Confused about object of 迎える in this sentence


I am currently on lesson 9 of Japan Foundation's まるごと B1-1. There is a text
about a woman celebrating Christmas for the first time at her American
partner's home. It begins with the sentence "ダ一リンの実家でむかえるはじめてのクリスマス。". On the
books' website there are translations for the texts, and that phrase is
translated as "The first Christmas I was welcomed to my partner's family
home". The Spanish version is basically the same (Spanish is my first
language). This got me confused because when I read it, I understood the thing
being "welcomed" (as in celebrated) to be Christmas, not the speaker. Maybe
the meaning ends up being basically the same and the translators opted for a
not-so-literal translation. I think if it was the speaker being welcomed the
passive would be used, although I guess you couldn't just replace 迎える with
迎えられる since it's a relative clause (how should it be rewritten then?).

Am I correct or am I just misunderstanding the whole thing?




Basic meaning of 迎える is to welcome/greet people. You can use this word while
or before meeting that person. When 迎える is used with time-related words, such
as Christmas or new year, it still has that basic meaning and you can
understand this as time/season is about to come (and you are expecting it to
come). So クリスマスを迎える means that the Christmas is just around the corner or it
is already the Christmas time. Therefore, "ダ一リンの実家でむかえるはじめてのクリスマス。" can be
understood as "The first Christmas that somebody is going to
spend/celebrate/celebrating at the family home of one's lover"




迎える has another meaning: ある時になる.

> [人]が[ある時]を迎える = [someone] approach/reach [a certain time]

[プログレッシブ和英中辞典](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/en/%E8%BF%8E%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B/#je-73536)
says:

> むかえる【迎える】  
>  4 〔ある時になる〕  
>  新年を迎える greet the New Year  
>  老いを迎える reach old age  
>  20歳の誕生日を迎える reach one's twentieth year / celebrate one's twentieth birthday  
>  死を迎える approach death  
>  結婚してから２度目の春を迎えた The second spring after their marriage came around.

