The British celebrate Christmas through various traditions - sending Christmas cards, attending nativity plays and family gatherings. They decorate trees with lights, tinsel and baubles and homes with holly, ivy and mistletoe. Children write letters to Santa and leave mince pies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, families open presents under the tree and have a large meal including roast turkey before pulling crackers. Boxing Day involves sales and charity giving. The Christmas season ends with the Twelfth Night and remembering the Three Wise Men.

1. It’s Christmas
time!
How do the
British celebrate
Christmas?

2.  Every year in December we
celebrate the birthday of
Jesus Christ: It’s Christmas
time!
 How do people in Britain
celebrate this holiday?
 They send Christmas cards.
 They watch nativity plays.
 There have big family get-
togethers.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

3.  People sing special songs called Christmas carols:
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Jingle Bells
Away in a Manger
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
 Children write their Santa List and they create
snowmen in their gardens.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

4.  What do people say when it’s Christmas time?
 MERRY CHRISTMAS!
 MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
 HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
 SEASONS GREETINGS!
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

5.  From the 1st to the 24th of december is a period
known as Advent. Advent is a time of waiting for
the arrival of Christmas.
 During Advent preparations for Christmas begin:
 People decorate their homes with ornaments,
Holly, Ivy and mistletoe!
 There is an old custom that you must kiss someone
standing under the mistletoe!!
ADVENT

6.  The most
typical
decoration is
an evergreen
tree

7. People decorate their
Christmas Trees with:
 Bells
 Candles
 Lights
 Tinsels
 Baubles
 Ornaments
 Candy canes
 A star or an angel at
the top of the tree

8. ADVENT
 Some people
buy or make Advent
Calendars
 Advent calenders are
cards with 24 or 25
doors. Behind each
door is a christmas
picture. Sometimes
there is also a little
chocolate or a little gift.

9.  An advent candle has 24 or
25 marks on it. A bit of
candle is burned down
each day.
 Or often people use four
candles to represent the
four weeks before
christmas. One candle is lit
the first week, two the
second and so on..

10. Christmas Eve
 The 24th of december is
also a very important
day.
 Often families go carol
singing around their
neighbourhood,
collecting money for
charities.

11.  Some families also attend a
midnight church service

12. CHRISTMAS EVE
 On christmas eve children also
prepare for Santa Claus to come!
Children hang up stockings above
the fireplace or on our beds

13. Santa Claus
 Santa claus is dressed in a red and white suit. He
is old and plump and he has a long, white beard.
Father Christmas and his elves make all the toys
in his workshop in the North Pole.
 Then he flies around the world in a sleigh pulled
by eight reindeer
 Dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, comet, cupid,
donder and Blitzen. The most famous, however,
is Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer!

14. Santa Claus
 Children leave mince
pies and milk for
Santa and carrots
for the reindeer!
 Santa goes down
the chimney to leave
the presents or the
coal!

15. CHRISTMAS DAY
 This is the favourite day for
children.
 They wake up very early in the
morning to open the presents
from Santa in their stocking!
 We put the family presents
underneath the tree
© Laura Gallardo Navas 2007

16. CHRISTMAS DAY
 Parents and children gather together to unwrap
the presents.
 Later the whole family sits down for Christmas
dinner.
 What does a traditional Christmas dinner
include?
 Roast turkey
 Roast potatoes
 Brussel sprouts
 Cranberry sauce
 For dessert they have rich fruity pudding which you
douse in brandy. Christmas puddings usually include
raisins, nuts and cherries.
 Gingerbread is also typical.

17. CHRISTMAS DAY
 During lunch we pull
crackers
 A Christmas cracker is a
colourful paper tube which
contains a banger.
 When two people pull the
cracker it snaps in half making a
loud BANG.
 Inside the cracker there are
paper crowns, jokes and little
gifts.
 Whoever gets the
bigger part keeps
the prize

18. BOXING DAY
 Boxing Day is celebrated on December 26th, the day after
Christmas
 Shops open early to sell their Christmas products at reduced
prices!
 And families gather together again, go for a walk, watch
football matches together, go shopping…
 The origins:
 English families used to put Christmas leftovers in boxes.
Then they gave them to poor families and churches for
charity.
 The tradition still continues today! Employers give extra
money to their employees (“christmas bonus”) and schools
across the country send their Christmas Boxes full of gifts to
poorer countries.

19. And… what about these Three
Kings???
 On the Twelfth Night families
remove all the Christmas
decorations, so as not to bring
bad luck upon the home!!!
 It is on the 5th January.
 British people don’t celebrate
the Reyes Magos like in Spain,
but they are considered part of
the whole Christian tradition.

20. The Three Wise Men
 The Three Wise Men or Three
Kings, as they are called in
Britain (Caspar, Melchior, and
Balthazar), followed the Star of
Bethlehem and gave gifts to
Jesus Christ.
 What kind of gifts?
 Gold
 Frankincense
 Myrrh

21. CHRISTMAS
Now… let’s have some fun!!!

22. © Laura Gallardo Navas 2007