TORONTO -- Growing up Muslim, Mohammad Hussain has long avoided the bustle of Christmas shopping, tree-decorating and countless Christmas-related gatherings during the month of December.
But, like millions of others across the country, he won’t be headed home for the holidays because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, he’s hunkering down with his “amazing roommates” in Ottawa and learning what it means to have a “proper Christmas,” he told CTVNews.ca by phone on Monday. And his tweets, which detail all the pomp and rituals with “anthropological precision,” have been widely shared, with Hussain’s initial tweet receiving 343,000 likes by Monday night.
“I knew some things [about Christmas] were funny. I knew the idea of Christmas as a part-time job is very true but no one had thought of,” he laughed.
But he was not expecting the attention at all.
“I was like, 'I’m going to make the 17 people I have on Twitter laugh,'” he chuckled. “I was like, ‘let’s go, this will get their attention.'”
His observations include how people sometimes demand certain foods on Christmas morning; or the painstaking amount of time spent setting up lights.
“Do you want to sleep in on a Saturday? Too bad. Go put up some lights inside the house. Oh, you want to sleep in on Sunday? Too bad. Go put up some lights outside the house,” he tweeted.
He poked fun at how his friends were “agonizing over the gifts you must buy” and the depressing fact that “your gift budget does not matter."
"You can set this budget as high as you want but the perfect gift will always be $10 too expensive. There is no winning. Just give up," reads one tweet.
His observations have brought plenty of people some Christmas cheer.
Scores of people have fessed up to doing things Hussain pointed out, including even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He replied to the thread saying, “that about sums it up” before thanking Hussain for sharing his findings.
“Sophie and I are sending you and your roommates our best wishes this Christmas, and we’re glad to hear you’re enjoying it all so far," read Trudeau's tweet.
Hussain, who described himself as a political staffer in Ottawa, says the attention has been overwhelming. He said some of the praise came from people who, like him, didn’t grow up with Christmas and loved his take.
But he’s also enjoyed hearing from others who know firsthand how the holiday is a “an absolute affair.”
Hussain said for them “the new perspective is interesting for them,” he chuckled.
He also tweeted his enjoyment that the religious aspect of Christmas was optional because he joked that, “if I was to suggest having a secular Ramadan to my mother she would have a heart attack.”
While Hussain didn’t follow all the traditions his roommates laid out, such as stuffing his own stocking, he honoured the ritual of picking out of “keeper” ornaments, which in his case was a sparkly, pink “everything” bagel.
But Hussain learned the hard way that ornaments sometimes don’t come cheap.
After the tweets became popular, he kept in the Christmas spirit and encouraged people to donate to several charities, such as the Milton Halal Food Bank and the Parkdale Food Centre, to help people who’ve had a rough time this year.
On Twitter, he admitted that celebrating the holiday was tiring and applauded longtime Christmas celebrators for sticking to it.
“I will say I am having a very pleasant time … I am also learning that I do not enjoy peppermint," he tweeted.
And while he’s far from the Grinch who stole Christmas, Hussain tweeted that he would be stealing the idea of Secret Santa but for Eid, the Muslim holiday marking the end of month-long fasting during Ramadan.
But admitted, “the name's being workshopped.”
