Christmas in Britain
Balloons, paper lanterns and other decorations.Most people have a Christmas treein their sitting room.They decorate it with tinsel, baubles.chocolate and small coloured lights called ‘fairy lights’, and on the top of the tree they put a fairy (or sometimes a star).
Carol singers go round the strects from house to house in the days leading up to Christmas. They The first sign that Christmas is on its way is when you see Christmas cards on sale in the shops. This is usually in late September! Things which are often shown on cards are robins holly, Father Christmas’s and jolly Christmas scenes.(Religious scenes are less common.)In Britain people buy and send great numbers of Christmas cards. They often buy them early, but they don’t actually send them until the beginning of December! People put the cards they get on the mantlepiece over the fire in their sitting rooms, or hang them on the walls on pieces of coloured string.
About ten days before Christmas many people decorate their houses. They hang up brightly coloured sing carols and collect money for charity.
Holly and mistletoe are also typical of Christmas in Britain.People make wreaths out of holly and hang them on their front doors. They hang mistletoe from the ceiling and if two people meet under the mistletoe they can /must kiss each other.
In the theatres around Britain there are many pantomimes before Christmas. These are plays usually based on well – known children’s stories or nursery.rhymes. They are always funny,and always involve the audience by making them call out things, for example, ’boo’ when a bad character walks on to the stage.
The 24th December is called Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is the night for having a lot of un! Parents often take young children to an afternoon pantomime performance. Others go o special shows at the theatre. Young people have parties with lots of singing and dancing. But you don’t get your presents on Christmas Eve! The story is; that father Christmas (or Santa Claus) flies through the sky on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He delivers at stockings, which have been hung up for him.
The 25th December is Christmas Day. People open their presents in the morning and then at ready for a big traditional Christmas Dinner of roast turkey, roast patatoes, Brussels sprouts and many other vegetables. At the table people pull crackers, which have paper, joke and a small gift inside them. Families wear the paper hats at the dinner table! For they eat Christmas pudding (a rich fruit mixture, which is made up to two months before Christmas and steamed for two or three hours on Christmas Day), or mince ples and team, or trifle. Later there is Christmas cake; a rich fruitcake covered marzipan and white icing. There are usually very good films and programmes on TV at Christmas. And at 3 o’clock on ChristmasDay there Queen `s Speech, in which the Queen talks about the past year wishes everyone a happy Christmas.
The 26th December is called Boxing Day. In the past rich people used to give presents to their servants in boxes on this day. Nowadays people spend Boxing Day relaxing or visiting friends and relatives.