how does your family celebrate Christmas eve?

It’s ten minutes to seven on Christmas Eve, only five hours and ten minutes til Christmas. But If you peeked in through the windows of my grandma’s house, you wouldn’t be able to tell that this night was any different from any other in the year.

Oh it’s not that we hate Christmas, it’s just that we don’t really make that big a fuss about it. The closest we really come to a traditional Christmas Eve tradition is celebrating Nochebuena, which  translated from Spanish means “Goodnight”, and involves a big dinner with all members of the family. This article in Wikipedia pretty much sums it up:

In the Philippines, this usually comes after the entire family has attended a late evening mass and on the table are: lechón, pancit, fried chicken, lumpia, rice, adobo, among others for the main course; desserts include halo-halo, rice cakes, puto bumbong, ice cream, pastries and cakes; drinks include soda, wine, beer, juice.

Of course, we don’t do the mass, since we’re not Catholic, but the rest of that quote pretty much sums up a Christmas Eve for us. We also don’t get a whole heap of family coming in and having dinner with us either, just my lola (grandma), parents, sister and me. To tell you the truth, it doesn’t really bother me that we don’t have 60+ relatives here, since I’d have to hide in my room after grabbing a plateful of food.

When I think about it, Christmas eve is like this at both my uncles (mother’s brothers) places. Having big dinners with just immediate family must be something that my grandma passed on to them.

I would have to say in all honesty that I’m pretty happy with how Christmas is run in our families, even though it may seem a bit tame to some people. It really gives us a chance to be with each other once in the year to enjoy each other’s company.