something I was wondering about a few days ago, and this is probably a good place to ask. around this time there are plenty of christmasmovies and christmasepisodes on tv, most of them made in the US. and what strikes me about all those american refernces to christmas, is that christmas seems to be just 1 day. so I was wondering, is christmas in the US really considered just 1 day? I've always grown up with the tradition of 2 days christmas, 1st christmasday and 2nd christmasday(a lot of people here use that to have 2 diners, one with each part of the family, as in the example of this year, yesterday, on 1st christmasday, I went over to my aunt and uncle's house with my parents, my grandparents were there too, and today I'm making the christmasdiner at home and my other grandmother is visiting)
In Italy they have Befana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befana So growing up, we had the regular Christmas, and occasionally I would get something extra for Befana as well. So I guess that counts as two Christmases?
the giftaspect pf christmas doesn't exist here(well, some people now start giving gifts with christmas as a copy of american traditions, but that's a small minority), we celebrate sinterklaas at 5 december instead, our christmas is more about eating luxurious diners with family. I live in the netherlands btw.
In my family, we've always celebrated Christmas eve and Christmas day. However, my mother was Danish. We would do the present thing on Christmas eve with the tree all lit up (with real candles, no less). Then on Christmas day, we had the traditional Danish dinner that consisted of several courses, starting with fish. Now that I'm older, married and have children, our habits have become more Americanized. And, my mother has passed. Now, we still have a get together on the eve, but Christmas day is the day we do presents and a family dinner.
as indicated above, many celebrate christmas eve also. there are church events and other things going on. and in my case we visit one side of the famiy on christmas eve, and the other on christmas day .
christmaseve is something different as I know it. christmas eve-24 december 1st christmasday- 25 december 2nd christmasday-26 december personally I never notice that much pf christmaseve, except that there are christmasspecials on tv. 25 and 26 december are both official off-days(from work etc), ofcourse with exceptions( like healthcare, police etc), also some supermarkets are open on christmas, but only in cities
