Christmas vocabulary | Christmas traditions | English lesson
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 “ crche”.
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,
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