I never saw that Christmas movie where the family eats Chinese dinner out for their holiday meal... but we step out every Christmas day (wx permitting) walk around several historic areas around here, take pictures of the local wreath competition and then... Chinese Buffet. We’ve been doing it for years. An old retired FBI agent turned me on to the idea back in the late 1987. I gotta tell ya... and having been a military cook back in my storied past... it’s great not messing up the kitchen for the holiday. The family gave up gift exchanges years ago, but the the babies still do alright and so do the tykes and young teens. So really we’ve been low pressure for the last 25+ years. And keeping the season in perspective has been a great blessing for the whole family. It’s nice to get together and just enjoy family time.
There is also an old Episcopal church close by that actually has a midnight mass on Christmas eve, with a nice music program, an ancient pipe organ... the works. That has also become sort of a tradition. I was hard pressed to find churches which did midnight masses. It was very common in my youth but seems to have gotten out of “vogue” in today’s modern and complex society.