{"id":4123,"date":"2012-12-26T00:14:19","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T00:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/what-is-christmas-in-long-beach-like-for-those-who-don-t-celebrate-2\/"},"modified":"2012-12-26T00:14:19","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T00:14:19","slug":"what-is-christmas-in-long-beach-like-for-those-who-don-t-celebrate-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/what-is-christmas-in-long-beach-like-for-those-who-don-t-celebrate-2","title":{"rendered":"What Is Christmas In Long Beach Like For Those Who Don&#8217;t Celebrate?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-21650\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/noncrist1.jpg\" alt=\"noncrist1\" width=\"640\" height=\"287\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>After two months of holiday shopping, infernal Christmas music and festive winter decorations, the day of present-opening and family time is here. But while many Long Beach residents spend Christmas Day inside their homes, celebrating the centuries-old Christian tradition in the company of loved ones, many more are not.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a city as diverse as Long Beach, it&#8217;s always seemed odd to not think of those among us who are Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Kwanzaa-celebrators or otherwise Christmas-free.<\/p>\n<p>So I wondered aloud (aka on Facebook, Twitter and in conversations with friends) what it was like to get a few days off and a mellow work week in honor of a holiday with roots that may not pertain to one&#8217;s religious beliefs. And the responses I received pointed not to spite at Christian dominance or allusions to the &#8220;War on Christmas,&#8221; but instead a heartwarming mix of holiday diversity acceptance and thanks-for-the-day-off humor.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, a common statement was that all religious beliefs aside, Christmas brings a festive time of year meant to be shared with friends and family. And that&#8217;s something that everyone can and should get into regardless of&nbsp;whether you spend today huddled around a Christmas tree or searching for the nearest Chinese restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>Below are some of my favorite responses to the query, &#8220;Who out there is NOT celebrating Christmas and what is this week like for you?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>via <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LongBeachCalif?ref=stream\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Long Beach, Calif. Facebook page<\/strong><\/a><strong>:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-21651\" style=\"padding: 0 !important; border: none !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/facebook_kwanza.png\" alt=\"facebook kwanza\" width=\"620\" height=\"995\" \/><\/strong> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Long Beach resident Rachael Rifkin also sent the following response in an email:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<p>When I was young my family and I would go driving around, looking to see what was open on Christmas. Of course, now it&#8217;s more common for some stores to be open. Back in the 80s and 90s, it was more exciting to find a store or restaurant open.<\/p>\n<p>I still like to drive around and see what&#8217;s open, but mostly I just marvel at how empty the roads are and wish that they were always like that. It&#8217;s a pretty relaxing season for me because I don&#8217;t have to worry about shopping for everyone. Now I sometimes celebrate Christmas with my brother&#8217;s wife&#8217;s family, but getting them gifts is actually kind of fun. There&#8217;s a $20 limit and I try to be creative. It&#8217;s just fun to participate in a Christmas celebration after feeling left out for so many years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>________<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to everyone who responded to my infrequently asked question. What are the rest of you doing today\/this week?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-21650\" src=\"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/noncrist1.jpg\" alt=\"noncrist1\" width=\"640\" height=\"287\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>The day of present-opening and family time is here. But while many Long Beach residents spend Christmas Day inside their homes, celebrating the centuries-old Christian tradition in the company of loved ones, many more are not. What is today like for them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":69315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4123"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4123"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}