Christmas Traditions
Different countries have different Christmas traditions. Here are some British traditions.
The Days of Christmas
‘Advent’ is the period of time between the fourth Sunday before Christmas and Christmas Eve, during which churches prepare for Christmas. Many people have an ‘advent calendar’ to mark this time. Advent calendars usually have 25 numbered flaps – or ‘doors’ – one for each day between 1 December and Chrsitmas Day. You open a flap each day to show a picture,or a verse from the Bible or to receive a preent (often a chocolate).
In the United Kingdom, ‘Christmas Day’ is celebrated on 25th December. Traditionally families gather together to exchange presents, to eat and to drink. They might also watch television and play games such as ‘musical chairs’, ‘blind man’s buff’ and ‘pin the tail on the donkey’.
‘Christmas Eve’ is 24th December: the day before Christmas Day. For many people it’s the last day at work before the Christmas holiday. There are often parties after work, meaning that it can be a time spent with colleagues and friends, before spending Christmas Day with family. ‘Eve’ is a word often used with the meaning of the day (or evening) before. Christmas Eve is when Father Christmas visits children when they are asleep, to deliver their presents.
‘Boxing Day’ is 26th December: the day after Christmas Day. Traditionally it has been another day to spend with family – perhaps a different part of the family. Most shops used to be closed on Boxing Day but nowadays many open – to start their ‘January Sales’. The name of Boxing Day probably comes from the tradition of having a box in church to collect money for the poor. The money was given to people on the day after Christmas Day.
The ‘Twelve Days of Christmas‘ are the 12 days starting on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Boxing Day. There is a popular song associating a particular gift with each of these days.
‘Twelfth Night’ traditionally marks the end of the Christmas period. It occurs on either 5th or 6th January – depending on when you start counting to twelve from Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Most people take their decorations down on or before Twelfth Night, as it’s sometimes considered unlucky to leave them up after this date.
Greetings
In the days leading up to Christmas, people often wish each other ‘Merry Christmas’. They often say it to each other when they meet or when they part. It’s the message on many Christmas cards and is displayed on signs in shops and businesses.
‘Happy Christmas’ is an alternative to ‘Merry Christmas’.
People often send ‘Christmas cards’ to friends and family to wish them Merry Christmas. Cards usually have a picture on the front. Many Christmas card pictures show snowy scenes, although nowadays it’s unusual in most parts of the UK for there to be snow at Christmas. Christmascards oten show scenes from the story of Jesus’s birth. Many show illustrations from songs or stories. Some cards are humorous.
Decorations
A ‘Christmas Tree’ is fir tree decorated with lights and ornaments. Christmas trees often have an ornamental angel, fairy or star placed at the very top. People often have Christmas trees in their homes. There are also trees in shops and other places of workas well as in public places (such as Trafalgar Square in London) and outside public buildings such as museums.
Photo by Nicole Michalou from Pexels
People often put ‘Christmas decorations’ in their homes. As well as Christmas trees, they put up lights, ornaments and Christmas cards. Some people put Christmas decorations outside their homes, and sometimes their displays are very elaborate. Decorations are also put up in shops and in shopping streets and malls. In London the Christmas lights in Regent Street are very famous and are visited by many sightseers. Decorations are usually put up in December (although shops often put them up early than this). Traditionally they are taken down by 6th January.
Presents
People traditionally give ‘Christmas presents’ to their friends and families. The presents are usual wrapped in festive ‘wrapping paper’ and perhaps given with the instruction: ‘Don’t open until Christmas’. Prople often place presents underneath the Christmas tree at home, ready to be opened on Christmas Day.
‘Father Christmas’ is the name of the legendary character who delivers presents to children while they are sleeping on Christmas Eve. He is also known as ‘Santa Claus’, based on the name of Saint Nicholas who lived around 1,600 years ago and is remembered for giving gifts to the poor. Father Christmas is apparently a well-built person with a big white beard. He wears a red coat and trousers with white fur trimmings, and travels through the air on a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He used to get into houses by climbing down the chimney, but that is not so easy now that most homes have central heating instead of open fires! Children often leave something for him to eat and drink – perhaps a mince pie and a glass of sherry. Some stories say that for the rest of the year Father Christmas lives at or near the North Pole where he has a workshop to make toys – with elves as his assistants. In the weeks before Christmas many shopping centres have a ‘grotto’ where children can visit Father Christmas, tell him what presents they would like, and perhaps receive a small gift.
Photo by Laura James from Pexels
People in offices and other place of work often get together on the last day before the Christmas holiday for ‘Secret Santa’. Some time before the event everybody’s name is put in a hat or a bag. Everybody draws a name from the collection. They are not supposed to tell anyone which name they have drawn. They buy a present for that person – usually a small present costing an agreed small amount of money. Then they wrap the present, label it with the person’s name and place it in an agreed place (perhaps under a Christmas tree). At some stage during the day, usually shortly before the end of the normal working hours, people stop work and gather together – probably with Christmas snacks and drinks and people take it in turns to open the present with their name on it. So, everyone gets a present and nobody has to spend too much money.
Children traditionally leave a ‘Christmas stocking’ (a large sock) at the bottom of their bed for Father Christmas to fill with presents. Some years ago, children started leaving sacks instead of stockings but now even sacks aren’t big enough. Often children will still leave a stocking which might then be filled with small gifts, chocolates and a small orange. We often refer to small presents as ‘stocking fillers’.
In the weeks before Christmas, children often make a ‘Christmas list’ of presents they would like to receive. They might put the list in an envelope together with a letter to Father Christmas and post it (without a stamp) to ‘Father Christmas, North Pole’. They might even receive a reply!
Shops as usually very busy in the weeks before Christmas as people go ‘Christmas shopping’ to buy food and presents. In recent years many people have been buying more and more things online in order to avoid the crowded shops.
Food and Drink
On Christmas Day many families have a special – and large – ‘Christmas lunch’ which might be served at some time during the afternoon. Christmas lunch might consist of roast turkey, stuffing, pigs in blankets (see below) roast potatoes, roast parsnips, boiled brussels sprouts and other vegetables, bread sauce and gravy. This main course is often called ‘turkey and all the trimmings’. It is usually followed by Christmas pudding. People often drink alcohol with their meal. Those who don’t have responsibility for clearing up or for looking after children might take a long nap after the Christmas lunch before starting to eat and drink again at ‘teatime’.
Photo by Nicole Michalou from Pexels
‘Pigs in blankets’ or ‘pigs in a blanket’ are small pork sausages wraped in a slice of bacon. They are roasted in the oven and often served at Christmas lunch as part of ‘turkey and all the trimmings’.
‘Christmas pudding’ is a dessert that is traditionally served at Christmas lunch. It is made with dried fruit, spices, dark sugar, black treacle, suet, lemon juice and – often – brandy. When it is being made, family members might be offered the chance to stir the mixture and make a wish. Christmas pudding is very dark in colour. When it is served it can be covered with more brandy which is set alight. It is eaten with a brandy butter, cream, ice cream or custard. Home-made Christmas pudding might have a silver coin hidden inside for a lucky person to find. Christmas pudding is occasionally called ‘plum pudding’ or ‘plum pud’. It doesn’t actually contain plums but in Victorian times dried fruits were sometimes called plums.
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The ingredients of ‘Christmas cake’ include flour, eggs, dried fruit, nuts, spices, butter, brown sugar. The cake is often covered with marzipan and then icing and decorated with ribbons and ornaments of such things as Father Christmas, snowmen, and Christmas trees. Christmas cake is eaten at ‘teatime’ as part of a meal that might also include sandwiches, cold meat, cheese and mince pies. This Christmas ‘tea’ is typically eaten just a few hours after Christmas lunch, when people haven’t fully recovered from that meal.
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A ‘mince pie’ is a traditional Christmas food consisting of ‘mincemeat’ (mixed dried fruit) in a case of pastry. It is often eaten at ‘teatime’ on Christmas Day but also at other times – perhaps as a snack, or at a Christmas party – over the Christmas period. Mincemeat doesn’t contain any meat but the name originated hundreds of years ago when mince pies were actually made with minced mutton instead of dried fruit.
People often eat far more than usual at Christmas. But still there is usually a lot of food that is uneaten. This food is referred to as ‘leftovers’ and can provide the basis of food for several days. People sometimes joke that they are still eating leftover turkey and mince pies during the first weeks of January.
Christmas Carols
A ‘Christmas carol’ is a song about the religious significance of Christmas. There are many traditional and modern Christmas carols that are sung in churches and elsewhere. Well-known carols include ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’, ‘Away in a Manger’, ‘Silent Night’, ‘While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night’ and ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’.
Many churches – and schools – hold a ‘carol service’ around Christmas time. At a carol service a choir sings Christmas carols – with the congregation sometimes joining in, and a succession of people read extracts from the Bible or elsewhere to tell the story of the birth of Jesus. The most well-known carol service is held at King’s College, Cambridge University. Called the ‘Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols’, it is held on Christmas Eve and is broadcast on radio and television in many countries.
‘Christmas carolling’ is an old tradition of a group of people – perhaps a church choir – going around a neighbourhood singing Christmas carols. They would often be rewarded with food and drink. In more recent years carollers have often collected money for charity and child carollers have collected money for themselves. For safety reasons it’s now unusual for children to go Christmas carolling on their own.
Entertainment
Many primary schools perform a ‘nativity play’ to an audience of parents and grandparents. The play tells the story of the birth of Jesus, with children dressed as the various characters – often including cattle and sheep.
A ‘Pantomime’ is a family entertainment traditionally performed in theatre around Christmas time. It includes music, songs, jokes, dancing and a lot of audience participation. Pantomimes are usually loosely based on a well-known fariry tale or legend such as Aladdin, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Dick Whittington and Sleeping Beauty.
Families often watch a lot of television over the Christmas period. Some films – such as The Snowman and The Wizard of Oz – are shown every year. Many popular programmes – particularly comedies – show special Christmas editions known as ‘Christmas Specials’.
Many workplaces organise ‘Christmas parties’ for their workers. Sometimes these are quite small events with drinks and snacks in the work place, and some times they are much larger with a restaurant meal and maybe entertainment and/or dancing.
Christmas symbols
In the UK, Christmas symbols include:
- Snow: even though it’s unusual in most of the country to see snow at Christmas
- Robin: a small bird, sometimes called a robin redbreast. Its red markings would make it very visible in the white snow
- Holly: an evergreen plant with red berries which appear in winter. It was a symbol from pre-Christian winter festivals but has been adopted by Christianity. The red berries are sometimes regarded as a symbol of the blood of Jesus.
- Ivy: another plant that was a symbol from pre-Christian winter festivals.
- Mistletoe: this plant has for many centuries been a symbol of love. People sometimes hang it up in their homes and the tradition is that people stand under it to kiss.
- Manger: a feeding box for animals. The tradition is that Jesus was born in a manger
- Angel: in the Christmas story an angel tells Mary that she is going to have a child. Some angels tell the shepherds about Jesus.
- Star: in the Christmas story, a group of ‘wise men’ follow a star to find the baby Jesus.
Graham’s Grammar wishes you and your family a very Merry Christmas.
