When Siddique Paul and Onan Yaqoob were living in Pakistan, celebrating Christmas was a vastly different affair.
They were part of the 1.6 per cent of the Christian minority who were able to take the day off to celebrate Christmas not because the country celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ but because December 25 also happens to be the birthday of the nation's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
"[But] in Australia, everybody celebrates. It is more of an social rather than a religious event and it feels good to have four or five days off," Mr Yaqoob says.
Although Mr Paul has now celebrated every Christmas in the summer since he migrated to Australia a decade ago, this year was Mr Yaqoob's first.
On the day, Mr Paul invited guests to a barbeque and a feast of traditional Pakistani dishes that included butter chicken and Kabuli pulao at his Campbelltown home in Sydney's south-west.
"We always try to celebrate an interfaith Christmas to promote harmony but this time we had an interfaith and multicultural Christmas lunch as we had invited people from the Middle East," he says.
Highlights:
- Siddique Paul is a Pakistani Christian living in Australia.
- Christians make up 1.6 per cent of the population in Pakistan, according to its bureau of statistics.
- Christians in the Muslim-majority Pakistan have one day off on December 25 to mark the birthday of the nation's founder, rather than Christmas.
As a fellow Pakistani Christian, Mr Yaqoob says Christmas in Australia is different to what he is used to.
"It is good to see how the celebrations are done in a Middle Eastern way and it is nice to celebrate the occasion within a multicultural society," he says.
Mr Paul's daughter Iffrah recently married and welcomed her Lebanese in-laws to her family's Christmas lunch this year.
"It is the blessings that different communities are sitting together on a single table and are eating together," she says.
Mr Paul's other daughter Maryam celebrated this Christmas with her husband for the first time after being separated due to border restrictions last year.
Onan Yaqoob (left) is celebrating his first summer Christmas in Australia. Source: SBS
She tells SBS Urdu this year's celebrations were a more diverse affair.
"Usually we celebrate Christmas with people from different faiths but this time we also had a multicultural event at our place."
Family friend Fauzia Jafar also attended the lunch.
As a Pakistani Muslim who migrated to Australia almost a decade ago, she says she is happy to celebrate the occasion with her Christian brethren and speaks of the need for more events such as Christmas to unite people of different faiths.
"I want people to come forward and participate in these events. We need to participate in each other's festivals," she says.
“Hate and marginalising minorities in our society is creating a lot of problems and we need to focus on similarities rather than differences," she adds.
A Christmas lunch with people from different faiths and cultures. Source: SBS
Mr Paul says Christmas lunch this year was an opportunity to sideline any negativity and tension.
"At the moment, humanity is under threat not because of atomic bombs but due to human bombs."
"People are hating each other on the basis of their religion."
In light of a successful Christmas, Mr Paul highlights the spirit of the occasion.
"Christmas is an event that can be celebrated by all faiths to reduce differences," he says referring to the Chapter of Mary in the quran to support his argument.
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