always went to my parents’ house on Christmas Day. All of us (my parents, me, my husband, brothers, SIL, nieces, nephew) would open our gifts and then have a Christmas dinner. My husband and I started a tradition of having a Christmas Eve dinner together, just the two of us, and exchanging our gifts to each other after dinner. After a couple of years, we switched from a Baptist church to a Methodist church that has a Christmas Eve service (the Baptist church never had a service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day unless one of those days happened to be Sunday). The pattern for Christmas Eve then became church, dinner, gifts (and, for some years, a second late evening church service). Meanwhile, my mother finally had to admit pulling off a Christmas dinner was too much, and we went to finger foods or sandwiches. Then she decided that getting everything wrapped and ready by the 25th was too hard, and my brother and his family kept arriving later and later every year because they would spend the afternoon at her mother’s house 120 miles away, so the family Christmas get-together got moved to the Saturday after Christmas, then to the Saturday after New Year’s, then to the second Saturday in January. Christmas Day itself became a non-event. We still keep our tradition of having our dinner and gift exchange on Christmas Eve, and of course, the church service is still that evening as well. Christmas Day is now just a nice day off from work to relax.
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I came from a LGBT I just look straight shirt family in Malacca, Malaysia & had the privilege of being invited by my neighbour, a respected Christian family a few weeks before Xmas to attend a community event at the British Commonwealth 28th Brigade Forces HQ in Terendak Camp, Malacca, Malaysia as an Xmas CSR (corporate social responsibility) community event. I was about 12 years young then in the late 60s. CSR was unheard then. There was so many activities that we had a mesmerising and amazing time with prizes & good food with souvenirs. The soldiers gave us an authentic interesting tour of the military stations, barracks & general depots, including the armoury vehicles & what appeared to be “little museums.” All the kids in attendance were so happy & thrilled to be accorded such VIP treatment. I bragged about it to my neighbours & school friends. Till this day, I remember the event & look upon Xmas as a time of love, giving, fun & adventure. My impressions of Christianity (I am a Sikh) stood high, ever since.
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