When I was little we definitely did the advent calendars. I pretty much stopped having that as part of my Christmas about 10 years ago, but I still see all kinds of things that countdown to Christmas on store shelves.
For my family, Christmas is the one time of year we all get together. I see probably 60+ relatives on Christmas Eve when the big parties are thrown. My hometown is in Texas, so we make the horrendously non-traditional chile, tamales, salsa dip that will make you cry from the heat, and bunuelos dinner.
God we're so unnatural. Um, I'm pretty sure the rest of the US opens their Christmas presents on Christmas morning. Or at least, when I was little, 'Santa' came on Christmas Eve night, so gifts were under the tree the next day. We switched to doing it Christmas Eve with the relatives and then my folks and I exchange gifts on the 26th.
My dad is locally famous for decorating his house in Christmas garb on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). I've discovered over the years that he's not such a loon, and some other people in town do that, too.
What else about Christmas. At some point during December, we usually run around town looking at everyone's Christmas lights. That could be our one normal Christmas tradition. :p
I'm Catholic, so we go to church on Christmas morning. If we go the day before, we can watch all the little kids act out the story of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. It's super cute.
And I think that's all I know about Christmas. I think my observation is that the real days in the US are the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. Other than that, I don't see a lot of real Christmas activity (besides shopping panic).
JD
