A Yuletide Tradition: Dim Sum

New York, NY —

Even for those who don't celebrate Christmas, yesterday was a chance to observe some other time-honored traditions - like enjoying a meal at a boisterous Chinatown restaurant.

Kim Newman, of Brooklyn, says she's been doing just that for several decades.

NEWMAN: There was nothing ever open on Christmas Day, so my family and I would get together and go to Chinese places because that was only thing that was open.

REORTER: She was at 88 Palace on East Broadway. The restaurant's manager, Hai Nan Dai, says the holiday marked a spike in business.

DAI: Christmas, Chinese people, American people, all the people are coming here. The best time for Chinatown.

REPORTER: Leonard Rogoff is a Jewish history professor, from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

ROGOFF: The question you have to ask yourself is, if Jewish civilization is five thousand years old and Chinese civilization is four thousand years old, then where did the Jewish eat for the first thousand years.

REPORTER: Rogoff and his family polished off several rounds of dim sum while wrestling such questions.