Local Guides,
Curious to see an example of how Christmas is celebrated in America? I live in California. Overall, my Christmases are low-key and casual.
Let me share what I did with my family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
One of our Christmas Eve family traditions is decorating a gingerbread house with candies and white icing. The white icing piped from a pastry bag holds the house and the candies (M&M, gumdrops, candy canes, gummies, sprinkles, etc.) together.
Due to the pandemic, this Christmas was the second year of celebrating with just my immediate family. On a positive note, we did not have to wear masks because everyone was vaccinated.
Before my kids go to bed on Christmas Eve, I read them as many Christmas storybooks as we have. Our collection is now at least six and growing! We also watch Christmas cartoons, such as the classic A Charlie Brown’s Christmas on DVD, which I have watched every year since I was five.
My kids put several Christmas cookies on a Christmas plate for Santa by our fireplace. I tell them this helps keep Santa’s energy level up when he comes down our chimney to fill their Christmas stockings with treats and toys and places their gifts under our Christmas tree.
My husband and I stay up late after our kids go to sleep to start working on putting our family’s Christmas gifts under the tree. This is when we enjoy eating those Santa’s cookies 
. There is always last-minute gift wrapping and assembling and moving them out of our closets or garage happening.
As an “honorary” elf, my responsibility is to stuff our family’s Christmas stockings with treats and small gifts. I do this either after my husband goes to bed or I get up before anyone else to do this.
In the U.S., it is very common that family pets, especially dogs and cats, receive treats from Santa and receive Christmas gifts from their family, and sometimes from the family’s friends and grandparents. My mom always makes sure her grand doghter gets a Christmas gift from her! Our dog has her own Christmas stocking, and she always gets treats from Santa. She likes to sniff all of our stockings to see what Santa brings her.
Christmas gifts are always placed under or around the Christmas tree in America. There are usually extra gifts in case if someone visits and you need that extra gift. Christmas gifts are also given to teachers, co-workers or colleagues, bosses, your mailman, and the UPS or FedEx driver who delivers packages to your home.
Besides toys, my husband and I and our family and friends also give clothes and shoes to our kids.
Another family tradition is giving and receiving Calfornia-based See’s Candies as Christmas gifts and serving them during the Holidays to our guests.
Our big Christmas meal is served on Christmas Day. I either cook prime rib or now maple-glazed spiral ham. Usually, my family wants beef This year, the verdict was to eat ham with homemade maple-flavored gravy. My husband loves to drink a special bottle of wine during the Holiday Season. This year he found a 1982 Markham Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon in his wine “cellar” (his closet) that went well with our meal.
This year’s Christmas Day Dinner’s dessert was chocolate. I baked a chocolate peppermint loaf and served it with a store-bought (from Trader Joe’s) milk chocolate butter Christmas tree cookie with vanilla icing and sprinkles.
If you celebrated Christmas this year, how did you celebrate it? What are your Christmas family traditions? Do share your photos below.
Cheers,
Karen
is actually the parents 
? Nooooo 
