In my family its a tradition to spend the holiday the whole family together. Normally on the first weeks of December we put up a Christmas tree on the living room where we give the gifts, the same day we put a "Nacimiento" which is a tradition in my house, we normally had two a little one for the main table and a big one, but unfortunately the big one is incomplete after all its years of use. The tree was decorated is decorated as a family, some people put the lights and then the ornaments. When school is over and my aunts jobs have holidays, we do the "Hayacas" and "Boyitos" which are the traditional Christmas plate in Venezuela. This is also done in a family reunion that weekend when we are all free. That takes up about two days to do. Normally there is a week between the day we get out of school and Christmas day. On that week, we all go out to do our Christmas shopping, which is done pretty quickly. Some years we decide to do a kind of Secret Santa, where someone buys a big gift for their person, and then a little gift for the rest of the family. On Christmas day, we all come to my house, and start giving out the gifts. The youngest of my aunts lives outside the country, so now, we put one of the laptops that have a camera, and have a skype conference with her while we give out the gifts, so she and her husband can see us. Afterwards there is normally a party in which we invite close family members and friends to have a good time and eat, we sometimes serve hayacas, pernil, and chicken salad, but lately it has only been chicken salad and pernil, because of time and space. This year, we already put up our Christmas tree, our Nacimiento, and are planning on doing the Hayacas this next weekend to follow the family tradition. We will do the same as every year because we like to have a tradition on Christmas. I love Christmas and I think its one of the most beautiful holidays.
Have a nice Christmas and enjoy!