Generally in my family we've had a family dinner (mother's side) on the 24th, though that's falling off because my mother's no longer speaking to the one sister that lives in town and my grandparents are getting kind of depressing to be around. 25th is purely a nuclear family affair (me and the parents) now that my dad's parents are dead (used to celebrate with them), and then any time from the 26th-31st is open season for family get-togethers.

The thing from the 24th is a Polish and Italian tradition, fitting as my maternal grandfather is half Polish (half Czech) and grandma is half italian (the other half, interestingly, is WASP), though I am American.

the 24th december tradition is of German origin as is the christmas tree etc.  Or the term chris cringle (someone fucked up the German word  Christkindl meaning Christ child in English and refering to Jesus)

The british royal family (their real name is  Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha and not Windsor) is of German origin and while England celebrates on the 25th the royal family does on the 24th.

Its the 25th in europe. As i told you, the 24th is the christmas eve. Its where you have a nice dinner and open the presents at midnight when the 25th actually starts.

And yes i live in europe and its like that in western europe at least. Its very simple, you have christmas eve dinner in anticipation of the christmas day when you open the presents. The 25th is christmas day, wich you celebrate normally. The second day of christmas, the 26th is the only one that is a bit over the top and doesnt make much sense. But, it seems its still part of the celebration.

Christmas day is the 25th. One way or another everyone celebrates that day.

Well I have no idea to be honest, but when I read about it, it seems like in Central and Northern Europe they mainly celebrates it on the 24th of December. It hardly says anything about the 25th, and if it does it still states that the main celebration is on the 24th. In Eastern Europe I can not argue with you because you live there and knows it better than me.

But why would not this make me confused of the date? Just look at the answers in the poll and comments. And why is it so obvious for you that the main celebration in the whole world is on the 25th? When it's clearly not.

Yes, the Christmas eve is on the 24th and Christmas day is on the 25th and boxing day(?) is on the 26th. But the main celebration day of Christmas differs a lot from country to country, and some even celebrates it on several days. And as they question says, it's when you celebrate christmas, not at which date the 'christmas day' is at.

In Hong Kong it's on the 25th and in mainland China on the 24th for example. I had no idea that in HK they celebrated it on the 25th before I read about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_worldwide

In mainland China we do not celebrate the 25th at all, just a minority of Christians. So for me the 25th of december has nothing do to with christmas at all.

But as you say, most people seem to celebrate both of those days, in one way or another.

Apparently Russia don't celebrate till the 7th January! So i guess it's completely different everywhere

But yeah in my house, it's always been on the 25th (big dinner and giving out presents) but the celebrations easily carry on till the 26th (leftovers)!

By the way, i meant to say western europe. Typo from my part.

Anyways this whole argument is out of perspective. The only reason why the 24th seems like the biggest celebration is because its the dinner before the important opening of the presents at midnight. Christmas day is just as celebrated, but since the opening of the presents already happened it doesnt look as big.

From Ireland
We celebrate on Dec 25th, the day that Santa was Born in a stables in the North-pole (Hence North star) with the 3 wise reindeer after coming to give him the first Christmas presents (also why Rudolph has the red nose).

Other people here talk about some white baby born in Jerusalem to a mother who pulled the biggest fast one in history and got her hubby to believe she got ruffied by some Angels, altho this baby was born sometime in September but moved his birthday later to cover the Pagen holiday of Saturnalia Since it was nice to be able to overlap the previous Religious holiday.