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Often individual OrthodoxOften individual Orthodox families will decide to celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25th if they live in a country where the majority celebrate on the 25th. However, most of those families also celebrate or honor January 7th as Christmas based on their religion. So for some Christian Orthodox families they will celebrate on the 25th by exchanging gifts and a family get together in response to the larger culture they live in. And then they will celebrate their religions Christmas observance on Jan. 7th, but this celebration is typically done in more religious somber fashion by gathering the family together for a feast. There is very little to no gift exchange, as that is done during the Dec. 25th celebration. This is what my family and many many other Eastern Orthodox families do who live in western countries dominated by western Christian faiths, which are mainly Catholic and Protestant, and the all the other faiths the stem from Protestantism. This is common in the USA and some places in Canada that have larger Eastern Orthodox populations. So there can be faith based and cultural based celebrations of Christmas, especially in countries that have more forgiving notions about separating religion from the greater general culture.
