American Christmas Traditions: Postcard from the USA

24,173 views ใƒป 2018-12-26

Business English with Christina


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Hi, this is Christina from Speak English with Christina.
0
200
3140
00:03
It's the holidays, it's Christmas.
1
3340
2220
00:05
I'm here with my family in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
2
5560
4170
00:09
And I just wanted to show you a little bit
3
9730
2610
00:12
around what we're doing for Christmas.
4
12340
2630
00:14
I'm gonna have some of my cousins in my family
5
14970
3050
00:18
who's gonna explain some typically
6
18020
1990
00:20
American Christmas traditions,
7
20010
2410
00:22
and just kinda show you what it looks like,
8
22420
3100
00:25
maybe not in every American family
9
25520
2070
00:27
'cause everybody's a little different,
10
27590
1780
00:29
but what it's like in our family.
11
29370
1870
00:31
So let's go.
12
31240
1540
00:32
Okay, so I'm gonna let my little cousin, Annelise,
13
32780
3490
00:36
tell you about the tradition
14
36270
1650
00:37
of presents and Christmas trees.
15
37920
2523
00:42
- Whenever, a lot of people,
16
42990
1913
00:45
the day after Thanksgiving, we put our Christmas tree up
17
45960
3080
00:49
and we decorate it.
18
49040
1513
00:52
Also, a lot of families, each kid,
19
52310
2930
00:55
each year, gets a special ornament that they hang up.
20
55240
2690
00:57
And then, when they're adults,
21
57930
920
00:58
they get all their ornaments; it's a collection.
22
58850
2773
01:02
The presents range from anything.
23
62500
3360
01:05
They can range from little necklaces
24
65860
3150
01:09
to giant toy sets.
25
69010
2147
01:11
- [Christina] Like the presents, hold up,
26
71157
1449
01:12
let's look at the presents.
27
72606
2250
01:17
- [Annelise] And if you run of presents,
28
77357
3212
01:20
if you run out of space under the tree,
29
80569
1311
01:21
and you have a fireplace, you put it by the fireplace.
30
81880
3077
01:24
- [Christina] There's the presents
31
84957
2300
01:27
by the fireplace.
32
87257
1417
01:30
- [Annelise] As long as your fireplace isn't running
33
90870
1510
01:32
'cause then it's a fire hazard.
34
92380
833
01:33
- [Christina] Yes, of course.
35
93213
1320
01:35
What about on top of the tree?
36
95780
2030
01:37
- [Annelise] The star?
37
97810
1409
01:39
- [Christina] Mm hmm, that's not a star.
38
99219
1461
01:40
- Sometimes they're stars, sometimes they're angels,
39
100680
2060
01:42
sometimes they're like,
40
102740
2150
01:44
for our Christmas tree,
41
104890
1670
01:46
it's a little, like, a candy cane and a stocking.
42
106560
4123
01:51
They're just kinda decorations.
43
111620
1560
01:53
The star is supposed to
44
113180
1150
01:55
do with the story of Jesus.
45
115807
2566
01:59
I don't really know why they have that.
46
119440
2767
02:02
- [Christina] Anything else about trees and presents?
47
122207
2650
02:05
- Sometimes, they're, a lot of people have plastic trees,
48
125960
2730
02:08
a lot of people have real trees.
49
128690
1550
02:10
- [Christina] Oh yeah, is this one, what about this one?
50
130240
2040
02:12
- [Annelise] It's fake.
51
132280
833
02:13
- [Christina] It's a fake tree.
52
133113
833
02:13
- [Annelise] It's fake.
53
133946
833
02:14
- Okay, lovely, thank you.
54
134779
2391
02:17
Okay, and now, my cousin, Maggie, and her little girl
55
137170
4600
02:21
are gonna tell you about the tradition of stockings.
56
141770
3240
02:25
- Okay, so, usually in most homes,
57
145010
3190
02:28
how many kids you have is how many stockings you have.
58
148200
2910
02:31
And they hang them on the mantle over the fireplace
59
151110
2190
02:33
if you have a fireplace.
60
153300
1720
02:35
And Santa comes, when Santa comes,
61
155020
2430
02:37
he fills your stockings with lots of things.
62
157450
3400
02:40
It could be candy or even fruit or toys.
63
160850
3650
02:44
What did you get in your stocking?
64
164500
2540
02:47
- I don't know. - You don't know?
65
167040
1047
02:48
- [Christina] You don't know (laughs).
66
168087
873
02:48
That was a year ago. - Yeah, that was a long time.
67
168960
1870
02:50
What do you want in your stocking?
68
170830
1700
02:53
- I don't know.
69
173450
1050
02:54
- Do you want an LOL doll in your stocking?
70
174500
2479
02:56
Yeah.
71
176979
1058
02:58
Any kind of doll or fun stuff.
72
178037
2433
03:00
Usually it's just small little trinkets.
73
180470
2320
03:02
- [Christina] Yep.
74
182790
833
03:03
- So, that's it.
75
183623
1380
03:05
- And next is my cousin, Bonnie.
76
185940
2490
03:08
You might remember her
77
188430
1060
03:09
from the Understand Real American English course.
78
189490
2340
03:11
And she's gonna tell you all about
79
191830
1590
03:13
the tradition of Christmas cookies.
80
193420
1873
03:16
- Alright, so here we have Christmas sugar cookies.
81
196130
4010
03:20
It's a tradition for us to decorate our cookies
82
200140
3270
03:23
with icing and candy sprinkles, or sparkly sugars.
83
203410
4710
03:28
And what we will do is we will leave these cookies
84
208120
1940
03:30
out for Santa Claus, with a nice cold glass of milk,
85
210060
3753
03:34
so that he can have some refreshments
86
214706
2862
03:37
after he delivers all of our gifts.
87
217568
2442
03:40
- Okay, so, I hope you enjoyed meeting some members
88
220010
3660
03:43
of my family, learning a little bit
89
223670
2300
03:45
about some typical American Christmas traditions.
90
225970
3260
03:49
I know in the video, the lighting and things like that,
91
229230
2420
03:51
it's not great, but it's at my family's Christmas party
92
231650
3990
03:55
so I don't have all of my equipment and everything.
93
235640
2570
03:58
But I really wanted to share that with you
94
238210
1850
04:00
so that you can see a little bit
95
240060
1910
04:01
about how we celebrate Christmas.
96
241970
2586
04:04
I just wanna wish you all the best for the holidays.
97
244556
3824
04:08
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,
98
248380
2130
04:10
and I will see you in 2019.
99
250510
3046
04:13
See ya!
100
253556
1047
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7