Hello everyone, this is Andrew
from Crown Academy of English and today I am going to
explain to you all about
an English Christmas because Christmas
is very soon and
this is a very big celebration
in England. So I thought some of you might be interested
in knowing about what we do
in England for Christmas and
what is a traditional Christmas in England.
So we're going to start,
and I'm going to first of all show you just a few scenes
of Christmas
with some music and then I'll start with the lesson.
Okay? Let's get started!
So
Christmas is
a Christian celebration
ok... and Christmas
is actually a celebration of
the birth of Jesus.
Okay, so Christians believe
that Christmas Day
is the day when
Jesus was born okay? Now
this is not going to be a religious video
but I have to just explain this obviously
... to explain what Christmas is.
So Christmas
is the birth of Jesus and
Christians believe that Jesus was born
in a stable. So this is a
stable. The stable is a building
which is for animals,
in fact. A stable is where...
animals like cows
and donkeys live
and sleep okay? So Jesus
was born there because there wasn't enough room
in the inn. So he had to be
born in the stable and
this is Jesus' mother,
called Mary and
this is Mary's husband,
Joseph and
Jesus was actually born in a manger.
So here he is sleeping in a manger...
and a manger is in fact where
animals eat from because that was the only...
according to the story, that was the only
place that they could find to put him.
And...
here on the left, these three men,
we call them the three wise men
or the three magi.
They were people who came
... to bring gifts
in fact. They heard the news that Jesus
had been born and they wanted to bring some
gifts. So you can see they are carrying
gifts in their arms and
the three gifts that they brought were
gold, frankincense
and myrhh okay?
And this
whole scene, this scene here, this
of the model in fact these are
models obviously.. So this scene with Jesus,
Mary, Joseph in the stable,
we call this a "nativity scene" and sometimes
we call it a "crèche" okay?
We often see this during the month of December
in churches and
in cathedrals, for example. Okay, so when
is Christmas? Well let's have a look at the calendar.
So this is a calendar
for December 2013
so this is the month that we are in
now, and these two
days in red are
public holidays. So the 25th of
December is Christmas Day. So that is
the official day of Christmas.
That is the celebration of
the birth of Jesus and
we call the day before Christmas...
we call this Christmas Eve
okay? So this is a special name
and it is called Christmas Eve.
So that falls on the 24th
December but that is not
a public holiday. Then Christmas Day is a public holiday.
So people do not work on
Christmas Day and
the day after Christmas Day, the 26th
December is called "Boxing Day."
Okay this is the name that we give the 26th.
Now no-one really knows why
we call it "Boxing Day" okay. It is nothing to do with
the sport of boxing! That is not the reason.
But one theory is
that, a long long time ago
in history ... (excuse me)
rich people had servants,
and those servants were working...
could not celebrate Christmas Day
because they were working for their master.
And so the servants
celebrate Christmas on
the 26th December and on that day,
their masters used to give them
a box. And in the box,
there were gifts and some money
and some food to give to their families.
And so we think perhaps because of those boxes,
that is why we call it "Boxing Day"
Now
Christmas lasts for
twelve days. Officially,
there are twelve days of Christmas
celebration. And it starts
on the 25th December and
it finishes on the 5th of January.
Now
Christmas decorations.
A big tradition during Christmas is
that we decorate our homes...
and the
the main way that we decorate our home
is with a Christmas tree.
And this is a Christmas tree here.
And you can either have
an artificial Christmas tree
like this one, made of plastic...
or some people have a real
Christmas tree and
if it is a real Christmas tree,
then it is a pine tree.
So on the Christmas tree,
at the top, there is a star.
So this is a star...
and also we can see, on the tree,
are some Christmas decorations.
And this yellow thing is called
"tinsel". "Tinsel"
And also, hanging on the tree, you can see
there are some balls. Well these glass
balls are called "baubles"
"bauble"
Here is a bigger picture here.
So this is a bauble and we hang
baubles on the tree with string.
And on the Christmas tree, there are also
some lights, some small lights...
and we call those lights..
"fairy lights". So these are
"fairy lights" and we hang the fairy lights
on the tree. And sometimes,
the lights flash
on the tree. "to flash" -
That means that the lights come on and then
off. So on and off. That means the lights are flashing.
And some other Christmas decorations are...
we sometimes put this plant in the house...
and this plant is called "holly". So "holly"
has these green leaves
which ... have... sort of prickly green leaves
and also red berries.
So very often during Christmas,
people decorate their house with holly.
And, also with another plant called "mistletoe".
So this is mistletoe. And mistletoe.. we
have a tradition with mistletoe where
we put it, for example, on the ceiling and
then, if two people pass under the mistletoe,
then they can kiss each other.
Okay so they can kiss each other.
So this is a tradition during Christmas
and we think that tradition is because
mistletoe is a symbol of fertility.
So mistletoe is used for
romantic couples and so they pass underneath it,
and they can kiss each other.
And also we can also decorate
our house with Christmas cards.
So another tradition during Christmas is that people
write a message inside
the Christmas card and they send
the Christmas card to people.
To friends and family. And so,
during Christmas, people
receive lots and lots of Christmas cards
from people, and so often
we decorate our homes with the cards.
For example, we can put them
on the mantelpiece in the living room
or we can hang them
with string on the walls.
And also during Christmas, or
just before Christmas, we can
hang a Christmas stocking. So this is
a Christmas stocking and
we put these stockings in
the living room, close to the fireplace and that
is for Father Christmas. So Father Christmas
will put presents and gifts inside the stocking.
And here, this is called a "wreath", a "wreath"
And a wreath is a round shape of... it can be
holly or pine or some other plants.
And we put a wreath on the front door
of the house okay. So,
on the wreath, on this wreath, there is
a ribbon. A red ribbon. And now,
I'm going to just show you a short
film of some Christmas decorations
in a town. So I'm going to show you some decorations
in a town at night...
And here is Father Christmas.
And we can also call Father Christmas
Santa Claus. Santa Claus
is used more in America,
and in England, and in Britain
we call him Father Christmas...
and...
Father Christmas has a big
white beard. This is his beard
and he's also carrying a sack, and
inside the sack are presents.
So Father Christmas is a fictional character
and the legend is that
if children are well-behaved during the year,
so if the children are good during the year,
then on Christmas Day,
Father Christmas will deliver presents to their
home. And if the child... if the children are not well behaved,
if children...some children are naughty,
then parents tell them that they will not
have any presents.
And the legend is that Father Christmas
delivers his presents on the night of Christmas Eve...
and he does this on a sleigh. So this
is his sleigh. And the sleigh is pulled by some
animals. And these animals are called reindeer. Reindeer.
So on the night of Christmas Eve, the reindeer
and Father Christmas go all over the world and
deliver presents to all the children
who have been well-behaved.
And Father Christmas, to enter the house, he
goes down the chimney. So Father Christmas,
to enter inside the house,
he climbs down this chimney, and then he
enters the living room. And when he's in the living room,
he puts the gifts under the tree.
So Father Christmas comes down the chimney,
goes into the living room, and he puts the presents
under the tree for the children.
Christmas music
During Christmas, we often hear
lots of traditional Christmas music.
And Christmas songs are called Christmas carols.
So a carol is a Christmas song.
Three examples are: "Silent night",
"We wish you a Merry Christmas"
and "Good King Wenceslas"
So, if you just do a search on Google
or the Internet for those songs, you
you will be able to hear them. And
there are many more. There are many many Christmas carols.
And here we can see some carol singers.
So these children here, they are singing Christmas carols.
So we say they are carol singers.
And this is very common during the month of December.
Carol singers knock on people's doors in fact
and they sing
songs for them. They sing carols and people can give them money
or some chocolate, or some presents.
Now I am going to tell you what happened when I was a child.
So I'm going to describe a traditional Christmas
when I was younger. And so there was myself
and my sister and my two parents.
And on Christmas Eve, before we went to bed,
so we were waiting for Father Christmas...
and when we went to bed,
we left three things for Father Christmas.
We left something to eat for him.. and this is called
a mince pie. So this is a special cake that
we eat during Christmas. And so the outside
of the mince pie... this is pastry...
and inside, this is called mincemeat. But don't worry,
it does not contain...it does not contain meat.
It contains dried fruit like raisins and sultanas.
So we left a mince pie for Father Christmas to eat and also
we left him a glass of sherry.
So this is an alcoholic drink and we left him this
to warm him up. So because it was a cold night,
we left him a glass of sherry
to keep him warm.
And we also left something to eat for the reindeer.
And we left them some carrots. so we left some carrots
So that the reindeer had something to eat
during their long voyage.
And then, we also left our stockings, our empty stockings
for Father Christmas.
So, my sister and I, we used to hang our stockings
at the end of our bed so that Father Christmas
would hopefully fill our stockings with presents
during the night.
And then on Christmas Day, so
the morning of Christmas Day, then
the first thing we would do would be
to say "Merry Christmas!"
So when I saw my sister, I would wish
my sister Merry Christmas
and my sister would wish me "Happy Christmas!"
So these are phrases or sentences
that people say to other people on Christmas Day.
A christmas greeting.
And then, after breakfast, we used to go to church...
okay. So we would go to church
to celebrate Christmas.
And in the church, the name
of the celebration... the name of the ceremony
is the Christmas mass okay.
So the Christmas mass lasts about an hour.
After mass, we would come back,
and at last, we can open our presents!
So we would go back home, and under the tree,
we would take the presents that Father Christmas
left us, and we would open our presents.
And you can see a present.... on the present,
there is a ribbon. So this is a ribbon here and here.
And the name of this paper, this coloured
paper... we call that paper wrapping paper.
This is wrapping paper. So we wrap the present in wrapping paper.
Ok, we're now going to look at Christmas dinner.
So what do we eat in England for a traditional Christmas dinner?
Well, here is the plate with the food on it. And
we usually have turkey, roast turkey.
So that is the name of the meat that we have and
also there are some roast potatoes and...
also some bread sauce and also
some mashed potato...
and also some stuffing.
Stuffing is a mixture of onions and herbs.
And we also have some mashed turnip.
Turnip is a type of vegetable.
And we also have some sprouts, and again,
sprouts are a vegetable. And we can also have
some chiplolatas okay... so a chipolata
is a type of sausage and
we can finally have some cranberry sauce.
And this is the sauce which we have
with the turkey. And you can also see
at the top, above the plate, there is a Christmas cracker.
Now I will explain what a Christmas cracker is a bit later okay.
So here is a better photograph of
the Christmas cracker.
Now a Christmas cracker, you can see there are
three parts. There is this part,
then there is this part in the middle,
and then there is another part at the end.
Well, inside the Christmas cracker,
inside the middle part, there are... there is a hat,
a paper hat, there is a toy, a plastic toy,
and there is also a piece of paper with a joke on it.
And the tradition is that two people will
hold the Christmas cracker in their hand.
One person will hold this end of the cracker
and the other person will hold this
end of the cracker in their hand,
and they both pull the cracker.
So this person pulls the cracker this way,
and this person pulls the cracker
down and the cracker will break in the middle.
And so the cracker opens and the contents of the cracker fall
And it makes a noise as well. There is...
it makes a loud noise when the cracker
opens and then the person puts the hat
on their head and they keep the toy and then they read
the joke to everybody at the table.
So Christmas crackers.. this is a very British tradition.
Okay these do not exist in America ok. This is a very British Christmas tradition.
And after the main meal, the main course, then for dessert,
we have a Christmas pudding.
Christmas pudding. And this is made
of dried fruit like raisins and sultanas
and it is baked in the oven ok and it also contains alcohol as well.
It contains brandy. So be careful! If you... if you do not drink alcohol,
then do not eat Christmas pudding because it contains a lot of alcohol.
Alright. It is a very heavy dessert in fact. It's quite a rich taste.
And another food. This is after the meal. But a tradition
during Christmas is that very often we eat nuts.
okay and so "nuts" is the word, the general word for
all of these, all of these things here.
All of these are nuts and there are different types of nuts.
There is a walnut,
hazelnut,
and here is an almond.
Ok?
And also, not only do we have a Christmas pudding,
but we also have a Christmas cake.
Okay, so this is a Christmas cake,
and again, this is a fruit cake. It is made usually from dried fruit...
and so inside the cake, it is dried fruit,
and on the outside of the cake
there is white icing. So this is white icing.
And that is to represent snow in fact.
So this is a cake that we would eat with a cup of tea or
maybe a cup of coffee after the meal...
or in the evening perhaps.
And in England and in Britain, there is on Christmas Day,
the Queen gives a speech. Okay, so the Queen of England,
at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on Christmas Day,
she gives a speech... in which she addresses the Commonwealth nations.
Ok, so the Commonwealth nations... this is the British colonies,
so the old colonies, what used to be the British Empire.
And during her speech, she... talks about
major events that happened during the year and
she talks often about world peace
and her other projects for the next year.
Now the Queen's Speech (or the Royal speech)
is a tradition that was started in 1932 by King George V.
So it is a very old tradition.
And it is broadcast live on the television, the radio and the internet as well.
So at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, 3 o'clock English time,
then the Queen gives a speech.
And so this is the current Queen of England
and she is called Elizabeth.
So it's Queen Elizabeth II.
So that is it. That is the end of the lesson.
I hope you enjoyed it.This is just
another video at the bottom of the screen which
you might be interested in. This is a grammar lesson.
So you can click here if you would like to watch
this other video. And here, as well,
at the top, if you would like to subscribe to the channel.
And here in the middle, this is my Twitter account.
Okay, that is the end of the lesson. My name is Andrew
from Crown Academy of English. Thanks for watching :) Bye bye!