Do you celebrate gift exchanges or the holidays earlier than the date on the calendar?

No. I need as much time as I can get to be ready for such things.

No, it should not be the way. There would be meaningless if the holiday is not celebrated on the actual day.

YES! My family has a tradition of exchangeing one small gift to each member of the imidiate family befor the actual holidays. its usually after thanksgiving but befor christmas. Let it be a simple card or a dollar to buy a soda. Its helps influence the understanding of family and the bond we share with each other and also no matter how little you might have there is always something that you can share with your family or loved ones.

No, except we used to open gifts from grandparents and each other on Christmas Eve to await our “Santa” presents of Christmas Day.

That evolved to having our family of origin Christmas celebration no Christmas Eve and then staying home with our own families on Christmas Day.

In some years, yes. We do a big family Christmas somewhere within a fortnight of Dec 25th. (So sometimes before, sometimes afterwards.) Everyone makes the effort to be there, which makes us about 25 people in total. That simply isn’t feasible to do on actual Christmas day each year, people have commitments elsewhere. We exchange gifts and generally share in the joy of Christmas, which is about being with loved ones and letting them know they are loved. Christmas on the 25th is no less meaningful because this has already happened.

We, meaning my girlfriend and I, do Christmas on the 27th or 28th.

Everything goes on sale on the 26th, if we delay it a couple days we can save a few 100 bucks and get way better gifts and more of them.

Technically early, as Christmas gift day in Spain is 7th of Jan. The Three Kings / Three Wise Men gift giving.

I actually think that we should do the gift exchanges after Christmas, because everything is so much cheaper after the 25th! Also, in January all shops have massive discounts to clear up anything they didn’t sell on Christmas. It’s such a waste of money and companies know it! I actually prefer to receive cash, because I know when I want to spend it and on what.

I am very flexible with my holiday plans the last handful of years. My daughter has to juggle 3 different holiday celebrations between her dads side of the family, her boyfriends and me. I am not OCD about the particular dates, and often celebrate early or late depending.
I try to do the Xmas eve thing here, but, my birthday is the 26th, so, some years I do Xmas on my birthday and we have a double celebration.
My daughters birthday is Nov. 18, but I am celebrating it with she and her boyfriend here next Weds. evening, the 14th, as they have weekend plans on the actual day.

No biggy, it’s important to be flexible and adaptable in all situations and I am not a hardcore traditionalist like some.

I’ve gotten away from holiday gift-giving. Most of my family and friends are very fortunate, and we have way more than we need. Holiday gift-giving always stressed me out, because I want to give something meaningful, but can’t ever think of anything “special”. I am also anti-consumerism, so I try to discourage buying for the sake of buying.

I’d rather do kind things and get something for somebody whenever the opportunity hits – if I happen to come across an item that I think someone would like or benefit from, I’ll get it for them. Why should it wait for some date on a calendar based on a religion in which I don’t believe?

We share custody of our oldest daughter with my husband’s ex. Fortunately we’ve been able to have her most every year on Christmas Eve thru Christmas morning—because the ex-wife’s family seems to celebrate much earlier or much later (due to other shared custody cousins, etc.) So, because her side of the family doesn’t celebrate on the actual dates usually we luck out and get to do the traditional Christmas Eve/Christmas morning. (At least for the last 14 years..)

My entire extended family lives in another part of the country (about 14-hours away by car) – so we often celebrate Christmas early if we go there for Thanksgiving. Otherwise we Skype or call as we open their gifts (we exchange by mail).

A friend of mine who has family scattered all over the country (all adult siblings, none married—each lives in a different state) tends to celebrate holidays whenever they can all arrange their schedule to be together. So, last month in October they had “Texmas” (got together in Texas for an early Christmas). :) They manage to do all the fun traditional stuff (gift exchange, special meal, baking together) AND then go site-seeing or to some cool plays/events in whatever city they’re exploring. I hope when my kids are older we can do the same!