Another first - I go to the movies on Christmas Day and get a surprise.

I think this is the first time cinemas have been open on Christmas Day.

Since Christmas Dinner in Australia is really lunch, those places with sessions didn’t start until 3.40 or later, so that staff could enjoy the meal with their family.

I told my son I would pick him up, give him a Christmas feed and take him to the movies as there would be no-one there.

Well there were hundreds of people there - we 2 nominal Christians and the rest split 50-50 between Muslims and Hindus. I felt pretty silly having not foreseen this - everything else is closed and there are a lot of people who attach no significance at all to Christmas Day.

It was pretty funny, like watching a movie in a foreign land. The odd conversation I heard was indecipherable.

That is funny. What a fun Christmas memory for your son.

In the USA, Christmas is a big movie day. It seems like everyone goes, not just people who aren’t celebrating Christmas. I’ve never done it though, I’m always way too tired.

When I worked in movie theaters at the end of the 80s in New Jersey, we opened on Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, only for the evening shows. (e.g. 6pm to midnight)

The first year I worked there, the manager told me that it was always one of the busiest nights, since so many people are stuffed with Christmas dinner and have played with all of the toys and now want to watch a show.

For the third year in a row, I’m going to the movies with a friend on Christmas day - each time she’s bought tickets the day before because the theaters are so packed. Most restaurants are closed though. Except for Dennys (a chain) and some Chinese restaurants.

Yeah, around here, it’s normal for everyone to go to the movies on Christmas day. I don’t usually feel like doing that myself but I am thinking of going out for Indian food later.

It won’t surprise me if within a few years more American-based business start to stay open on Christmas. There’s money to be made, after all.

Just last night, a Jewish friend told me that “Jewish Christmas” is takeout Chinese and going out to a movie.