I don't know if you celebrate Christmas. If you do... Do you eat so much as my family does?!? Somehow I feel that today is the right day to show this postcard sent last month by Heleen (the Netherlands).
In NL we have two Christmas days: the first Christmas day (25th of December, 'eerste Kerstdag') and the second Christmas day (26th, 'tweede Kerstdag'). Most people celebrate this by being together, having dinner together with the family. Couples usually spend one of both days with the family of one of the two (the other's inlaws), and the other day with the other family (the family-in-law of one). Especially when both families don't live close to each other and/or has more family to 'receive'. As we only have one part of family here, we celebrate it one day, by spending the afternoon and evening with my family at my parents' place (this year this will be tomorrow, as my brother c.s. spends first Christmas day with his family-in-law, so today we have a free day :-) . And I don't expect all family members will eat excessive: as no one wants to spend too much time in kitchen alone, but all of us prefer to have a coffee or tea (!) together instead and chat with the ones we don't see that often during the year, we will make and eat a common simple Dutch meal (as we did last year, in the years before we had some 'gourmand', which was nice, too - but in fact we don't follow the also in our country existing unwritten 'rules' to prepare an extensive dinner and/or a complete pitiable turkey).
Although there's one difference: at home we most of the time don't have desserts. Maybe we'll have tomorrow :-) (and no stress :-)
We celebrate 24th evening, 25th and 26th... And then 31st and 1st and 5th evening and 6th... And every time is a whole day in the kitchen! But ti isn0t really a big stress, it's a great time :D
Here in Japan, many people celebrate Christmas as one of the seasonal events, and we often each roasted or fried chicken, something "western" and Christmas cake. I don't think people eat a lot because Christmas isn't a holiday here that means like this year if Christmas falls on a weekday, you don't want to spend hours for cooking big meal after work. Oh, but we do eat A LOT for the new year's celebration as we celebrate the first 3 days of January by visiting family/relatives who serve you lots of goodies. :)
In NL we have two Christmas days: the first Christmas day (25th of December, 'eerste Kerstdag') and the second Christmas day (26th, 'tweede Kerstdag'). Most people celebrate this by being together, having dinner together with the family. Couples usually spend one of both days with the family of one of the two (the other's inlaws), and the other day with the other family (the family-in-law of one). Especially when both families don't live close to each other and/or has more family to 'receive'.
ReplyDeleteAs we only have one part of family here, we celebrate it one day, by spending the afternoon and evening with my family at my parents' place (this year this will be tomorrow, as my brother c.s. spends first Christmas day with his family-in-law, so today we have a free day :-) .
And I don't expect all family members will eat excessive: as no one wants to spend too much time in kitchen alone, but all of us prefer to have a coffee or tea (!) together instead and chat with the ones we don't see that often during the year, we will make and eat a common simple Dutch meal (as we did last year, in the years before we had some 'gourmand', which was nice, too - but in fact we don't follow the also in our country existing unwritten 'rules' to prepare an extensive dinner and/or a complete pitiable turkey).
Although there's one difference: at home we most of the time don't have desserts. Maybe we'll have tomorrow :-) (and no stress :-)
We celebrate 24th evening, 25th and 26th... And then 31st and 1st and 5th evening and 6th... And every time is a whole day in the kitchen! But ti isn0t really a big stress, it's a great time :D
DeleteHere in Japan, many people celebrate Christmas as one of the seasonal events, and we often each roasted or fried chicken, something "western" and Christmas cake. I don't think people eat a lot because Christmas isn't a holiday here that means like this year if Christmas falls on a weekday, you don't want to spend hours for cooking big meal after work. Oh, but we do eat A LOT for the new year's celebration as we celebrate the first 3 days of January by visiting family/relatives who serve you lots of goodies. :)
ReplyDeleteSo finally... eating a lot! :)
Delete