So there are busy shoppers everywhere, there's a lovely smell of cooking. The
place is lit up with lots of beautiful lights, this can all only mean one thing
it's nearly Christmas!
So hello everybody and welcome back to love English Christmas special. I'm here
in the historic town of Winchester which is famous for the legend of King Arthur
and it has a very beautiful cathedral. But today I'm here looking for Christmas
presents and I'm here at a traditional Christmas market. As you can see there
are lots of stalls all around with lots of unique gifts. It's a good place to
find something different rather than going to the usual shops. Now I've also
just had a lovely glass of mulled wine so mulled wine or glühwein as it's
known in Germany is a traditional Christmas drink and it's alcoholic... it's
a red wine which is heated and it's cooked with spices like cinnamon and
cloves and things like that and it tastes really lovely and very warming
for this cold weather. So I'm actually going to have a mulled wine now and you
can see over here where it's cooked as you can see in here this is where the
mulled wine is being heated.
This is gonna warm me up. So as you can see there are lots of amazing gifts at
this market lots of different unique gifts like jewelry but there are also
lots of nice snacks to eat such as caramelized nuts and hot chestnuts which
are both popular Christmas snacks.s
So I've now got 5 Christmas idioms and
expressions to teach you that are very common for this time of year so number
one. To be in the Christmas spirit to be in the Christmas spirit and this means
to feel that you want to participate and be part of the activities of Christmas
that you feel that you want to be part of everything that's happening at
Christmas so perhaps you want to decorate your house or you would like to
put up your Christmas tree or buy gifts or go out with friends for a Christmas
drink or a Christmas tipple as we might say which is a slang word for alcohol so
to be in the Christmas spirit to feel like you would like to be part of the
Christmas activities. I feel in the Christmas spirit at the moment if you're
in a country which celebrates Christmas tell me do you feel in the Christmas
spirit and what activities do you do to feel part of Christmas. So, number two
This is a expression which we use at this time of year but it's not
traditionally related to Christmas we use it all year round and it is the
proof is in the pudding the proof is in the pudding. And the reason why it is
connected to Christmas is because Christmas pudding is a
traditional dessert eaten in European countries, and it's a dessert which is
made of dried fruit and we often have it with cream. So it's a very traditional
thing we have at this time of year. But it's the expression the proof is in the
pudding means once we actually want to trust something we need to have that
experience for ourselves. So for example if I say to my friend that car drives
really fast she might not believe me until she tries
it for herself and sees for herself that the experience is true so the
proof is in the pudding meaning it's not the seeing of the thing it's the tasting
of it that makes us believe. So the proof is in the pudding. So a very common word
that we use at this time of year is to be merry which means to be happy... to be
happy to be merry and we can also say Merry Christmas instead of Happy
Christmas so an expression that we have that is related to being merry is "the
more the merrier" the more the merrier which means the
more, the happier and we use this in terms of groups of people so for example
if your friend says to you I would like to bring three more friends to the
party you can say that's fine the more the merrier
which means I'm happy to have more it makes me happy so to be merry.
Another thing to know about the word merry is that it also means to be a
little bit drunk... to be a little bit tipsy we can also say... so maybe if you've
had a few mulled wines you might feel a little bit merry. Number four is "to light
up like a Christmas tree". Now at this time of year we put Christmas trees
up in our house and we put lights and decorations on them to make them look
very pretty and it's a very important Christmas tradition. But this expression
we use all the year round so the Christmas tree looks very bright and
happy so if we say that someone lights up like a Christmas tree it means
they're really really happy so you could say my friend just got a 10,000 pound
raise in her salary ah she lit up like a Christmas tree... or my friend is
getting married she was so happy she lit up like a Christmas tree... so it's when
we're very very happy Leila's face is like this when I give her chocolate she
lights up like a Christmas tree
So as you can see in the background we have the beautiful cathedral of
Winchester ...and as I said earlier Winchester is a very historic town it
was actually the old capital of England, and the cathedral is one of the most
beautiful in the country. So expression number five... our last one this is not an
idiom it is an expression. Now it is" 'tis the season to be jolly" and this means
that this time of year is the season to be happy so jolly... like merry is another
word for being happy... to be jolly and we always describe Father Christmas as a
jolly man. Somebody who's very happy and sometimes we use it about people who
when they laugh they tend to shake quite a lot we say oh they were very jolly... so
'tis the season to be jolly and 'tis is a shortened version of it is...' tis ...we don't
say this very often but in this expression we keep that contraction 'tis
the season to be jolly if you're in a country which is celebrating Christmas
are you feeling jolly? Comment below and tell me some of the expressions you use
in your countries at this time of year, I would love to hear them so those were
five Christmas idioms and expressions. I hope you enjoyed them and I hope you
find occasion to use them. Now it's getting a bit dark so I'm afraid I'm
going to have to leave you as I need to be getting my Christmas shopping done
and I've just spotted a churro store one of my favourite Christmas treats. Spanish
doughnuts in chocolate... mmm yummy Thank you very much for watching everybody
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English fun. Thank you very much for watching everybody and Merry Christmas to all of you.
Bye-bye