When I saw the prompt for this holiday especially where 
I grew up in a part of Nigeria where the culture and traditions differ from the part of the country that I am living now.
Growing up.
My childhood was filled with a lot of fun. My parents were Muslims but the majority of the dwellers of our town were christians. In fact, the second most popular religion was the African traditional religion.
My family and indeed the majority of other families were liberal in terms of their levels of religious tolerance. Due to this reason, I grew up celebrating almost six religious festivals; Easter, Christmas, Eid-el-fitri, Eid-el-kabir, Eid-el-molud and a masquerade festival by the traditionalists. Though the last one wasn't at any time celebrated in my home, my father gave me and my siblings the free hand to follow masquerades round the town. My mind as a kid welcomed anything celebration.
My paternal family are Muslims while my maternal family are Christians. On a typical sallah day (Eid day), a delicious meal would be cooked for the whole family. Other neighbors would be served too whether Christians or Muslims. During Easter and Christmas celebrations, we receive food of different kinds from our neighbors.
The joy was always visible on our faces as children as we moved around the town in groups visiting friends. My uncles and cousins would come around to make each celebration fun and lovely.
My experience up North.
After my secondary school education, I traveled up north for my university education. On my arrival, I realized that the kind of settings obtainable in the south is not the same as that in the North.
In the North, most families are homogeneous in religion. You hardly find a Muslim getting married to a Christian. Majority live in an area dominated by the people of his faith. Consequently, you see a community that is purely homogenous.
If the community is a Muslim community, you see the community in celebration mood during sallah and during Christmas or Easter, they go out on their normal businesses. Same thing happens in christian settlements, they celebrate Easter and Christmas but go about their businesses during sallah. It took me a little time to adjust. In fact I always rushed to my parents to celebrate any holiday because I was used to the kind of unity in diversity happening down south. On a few occasions that I celebrated any of the days in school, I used to stay indoors.
I maintained the status quo till I finished my degree and relocated to another northern town to settle down with my family.
The story remained the same. Each religion to his own. I got a little recipe from my place of work where I met people of diverse belief and enviable maturity. The tradition that I met and is still being sustained is that during any sallah celebration, the Muslims would come together to cook food for everyone in the organization. The same thing happens during Christmas and Easter, the Christian staff pull resources together to cook for everyone. This is in addition to individuals inviting others to join them to celebrate. I met this tradition and I love it. I proudly keyed in and the experience has been awesome.
My experience during this holiday.
I got my holiday from work a few days before Christmas. Before leaving, one of my colleagues invited me to come and celebrate Christmas with her and her family, which I proudly obliged.
About two days to Christmas, a fresh remembrance was shared on some social media platforms on how it is forbidden to celebrate any festival with people of another faith. In fact, eating food from such people was declared forbidden.
I sat down and thought of it and asked myself a question; "how will eating food cooked by a human being like me lead me to hellfire?" The question of where this fanaticism is leading us to follow suit.
Of course, the love upon which I was raised is resistant to any undue ideologically infiltration. I waved the message aside and got prepared to celebrate Christmas with my colleague.
Christmas day.
We had a light breakfast while we prepared to leave home towards noon. My wife, son and I left for the visitation at about noon. My colleague who is a devout church worker welcomed us with open arms. Her home was full of family members and a retinue of friends of diverse faith. She wasted no time serving us fried rice and beef. We ate and drank.
We discussed the significance of the period in Christendom. Showing love without bond was top of the discussion.
After a few hours, we returned home. While leaving, she served another food into a flask and gave it to us to take home.
The picture is mine. I have almost finished the beef before my wife snapped the food.
"You don't come to my place and go back home to cook." She said as she packed the food in a basket for us. She was full of appreciation as we left the house.
I was the visitor this time but I hope to be the host during the next sallah celebration.
Ever since then, I have been spending time with my family. The holiday is affording me the opportunity to bond more with my son whom I hardly have time for because of work. I won't also ignore the ample time that I have to sleep and replenish my energy.
My holiday at home continues till next week and there is no plan to go anywhere.