
Instructions
Preparation
Christmas can mean different things to different people. For many people it means eating a lot, spending time with family and visiting relatives and friends. For children it often means presents, presents and more presents!
The origins of Christmas
In ancient times people had mid-winter festivals when the days were short and the nights were very long. They believed that their ceremonies would help the sun’s power return. The Romans decorated their homes with green plants in December to remind Saturn, their harvest god, to return the following spring. In the year 440 the Christian church decided that the birth of Christ should be celebrated every year on 25 December. Some of these ancient customs were adopted by early Christians as part of their celebrations of the birthday of Jesus Christ. Green plants are still used to decorate many British homes in December. At Christmas we cover trees (real ones or reusable synthetic trees) with shiny balls and flashing lights!
Cards and presents
It’s very common to send Christmas cards to friends, family, colleagues, classmates and neighbours in the weeks leading up to 25 December. Christmas is traditionally a time for helping other people and giving money to charities. Many people send charity cards, where a percentage of the price of each card goes to charity. People send fewer cards than in the past as they now send Christmas greetings by email or via Facebook.
Christmas presents are reserved for close friends and family. Traditionally the giving of a gift is symbolic of the Three Wise Men giving their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. Popular presents for young people in the UK in recent years include a smartphone, a Playstation and 80s retro fashion.
Father Christmas (aka Santa Claus)
Every year small children tell Father Christmas, also known as Santa Claus, exactly what presents they would like to receive. They can write him a letter with a list of requests or they can visit him personally in one of the large department stores across Britain in the weeks before Christmas. On the night of 24 December, Father Christmas travels through the sky on a sleigh pulled by magic reindeers and delivers presents to children across Britain. How does he enter the children’s houses? Via the chimney, of course!
The Christmas number one
Every year, for a few weeks around Christmas time, the UK music charts go mad. Groups and singers who normally make cool music create a song that they hope will be number one – the best-selling song on Christmas Day. The Christmas number one is written about in newspapers, talked about on the radio and people can even bet money in betting shops to see which song will win the race. Recently, the Christmas number one has been dominated by singers who have won reality television competitions.
However, some music fans are not happy about this dominance. One year, they started an anti-corporate Facebook campaign to try and prevent the Christmas number one being another reality show song. Instead, they encouraged people to buy a song by the rock band Rage Against the Machine. They won!
Snow
Snow at Christmas is part of British culture. You often see it on Christmas cards, you can buy fake snow to decorate your house and there are even songs about snow at Christmas. It doesn’t snow every year in Britain, but many people hope for a white Christmas. People can bet on whether it will snow or not on 25 December too.
Turkey and crackers
Christmas dinner is usually eaten at midday or early afternoon. It usually includes roast turkey, vegetables and potatoes. There are also lots of alternatives to the turkey dinner for vegetarians who prefer a meat-free Christmas. For dessert, there’s a rich, fruity cake called Christmas pudding.
Traditionally, a Christmas cracker is placed next to each person. When you pull the cracker with the person next to you, you hear a loud ‘bang!’ and a paper hat, a joke and a small gift fall from the cracker. You have to wear the hat, tell the joke to the other people at the table and keep the gift.
Christmas means ...
Does everyone like Christmas? These comments from young Brits reflect some of the wide range of opinions about Christmas in the UK.
Christmas to me means catching up with your family and having a laugh. Last of all opening your presents.
Yasmeen, 20, Liverpool
It’s too commercial. There are too many adverts trying to get everyone to spend their money.
Ruby, 15, London
Bringing all your family together, having a laugh, giving presents and eating loads of delicious foods. YUM! YUM!
James, 13, Crediton
The shops start selling Christmas cards in September! That’s three months before Christmas. Ridiculous!
Tony, 18, Bakewell
I work for a charity that gives food to homeless people every Christmas. These people have no home or family so we try to make 25 December a happy day for them.
Claire, 22, Derby
I think Xmas is as much about giving as it is about getting. I also think it’s a time for the whole family to get together and enjoy being with each other.
Charlie, 15, Canterbury
I think that Christmas is a religious time, not just for Christians but for Jews and Muslims too. I celebrate the season the Christian way.
Alisha, 16, Manchester
Worksheets and downloads
Discussion
Do you celebrate Christmas? If you do, what do you like best about it? If not, tell us about your favourite holiday of the year.
Comments
I celebrate Christmas every year and I really love it! The best for me is decorating house with different lights, glitters and shiny balls. And of course spending tome with my family!<3
In Russia we celebrate Christmas on 7 of January , because in Russia we are more Orthodox Christians. In my family I celebrate more New Year than Christmas because I can spend time with my parents which is similar to UK
In Russia we celebrate Christmas on 7 of January , because in Russia we are more Orthodox Christians. In my family I celebrate more New Year than Christmas because I can spend time with my parents which is similar to UK
My name's Tylin, was born in Cambodia. As I heard Christmas means to me is to make friends who we don't know. While I learned in grade 10 at my high school, my friend and I created new cards to share to various friends from other classes. All song on the card sound like bringing us happy life and enjoying with our studies. Then we gave each other's candies which we bought from the market. Christmas is not just having for fun, but also being able to make friend easily. Oh, after school, we made a party for our family on Christmas day and my mom said that I have to take care because tomorrow you still had classes. These extremely cheerful of my live that I have her as my mom.
Thanks for someone who writes this story which reminded in the past.
Hi! my name is maria e. I celebrate Christmas. I have
my family. my mother, my brothers and my father. I play at home and I like
too much! I also like the new year and it's really cool
Hi! My name is Diogo.
I celebrate Christmas with my family. some days I spend my life thinking about Christmas. I like this year. there are people who hate Christmas. well that's life.
Hi! my name and luiz I live in Brazil. I celebrate when I go to my grandmother's house. there always have a Christmas dinner and I see my cousins.
HI! My name is Giovana and I live in Brazil. I came to talk about my Christmas. my Christmas is fun, I play a lot and I eat a lot of food. I like the home, it's fun. my home has radish, toast and all, is a delight this is my home.
Dear EMProfLauroTravassos
Welcome to LearnEnglish teens! Thanks for your comments. Please can you create separate accounts for each user as well as separate usernames for each user? In our House Rules we ask you not to share your account with other people and also all users of the site must be between 13 and 17 years old. If your learners are younger than that they can use our LearnEnglish Kids website where they can create their own accounts. Thanks a lot! :)
Best wishes, Tina (LearnEnglish Teens Team)
Hello, Tina! I'm their teacher and first of all, I'd like to thank you for accepting their comments.
Second, I apologise for letting kids under 13 to make some comments here. Third, let me explain the context: They are students from a public school in Rio de Janeiro and they just have a 50-minute English class per week, which means that we didn't have enough time to create separate accounts because most of them don't even have e-mail accounts, so if we had to create e-mail accounts in order to register here, we couldn't have time to discuss about Christmas in different places and also to make some comments. In addition to that, I chose this website because of the content. And last, but not least, we had such fruitful discussions about Christmas while reading the comments! I must say that it was a great experience not only for me, as a teacher, but also for them because it was their first experience using English online.
If I may make a suggestion, I'd like to suggest the possibility of having group accounts in a near future here. That would be vey helpful!
Best wishes,
Vanessa
Hi Vanessa,
Thanks a lot for your explanation. We're pleased to read that you had a good discussion with your students when reading the comments, that's great! Don't forget you and your students can always use this website and read all the comments but we do try to limit the users who write comments on the site to 13-17 year olds.
I take your suggestion about group accounts, but from a user safety point of view it's not a good idea. It's important to teach young people the importance of not sharing accounts on any websites or social media spaces so we encourage each learner to create their own account - then if we have any problems we can contact the user directly.
Best wishes, Jo (LearnEnglish Teens Editor)
I like spend Christmas with my family and my friends. It's very nice and we enjoy it!
I like it too. what is your name?
The most populate celebration on the world. I like this.
Yes, I celebrate Christmas with my family. I think that the best of christmas is share the happiness with the family and to enjoy of a great time together.
I dont like christmas .I like novruz holiday
i like christmas,because I spend with my family, my best gift is the love that they give me
Ilike the Christmas holiday.I favourite this holiday.
I love Christmas
I dont celebrated Christmas.
İ dont celebrate Christmas.
I really like Christmas, but to be honest, it's getting worse all the time. I think it's all about the presents and chaos in the shops, what's not so good in my opinion. It should be about love and the family, not about this "gift" things.
Christmas is coming and it's a great holiday! Merry ChriIstmas to you, Jo Editor!!!!! Could you tell me if New Year in the UK is as widely celebrated as Christmas? As far as I know it isn't . And the British people go to bed at their usual time instead of excitedly celebrate it at 12 at p.m. on the 31 of December.
Probably, it's as true as white bears in Moscow sreets?
Hi sportycoffeeforever,
New Year is a big celebration in the UK. You can read all about how it's celebrated in this Read UK article: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/read-uk/new-year
Best wishes, Jo (LearnEnglish Teens Team)
I love Christmas this is my favorite day.
I really like celebrating Christmas.
I think, it is magic time,
when you can give your love and instead of it get grace.
What I like best about Christmas is that you get lots of presents and you spend the whole day with all your family and friends. Christmas can mean different things to different people, for many people it means eating a lot and spending time with family and visiting relatives and friends. For children it often means presents, presents and more presents!
In Montenegro we celebrate Christmas on 7th January.I really love spending time with my all family and having a good time! :)
in Italy we celebrate christmas on 25th december. it is a happy day. for me christmas means everything about how to have a nice day with my family. often i make parties with my friends. i have so much fun.
In AZERBAIJAN we celebrate Christmas on the 31 of January.
Christmas can mean different things to different people. For many people it means eating a lot and spending time with family and visiting relatives and friends. For children it often means presents, presents and more presents!
Christmas is great holiday.
My favorite holidays are NOVRUZ and SACRIFICE HOLIDAYS.
EACH aid to those two muslim holiday.
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