but our family events are always on the day itself.  

sarabellam

Christmas Day is always a bigger celebration in my family. This is the first year that I can remember when I haven't been to church for both the children's pagaent and the late service at 11:00. I missed that last night.

ggmae

We hang out Christmas Eve watching TV/movies and the family thing is on Christmas Day.

stina93446

We go out for a fancy dinner on Eve, and mom always makes a prime rib on Christmas Day dinner. Tonight it was pretty dry though....and now I'm hungry!

ExpatPumpkin

Thanks for the answers, everyone!  At home, we are/were Christmas Day people.  As it turns out, Mexicans are super Christmas Eve people...  That's when the big family dinner and get together happens.  

Then Christmas Day is spent at home with the immediate family.  Kids open their gifts from Santa, etc.  Since we don't have kids yet, it was a lazy day at home

I did cook Christmas dinner for just the of us, though...  My husband was pleasantly surprised.  He didn't expect another holiday dinner

I'm actually really happy about this.  In the future we can get the big family stuff done on the 24th and then spend the 25th at home with just our kids.  Or fly to Dallas on Christmas morning and be there in time for lunch with my family...

aMrsin09

My moms family grew up in Europe where Christmas Eve is the big holiday.  So growing up, Christmas eve was at Mom's side with Mass and then a HUGE brunch at about 1 AM, open presents, go home.  Then Christmas day was open Santa presents and go to my Dads parents (the traditional Italian side) and have the HUGE Christmas day dinner, and open more presents.

H's parents movd to Australia from Europe, so they do Christmas Eve.  This year we did both days.  It really does work out much better.

BubbleJ

Christmas day is the biggest, but Christmas eve is still a day for family and celebrating

lyndausvi

as some of you know we do not really celebrate either because of work.  Boo.

But both of us grew up in homes that had big sit-down dinners on Xmas eve with our families.  Then we would visit with family and friends, go to midnight mass, open presents just after midnight.

Christmas day was our lazy day.  My mom would make mini-meatballs and a few other food items the day before.  We all would just do our thing, eat the meatballs or have turkey sandwiches from the night before.   Watch football, play with our games, etc.

In the evening we would go to my aunt's and/or uncle's home.

So I guess kind of both.  With Christmas eve being more formal of the 2 days.

jajph1974

We do Christmas Eve, Christmas day and the day after Christmas. We have a lot of family and friends to visit so we spread it out over three days.

sarahmk5

We have our big, traditional dinner on Christmas Eve.  If the weather isn't too bad on Christmas (unlike this year), we all gather to have lunch, but it's not as big of a deal as Christmas Eve.

MyNameIsNot

This year, we had Christmas on the 20th.  My sister is a hospital nurse and had to work both the 24th and 25th, and my parents decided to travel.  DH's family is OOT.  DH and I didn't want to travel, so we had Christmas dinner with my family on Sunday, and yesterday we just chilled together and ordered Chinese. 

tobeDrReed

We celebrate with FI's mom on Christmas eve. My family and FFIL's famiy celebrate on Christmas day.

mocha beans

My dad's family celebrates on New Year's Day usually.  They started doing that because my mom's family is big on Christmas day celebrating; otherwise my sister and I had to split the holidays every other year.

Christmas eve is my birthday, so my mom especially would try to make it more of a birthday day rather than a holiday.  Obviously, since many celebrate on Christmas eve, there was never much of a party or spending my birthday with anyone but family.  But she would try.

salt78

FI and I do our own celebration on Christmas Eve and we do family stuff on Christmas Day. So I guess both equally.

suedoe

We try to divide our time whenever we can. So this year my sisters on the 23rd, home on xmas eve, and my dads on xmas. Then my ex-stepmother sometime this week or next.

mandysmear

Growing up we always spent christmas eve's at my aunt and uncle's.  Then on christmas day my mom hosted a huge dinner.  There were about 30 of us. 

Now, it depends on who's family's house we're with.  If we're with my family it's the bigger night.  H's family does not do anything super special aside from dinner with a few people.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with my dad. He always liked making a special meal on that day. We celebrate Christmas day with my mom.

When my parents were married (and we were kids) Christmas eve was for church/immediate family. Christmas day we'd open presents at home, then go to my grandparents' house for more gifts and our big Christmas dinner.

skiingstark

We are equal on both days. We go up to Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Colorado. We watch the fireworks, torch parade, roast marshmellows, and other cool stuf that Copper does.

then the next day we wake up, open presents and go ski with antlers on. Then we go to a fancy dinner somewhere in  summit County. This year we went to Breckenridge.

ButtonsPepper

Christmas eve is BIG on FI's side, his father throws a party every year. Christmas Day we usually chose a side to go to... neither of us really care. We try to go to whatever holiday (christmas or thanksgiving) to my mom's that my brother goes to. He lives 4 hours from them (5 from us) so we take that time to visit with him, and then we do the other holiday with FI's mothers side.

fangsiting

My family has always done Christmas day, but FI's family has always done Christmas.  I hate having Christmas eve being the big day.  Christmas day seems so depressing when you celebrate the day before.