Designed by Magda Wojdyło for Pearson Longman

PHOTOCOPIABLE

FESTIVAL WORKSHEETS

Christmas Lesson

Intermediate Worksheet B

1. My Christmas: Guess if I’m lying

Tell your partner how you feel about Christmas. Answer the questions trying to sound natural,
interesting and convincing but... include one piece of information that is not true. Your partner’s task

is to guess which is false.

1. How do you usually spend Christmas?
2. What do like about Christmas?
3. What do you not like about it?
4. How and when do you prepare/buy presents for your family and friends?

5. Would you like to skip Christmas altogether?

2. Skipping Christmas

a). Make sure you know the following words and phrases before you read the text:

a memo

to get an award

a change of scene

Fiancé

Frosty

to skip

luxury hotels

to have it (your) way

to adorn

Peace Corps

to stick to the plan

to pick up the phone

b). Read the text below and answer the questions on the right.

Luther and Nora Krank live in Hemlock Street, a nice little street in a

nice little town somewhere in the States, where people celebrate
Christmas the best they can. Frohmayer, one of the neighbours sends
everyone round a memo when the right time comes and all try to
adorn their houses so that the street gets the award for the best

decorations.

1. Would you like to live in

Hemlock Street? Why?

2. What award is the street

competing for?

3. Would you like to/Do you

have a neighbour like
Frohmayer?

All is nice and lovely until Lora and Luther decide to skip Christmas.
Blair, their daughter is not coming home as she’s travelling with the
Peace Corps in Peru, and anyway last year they spent 6100 dollars on

Christmas. Not an insignificant amount. They feel a change of scene
would be good and decide to have it their way. The plan is to go to
the Caribbean: warm beaches, luxury hotels and no need to worry
about Christmas dinners, Christmas decorations or Christmas
shopping. It is not easy to stick to the plan but they’ve made the

decision and are now getting ready for the trip.

4. Why do the Kranks decide

to skip Christmas?

5. What do they want to do?

6. Why, do you think, it is not

easy to stick to the plan?

And then, one morning the phone rings. Luther picks up and hears his
daughter calling home from Miami. She’s come back to the States for
Christmas. She’s bringing Enrique, her fiancé, who has never been to
the States. She told him all about Christmas there - the tree, the

decorations, Frosty up on the roof, Christmas party and the snow.

7. Why is Blair going back

home for Christmas?

8. What, do you think, will

Nora and Luther do?

Based on Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

3. Role Plays: In pairs plan and act out one of the situations below. You may write the whole dialogue
or just jot down a few phrases to help you remember what you want to say.

a). phone conversation between Blair and her father
b). conversation between Nora and Luther after they found out Blair is going back home

c). conversation between Luther and Frohmayer about their Christmas plans