For us, it is mainly about family - our family of 3 (DH, DD and I) and various elements of the extended family.
Over Christmas, we must travel every year to our parents 160 miles away (I know not very far in the context of US distances) and put in time visiting various relatives there. We also end up spending New Year in a different place with my parents (they have a holiday house) 100 miles in a different direction. And 3 of my parent's 6 DCs are based overseas (only 1 lives at home and 1 other 25 miles away from them), so we try to see a lot of whoever is home - DBro in Canada gets home about 1-2 times/year, DBro in London only gets home about the same, while DSis in Scotland is usually here twice per year but often not at Christmas.
We also need to catch up with relatives in the city we live in - life has been too hectic in recent years so we haven't spent as much time as we could/should have with them. But there are a few occasions to visit them over the holidays.
I do tend to catch up with a lot of friends through work over December and January, mainly over lunches but a couple of night-time events. But most of my friends outside of work have ended up moving away too so we rarely see those anymore (email contact).
It's a very busy time at work for both DH and I, so we don't tend to entertain much (and we are usually travelling a good bit too). But we usually have the neighbours over, and any relatives who are in the area and free, for a quiet celebration of DD's birthday on Stephen's Day. As we are going to be at our parents for Christmas Day itself this year (1st time in 3 years), there will still be a celebration but family only.
