When I was a kid I looked forward to Christmas for the usual reasons kids did -- the toys, the box of chocolates the family could choose from (just one at a time, please), the lasagna dinner in our untraditional, part Italian household. Our extended family was far away so we kept close to what we had at hand, though my Uncle Chester and Aunt Estelle, a few towns over, seemed to have their own friends, and we rarely ever saw them. (Now, decades late, I'm in the same situation, very far from biological family, so I have tended to look to others close by if possible for creation of a family of my own.)
This occurred when we first moved a few states away from New York. We met a group of couples at the local Catholic church and started to create a family, of sorts. We'd have monthly potlucks and hike together, especially since we lived in a mountainous part of Virginia with many trails in numerous areas. But they eventually left, and so did we.
Now we live in a different area and our sons are grown and far away. As they get older, it seems more interesting (even fun) when they visit. It's especially nice that they have different specialty recipes they can cook for us during the holidays. This Christmas, for example, we had the untraditional Christmas dinner of Kung Pao Pork. One of our sons joked that that was a "Jewish" dinner for Christmas. Maybe they were thinking of that movie, "A Christmas Story," where the turkey gets ruined and they go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner on Christmas.
Adult children can make much better companions at Christmas time, as they will not throw a fit (haven't so far) about what they get for Christmas (though we try to get something they actually want). And they can help with cooking and playing games, and don't mind going for a walk on a day when the temperatures have gone up, or hamming it up for the camera. Really, holidays, if you're not together much and get along, can be a nice time.
