Another (currently relocated) LI/NY Jew here…we often drove into NYC to eat in Chinatown on Christmas day. As a kid it was a welcome relief to not be stuck in traffic in either direction. Ironically, we’d usually hit Rockefeller Center on the same day to check out “the tree”. Surprisingly, seeing a movie wasn’t part of the tradition.
Hard-core atheist married to a Catholic, and we always eat Chinese for Christmas. Most of the good Chinese places around here are not only open, but packed.
When my Nana was still in her house we’d have Chinese food every Boxing Day, which was our family Christmas. My Nana stopped cooking big dinners years ago and it was simply easier to order in for our little tiny family. That was pretty much our only Christmas tradition - Boxing Day at Nana’s - and now that she’s in a nursing home I kind of miss it.
(For the non-Canadians out there, Boxing Day is the day after Christmas.)
Shipping this thread off to Cafe Society.
Never had Chinese on Christmas Day. Two years ago my (Jewish) friend and I went to a steakhouse (in the Jewish suburb) for Christmas Day. That’s the only time I’ve eaten out on Christmas. Hope to repeat it this year.
We tried to eat Chinese for the evening meal on Christmas, but all of the take-out places were closed for the day. I don’t know if the sit-down restaurants were open. Even the grocery store is closed for Christmas (and Easter) so their sucky Chinese deli wasn’t an option either. This is in a smaller city in Minnesota
Gotta expect that when your Chinese places are all run by Lutherans, I guess.
Yes, when spending Christmas with my family.
No, when spending Christmas with my not-Chinese in-laws.
I would eat at a restaurant* every* Thanksgiving and Christmas if my wife would allow it. Chinese sounds great, but I’d be up for anything.
The “big holiday meal” is something I loathe.
SNL’s Christmas Time for the Jews:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/christmastime-for-the-jews-song/n12006
Yeah, several of my Jewish friends observe this custom.
I was in Brisbane, Australia several years ago during Easter and was struggling to find a place to eat dinner. Evidently, Brisbane shut everything down after 5pm for Easter, including the hotel restaurant and a McDonald’s across the street. I hail a taxi and asked the driver where I could get something to eat. He gave it some thought and told me the that “Chinese were heathens” and likely open for dinner. He drove me to a place and sure enough, it was open for business. The food was pretty good as well.
Do I look Jewish? 
It’s not the most popular food. It might be the most popular take-out food on Christmas, but most Americans eat turkey, ham or roast beef (or something like that) at home for Christmas. Although for many it’s more of a Christmas Eve thing than Christmas day.
Not on Christmas Day. We’ve made it a tradition on Christmas Eve, though. We go to service at 7pm followed by either the local Chinese buffet or a very nice Chinese sit down place. This past Xmas Eve we went to the sit down place in a Jewish part of the Cities and it was PACKED. An absolute madhouse.
We make home-cooked chinese food and watch a movie at home. Where we live nothing would be open, so I have to cook everything from scratch for my Jewish wife.
We like to do this. It’s particularly fun if there’s a big fantasy blockbuster in the theaters, like Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Caribbean.
We go to a big dim sum restaurant for brunch and then end up at a famous multiplex nearby.
However, nothing of the caliber of LOTR or POTC has been shown around the holidays for some years, so we’ve kind of fallen out of the habit.
I remember a cartoon in New Scientist in a December about 25 years ago titled “The First Christmas”. Three (wise) men are traveling on camels across a desert. One turns to the others and says “I have the strangest craving for Chinese.”
How does someone “look Jewish”? I mean, without a yarmulke or Star of David or…
I certainly don’t at home.
But one memorable Christmas I was stuck in a cheap-ass hotel near the outskirts of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in NYC. My crew-mates and I set off on foot into the snow to find some dinner; the hotel had closed their restaurant early.
After much trudging we found a single solitary restaurant open. Chinese with large kosher signs out front and, other than us, a 100% Orthodox clientele. The joint was packed and the food was good. They did stick us undesirables back by the kitchen were we wouldn’t be seen.
That’s my one and only Chinese Christmas story or meal.
Because we have extended family, we have Christmas with the (adult) children either on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day, with travels to the in-laws and my folks on Christmas. We have Chinese food for our immediate family Christmas, because we’ll be getting the turkey and the ham and the stuffing and the pecan pie twice over.