Family Christmas traditions can change when relatives move to different cities, new people join the family or children grow up. In Canada, the official Canada Revenue Agency calendar lists Christmas Day on December 25. That does not decide how each family celebrates, nor does it require everyone to take part.
Identify the customs you recognize
Ask what makes the gathering feel familiar: a song, a recipe, a treasured object, a visit or the time of a call. Avoid starting from a list of what ought to be there. Christmas may be religious, cultural, low-key or not part of the routine at all.
If there are francophone and anglophone relatives, collect the names each uses for the customs. Other family languages may come up too. The explanation should help people understand the memory, without replacing the storyteller’s own words.
Find out what has changed over the years
Who started making that recipe? When did the gathering move to another house? Which custom stopped being possible? Who suggested an alternative? These questions help record decisions instead of presenting the tradition as something that never changed.
Use the questions about family traditions to choose a topic. An old photo can help, but it should not turn into a quiz on names and dates in front of everyone.
Leave room to continue or to stop
Someone may want to keep a custom while someone else would rather adapt it. Record both positions respectfully. Do not force an activity in the name of preservation, especially when it involves work, expense, beliefs or exposing difficult memories.
For the gathering itself, see the questions for Christmas dinner. If you decide to record a story, agree on access beforehand and offer a review afterwards. A page about where a custom came from and how it changed can already hold a meaningful part of the family story, without requiring it to stay the same next year.