People across much of the world are celebrating Christmas this weekend.
The nature of Christmas festivities vary from country to country, with each family having their own take on the routine, food and even date on which they celebrate. Some have a feast and open presents on Christmas Eve, while many Orthodox Christians celebrate the religious holiday in January because they follow a different calendar.
For Vanessa Boateng from Knowsley, the festive day has a special meaning. It's her wedding anniversary, but she's used to big Christmas celebrations thanks to growing up in Ghana, where it's as much a public celebration as a private affair.
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The 44-year-old, who runs a skincare brand, said: "Christmas in Ghana is like a jamboree and a fun fair, we have a lot of parks open, we have a lot of leisure centres open, we have gigs and festivals going on as well as going to church on Christmas Day, coming back and having food to eat, having family celebrations and entertainment. It's very different from here. Everywhere is closed here."
A typical Christmas for Vanessa consists of a visit to church for a carol service on Christmas Eve, with 20 to 30 guests visiting the host's house - they rotate the role each year - to feast on pounded yam, egusi soup and fufu, and watch films, on Christmas Day. The councillor for Stockbridge Ward of Knowsley Town Council described it as "foods we don't eat every day, special delicacies we eat once a year".
Blessing Otuore, 29, is getting used to gift-giving culture and she doesn't understand why anyone eats Brussels sprouts after five years living in the UK. But that wasn't the hardest part of adjusting to Christmas here after moving from Nigeria to study a PhD at the University of Liverpool's management school.
In Nigeria, she and her family would start preparing the meal on Christmas Eve, finishing the cooking after going to church on the morning of the 25th. Her family celebrations are much smaller than Vanessa's - only eight attend, with the odd visitor popping in, expecting food.
They overprepare to cater for surprise guests, serving a spread of jollof rice, fried plaintain and chicken, fish or lamb, plus a "Nigerian coleslaw" with cabbage, carrots, sweet corn, kidney beans, and salad cream or mayonnaise with evaporated milk.
Blessing hasn't spent Christmas with her family since moving to Liverpool, and she spent the first year alone, turning down invitations to join other people's families because she felt like she was "intruding on their family time". She said: "To me, it's a very family-focused holiday, so you're either among friends or you're with family."
Since the loneliness of that first Christmas, the graduate teaching fellow has found a family of friends through her church, Christ Embassy, a Nigerian church with a branch in Liverpool. She said: "The similarity is there's still rice because we're mostly all Nigerian. But this is the first year where we have two or three non-Nigerians, so there's more variety in the food."
The 29-year-old added: "I've never spent Christmas with a British family, so I don't know the intricacies of how they celebrate. This year I've attended a couple of Christmas dinners. I did find things are kind of consistent, like pigs in blankets, turkey and Brussels sprouts. I don't know why anyone is eating Brussels sprouts.
"I did try them because I wanted to try what it felt like, and I didn't quite like it. I think Christmas is still the same, kind of family-oriented. People go out or make a roast at home. There's still that whole thing of food, and there's a lot of gift-giving here. I think I've bought more Christmas gifts here in the last four years than I've ever bought in my life."
Although Christians are no longer a majority in the UK, according to the 2021 census, falling 13 percentage points to 46.2% of the population since the 2011 census, Black and African communities form a growing segment of the country's Christians.
Often their denominations bring different traditions that breathe fresh life into British Christianity. More importantly, Blessing's church offers her a sense of belonging and familiarity in a new country far from family. Ultimately, what everyone has in common is the emphasis on family, reflection and giving.
For Blessing, it's a joyous time with family, sprinkled with stress and a sadness for the people who've passed away. She said: "It's lovely to be around family. The whole experience of cooking together helps that whole feeling of, we're making something together, even if it's so stressful as well because we know we have to wake up early to make the food, go to church, come back, eat the food. Sometimes we're just tired and we go lie down, because it is nice, but it can be exhausting as well."
She added: "For me as a Christian, it's really about Jesus. I know that in the world it's kind of been commercialised mostly to make money now, and to buy so many gifts, but for me, and this is why I'm always in church on Christmas Day, it's having that reminder that truly it's actually about a vision of Jesus.
"It may not be his actual birthday, of course, but it's a day that Christians all around the world have decided we want to celebrate the best of Jesus and remember who he is to us, what he did for us, and who we are because of him, what he has made available to us, and the love that we can share."
Vanessa said: "Christmas is a time for reflection on the year. We all come to celebrate, we give thanks, and we come together as a family to take stock of the year - the good things, the bad things, the challenges, and how we want to forge ahead for the new year.
"That's what has been passed on from generation to generation in our community and in my family. Christmas is a time to also give back to society, and a time that we give back to the less privileged as well. Even back home, we give to those who are not able to afford to celebrate Christmas.
"We extend a helping hand, we send money back home to orphanages, to our relatives, to our villages, to our towns, to people who may not be able to celebrate Christmas. That is something that has always been with us..
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