Comparing the way my family celebrate christmas with Jess's family

I find that the way my family celebrate Christmas and Jess's family are similar and different in someways. My family always gets into a fix on what should they buy as they want to get something cheap but nice, Jess's family also get into the same situation as my family. My family and relatives gets very excited about Christmas unlike Jess's family who gets so unhappy and even angry during Christmas. My family also never believe in Santa Clause, not even my little sister when she was four years old, guess she is not so gullible after all, but we still sing some Christmas songs for the Christmas spirit. I guess not every family will be alike in the way they celebrate festivals. Done by:Chris Ng(the other Christmas experience (a) is mine :-)

My experiences (a)

I love to celebrate Christmas with my family and relatives as it is my birthday and my name came from Christmas. Every year at Christmas, my family would go to my aunty's house to celebrate Christmas and my birthday as she holds a Christmas party every year and my father thought it would be more convenient to just celebrate my birthday together. We, (all the kids) always arrive one hour earlier to play games while the adults sit around and chat. Then comes the dinner where there will be turkey, kebab, curry chicken, ham, hotdogs, spaghetti, ice-cream, soft drinks and the winner of the game gets to enjoy his/her snacks. Then come the birthday cake where everyone sing happy birthday song for me and pictures were taken.(can't find the photos, hidden somewhere secret.) the after the exchange of presents, most of us went home hapilly. I feel that Christmas is a good time for all of my familly members to get together as we all sit around and chat about what happened to each other (at least the adults do.) Our relationship seems to get better and better after each Christmas, hopefully it will get better still.

My experience with Jess

What I celebrate and Jess celebrates is really different. First of all, Jess does not wear any traditional costumes while my festival have to wear a traditional costume 'han bok'(한복).Also, during Jess's festival, they exchange gifts while my festival will only receive money. One thing about my festival is that I played games with my family and relatives while Jess and his family did not really played games. Jess really did not specified which food he had but I had rice cake soup(떡꾹) which is is a tradition thing to eat. Even though there are lots of differences between Jess's festival and my festival, we have something common. The common thing is that I am sure that Jess had a fantastic time like me!
Written by:Lee Yeong Chan including the korean festival too. Forgot to put my name.

My experience with Jess

b) Like me, Jess celebrate his christmas with his family just that i also celebrate with my relatives too. We had delicious meal while Jess also got. Everyone got a present and like it although Jess did not really like his.But at least his father bought him something i think he felt happy too. But he had to milked the cow even though it is a festival where everyone gathered together to celebrate. It also a time to rest but he had to milked the cow. While i only need to sit on the sofa watching the television programme and the food will eventually come to me. I enjoy myself and felt great. Jess also enjoyed himself too.

Done by: Ng Hui Mei (Lisa)

Experiences with Jess

B) In "Bridge to Terabithia" , Jess celebrated Christmas by giving and receiving presents from his family. For me, my family would give me presents but in the form of money instead.
When Hari Raya is coming, my family usually celebrates it vibrantly unlike Jess' family which celebrates Christmas by quarelling about presents. It is tradition for my family to accept our gifts with a smile but Jess' sister complains about having something not of the same value. Hari Raya is usually celebrated with friends and family coming to visit but for Jess, they celebrate it without inviting anyone.
For his family, his whole family scrimped and saved to buy presents for one another but for me, only uncles or aunties who are married are made to give us money as they have a stable income.
There were no sayings of Jess decorating his house but for my family, we will stay up late on the eve of Hari Raya just to make sure everything is ready for the big event. We will decorate our houses with beautiful lights and lots of delicacies to eat!
Jess' family do not have any type of feast but we do! It is always made by my grandmother who cooks from the recipes passed down form my great-grandparents.It is usually made for guests who arrive at our houses. The food is also to say thank-you for coming to our house. It is kind of like a reunion dinner like Chinese New Year.

Done by,
Nur Khaliesah

MY EXPERIENCES!!!

Research on two festivals which me and my team mates have celebrated

During Chinese new year,Chinese would do spring cleaning to get rid of the bad luck and would not do any sweeping of floor during Chinese new year because it means sweeping away all the bad luck they are going to have for that year but during Christmas,people do not clean up their houses unlike the Chinese.I think the Chinese is quite superstitious about cleaning up the house before the Chinese new year and not sweeping the floor during Chinese new year unlike the Christian.Sometimes, we do really have to believe in superstitious things as it maybe logical sometimes if we do the wrong thing at the wrong time and may causes us a lot of bad luck in things we do.

Another thing that is interesting about Christmas and Chinese new year is that during Christmas,people would normally exchange presents with each other to celebrate Christmas and during Chinese new year,we would receive red packets instead of presents from the elders.

During Christmas and Chinese new year,it is also a time for Chinese and Christian to gather together and celebrate the festival together like a big family and we will play together and chat with each other during Christmas or Chinese new year.

Nevertheless,the Christian and the Chinese would gather around and wait when it is near to the time for the countdown.When the countdown is over,we would say auspicious words to each other and wish each other good luck and the atmosphere would be very high as it means a new year has come which means we should put all the sad things that happened in the previous year behind us and start off with a fresh new year.

I think that Christmas and Chinese new year is about the same as it both means that a new year is coming and we will all have a new hope for the new year and put all the unpleasant things that happened behind us.The differences between the two festivals is probably the culture,the way they think and the way they celebrated it,these and probably the things that make the two festivals look differently.

Done by,
Gan Ding Zhan,Lee Yeong Chan,Chris Ng,Nur Khaliesah and Ng Hui Mei