How we’re celebrating our first Canadian family Christmas in America

It’s our first Christmas in America. Despite what some might expect, we’re not heading back to our homeland this weekend to celebrate with friends and family. We’re hanging out here in the Nashville area, celebrating as the five of us.

This is kind of exciting for us, but I’ll admit it’s also a bit odd. For years, we’ve had a pretty consistent routine:

• Christmas Eve is our family celebration
• Christmas Day is with my parents and sister
• Somewhere between Boxing Day and New Years Eve we celebrate with Emily’s parents

This year, obviously, we’re rethinking the routine. There’s no travel time involved. We’re just… here.

So how are we going to do things differently this year?

We’re going to church on Christmas Eve. We’ve not always been able to do this, as our previous church didn’t have Christmas Eve services until last year (the joys of not having a facility hold it in). Our congregation has a gathering on Saturday afternoon, so it’ll be great to join everyone to worship Jesus together with our eyes on the incarnation.

We’re having a low-key family dinner. Seriously. No turkey and trimmings, this time around. Chicken strips (homemade, of course), something with sweet potatoes, and a green vegetable are the menu for the day.

We might let the kids watch a Christmas movie. Assuming I can find one that isn’t wildly inappropriate (Christmas Vacation), or featuring a violent sociopath (Home Alone).

We’re planning Skype calls with family. Just because we’re not physically present, doesn’t mean we won’t in touch.

We’re still splitting up gifts over two days. This year, we lived many parents’ dream and purchased gifts on behalf of all the grandparents. As a result, there are quite a few packages surrounding our tiny tree. Because we want the kids to enjoy what they receive and not experience present fatigue, we’re splitting it up with about half the gifts being opened on Christmas Eve, and the remainder to be opened Christmas Day.

This is also how we make everyone in the Christmas Eve vs Christmas Day debate unhappy: we do both.

We’ll include at least one bit of Canadiana. Because it isn’t Christmas without Bob and Doug McKenzie.

So, that’s our first Canadian family Christmas in America. Low-key, simple, but hopefully a lot of fun.