Christmas Eve is a very family-oriented holiday. Families get together for a meal in the evening and open gifts. Lots of families grill because it is hot to be cooking inside. Although some do bake a turkey. People drink cola de mono, which is Chile's response to eggnog. On Christmas Day, some people visit the other side of the family to do the gift exchange.

The weird thing is that when there are kids in the house, they get their presents from Santa that night. When I was with my ex, he and I used to have to take his nephew out to "look for Santa" while his parents got the presents out of hiding. To me, it seems even harder to believe in Santa with that. I would be thinking, hmm, he always comes just when we went for a walk.

Our municipality does this thing most years where Santa drives around in a truck decorated like a sleigh. I think 2020 was canceled because of the pandemic. For some reason, it fascinates our dogs when he passes by. They were able to see him this year.

Some videos have gone viral from Caribbean immigrants from places like Colombia and Venezuela complaining about how the holiday is celebrated here. Apparently, they are all about dancing to cumbia in the streets and Chileans' way of celebrating is boring.