Guide To Christmas

in your country?
Does your family have any traditions?
What days are celebrated the most in your country?
Who brings the presents in your country?

It is a time for eating, drinking and relaxing. Families, who haven’t seen each other in months, meet up and spend time together. So what are the typical traditions and foods that we have at Christmas?

houses and local forms of government decorate the streets. So what are the typical Christmas decorations?

Not as popular as it used to be but still most Christians still put up a crib in their houses for Christmas.
Do you put up a crib in your house?

but it is believed to come from Northern Europe and some of the first records of Christmas trees appear in the 15th Century. Since then they have become common in homes and public places. Some families even have two, one in the garden, one in the house. People put all types of decoration on the trees, including lights, balls, tinsel and popcorn. Yes, popcorn! In the US some families make decoration for trees with popcorn.
What about you? Do you have a tree and do you decorate it?

truth.

Mistletoe is also hung up in houses and traditionally over doorways. If you meet someone under the doorway, tradition says you must kiss

Christmas lights are hung around houses. Some people spend hundreds of Euros decorating the outside of their houses and in some places they hold an annual competition.

pile on the pounds! What food do you traditionally eat at Christmas?

Food

some people prefer goose at Christmas.

Roast Potatoes and Gravy.

Vegetables such as carrots, turnips, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

Cranberry Sauce is traditionally served with turkey and ham.

There are many different types of dessert but possibly the most famous is Christmas pudding. It can be made 4 months before Christmas. Normally served with custard or whipped cream.

the food important but so too is the decoration on the table. Most tables have a holiday themed centre-piece in the middle. Apart from cutlery and napkins, diners also have a Christmas cracker
which is pulled during lunch. Inside each cracker there
is a hat, a few jokes and a gift. The quality of the
gift depends on the cracker but some people have
paid up to €6m for just six crackers. The prizes in
those crackers included yachts, cars and expensive
jewellery.

Christmas Lunch

carols, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDNRZHynmvw, children’s Christmas songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0byH9h1ClBY, or the charts. Each year in the UK there is a lot of competition to be the Christmas No.1 in the charts. There are plenty of Christmas songs but the most famous has to be White Christmas by Bing Crosby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJSUT8Inl14
What about you? Are there any traditional carols or songs in your country?

put your feet up and watch some TV. Most programmes have a Christmas special but what really gets the ratings on Christmas Day are the Soap Operas!!!

Britain is home to some of the longest running soap operas in the world and at Christmas they usually contain major plotlines to keep people watching. Normally they last an hour and the shows are aired in two parts. Up to 16m can watch them on Christmas Day.
Do you have anything similar in your country?

which is aired at 3pm on Christmas Day. The broadcast normally lasts 5 minutes and in it the Queen reflects on the previous 12 months of the year. Although it is mainly watched by those in the UK, it is also viewed around the world.

An alternative to the Queen’s speech is
broadcast on Channel 4 at the same time.
This has been happening since 1993. It
normally is a message with humour but
sometimes it can have a serious tone. People who have made
the speech include Marge & Lisa Simpson and Edward Snowdon.

Television

but probably the most famous is a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

It is a story about a miserly old man, Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve and his life is changed forever. There are countless films with the same title. If some wants to say their boss is tight, they call him ‘A Scrooge’.

Christmas. It may seem silly but each year over €1bn worth of Christmas cards are bought and sold.

Secret Santa originally started in offices but with the recession more and more families have decided to do it to help keep costs down.

And what about you? What traditions to you have?

says, but not all the days are the same. So which are the important ones?

The weekend before Christmas is always the busiest for shops.
Christmas Eve is the time for last minute shopping and midnight mass is traditional.
Christmas Day is a day for family. In Ireland, bars and restaurants are closed.

St. Stephen’s Day in Ireland. It is a day when people go out and meet friends. It is also when the ‘sales’ officially start.

While the rest of the days are not public holidays, many people take annual leave so they can spend time with loved ones and visit friends.
New Year’s Eve is a night normally spent with friends. Before, most people went out but since the millennium more and more people are having house parties.
New Year’s Day normally sees people meeting with family for lunch to welcome in the New Year.

After Christmas Day

Edinburgh on the 31st of December when Scottish people celebrate Hogmanay.

The city of Edinburgh have concerts and fireworks to say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new one. It has become tradition to sing the poem, Auld Lang Syne, by Robert Burns. The poem was originally in Scots but has been translated into many languages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rId95N2teUc

final Christmas tradition: The New Year’s resolution. Each year people promise to do different things in order to improve their lives. Very often they give up before February.

Do you have New Year’s resolutions?
If you were to make one, what would it be?

Resolutions

Coca Cola campaign changed his traditional green suit to red. This is not true! Coca-Cola’s 1931 advert was the first major advertisement to appear in many countries and so many people attribute the change in colour to the beverage company. But Santa was wearing red long before that.

In saying that, Coca-Cola did help in changing the appearance of Santa into a much more appealing character. Santa had been depicted as an elf, an old man with a hunch and a priest. In 1931 Coca-Cola launched their famous campaign and since then, the jolly, plump St Nick that we have all come to know and love has been used on everything. So in a way they did change Santa Claus.

Father Christmas