Millions of Christians around the world are celebrating Christmas on Saturday. It's a time for gift giving, midnight mass, food, sharing and more.
Share us your stories, plans on spending Christmas. You can send also send us your Christmas photos, unforgettable Christmas moments with friends, families, someone, and or other people.
Christians in the UAE are well catered for with a large mix of churches and parishes to attend with services and masses in as many languages as there are nationalities, or nearly.
| Parishioners are devotionally attending Christmas midnight mass |
Roman Catholics and Protestants celebrate Christmas on December 25. Greek, Syrian, and Ethiopian orthodox churches celebrate on January 6 and Armenian Christians celebrate it on January 18.
Send Christmas cards to family and friends wishing them a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Set up a live or artificial Christmas tree in your home. Decorate it with ornaments and lights.
Hang mistletoe in a doorway. It is traditional for people to kiss when they stand underneath this small, scented sprig.
Place lights and other decorations on the outside of your house and on your outdoor shrubs and trees.
Buy gifts for family and friends and pile them under the tree.
Hang stockings from your mantel so Santa can leave little items inside when he visits.
Ask your children to write down a wish list of the toys they would like to receive.
Share the list with Santa Claus so he can fill their requests. Expect him to arrive on Christmas Eve in a sled drawn by reindeer, carrying a red sack filled with gifts.
Play Christmas music in your house to get in the holiday spirit; some popular choices include "Silent Night" and "Deck the Halls."
Prepare a huge Christmas feast with foods such as turkey, ham, stuffing and vegetables; serve mince pie for dessert. Include other favorite recipes from your childhood holiday meals.
Ask your children to write down a wish list of the toys they would like to receive.
Share the list with Santa Claus so he can fill their requests. Expect him to arrive on Christmas Eve in a sled drawn by reindeer, carrying a red sack filled with gifts.
Play Christmas music in your house to get in the holiday spirit; some popular choices include "Silent Night" and "Deck the Halls."
Prepare a huge Christmas feast with foods such as turkey, ham, stuffing and vegetables; serve mince pie for dessert. Include other favorite recipes from your childhood holiday meals.
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| Filipinos are gearing up for Christmas and New Year Celebrations. Photo Credit by Vic Candilanza |
Christmas is celebrated around the world in a wide variety of ways. Incorporate traditions from other cultures into your own festivities to create your own unique traditions.
ReplyDeleteHelp those less fortunate than you are at this time of year. Donate a toy for a needy child, or give food to a food drive or homeless shelter so others can enjoy a holiday meal.
In the Philippines, at Christmas people eat native foods such as puto bumbong rice steamed inside a bumbong, or small bamboo tube, bibingka rice cake with salted eggs and fresh coconut meat and suman steamed rice wrapped in banana leaves outside the church.
ReplyDelete"The main reason we come to the UAE for Christmas is to see our grandchildren. But it is also nice to get a break from the cold weather in Lebanon.
ReplyDeleteChristmas is a time to spend with family and friends and some of them are not there, but remember, wherever you go they go, because they are in you heart
ReplyDeleteNoche Buena's table for three on Christmas eve :-)
ReplyDeleteMy most memorable Christmas in a foreign country was 1990 in the Philippines. We had been travelling and visiting various humanitarian organisations and when the holidays came we decided to travel to a 'resort' to rest for a few days. It was unknown to our new friends that the resort had been hit by a recent typhoon. This meant there were no services, no electricity, no running water, and no operating restaurants. We arrived to a very run down facility with one caretaker and a few squatters. Our Christmas dinner consisted of tuna sandwiches from the resources in our back packs and in the morning a kind squatter family shared some cooked rice with us. We had no access to telephone and so it was just the two of us and plenty of silence for contemplation of our lives and our work. I still remember this feeling of relief from all the hustle and bustle of the holidays... I remember the peace of just being and the simplicity of my most memorable Christmas ever.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, while based in Bangladesh, we took a week's Christmas holiday in Shilong and Assam, both very Christian areas of India. While driving up the Brahamputra valley we passed many tea estates and coming out of one we saw Father Christmas, complete with red costume, big white beard and sack of presents, riding on the back of an elephant. Don't know if the elephant was called Rudolph.
ReplyDeleteChristmas! was the most greatest celebration of all christian around the world. celebrate the birth of the savior Jesus Christ, Philippines is known as a only Christian nation in Asia, every family prepared for Christmas celebration, food, Party, as all will enjoy until the midnight of Dec 25 to wait "BUEANA DE NOCHE" food-trip and joy-full party.. it is continued Holiday until January 1 for celebrating New year, this was a traditional celebration of Christmas and welcoming the new-year.
ReplyDeleteIts the most wonderful time of the year. with Christmas and New Year Round the corner. Many of the christian Folks all around the world would be all decked up for that day.i would normally do some X mas shopping but this time since i came back from my winter holidays i have every thing ready but my parents will be making some special X mas dinner which should be the best of dinners to mark the end of the year for my family and friends. It is also one of the few times a year that almost everyone in the family and friends get together.We will be busy on the Eve of X mas going for the Christmas mass. I have already set up my x mas tree at home last month and for me i cant celebrate x mas with out a x mas tree. Since 24th Dec is also my Birthday i will be expecting some special goodies from my Dad and Mom. i am all ready and in the Christmas spirit waiting for that day to celebrate it with a bang .Infact For Me Christmas is not all about gift giving and shopping for expensive items to give away. It's time to look within yourself and do the necessary steps to unload the burden, hurt, pain and suffering. To add its for those who have passed away that have touched my life one way or the other.Seasons Greetings to all.
ReplyDeleteMy partner and I have watched 'It's a Wonderful LIfe' on Christmas Eve every year since we began dating. Usually over a wine or two and usually falling asleep before the end...
ReplyDeleteNow that we have a 4 month old to share Christmas with, we have added a trip to the Magic Cave to see Santa, the Christmas Pageant and personalised decorations, including ones for our parents who have passed away to keep their memory alive and ensure Miss M knows about them.
Merry Christmas
I really feel like we're still forming our traditions - despite having lived together for almost 10 years! And this year, with huge renovations and having to move out for the lead-up to Christmas... well, let's just say we may not be having a tree or decorating the house this year. But at least we'll be at my parents' house, and our toddler can have the fun of helping them decorate!
ReplyDeleteOne year, my mom was in the hospital for Christmas and my dad dressed up like Santa Clause and surprised her with gifts at her bedside. I will never forget how much joy that brought my mom.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to avoid the manifestations of Christmas, even if you do not observe it. If someone wishes you a merry Christmas, take it in stride and respond with a smile.
ReplyDeleteMy family always get together for a big brunch, than spend most of the day just eating and hanging out together. I feel with starting with a brunch allows for the whole day to be enjoyed. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI'm an only child, so when I go home for Christmas it's just the three of us. We usually go to a restaurant for Christmas eve and eat way too much. Then we go home and open the gifts from my grandparents, because without fail they are the most horrible gifts of all time every year, (weird candles and banana scented body washes?) so we get that out of the way the night before! Then we usually watch a violent action movie i.e. The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Fugitive, The Town, etc. We don't like the traditional movies....Christmas morning we make waffles and open the rest of the presents and spend the rest of the day making and eating finger foods. I love it.
ReplyDeleteMy boyfriend and I are trying out our own traditions over the last few years. I get up early and make some coffee and cinnamon rolls. After he gets up we give the dog his stocking then open our presents by the tree, pretty simple stuff. Then it is off to his moms house where his whole family convenes (in pajamas!) to open presents with his nieces and brothers. It’s a lot of fun. Christmas Eve is my family’s celebration – we just share stories and listen to music, eat Hungarian food. It’s really low key but so nice to just hang out with everyone for a while. It’s really just days of food and family, nothing over the top but we love it.
ReplyDeleteMy first Christmas in Canada. Unfortunately it'll be the fourth Christmas without my family in a row but I'm trying to recreate the food here. My mum sent some Christmas pudding and Chocolate mince mix for the pies so I'll be making those with some rare roast beef, veggies, and Yorkshire pudding.
ReplyDeleteThen there's the Queen's speech, even though the Royal family are more of an institution for me, for some reason Christmas day has to have the Queens speech in there somewhere, followed by THE christmas movie afterwards.
Every Christmas I'm woken up WAY too early, compliments of an overeager little sister, and we all open our stocking presents and lottery tickets then to onto the bigger stuff. And of course Christmas music is playing in the background.
ReplyDeleteThen we chill, eat some breakfast/candy from the stocking. We ALWAYS watch Christmas Vacation while going through everything. Then weather dependent my grandma will come over and we all eat a big meal of ham, potatoes, beans, etc. plus LOTS of desserts. Then we crash...
Last year was the best in recent memory because my aunt and uncle stayed with us, and we all went sledding in the evening and got into a huge snowball fight.
This year we're going to my sister's house on the 26th to re-celebrate with my niece.
My friends and I were swapping Christmas traditions that are very special to us...some of my friends had some awesome traditions and had me thinking that I might adopt some of those traditions in my own way when I have children. In learning some of these fun traditions, it raised my curiosity a bit and I wondered what others do to as a family or as a couple to keep their traditions alive. I'd love to hear your traditions!
ReplyDeleteSome of mine growing up were...
Driving around to look at lights
Getting an ornament every year with the date and my name on the back
Watching Garfield, Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman and The Grinch. My mom would make popcorn and we'd all snuggle on the couch watching those movies
Christmas stockings
My mom would leave Candy Canes on our night stands the week before Christmas and say it was from the elves and we only got the candy canes if Santa told the Elves we had behaved.
We go to the parks light show.
ReplyDeleteMake a ginger bread house, doing it this year with my daughter for the first time she's 2.
We watched all the same movies as you, and I'm excited that my daughter will be into it this year.
Hang up stockings.
Make a ham dinner. We do turkey on thanksgiving and ham on christmas.
Make christmas cookies.
My husband is going to leave cookies out for santa this year, I haven't done it since I was a kid.
Stringing popcorn for the tree, a new one that we are picking up.
And hanging up decorations.
That's about it.
has thought very hard about what I would like for Christmas, then I realized that I already have the most precious gift of all...My Family!
ReplyDelete