Speaking on the Diversity and Inclusivity Finance Forum (DIFF) podcast, Karen Rodrigues, chief sales officer at Market Financial Solutions, said Christmas had become a lot more commercialised and as a Catholic, she regarded it as a religious festival.
When she was younger, this included making advent wreaths, lighting candles and setting up a nativity scene where the baby Jesus was not put into his crib until Christmas Eve. Rodrigues also attends midnight mass.
She said being Irish Catholic, the idea of spending Christmas with family was particularly important.
Gurpreet Chahal, regional sales manager at Accord Mortgages, said that with his parents being immigrants, Christmas was about seeing the people around them celebrate and joining in that way.
“Like Karen said, it is much more commercialised, and for me, it wasn’t from a religious perspective but more of a time of family coming together. Typically, it’s holiday season and a lot of family are not working so it’s an opportunity to get together,” he noted.
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Chahal said as he got older, Christmas became more about his children, and while his family still does not celebrate from a religious perspective, the time is dedicated to family, giving, putting up the Christmas tree and playing ‘Elf on the Shelf’.
When he was younger, his family would usually have Asian food, whereas now, they have Christmas dinner with an “Asian twist”.
Zainab Zailai, senior manager for mortgage product and proposition at Nottingham Building Society, said Christmas was an event she mainly observed as an outsider as she did not typically celebrate it, but said she was an “absolute sucker for a good Christmas movie”.
This Christmas, her family will be doing the Taste Film concept at home while watching Home Alone, which will include eating certain foods at the same time they are shown on screen.
Zailai said Christmas did not have a strong presence in her life, but she was fortunate to be part of a community that was “super proactive about giving back to the wider community”.
During the Christmas period, she puts gift packs together and distributes them to homeless people, recognising that not everyone can celebrate Christmas in the way they would want to.
Rodrigues said her family were all a commutable difference from each other, and as the years went on and costs rose, they decided to each take responsibility for one part of the Christmas feast.
She added: “I always do the roast potatoes because, apparently, I make the best ones in the family, so that’s my treat – I’m the roast potato person.
“My aunt will do the carrots… my cousin will do Brussels sprouts because she’ll put bacon and pancetta into it, so she makes them a little more flavoursome.”
Chahal said his family spent Christmas day together, cooking, eating and watching festive films, adding that there was also a Sikh event that took place around the same time.
“On the 27th of December, it’s quite a sad time in the Sikh religion. It was the martyrdom of the four sons of our 10th guru, Guru Gobind Singh… that is a time of reflection because they were all young as well, and it’s that opportunity for us to look at our faith and think about it from that perspective too,” he added.
His family go to the gurdwara – the Sikh temple – during the Christmas period to pay respects, and there are usually functions.
Chahal said: “Although Christmas is a Christian faith celebration, there is a lot of correlation and synergy in terms of the Sikh faith because it is a time of giving and it’s a time of thinking about others as well.”
Helping everyone celebrate comfortably
Zailai said Nottingham Building Society held two Christmas events for employees, centred on its ethos of “inviting the difference in”, with one that had an open bar and another that took place in-house during the day, so people had a choice of how to celebrate.
Chahal said it was important for firms to understand their employees and make the period more inclusive of different circumstances, such as considerations for those with children or people who did not want to be around alcohol.
Rodrigues said at Market Financial Solutions, there was an all-team event where everyone was invited and came together. She said with the heads of the company being from an Asian background, the period was celebrated to acknowledge the company was in the UK but with “an Asian twist”, and last year, they had an Asian dinner.
“I did eat a whole green chilli because Paresh said, ‘I bet you can’t’ and that was like a red rag to a bull and I went, ‘bet I can’,” Rodrigues said.
Raja also has a one-to-one with each employee, where people are given reviews and gifts.
Market Financial Solutions also has an opt-in Secret Santa policy to be mindful of people’s finances and desires to take part in the activity.
Listen to the rest of the episode [39:18] to hear more about how companies support employees during the festive period, which can be challenging, and what Christmas means for people from different cultural and religious backgrounds, hosted by Anna Maynard, event manager at Mortgage Solutions, with guests Gurpreet Chahal, regional sales manager at Accord Mortgages, Karen Rodrigues, chief sales officer at Market Financial Solutions, and Zainab Zailai, senior manager for mortgage product and proposition at Nottingham Building Society.
