Hey, Pete, what are you doing for Chrissie?
Who's Chrissie? Don't think I know her.
Not a person, Chrissie.
Chrissie as in Christmas.
Oh, nothing much.
Just catching up with the family and exchanging gifts.
Ahh nice. Reckon you'll get any good prezzies from Santa?
Prezzies? Yeah, you know, presents.
Why do you guys have to turn everything into slang?
G'day, you mob. I'm Pete, the host of Aussie English, where I've helped thousands of students' level
up their English for over half a decade.
If your goal is to take your English to the next level, this is the channel for you.
In today's lesson, I'm going to teach you 12 slang words and expressions that are used
around Christmas in Australia.
I'll then give you two example sentences using that slang term or phrase so you can practise your
pronunciation.
Before we get started, guys, don't forget the best way to study today's lesson is to grab the
worksheet in the description below.
You can sign up for that for free.
And afterwards, I will send you all of the other worksheets for all future lessons.
Let's go. Number one, "Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!"
This is the standard way of wishing someone has an amazing Christmas.
"Merry" here means cheerful or lively.
Be careful with its pronunciation, though.
Don't confuse it with "Mary" as in the name, which is the long /eː/
vowel sound, as opposed to the short /ə/ in "merry", or with the vowel
sound /æ/ in "marry" as in to marry someone.
Merry.
Mary.
Marry. Confusing, huh?
Here are two example sentences.
"Merry Christmas, mate!
Merry Christmas, mate!" Remember, "mate" is a slang
term used in Australia to call someone a friend.
"I wish you all a merry Christmas.
I wish you all a merry Christmas.
" Number two, "Xmas.
Xmas." Perhaps you've seen Christmas written as the letter X and then
M-A-S, "Xmas".
So, you may see this from time to time in writing around the English-speaking world.
And this is typically used for irreligious people, people who aren't religious
, or businesses that don't want to make it religious by saying Christmas, it's kind of neutral.
We also use it in texts, emails, messages just to write Christmas
faster, so you'll hear it pronounced as either just Christmas or potentially
"Xmas". "Are you doing anything for Xmas?
Are you doing anything for Xmas?
Nothing much, just having an Xmas party with my family.
Nothing much, just having an Xmas party with my family." Number three,
"Chrissie. Chrissie." Now this is an Aussie slang term,
"Chrissie", and I think you can probably guess what it is referring to,
Christmas.
Christmas. So, many Australians will refer to Christmas as just "Chrissie".
"Are you doing much over Chrissie?
Are you doing much over Chrissie?
Yeah, we've got loads of Chrissie plans.
Yeah, we've got loads of Chrissie plans."
Number four, "Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve." "Eve" here refers to the evening or day before a
religious festival in Christianity.
"Christmas Eve" comes before Christmas Day and it happens on the 24th of
December. My wife's Brazilian and she actually celebrates "Christmas Eve" as the most
important day over Christmas.
Whereas here we'd celebrate Christmas Day.
"The kids love to see Santa drive past on Christmas Eve.
The kids love to see Santa drive past on Christmas Eve.
" This is an actual event where on Christmas Day, we see Santa in Australia sitting on
top of a fire engine, driving around suburbs and giving out lollies to kids.
They love it. "Dad got really drunk on Christmas Eve.
Dad got really drunk on Christmas Eve.
" All right, guys, before we continue, can you do me a little favour and give the like button a
little boop if you're enjoying this video and finding it valuable?
It just gives the YouTube algorithm a little boost for this video.
Letting it know that it's worth sharing with other English learners.
Thanks. Let's keep going.
Number five, "Christmas Day.
Christmas Day." Now, this is the day after Christmas Eve, and it's the most important day to
celebrate in Australia.
It's the 25th of December.
"Are you doing much on Christmas Day?
Are you doing much on Christmas Day?
Who are you having over on Christmas Day?
" Number six, "a barbie.
A barbie." Now this was really important to teach you guys, because on Christmas Day,
many Australians have barbecues.
This is where they get the implement that is a barbecue, right, a gas heated stove that sits
outside, usually on the deck, and they cook meat and other food on that
barbecue. And the slang term for it is "barbie.
Barbie."
"Are you coming to my barbie, mate?
Are you coming to my barbie, mate?
Will there be any snags at your Christmas barbie?
Will there be any snags at your Christmas, barbie?" Note
here, "snag' is the Aussie slang term for a sausage.
So, we throw a lot of snags on the barbie.
Number seven, prezzie.
Prezzie." "Prezzie" is the Aussie slang term for
a present.
So, we exchange gifts over Christmas.
Santa leaves a lot of "prezzies" for kids.
Everyone loves getting presents on Christmas Day.
So, Christmas Day is usually when we exchange our "prezzies" with our family and friends.
Often, most people have a Christmas tree in their house, and they put the "prezzies" under the
Christmas tree, or they may put them in a stocking.
"Prezzies". "I love getting prezzies for Chrissie.
I love getting prezzies for Chrissie.
Santa left the kids loads of prezzies.
" Eight, "exxy.
Exxy." I had to include this one, "exxy" is Australian slang for
expensive, right, expensive.
If something is expensive, it's "exxy", costs a lot of money.
Now, many people in Australia often lash out, that means to spend a lot
of money, on prezzies for one another.
So, they end up buying each other "exxy" prezzies for Chrissie,
whilst having a barbie.
"Mum bought me some really exxy prezzies.
Mum bought me some really exxy prezzies.
Xmas was pretty exxy this year, as we spent too much money.
Xmas was pretty exxy this year, as we spent too much money."
Number nine, "Christmas tree.
Christmas tree." We just referred to it.
A "Christmas tree" is usually set up in someone's living room during Christmas,
right.
Often about a month beforehand, in that period, someone will erect the tree in the house
. And it's meant to represent a pine tree so it can be an actual sapling pine tree,
a baby pine tree, or it could be a plastic pine tree.
They're the ones that I buy because you can reuse them for years, and actually, my parents have had
the same one for about 20 years now.
So, you'll often decorate a "Christmas tree" with tinsel, which represents snow.
You'll also put different decorations on there, like candy canes, baubles,
images of Santa, gingerbread men, all sorts of stuff associated with Christmas.
And there's also the star of Bethlehem that's put at the top of the tree.
"The prezzies are put underneath the Christmas tree.
The prezzies are put underneath the Christmas tree.
Oh, no, our cat tipped over the Christmas tree.
Oh, no, our cat tipped over the Christmas tree."
All right, before we continue, guys, let's do a little activity so that you can remember what you've
just learnt. I'm going to show the vocab on screen that we've just gone over and I want you to
pause the video and go down into the comments and use one of these words or expressions
in your own words, right.
Leave a comment with a sentence of your own, this is the best way to remember what you've just
learnt. All right, see you in a sec.
Number ten, "Santa Claus.
Santa Claus.
" "Santa Claus" or just "Santa", is the man who rides a sleigh pulled by
nine reindeer and leaves Christmas gifts for children all over the world on
Christmas Eve. "Santa gave me a bike this year.
Santa gave me a bike this year.
Is Santa Claus coming tonight, mum?
" Number eleven, "Boxing Day.
Boxing Day." "Boxing Day" is the 26th of December
after Christmas Day on the 25th of December, obviously.
And this is when many families again catch up for more barbies, more parties.
They may go to the "Boxing Day" Cricket Test match, or they may go into town to try and get a
nice deal on a product they want from the "Boxing Day" sale, where all the stores are
selling goods at massive discounts.
"I'm going to the cricket on Boxing Day.
I'm going to the cricket on Boxing Day.
Did you get any bargains on Boxing Day?
" All right, guys, well done.
We're at number twelve now, the last one.
"Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!" Now this is associated with the phrase "Merry Christmas", because
often English speakers are going to wish you both a Merry Christmas and a "Happy New
Year" at the same time.
They're going to say, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year".
And you may hear this in a Christmas Carol quite often, too.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
"Happy New Year, everyone.
Happy New Year, everyone.
I hope you have a Happy New Year.
I hope you have a Happy New Year." Great job, guys.
That's it for today. Don't forget, if you want to listen to this episode as a podcast, you can go
and sign up for the Aussie English podcast for free via any good podcast
app. Just download it on your phone, do a search type in Aussie English and you'll find me.
And you can study this anywhere any time, you can revise this lesson, you can do it when you're
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And if you want to keep learning English with me today, go and check this episode out.
I'll see you next time.
Bye.