Christmas Day traditions.

Here in Mexico, most families have xmas at home on the 24th. Kids open gifts then. On xmas day the 25th most go to other families homes for dinners and things. Merry xmas to you there.

Hi asdomencil! I came from Bicol region and we also have the same practice in our place. Most of my relatives would come to my place so we really have to prepare foods. This is also the time for us to be together after a year of working. But we don't have puto bungbong (purple rice cake) in our place. I wish we also have this food here. Merry Christmas!

I don't think that constitute as being rude. Nobody can force you to give. But they may get the impression that you don't know how to give especially this Christmas season. In our case, we often see to it that we at least give something to those people who ask. We just feel that it is our responsibility to be our neighbors' keepers.

Oh you should have given them a bit like some food or bread or candies.. but i do not know what you mean sometimes it can be an annoyance. However, we do not have that kind of tradition here in Zamboanga City. We do celebrate but we rarely see people go to other peoples house and "mamasko" we would go to the houses of the godparents but not to stranger's homes.. But there were some people ( who really have none) who did pass by our house and my mom gave them some spaghetti.

It's the same here in Cebu. There are also a few people who roams around the neighborhood to beg for food, clothes, or money. I got to open the door for someone, one day, and she was asking for rice. We didn't get to buy our monthly sack of rice, so I have nothing to give her that we wouldn't be using. I think we only had less than a kilo left in the container and we would be cooking it for dinner. So, i humbly told her, that I don't have anything to give. She didn't move away for a few minutes, and later went on to the next door. It's okay to say, No, afterall, we don't have obligations to them. And, they also don't have the right to demand. But of course, if you have more than enough to share, by all means, be generous.

your indeed rude on not giving them anything. You should have given some of them just a little amount, but be sure that those whom you will be giving will really use it for their benefit and not just do carolings in order to have money to gamble.

That is something that is outside my culture, so I'm not sure that it would be rude to say "patawad" or "sorry" to them. I would imagine it would be OK, because eventually you would run out of gifts anyway. It sounds like the American version of "trick or treat"-ing on Halloween - kids knock at your door, dressed in costume, asking for candy. That reminds me of this. Sometimes we run out of candy and have to tell them, "No, sorry!" which is kind of sad, but it was inevitable. Best of luck to you and happy holidays!

I don't think that's rude at all however Christmas is a season of giving,isn't it? Children look forward to this season because of the Christmas tradition you've mention.It is mostly children who go house to house to ask for Christmas presents.They don't ask too much though. In my case, I gave 1 peso coin for every person / child that knocks on our door. Just seeing them smile from ear to ear made me feel I gave away a hundred bucks.

Hmm, it's interesting to hear that there is that tradition. Though I think it's usually is okay to give people who is related by blood or friends something as Christmas gifts, but I don't think we are required to give something to people who is not related by anything even. And since you say that there are about 50 people who come to your house to ask for something as gifts, it's just common sense to reject them....50 people...wow so many...

I understand your feelings of annoyance especially if there's a knock on your door every 5 minutes to so :) In my opinion, it's ok to say no if you really feels that they are not worth giving.

Haha.. that's really the traditions in the Philippines I think. In, cebu its also like that but they start it with caroling and then saying namamasko po. We encountered it already. We just give foods or chips, cookies.. or maybe coins.. atleast we give them a little. I know your feeling, its so annoying already when they're so much people asking, we can't give them everytime. Hope they will also realize it. :)