I've noticed over the years that a lot of my friends don't celebrate Christmas on the 24th as my family does, they celebrate on the 25th. Almost everywhere you go, stores and banks are open on the 24th, but not the 25th; not many people do anything on the 24th because it isn't considered a holiday (at least not federally)! The question is: when are we supposed to celebrate?
I grew up in a Colombian/Puerto Rican household, so our traditions were different from those of my classmates when I was growing up and my coworkers now. In my house, we have 2 Christmases: one with the ENTIRE family on December 24th, and one with our individual families on the 25th. I was lucky enough to have my dad's half of the family close by, so all of my aunts and uncles and cousins from his side would come to our house (since we had the most room). Everyone would bring presents, food, and drinks, and we would talk and celebrate until midnight when we would open presents. We would always have Puerto Rican food on Christmas Eve, including pernil, Arroz con gandules, potato salad, and patacones. We would also have lasagna, spaghetti, cheesecake, and pumpkin rolls. On the 25th, it would just be our individual families, not everyone. We would have Colombian buñuelos, natilla, hot chocolate, and leftovers from the night before. We would wake up around 8 am and open the presents we bought each other and pretty much stay in our pajamas all day. This would be what we would do if we spent Christmas in the US. If we went to Colombia, it wasn't just the 24th and 25th. It was pretty much the entire month of December. On the 7th, we have the Día de las Velitas where we would go outside and light candles, on the 16th we start the novena where we pray every night leading to Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, the whole family would be together and we would party and celebrate and just have fun.
So when are we supposed to celebrate? The answer is: it depends on your culture! I really wish that the 24th was also included as a federal holiday so we could have both the 24th and 25th off so we could have time to properly celebrate with our families and not have to worry about going to work. Here's to hoping!
Happy Holidays everyone!
