This December, I started a small experiment.
At my New in Berlin meetups, I asked participants to write short notes answering one open question:
How do you celebrate Christmas?
There was no survey tool, no form to fill out — just small pieces of paper passed around during the meetup. Over the course of three gatherings, I collected 34 notes in total. They cover a surprisingly broad range of answers.
Of course, 34 participants are not representative in any statistical sense. This was never meant to be a study. And yet, I take a lot of joy in these notes. Each one feels like a small souvenir — a trace of someone who was there that evening.
The act of writing notes changed the atmosphere of the meetup in a subtle but noticeable way. People took a moment to pause, to reflect, to put something down in writing. Almost everyone participated, and that made me genuinely happy. It felt less like collecting data and more like creating a shared moment.
The Material
I used old flyers as paper, so the notes are somewhat standardised in format. Beyond that, they couldn’t be more different. Each one feels personal — different handwritings, different tones, different ways of approaching the question.
Some people wrote a short text, others just a single sentence. All of it felt equally valid and appreciated.
The Answers
In total, 34 people wrote a note.
One third mentioned celebrating Christmas with family — in one case with a host family. Others wrote about spending it with friends. A small number described this year as their first time celebrating Christmas at all, often from cultural backgrounds where the holiday isn’t a given.
Roughly a third of the notes said “I don’t celebrate,” usually reflecting different cultural traditions and backgrounds. And then there were answers that pointed in various directions — people working, traveling, going to church, or sharing a meal. There weren’t enough similar responses to form another category, but they still feel worth holding onto.
Taken together, the notes suggest something quite simple: when Christmas is celebrated, it is mostly about the people we spend it with.
Open Questions
While this small experiment offered a clear snapshot of how differently people relate to Christmas, it also sparked a series of follow-up questions I’d love to explore another time.
For those who don’t celebrate Christmas at all, I keep wondering: how do they spend the free days? Do they have alternative traditions, or does the time simply pass like any other break in the year?
And for those who do celebrate: how does it feel to them? Is it something they look forward to, or something they feel obliged to do? Is it comfort, joy, routine — or sometimes a mix of all of that?
For now, I’ll leave these questions open. The notes answered one thing quite clearly, and left plenty of space to keep listening.
A small thank you — and an open invitation
Thank you to everyone who took a moment to write a note and participate in this. It was genuinely a pleasure to read through all of them, and to see how thoughtfully people approached an open question.
I can easily imagine doing something like this again — maybe with a slightly different question, or a bit more room to explore what sits behind the answers. Not as a study, but as a way of listening more closely.
And if you’re reading this:
How do you celebrate Christmas?
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