Let's face it, Christmas is awesome. The lights, the trees, the presents, the food and everyone coming together for this one special occasion.
And while sometimes we may whine that Christmas comes only once a year... with these traditions, we are extremely happy Christmas comes but once a year.
1. Have yourself a broke little Christmas
Everyone dips into their savings a bit at Christmas time, but its hard not to splurge when you have 10 aunts, 20 cousins and countless others to buy Christmas presents for.
2. Arabic jingle bells
Somehow, no matter where you are, you'll end up dancing the dabke to some Arab version of jingle bells. Without fail.
3. Arab style Turkey
A turkey? Do we look American? No darling, we'll have kharoof ma7shi instead, thanks very much.
4. Over-the-top decorations
Decorations are beautiful, of course. But if you're having a Christmas Eve party, your decorations are outlandish and over-the-top... as well as multilingual, with Merry Christmas written in at least English and Arabic, sometimes French and Spanish.
5. Arabic Santa Clause
It's quite an odd day when you see a dark skinned Santa with 2 beards, one white and one black... and he sounds suspiciously like your Khalo and refers to you as hayati.
6. Arab mama stress
Now that Christmas eve is over, you can enjoy a nice Christmas day brunch, with your mom cursing under her breath how she'll never host another Christmas eve party at her house ever again.