This is now my favorite time of year! I'm a born in and when I was growing up my father was a UBM so I have memories of the holidays with family and friends gatherings and presents, up until the teen years and everyone was grown, and the folks that used to cook that big meal got tired of doing that because their kids were grown and so on. So during my teen years until I moved out my parents house that when the holidays got to be a boring. When I moved out I have always done something special on the holiday and my birthday which just happens to be two weeks before Christmas, So between Thanksgiving and New Years I celebrate each holiday.
One thing I've gotten accustomed to doing every Xmas eve for some reason is watch the Mass from St. Patrick's here in New York, don't know about the rest of the country, but it's televised here every year. I've been watching faithfully watching for almost 20 years now.