KENT COUNTY, Mich. — Around noon on Christmas Eve at First Wok Chinese Restaurant in Walker, a steady flow of customers arrived to dine-in as well as to pick up their carry out orders, many of which were in cardboard boxes to hold enough food for entire families.

The restaurant is typically closed on Tuesdays, but the doors were wide open for Christmas Eve.

The staff says Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is their busiest time of year, adding that they have been staying open for the holiday since opening back in 1987, adding that many customers make it a tradition to eat Chinese food during the holiday.

“We have a lot of customers, especially like year out telling us, ‘oh, I’m ready for Christmas. We’re planning to come here Christmas,'” said host Tyler Nguyen, who has made it a personal tradition to wear a Santa costume while working. “I love seeing it, seeing all the happy faces, happy tummies too.”

“We’ve been open on Christmas day for the last 34 years,” said Richard Ngo, owner of Three Happiness Restaurant in Walker, saying they receive many large orders in advance for the holidays, echoing First Wok in saying Christmas is their busiest day of the year. 

“We love Christmas because we make a lot of people happy, and we are as well,” said Ngo. “We get to see everybody coming in and being happy.”

Down US-131 in Wyoming, Kim Nhung Superstore was seeing a steady flow of customers of diverse backgrounds making their way through the aisles, buying groceries for Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese and many other cuisines.

Owner Hung Le and staff member Jackson Nguyen say staying open during the holidays helps out members of Asian American communities, many of whom are small business owners and work long hours, who may still need the day to purchase groceries.

“Staying open helps them, you know with groceries, when other grocery stores are closed,” said Nguyen. 

While how Christmas is observed varies between different Asian American cultures, the upcoming Lunar New Year is one of the most important holidays across several cultures, as Kim Nhung begins to look forward to the year of the snake.

“Lunar New Year’s falls on January 29 this year, on Wednesday. We’re going to have our Lunar New Year festival here on the ninth of February,” said Le. “We’re going to have our dragon dance. There’s going to be a lot of, you know, Lunar New Year decorations, we’re going to have our new year candies that is very popular in this upcoming week, so gonna be pretty busy for Lunar New Year.”