Chrismas in the U.

K
Ines Lorenzo, Nerea Pose, Marina García
Traditions

• Christmas decorations
• Even though there’s no set date for
putting decorations up, there’s
definitely a cut off point for
taking them down. You’re
supposed to take down all your
decorations before the end of the
12th day of Christmas, which is
the 5th January. If you leave it
later than this, you could be
setting yourself up for a year of
bad luck. Don’t get off to a bad
start and take those decorations
down!
Traditions
• Christmas cards
• The British Christmas tradition of sending cards
dates all the way back to 1843. At the time, a
gentleman named Sir Henry Cole didn’t have
time to send personal messages, so he hired
an artist called John Calcott Horsley to design
him a card which he could send to lots of
people, and that’s how Christmas cards were
born.
Traditions
• Christmas TV adverts
• A lot of people think it isn’t the Christmas season
until the John Lewis (British department store) has
released their Christmas advert or Aldi
(supermarket) have released the latest from
‘Kevin the Carrot’ their Christmas character &
mascot.Often a little short film telling an
emotional story, the advert always pulls on the
heart-strings while spreading some festive cheer.
Tradition
• Mince pies
• Dating back to the Middle Ages, the pies were originally filled with minced meat and chopped
fruit. Today’s mince pies are filled with a mixture of dried fruits and spices called mincemeat,
these are traditionally served and eaten during the Christmas period.
Traditions

• Boxing Day
• Boxing Day is a British public holiday on
26th December, the day directly after
Christmas day. And, although there’s a
lot of different theories about the origins
of Boxing Day, it is generally thought that
the day was created for people to ‘box
up’ their unwanted gifts and give them
to the poor who had nothing. It was also
a holiday for the tradesmen who
received a ‘boxing,’ or gift, the day after
Christmas. Nowadays, many Brits use
their day off on Boxing Day to travel and
visit their relatives and eating your
bodyweight in turkey sandwiches, or hit
the sales and pick up a bargain.
 Traditions
• Christmas Carol singing
• The British love singing, and singing is part of English life.
Christmas carols are familiar to almost everyone, Christian
or not. Carol-singing is a tradition that continues, groups
of young or not so young stand in the street, or go from
door to door, singing carols and collecting for a charity.
There are also carol-singers in many major shopping
streets and malls in the days before Christmas. Away from
the street, almost all churches organize some form of Carol
Service, which attracts many more than just regular
worshipers. The Service of Nine Lessons and Carols from
the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge University, is one
of the great musical events of the year for BBC television.
Important days • The essential Christmas holiday in England can be up to four
days off in a row. Not only is Christmas Day, December
25th, a public holiday, but so is the day after Christmas,
December 26th, known as Boxing Day.
Traditional Chrismas food
Every family has different traditions but here's a general idea of what
goes into a Christmas dinner.
If there are vegetarians in the family, an alternative option to turkey is a
nut roast, which is made up of roasted chestnuts, mushrooms and other
winter vegetables.
For dessert (if you have room!) we normally have Christmas pudding, a
pudding made up of dried fruit and Christmas spices such as cinnamon,
nutmeg and cloves. The pudding is coated in brandy and then set on fire
before serving, so it is always a very impressive dish. Mince pies
(miniature tartlets filled with dried fruit and spices called mincemeat)
are also a hugely popular dessert, served with cream or brandy butter
(butter, sugar and brandy mixed together).

Pigs in blankets
Roast turkey Roast potatoes Roast parsnips (mini sausages
wrapped in bacon )

Boiled
Stuffing Red cabbage vegetables such Brussel sprouts
as peas or
carrots

Cranberry
Bread sauce Gravy
sauce