Christmas in Great Britain.

Presents, decorations...
British children don’t open their presents on December 24th like it is in Poland. Father Christmas brings their presents in the night. Then they open them on the morning of the 25th. Children find their presents in sack, pillow case or socks hang up above the bed or fireplace.
Traditionally people decorate their trees on Christmas Eve 24thDecember. They take down them twelve days later, on Twelfth Night (5th January)
An older taradition is Christmas mistleote. People put
a piece of this green plant with its white berries over the door. Mistletoe brings good luck, people say. Also,
at Christmas British people kiss their friends and family under the mistletoe.

...and Santa Claus
There is another name for Father Christmas in Britain- Santa Claus. That comes from the European name for him- Saint Nicholas.
In the traditional story he lives at the North Pole. He travels in sleight which is pulled by reindeer. After landing on the roof Father Christmas climbs down the chimney and leaves lots of presents for kids, but only for kind and pleasant. Some people leave something for him, too...A glass of wine or sherry and some biscuits, for example...
But now he lives in big shops in towns and cities all over Britain. Well, that’s where children see him in November and December.
Christmas dinner
In Britain the most important meal on December 25th is Christmas dinner. Nearly all Christmas foood is traditional, but a lot of traditions are not very old. For example, there were no turkeys in Britain before 1800. And even in nineteenth century, goose was the traditional meat at Christmas. But not now...

A twentieth- century British Christmas dinner consists of roast turkey with carrots, potatoes, peas, Brussels sprouts and gravy. There are sausages and bacon too.
Then, after the turkey, there is Christmas pudding. Some people make this pudding months before Christmas. A lot of families have their own Christmas pudding recipes. Some, for example, use a lot of brandy. Others put
in a lot of fruit or add a silver coin for good luck.
Pudding is a dark, rich mixture of flour, fruit, sugar, nuts. Real Christmas pudding always have a piece of holly on the top. Holly bushes and trees have red berries at Christmas- time, and so people use holly to decorate their houses
for Christmas. The holly on pudding is part of the decoration. Also, you can pour brandy over the pudding and light it with match.
Before the dinner people usually pull cracers- small rolls of paper that have gifts, jokes and party hats inside.

The Queen’s Christmas Speech
On Christmas Day at 3.00 in the afetrnoon, the Queen makes
a speech on radio and TV. It is ten minutes long. In it Queen talks to the people of United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth is a large group of countries, which in the past were all
in the British Empire. Australia India, Canada and New Zeland are among
the 49 members.The British Broadcasting Corporation sends the Queen’s speech to every Commonwealth country. In her speech the Queen talks about the past year. Traditinally in speeches, kings or queens say “we”, not “I”. Queen Elizabeth II doesn’t do this, she says “My husband and I”, or just “I”.
The Queen doesn’t make her Christmas speech on Christmas Day,
she films it a few weeks before. Then she spends Christmas with her family at Windsor. Does she watch the speech on TV? Nobody knows....
Boxing Day
December 26th i Boxing Day. Traditionally, boys from the shops in each town asked for money at Christmas. They went from house to house and took boxes made of wood with them. At each house people gave them money. This was a Christmas present. So the name of this day doesn’t come from the sport of boxnig- it comes from the boys’ wooden boxes. Now, Boxing Day is an extra holiday after Christmas Day...
Most people go out to see friends, watch sports events, go to theatre to see a pantomime, or increasingly nowadays, go shopping.

Every year the people of Norway give the city of London a present.
It’s a big Christmas tree and it stands in Trafalgar Square. Also in central London, Oxford Street and Regent Street always have beautiful decorations at Christmas. Thousands of people come to look at them.

Before Christmas and also in Christmas, groups of singers go from house to house. They collect money and sing traditional Christmas songs or old carols. There are a lot of popular Christmas songs and carols in Great Britain.

Christmas is the biggest festival of the year in the most
of Britain. Celebrations start propely on 24th December, Christmas Eve, although there have been several weeks of preparations beforehand.
The Chritmas tree and all the presents, food, drinks and decorations have been bought. Christmas cards have already been sent to friends
and relations. About a week before Christmas, people usually put their decorations and decorate the Christmas tree with lights, various coloured decorations and an angel on the top. Family presents
are usually put under the tree.

How the rest of the day is spent varies a lot from family to family and may include opening the rest of the presents, which were under the tree, playing games, going for a walk or just going to sleep in armchair! And there is always a special schedule of films and other programmes on television.

Christmas holiday are not over after 26th December. In fact, many offices and factories are close for whole Christamas period from 24th December to 2nd January. On New Year’s Eve there are a lot of parties and at midnight everyone joins hands to sing Aloud Lang Syne. Then after New Year’s Day to sleep it off, that’s Christmas over for another year.