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Ask for help > To my English speaking fellow teachers!
To my English speaking fellow teachers!
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lovinglondon
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To my English speaking fellow teachers!
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Sorry to the rest of fellow teachers beforehand but this is a topic I need to confirm with the native speakers!
Let �s see...I �m making a PPS about Christmas in Britain (England in particular) and I need to know several things:
1. What is a traditional Christmas Eve menu?
2. How do you crack the Christmas Crackers? I �ve read you cross your arms and break the person �s on your left cracker....is that correct?
3. When do you eat the Christmas pudding??
4. Are there any other typical recipes?
5. Do you really celebrate the 5th January? When the three wise men visit the houses as well? or it is just a apanish tradition?
I would really appreciate if you could help me with these questions!
Thank you very much!!
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13 Dec 2009
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julianbr
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hi Loving .. I never have traditional anything of Christmas eve .. there �s always plenty of mince pies and cakes around tho � ... and probably most people have those and maybe ham sandwiches with tea on Christmas eve ..
Yes Christmas crackers are best cracked by crossing arms and taking a cracker in each hand .. this is the same posture for dancing to auld lang syne on new year �s eve coincidently .. a sign of friendship and togetherness ..
Christmas pudding is mainly eaten at Christmas lunch .. and usually has coins hidden inside for children to find ..
umm typical recipes .. it �s traditional to eat turkey with all the typical things found with a roast dinner for Christmas lunch .. desserts include iced fruit christmas cake with marzipan .. mince pies .. trifle .. Christmas log ( a cake in the form of a tree log but made of chocolate)
the 5th of January isn �t celebrated in England and most people are back at work long before.
regards, Julian ..
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13 Dec 2009
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stuartallen77
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1. What is a traditional Christmas Eve menu?
As much alcohol as possible! There isn �t really a traditional Christmas Eve meal.
2. How do you crack the Christmas Crackers?
The person on your left, you don �t need to fold your arms. There are sometimes more crackers than guests so you end up pulling crackers with anyone on the table who can be arsed.
3. When do you eat the Christmas pudding??
Christmas Day after the main meal. There is often a coin in the pudding and it is lucky to find it. Also, you can eat the pudding with brandy/whiskey cream.
4. Are there any other typical recipes?
Yes, do a Google search to find them.
5. Do you really celebrate the 5th January?
Not in the UK, where I am from. In my house, we take down our decorations twelve days after Christmas Day, which would be about the 5th. This is the end of the Christmas period. There is nothing funny or fun about this, just lots of clearing up!
Hope this helps!
Stu 
p.s. Merry Christmas to all my fellow teachers around the world, love to all of you! |
13 Dec 2009
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cheezels
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1. What is a traditional Christmas Eve menu?
Alcohol and partying with friends.. or if you are back in your home town for Christmas, going out with old school friends or meeting up with mates. Or catching up with family. If you are not in your home town for Christmas it is still usually spent drinking with friends.
2.
How do you crack the Christmas Crackers? I �ve read you cross your arms
and break the person �s on your left cracker....is that correct?
Whoever wants to pull yours, and vice versa. Can be either side or even across the table. Then you are obligated to wear the paper hat for a while, compare the trinket you got with others (and secretly wish you had got the plastic racing car instead of the magnifying glass...) and then tell the jokes inside (which aren �t funny but everyone laughs and groans anyway.)
3. When do you eat the Christmas pudding??
After Christmas lunch (or dinner) which is on the 25th
4. Are there any other typical recipes?
Every family is different. In New Zealand we had anything from ham, turkey, chicken, roast potatoes etc to some years having a bqq (as it is summer).
In the UK we had the same types of food. Roasted vegetables etc with ham or roasted meat of some kind.
5. Do you really celebrate the 5th January? When the three wise men visit the houses as well? or it is just a apanish tradition?
No. We only celebrate the 25th. Boxing day on the 26th I often went to the horse races where we spent a day of lying in the sun, drinking and firing up the bbq (and betting on the horses in between...) The 26th in the UK was usually spent watching TV and wishing I had not eaten so much the day before.
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13 Dec 2009
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ballycastle1
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Just to add to the above - in the UK many people still leave their Christmas decorations up until 6th January (the Epiphany, also known as �Old Christmas Day � ) which celebrates the visit of the magi after Christ �s birth. Some schools re-commence only after this day.
Many choirs visit residential and nursing homes during the Christmas period to perform for the residents and many carol services are held in the month of December, but particularly in the week before Christmas and, of course, on Christmas Eve/Day.
With regard to presents, everyone gives them to everyone else! it �s not just for children. (It costs a fortune) unless you do a �secret Santa � (a group of friends/family/work colleagues put their names into a hat and half pull out a name - this is the recipient of the only gift that will be bought within that particular group of people. A limit is set on how much will be spent, on the basis that one �good � present is better /cheaper than several �lesser � presents. (All very mercenary, I know, but there you go.)
As for the opening of the presents, that very much depends on the family. In our house we go to Midnight Mass (at 10pm!) but even though it �s sometimes Christmas Day when we return home, no presents are opened until the morning when the children (young and not-so-young, in fact, quite grown-up) open their stockings which have been left in their rooms when they were sleeping. These stockings contain very small gifts from Santa; the main gift is often downstairs in the living room beside the fireplace. |
13 Dec 2009
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RabbitWho
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My Irish Christmas:
1. What is a traditional Christmas Eve menu?#
We always have turkey and gravy brussel sprouts potatoes .
2.
How do you crack the Christmas Crackers? I �ve read you cross your arms
and break the person �s on your left cracker....is that correct?
Never did that, we just grab them with both hands and pull.
There �s a trick that means you usually get the prize: If you just hold and let the other person pulls. When we were kids this often resulted in us both standing their waiting for someone to get bored and pull.
3. When do you eat the Christmas pudding??
never! it makes me sick! My dad has it after Christmas dinner, it makes him sick too.. but he loves it.
4. Are there any other typical recipes?
Triffel :)
5. Do you really celebrate the 5th January? When the three wise men visit the houses as well? or it is just a apanish tradition?
a lot of familys have a crib (nativity scene) and they �ll ad in all of the nativity figures in the order they appeared. So for example Jesus on the 25th and the wise-men on the 5th. We just put ours up all together
I �m Irish.. I can �t imagine Christmas in the southern hemisphere... what �s the point in Christmas lights if the majority of the day isn �t dark? the 21st of December is the shortest day of the year and the Christmas lights make it bearable.
I think it �s important to get everyone to say where they �re from because different countries (even English Speaking ones) have different traditions.
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13 Dec 2009
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