MERRY CHRISTMAS! Learn English idioms & North American customs for the holidays

Christmas time in the city. What time is it? Oh, I'm late. Damn, I gotta get going to EngVid.

E, let's go. Oh, geez, it's almost time. Ah, wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a

Merry Christmas. Wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New... Oh, hi, James from EngVid.

Sorry. Christmas edition. I want to discuss today some Christmas idioms that you may hear

your English colleagues or friends using and might be confused by, but today you're going

to become a master of merriment and learn about Christmas idioms. So, let's go to the

board. E, what's this "ho, ho, ho"? Well, "ho, ho, ho" is said by a very famous guy in...

In North America, we call him Santa Claus; in England, they call him Father Christmas,

or you might say the British side call him Father Christmas. He's known by many names.

But with this gentleman, who's a little bit rotund, sort of like myself right now, wearing

a special hat, come a few things, a few, you might say, activities that we do from trimming

a tree, decking the halls, and you're like, "What is he talking about?" And that's what

you're going to learn today. So, we're going to go to the board, and what I'm going to

do is I'm going to tell you what these things are, and I also want to give you a little

bit of history, and that way you can appreciate some of the culture that you find in people

who speak English, or I wouldn't say European, but English-speaking peoples. Ready? Let's

go to the board.

The first thing I want to look at is "stalking stuffer". It's really weird because "stalking

stuffer" is almost nothing like it is today. When you go to somebody's house, if they have

a fireplace, you know, so here's some fire. Yay, from fire. They will have these giant

socks here. Well, in the old days, "socks" used to be referred to as "stockings". Not

socks, but stockings, because you would put them on your feet, and you'd pull them - oh,

there we go - yeah, like that, all the way up, see? Now I'm a European gentleman. Ah,

European gentleman. Socks up here. Okay. So, I'm getting too old for this. Okay, so...

So they had stockings, not socks. Now, "stalking stuffer" is a little present. For instance,

if my watch is coming here, if I got something this small and I put it inside the stocking,

it's very small. Usually, "stalking stuffers" are not big and not expensive. But there is

an interesting story that goes with the "stalking stuffer". A long time ago in Germany, where

this originates from, Germany, there's a story about three young girls, or an old... A man

who had three daughters, and he really wanted his daughters to marry and be happy, but he

had no money to give them to help them get married. So, he prayed and he prayed, and

Santa Claus... Remember the guy I said? Ho, ho, ho, ho. I really should draw a picture

of him, but I'm sure there'll be a picture of him right there. Okay?

Santa Claus overheard this man talking about, "I cannot get someone for my daughters to

marry them, so what I want to do, I don't know what I'm going to do." And Santa Claus

knew that this man did not accept charity. In other words, this man would not take anything

for free; he always wanted to work for it. So, he decided instead of giving presents

like he normally did, he was going to throw three bags of gold down the chimney one night

so the man could receive them, and each bag would be for the daughters. The daughters

were unaware of this, and they were wearing their... Remember we talked about stockings,

these things? Oh, one second. Stockings. Okay. They put their stockings to dry at night by

the fireplace because they had washed them. So, of course, when they woke up in the morning,

their stockings, the three of them, were filled with gold. Ah. And that's why you find a lot

of times when people have stockings, they get chocolate coins that are covered in gold

inside their stockings. Yeah, see? Cool. And they're like, "I know some things you do."

All right? So, the first one I talked about is the stocking stuffer. Little presents that

go inside the stockings that used to be on fireplaces, but maybe if it's not by a fireplace

now, you'll find them on the wall or by people's stairs, and they'll have their names on it,

and people will put chocolate inside of it, or markers, or pens, or something small that

somebody might have fun with, but not expensive.

The second one I want to talk about is to trim the tree. If you ask any North American

about trimming the tree, or English person for that matter, they will tell you trimming

the tree is putting... As you can see, I have some balls up here, and this would be called

a tinsel. They would say putting balls and tinsel on the tree to make it look very nice.

Extra stuff that goes on the tree. And they're correct. Or are they? Okay, so, where did

this come from? Trimming the tree came from actually sailors, nautical sailors a long

time ago, and it was to be trim and in fighting shape, which meant to get rid of the fat,

not be fat, but be slim and muscular in fighting shape, to be trim, to cut. I know, you're

very smart, and you're saying to me, "How does trim a tree, a sailor, have anything

to do with each other?" I'm getting there. A long time ago, most people didn't have artificial

trees. In fact, when I was a child, most of the trees that I knew were real. People would

go out and actually cut down a tree and put it inside their house. Yes, you heard me right,

you new people, you new kids. No artificial trees. We'd actually go outside, cut it, pick

it up, carry it into the house, put it in. And really far back, they actually used to

put candles, yes. They used to put fire in the tree in the house. Hey, I don't know how

humanity has made it this long, but you know, whatever. So, trimming the tree was, when

you had the tree, sometimes there would be an extra branch sticking out that could poke

you or hurt you, so you would cut this off to make the tree perfect to put in your house.

Trim, because trim is actually a verb. It means to cut off excess or extra. I'll give

you another little thing that you're going to like a lot as well. Sometimes you'll hear

people say, "I want a turkey dinner with all the trimmings." No, they're not asking for

the pieces of the tree that fell down. Absolutely not. It's the extra. So, when you get turkey

dinner, you get turkey, and then you get potatoes. Okay, that's like a normal meal, and maybe

some carrots. With the trimmings, you're going to get cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, and

some other stuff that people like to eat that I think is disgusting, but whatever, I don't

know, I don't even ask it. But all the trimming means all the extra. In fact, people even

say outside, they'll go, "I want all the trimmings." It means all the extra, because - and here's

one for you getting haircuts - when you get a haircut and you say, "I just want to trim",

they're only going to cut a little bit of hair. Trim the extra, not a lot. Cool? Not

only did you learn an idiom, you've learned about verbs.

All right, so let's go from there. So, trim the tree means to decorate the tree, but before

that it meant to cut the tree properly so you could decorate the tree. Okay? Next, the

holiday spirit. You heard me singing before, like, "We wish you a Merry Christmas, da-da-da-da-da-da-da".

It means to be in a good mood, right? Like, I'm in the holiday spirit. You saw me with

my hat, right? Saw me draw the tree, he's festive, we're all happy. "Festive" means

to be happy, joyful, festivities. Holiday spirit, that's what most people think. Actually,

once again, it was actually based on religion. You see, a lot of our holidays are religious

holidays that we celebrate today. So, Christmas is around the birth of Christ. So, a lot of

people saying getting into the holiday spirit, what they meant before was church, going to

church, being with the body of the people, celebrating together as a family, as a unit.

But now we've modified it because as we move on in time and sometimes separate religion

from our festivities or holidays, it's to be in a good mood. Get the feeling of the

holiday. So, Christmas is supposed to be happy and everybody's together in this community,

and that's the holiday spirit. "Christmas came early". First, I'm going to explain

it to you, and then I'm going to explain it to you. When you say "Christmas came early",

it means you got unexpected good luck or a gift earlier than expected. So, unexpected

good luck, you did not expect it at all, or something came earlier than you expected.

Like my Amazon shipments, I love it. You order a book, they say August 20th, it comes August

15th, I'm so happy. Christmas came early.

Now, the legend of Christmas came early is from New Mexico in the United States of America,

where what they would do, they would mix... Okay, you have to understand that Christmas

colours are red and green. Okay? So, the legend has it that they would mix for their breakfast

burrito because it had to be in the morning. Okay, so you have your breakfast burrito,

which is like, I don't know what it is, it's got eggs and whatever, but you have to have

a red chili that's hot and a green chili that's hot. Okay? So, imagine this. Hot chilis or

hot peppers, red and green, so you don't have just the red one, you put the green ones together,

you can see how much there is, and then you mix it into your breakfast burrito. So, you

can imagine you're eating it, and these things go down into you, into your tummy, and then

within two hours you're... And then before you know it, you have a bowel movement. Bowel

movement means poo-poo, ladies and gentlemen. You need to go to the bathroom early in the

day because of your breakfast. See? You went to the washroom early. Red and green are Christmas

colours, whatever. Okay, so it's just... It's just a myth, urban myth. Just look it up,

you don't have to believe me. Okay? But what it really does mean is you got an unexpected

good luck or something came earlier than you expected, and it's a good thing. Okay? Like

a present is given to you.

Now, let's go over here. I know this one's here, just wait. Okay, I'll be there and bell's

on in a second. Beat the holiday blues. Holidays are supposed to be... Actually, that's kind

of funny because "holiday" comes from "holy day", in case you didn't know that. Holy day

in religion, and that's what I was talking about over here. Holy days are religious,

but just in case. We'll just come back to it later, but beat the holiday blues. The

funny thing about holidays is they're supposed to be fun times. You... You have friends and

family together, there are parties. I know most... Most people... In December, December

stops about December 15th in most English-speaking countries, also other European countries,

but I'm... This is an English lesson, so I'm sticking with that. Around December 15th things

shut down, and I mean because there are a lot of office parties, people come together

to socialize, to celebrate the Christmas season, and everybody's happy. They'll buy a little

chocolate for each other, they'll say "How are you?" and you're supposed to be happy.

Yeah. Well, unfortunately for some people this causes a lot of stress, because in having

this happy season, there are expectations. Presents. If you don't have enough money,

it's very difficult to buy presents, especially for family members, you can't let them down.

Going to many parties and having to be on all the time, when maybe you just don't feel

like it. There's a lot of pressure to be happy, even if you're not. So, beating the holiday

blues is to feel good even though there's a lot of pressure on you. That's the first

holiday blues. You know what the second holiday blues is? After the holidays. Let's say you're

one of the people who had a great time, you danced a lot, got good presents, had a fantastic

time, holidays are over, you had two weeks vacation or a week's vacation, and then you

go back to work and it's Monday, January the 2nd, and you're thinking, "Oh my god, I have

another 12 months of this to go through." And to beat those holiday blues is the second

type of it, where you have to go, "Oh, okay, I got to get over the fact I had one week

of fun, parties, presents, laughing and joy, and now I'm stuck at work for a year." Okay?

Two types of holiday blues people will talk about. The second one is actually from psychologists.

Who knew?

Good things come in little packages. Any woman who's ever got an engagement ring knows this

is true. What this means is that don't judge the value of something by the size of it.

Most of you came from your mommy's tummies and you were babies. You were tiny, and your

mom will say, "I love you more than anything else", and you have grown, but you started

from a tiny or a small package. Sometimes you'll hear good things come in small packages,

or sometimes you'll hear good things come in little packages. It means the same thing.

Don't judge what something is by the size of it. The value isn't determined by size,

it's by its actual value. And as I said, an engagement ring is small, comes in a small

box, but it makes somebody very happy for 10 to 20... Or I should say the rest of their

life, but it could be 10 years only, but whatever.

Oh, I forgot one. I really want to put this up there, so I'm going to in a second. The

more, the merrier. If you're in England, it's called "Happy Christmas". So, some of you

watching from England go, "James, you're wrong. It's not Merry Christmas. I don't know who

told you that." Who told me that is the other side of the Atlantic. In North America, we

refer to it as "Merry Christmas". In England, they refer to it as a "Happy Christmas".

Even though they have merry-go-rounds, and "merry" is a word that means merriment in

England, and over here we say "happy" for everything. I'm confused.

Anyway, back to the fact that "merry" over here, we go "Merry Christmas" in English,

they say "Happy Christmas", "merry" means happy. So, when you say "the more, the merrier",

what you're saying is the more people joining our party, the more people being with us or

coming with us, will actually make everything more fun. Okay? So, you could say that you're

going to a bar, and if Eve was there, and he goes, "Hey, James, are you going to the

bar?" And you go, "Can I come with you?" He goes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. The more, the merrier.

Come on. No problem. Come on down with us. Join us." Okay? So, you'll hear people saying

that.

The other one you'll hear people say is "White Christmas". You heard me say that Christmas

colours are traditionally red and green, so why "White Christmas"? Well, in the year 2019...

Or I should actually, from the year 2000 up, Christmas has not been as white as it used

to be. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, meant snow. We always wanted snow on Christmas

Day to come down and look beautiful. You'd be sitting outside, drinking eggnog and tea,

looking at the white Christmas flakes coming down, opening presents by the fire. Now it's

green and brown, and California is burning. Things have changed a lot. So, when people

talk about "White Christmas", it was a reference to the old days where it would be white snow,

warm out, people would wear their hats, and go, "Hello, Uncle Bob. Oh, look at it, it's

festive." So, we always hope for a white Christmas. We don't care about the day before, day after,

just make it snow on Christmas Day to make it holiday-like, and then forget it.

Here's one I wanted to mention, and it's sort of like good things come in small or little

packages. It's very similar, I forgot to write it on the board, so I'm going to erase and

I'm going to write it for you. You might have seen this before or heard it. They're similar

in meaning, but it's "Don't look a gift horse in its mouth." Okay. A gift is a present,

okay? So, you're saying a gift is a present, don't look at a house, its mouth, and it doesn't

make any sense because why would you look at a gift horse in its mouth? Well, this isn't

actually... This is from the old days when we used horses more. If you don't know this

about horse biology, I'll explain it. As horses get older, they got more teeth or the teeth

got longer. They got longer, longer teeth. So, in order to see how old a horse was, if

you looked at its teeth, you could see if the teeth were really long, the horse was

really old. If they were smaller, it's young. So, you would check the horse's mouth to see

the length of the teeth to know whether it was an old horse or a young horse.

Now, this is similar to this. In this case, you're saying don't estimate the value of

something. This is different by saying don't try to get the value of something when somebody's

giving you a gift. So, if I'm giving you something, don't try and say, "Well, how much did you

spend on that?" No, no, no, that's rude. Just say, "Thank you." That's it. That's it. Don't

estimate the value, just say, "Thank you very much", and walk away. Don't look in the horse's

mouth when I give you a horse and go, "Hey, Charlie, I noticed you walk to work every

day. Here's a brand new horse." And you're like, "Oh, this horse is old." I'm like, "You

don't want the horse? I'll take it back." Just say, "Thank you." All right?

Now, finally, the pièce de résistance, the trump of the tree, the star of our lesson.

I'll be there with bells on. If you're looking from the United Kingdom, it's with knobs on.

I'll be there with knobs on. And what's the difference? Well, let's do the North American

version. With bells on mean I'll be there and I'll be happy. If you remember my hat,

when I was singing, I came in with bells on my head. Okay? Christmas bells, Christmas

bells. See? So, you can see me, if I come with bells on, okay, you'll hear them, you'll

see them, you know, I'm happy to be at this party, the invitation you've given me, I'm

thankful for it, and I'm going to be there. So, you might say, "Well, why do the UK people

say knobs?" Well, it means actually additional adornment. Adornment means something extra

you're wearing. If you're adorned with something, you're wearing something extra. So, in England,

I would be additionally adorned with perhaps a handkerchief. Yes. I'll be there with knobs

on. I might even carry my watch with me. Yes, I'll just put the watch around my neck. And

I've got me knobs on now, eh? Right, let's go. We're at the party, thanks for the invite.

Right? So, in England, "knobs on" means extra adornment, extra stuff, while in the United

States and Canada, it means happily doing it. Okay? I'll be there with bells on.

So, we've gone through our idioms, and the little extra one I put up there, so why don't

we go... We're going to do what we normally do, take a jump, because we've got a little

test for you, and I want to give you a little extra, and of course, your homework. Are you

ready? Let's go. Jingle bells, jingle bells, let's go to the board. All right, time to

do a test. We did several idioms, and I want to see how well you understood them, or at

least you enjoyed my stories, how well you can answer my Christmas quiz. And the present

from doing this is knowledge.

Let's look at a little speech that we've got here. Mr. E is talking to James, so it's going

to be myself. E's gone for now, but you know who he is. And we're talking about a Christmas

party that's coming up. So, E says, "Hey, James, do you want to help something this

year?" And I respond, "Sure. That sounds like fun. You really are in the something, Mr.

E." And he just says, "Hey, did you see that small package Natalia put in your something

by the fireplace?" And I went, "Yeah, I copy very much. It was very small." And then E

says to me, "Hey, don't, because a lot of times..." And then he said, "Hey, don't be

late for the party." And I said, "Hey, I'll be there." So, we've got a lot of spaces,

and we want to fill out some ideas.

So, the first thing was, "Do you want to help something this year?" Now, I couldn't give

you too much of a hint, but I'm going to help you here, okay? So, at least you can start

figuring out what idiom would it be. "Hey, James, do you want to help something the tree

this year?" What is it going to be? That's right. Remember we talked about trimming the

tree? Trim the tree, trim your hair, putting the extras, making sure the tree fits. Okay?

So, we want to trim the tree this year.

Second one, "Sure, that sounds like fun. You really are in the..." What is another way

of saying "a good mood" or "really enjoying the season"? The holiday spirit, okay? I could

- when they go "tree trimming", they're talking about having a party, that's the holiday spirit.

Community, remember we talked about community, coming together?

What about the next one? "Did you see that small package Natalia put in your something

by the fireplace?" Do you remember the story about the German girls? The German girls,

yeah? Okay, "stocking". "The stockings were hung by the chimney". "Chimney" is another

word for "fireplace", it's the top of the fireplace. The fireplace is where the fire

is and when the fire, the smoke goes up, that's the chimney. And Santa Claus, that big, fat

guy goes down that small hole. Don't ask me about the physics of this thing, you're supposed

to just believe it happens and he brings presents to everyone within a 24-hour period. And you

also believe all the lies your politicians tell you, too. So, it's all good, it's all

good.

All right, so, next. "Yeah, it can't be very much, it was very small." Okay, that's my

response because it was small, but that's why it went in the stocking. Remember we said

small presents go in the stocking. And then E says, "Don't what?" That's the only hint

I can give you. All right. "Don't look a gift horse in its mouth." Right? Don't look a gift

horse in its mouth. Remember the gift horse? Because you're looking at its teeth to see

value? Don't do that. And remember, that's right. Big or good things come in little or

small packages. There's a C here. Packages. Think about a lottery ticket. One ticket can

make you a million. Ding. Oh, gee, lottery. I'm doing a plug for them. Advertisement.

And finally, what do I say? Because I'm happy and I want to go, and I really want to go

there and I'm happy to go to this party and accepting this invitation. "I'll be there

with bells on." Cool. Not bad, you did well on your Christmas quiz. That means you don't

get a lump of coal in your stocking. You'll get those gold chocolate coins. Lucky you.

Now let's do our extra. So, what I want to talk about is the non-holiday use of some

of these idioms. This is a Christmas video, and you're probably watching it around Christmastime.

Maybe not. It could be summer, wherever you are. But some of these idioms don't have to

be used just at Christmastime, funny enough. Now, White Christmas, of course, you can't

really use it for anything but Christmas, but let's take a look at the board. When you

say "Christmas came early", you can use that for any time you get an unexpected gift or

good luck. So, it could be in June, and I'm, you know, applying for a job, you know, whatever

job, and all of a sudden the guy who owns Apple Company comes and goes, "Hey, I want

to give you a job because you're the best." I'm like, "Wow, Christmas came early. That

was completely unexpected." It has nothing to do with Christmas, but it means I've gotten

a gift earlier than I anticipated or expected, or it's completely unexpected.

Now, the second one, "Be there with bells on", that I ended with, you can use that when

somebody says, "Hey, do you think you can get that assignment done for me?" You go,

"Yeah, I'll get it done with bells on", which means I'm happy and excited to do it. So,

you'll hear people say it not just at Christmas, but it is a Christmas idiom. Don't look a

gift horse in the mouth. You could, if you were listening, you could automatically say,

"Well, that one would be something I could use at any time", because it means you're

being ungrateful because someone has given something to you and you're questioning it

or not just saying thank you and I appreciate it. All right? Don't look a gift horse in

the mouth. If someone's giving you something as a gift and it has value to you, thank you

is what you should say.

And also, good things come in small packages. Similar, but it's saying you have no idea

what you're being given just because of the size of it. And how many people have opened

a big box to find there's nothing inside of it? Not very much. Right? Ugly sweater, again.

Thank you, Uncle Donald. But it's a big package, and then you get a small package and it's

got car keys. Thank you, Uncle Donald. Right? Anyway, that's the extras. You can use these

non-holiday, so this lesson, even though if you're watching at Christmas, they're great

to make you, you know, in with the culture and people go, "I am very hip. I know the

good thing about the teeth and the horse in the small package, yeah?" It's like, no, no,

no, no. Good things come in small packages. Horses have teeth. It's very different. Now

you know the difference, but you can also use them outside of Christmas. You can use

them for Easter, you can use them for Thanksgiving, anytime you want. Just pull those cards out.

Now, before I go, I'm going to say what your homework is if this is the Christmas season.

You need to go to a party and enjoy yourself. What? Yeah. Use some of these things when

you're there, like, "Hey, thanks for inviting me to the party. Are we going to be trimming

the tree this year?" "Well, I know we've already done that, but you can come to the party."

"Well, I'll be there with bells on." "And are we supposed to bring stocking stuffers

to the party?" "No, no, don't worry about it. Any gift is appreciated. We don't look at

gift horses in the mouth. I speak English, so I've just taken all of these and just thrown

them at you. You need to learn them so that you can use them, too."

On that note, I want to say, first of all, thank you for watching this video. I would

like you to subscribe, so you can look around somewhere here. Subscribe, press the subscribe

button. There's a bell, ding my bell, and you'll get my latest video come straight to

you whenever it's ready. Don't forget to go to do the real quiz at www.engvid.com. engVid.

You'll see my video and other teachers who are equally as talented or more talented in

some cases, and you'll enjoy their work as well. So, I bid you adieu. Thank you very

much. Oh, it's been a long day without you, my friend. I'll tell you all about it when

I see you again. It's been a long day where we began. I'll tell you all about it when

I see you again. Bye-bye.