Christmas in Britain
The first sign that Christmas is on its way is when you see Christmas cards on sale in shops. This is usually in late September! Things, which are often shown on card, 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 mantelpiece over the fire in their siting 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 balloons, paper chains, paper lanterns and other decorations. Most people have a Christmas tree in their sitting room. They decorate it with tinsel, baubles, chocolate and small coloured lights called `fairy lights', and on top of the tree they put a fairy (or sometimes a star).
Carol singers go round the streets from house to house in the days leading up to Christmas. They 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 fun! Parents often take young children to an afternoon pantomime performance. Others go to 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 the presents while everyone is asleep. He comes down the chimney and puts the presents into stockings, which have been hung up for him!
The 25th December is Christmas Day. People open their presents in the morning and then get ready for a big traditional Christmas Dinner of roast turkey, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts and many other vegetables. At the table people pull crackers, which have paper hats, jokes and a small gift inside them. Families wear the paper hats at the dinner table! For dessert 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 pies and ice cream, or trifle. Later there is Christmas cake: a rich fruitcake covered in marzipan and thick white icing.
There are usually very good films and programmes on TV at Christmas. And at 3 o'clock on Christmas Day there is the Queen's Speech, in which the Queen talks about the past year and 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