Listening and Reading Practice - British English Podcast

Hello everyone and welcome to the English like a native podcast,

the podcast that's designed to help you to improve your English.

My name is Anna, and today we are talking about the pre-Christmas period chaos.

Now, before I dive into this very interesting topic, I have a parish notice.

A parish notice is something that needs to be said, um, to notify

you about something in-house.

So something like some admin basically.

For example, if you are part of a choir and you go to your choir

rehearsal, they might say "sorry, guys parish notice, your fees are due.

So anyone who hasn't paid their fees, could you please come and see me?

Now let's get on with our singing rehearsal."

Aaa.

So a parish notice is kind of like the admin, it's a notification about admin.

So I have a parish notice for you, if you would like to enjoy these podcasts with

the transcript that you can download.

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Just click on the link in this podcast description or video description, wherever

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So let's get on and talk about pre-Christmas chaos.

Now, every year around September, things are chaotic because there

are so many birthdays personally, that I am dealing with in September,

including my own and my mum's, and my son's, and my mother-in-law's,

and there're just so many birthdays.

So September is a crazy month, and then once that ends, once we get

to the 1st of October, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my

shoulders and I can relax, finally.

But it doesn't seem to take long from the 1st of October before that little

nagging sensation starts, the nagging that I need to get ready for Christmas.

And it starts in October because someone somewhere starts

with Christmas in October.

And what I mean by that is some of the shops will have the audacity to put up

Christmas decorations and start selling Christmas bits and bobs in October.

Some TV adverts start having like a Christmas theme, and it is just some

places start playing Christmas music.

And there is always a debate going on within our society

about when is the right time?

When is too early to start advertising Christmas, basically?

Is it too early to put your decorations up before December 1st?

Is December 1st too early?

I want to know what you think actually.

I'd love (for) you to get in touch with me and tell me when you put up your

Christmas decorations and when you think it's okay to let Christmas into your life.

Obviously only if you celebrate Christmas, but for me, Christmas starts on the 1st

of December and that's because that's when we start our advent calendar countdown.

So for me, the 1st of December is when we can really start thinking about it.

These days, I have to be a little bit more organised, so I do start

making some plans in November, and of course we have the Black Friday sales

that happen at the end of November.

And those people who are much more organised, those people who know

exactly what they want to buy for every person they're going to buy

for, those people can really...

...they can really make the most of the Black Friday sales.

They go in there and they buy exactly what they need and they, they save

themselves a fortune by grabbing all these bargains in the Black Friday sales.

Personally, Ugh.

I hate shopping . I really hate shopping.

Um, I don't like spending time looking for something.

I like to just be presented with the solution to my problem.

So buying jeans is always something I struggle with.

And when I shop for jeans, I just want to walk into a shop,

say I need a pair of jeans.

I don't like skinny jeans.

I like to have a bit of room in my jeans.

I don't like them to be low cut, so I like high waisted, you

know, normal jeans for a lady.

Size 10, 12.

I'll try them on, see which fits best, and then I want to try them on.

Yes they fit.

Here's the money, let me take them home.

That's how I want it to be.

But what tends to happen is I can never find the right thing.

I try on lots of things.

I'm talking specifically about clothes shopping of course, but I try on lots

of clothes and nothing fits or it is something I like, but they don't have

my size or something is not right.

So I go to multiple shops and have this experience over and over and

over again and it's just exhausting.

And that generally is my feeling about shopping.

It's just an exhausting experience.

And when you go into a sale period, when everyone's in the shops going

crazy, and there's all these queues.

In some cases, the Black Friday sales people go mental.

They start fighting.

There are literally fisticuffs in the shops.

The police and the security guards have to come in and

separate people and arrest people.

It's just horrendous.

This is not my idea of fun, at all.

So those people who can cope with sales and are organised do really

well around the Black Friday sale that happens at the end of November.

But not me.

I'm normally a, a last minute kind of person.

I've always got too much to do.

Terribly disorganised because I'm overwhelmed.

And, um, yeah, I leave everything quite late.

Now while we're on the subject of Black Friday Sales Parish notice,

if Black Friday sales is something that you get involved with, then

we are also offering a sale on the English Like a Native website,

which is Englishlikeanative.co.uk.

If you want to get yourself a bargain,

then the best prices are available on our website around the Black Friday week.

So if you're listening to this around Black Friday and you want a course,

then go and check out our website.

Anyway shopping, sales, lots of people, that's my idea of hell.

Your idea of hell might be something completely different.

To you being in a big shopping centre during the sales

might be your idea of heaven,

but it is my idea of hell.

Now, I said for me the start of Christmas is the 1st of December, and this is

when we start our advent calendar.

Now, when I said you have to be prepared, before December kicks in it's because

you need to go and buy a calendar.

That's one of the main things you need to do in November, because if you don't

buy your Advent calendar, then by the time you get to the 1st of December,

most of the good ones are gone.

You can't get them.

There'll be some cheap advent calendars for sale somewhere,

but the good ones are gone.

Growing up, I always had chocolate Advent calendar.

Now the typical advent calendar here in the UK is a

cardboard box, a very slim box.

It's like an a4 size, and it's got lots of little windows.

They're not open, but they're little, little closed windows that you can open.

They're little, the cardboard is perforated, ready for you to slip

your finger in and and rip it open.

And inside this little cardboard box is a, a plastic, uh,

tray that contains chocolate.

And so every window that you open, you'll find a little chocolate behind it.

And as a child, I loved this.

Every day, open my next window, and you're counting down to Christmas.

But as a child, all you really care about is getting the chocolate.

I was a bit of a chocoholic.

I still am a bit of a chocoholic.

These days there are lots of options available.

You can get advent calendars that have all sorts of things in.

I mean, if you are made of money, if you are rolling in it, super rich,

then you could probably even buy an advent calendar that's full of jewelry

or you know, really expensive gadgets.

You can get beauty advent calendars that have lots of makeup behind each window.

They're super expensive.

Not something I've ever partaken in, but what I do is, well, while I've had my

children, instead of buying them chocolate calendars, I've bought, uh, I bought a

wooden train that has lots of different drawers in, a draw for all 25 days,

and you can put your own treats in it.

So it's, it's good for the environment.

Because there's no plastic or, or rubbish to throw away.

You reuse it every year and you fill it with your own things.

So, I've just been putting like little, like dried fruits

and things like that in there.

My son is allergic to dairy, so we were like avoiding chocolate and I

like to keep him healthy and enjoying healthy snacks, so I put healthy

snacks in there and as they get older I'll probably do things like Lego.

So have a Lego.

Uh, thing that they have to build like a, a Lego train or a Lego figure,

but break it down and just give them a few parts every day that they have

to build until finally on Christmas day, they complete their Lego figure.

That's the idea.

But this year, I'm not going to do the train.

This year I've discovered these calendars that have books behind them.

I managed to get a Peppa Pig calendar for my youngest son, Caspian,

and a Marvel book calendar for my eldest son Jacob, who's four.

And he's really into superheroes.

He loves Captain America and the Hulk and Spiderman, so they will

both get a, they're very thin, little books, little paperback books, but

I think this is gonna be a really good build up for them every day

getting a book because they love to read and that's quite exciting.

So I'm excited that I managed to find these calendars for them

and that they can get excited counting down to Christmas Day.

And also, it's environmentally friendly still because there's no plastic in

these things it's just all cardboard.

And we'll keep the books for a very long time and then pass them on.

So the 1st of December is for me, the start of Christmas, and I like to make

sure that I'm already, you know, ready.

So I like to have my tree up, which means I have to put my tree up

in November the first weekend...

or the last weekend of November before we hit December.

So I sometimes, it depends on the year, but sometimes this means my

decorations go up, you know, five days before we start December.

And this year I'm itching.

I'm itching to put up my Christmas decorations.

I've been itching to do it actually for a few weeks and um, it's quite unusual.

I'm just excited.

I'm excited about this year, how magical it will be with my four

year old and my two year old.

So to be itching to do something is to be yearning, to do it, to

be desperate to do something.

So I'm desperate to put up my Christmas decorations, which means

I have to make some time to go into the attic and get them down.

So we store everything in our attic.

An attic is a room in the roof of a property, in the roof of a house,

and there's often just a little hatch to access the attic.

It depends on the house you live in and whether you've

put in a better, um, access.

But normally it's just a hatch, which is a hole cut into the

ceiling of the floor below.

And there's a little, a cover, a wooden cover that you have to push up.

So for us, we have a, a ladder, just a standard ladder that extends.

We have to take that up and open it up and then climb up the ladder to open the

hatch and then make the ladder even bigger to put it in and climb up into the attic.

And it's, it's a, it is quite a task actually getting all the decorations down.

We have an artificial tree.

Now people really do...

They either love a real tree or they just love an artificial tree.

I love an artificial tree.

They last for decades and you know, you're not spending money every year.

You don't have to deal with getting rid of them afterwards.

But there are benefits to having a real tree as well, because

the real trees smell nice.

They look lovely.

Um, but I'm a big fan of artificial trees.

We got a really nice one in the sales a few years ago, but it's huge.

I think it's like six and a half foot high, maybe seven, maybe higher.

I don't know.

It's, it's huge.

We have to bend the top because it's all the way up to the ceiling in our

conservatory, which is a, is a tall room.

And um, putting it in the attic is a big job because it's a huge tree.

You can't do it by yourself, otherwise you risk injury.

So we get all our decorations down and we make some time to

do the decorating as a family.

We put on some Christmas music.

We have a little bit of, um, like Bucks fizz, which is like a, a sparkling

Prosecco or something like that.

A sparkling wine with orange juice.

That's a bucks fizz.

I, I think traditionally bucks fizz with champagne and orange juice.

We can't afford champagne.

So no champagne in our house,

but we might have a little Prosecco or a sparkling wine or just something...

a fun drink to celebrate with.

We, we get into the mood and we all decorate together as a family.

And I like putting out the pictures of my children with Santa.

So every year the children have a picture with Santa and I frame the

picture and I bring all the pictures out.

Each year we've got an amazing photograph of Jacob, his first picture with

Santa, and it was a last minute, last minute booking to see Santa at the

local garden centre and the Santa was a little bit haggard, should we say.

He was quite old, a bit haggard, and I think he was quite fed up.

In the picture, he looks miserable.

And my son, he was only, oh, he must have been about four months old.

My son looked terrified.

This man is holding..

Santa, sorry, is holding Jacob and Jacob looks terrified.

It's, it's such a funny photo.

So I do enjoy getting those out every year.

And this is another thing where I have to be extra organised because booking a

slot to see Santa these days is a mission.

You have to go on a mission to find availability and get yourself

booked in before all the places go.

These things sell out so quickly.

The tickets tend to go on sale late October, early November, and

for the best places they, they are just gone within seconds.

This year, I did manage to a slot, but it was hard.

I spent a long time going through lots of options to find that there

wasn't availability or it just sold out before I had chance to click go.

And so eventually I did get in there, but if I had left it until December,

then I'd have (had) no chance.

I'd be back at the garden centre, with the tired old Santa.

Anyway, this year I'm very happy because we are booked in to

see Santa on the 23rd, I think.

So not Christmas Eve, but close to Christmas, which I always think is nice.

And of course, Santa has to check whether or not you've been naughty

or nice, whether you're on the naughty list or the nice list.

And then he'll decide whether or not he will give you a gift.

I think it's a bit harsh, really.

My children are very nice.

They're definitely on the nice list, even if they are a bit naughty

sometimes, they're good boys.

All right, so one thing that I find quite stressful about Christmas and something

that has to be considered quite early is where you're going to spend Christmas day.

What you're going to eat and who you're going to spend the day with.

The thing is, Christmas day is just one day, but there's always,

there's always this big to-do about who's spending Christmas with

who, whose turn is it to travel?

Who's gonna, who's gonna have the in-laws this year?

And someone always ends up feeling a bit hard done by like, oh.

I didn't want that person this year, or I didn't wanna have

to go to that place this year.

But hopefully that's not you.

Hopefully you have, you know, a wonderful relationship with everyone in your family

and your extended family, and you have the room in your home to accommodate everyone

and you always have a wonderful time.

Hopefully that's you.

But, it's always a bit of a debate and you know, you have to make compromises.

I think this year we are just gonna spend it at home.

I don't know who's coming to see us this year, or if we are traveling out

or when we're traveling out to see other people, but as it's November,

we need to make those decisions.

Now, every household also has their own Christmas traditions, don't they?

Did you have something quite unique to your household when you were growing up?

I've tried to create some new traditions with my young family,

and one of the things that I've introduced, which I didn't have as

a child, is the Christmas Eve box.

So the Christmas Eve box is a gift that the children can open on Christmas Eve,

very similar to the tradition of opening one present of

your choice on Christmas Eve.

And this Christmas Eve box in our house every year, I would put a book

in there for them to read on Christmas Eve, so like a Christmas Eve book.

Maybe a set of nice fresh pajamas, or a nice comfy pair of fluffy, warm socks.

So just something for them to enjoy in the evening of Christmas Eve.

So that's, that's one little thing that we've introduced.

And there's lots of traditions that we, that we partake in.

But I won't go into that now because that's a whole other episode that

I could, I could do later for you to enjoy closer to Christmas

day, maybe even on Christmas Day.

Oh, one tradition that I will mention that we've started doing is every Christmas

we go to a garden centre that has lots and lots of Christmas

decorations and we allow the children to choose an ornament for the tree.

Christmas ornaments, especially unique ones are quite expensive.

And if you were to completely, you know, buy all the ornaments you wanted

for your tree, it would cost a fortune.

So every year we just buy one and we let the children choose.

And our tree is getting fuller and fuller, fuller and fuller.

Uh, we'll be removing baubles and just have ornaments all over

the tree in a few years time.

Now Christmas cards.

I believe Christmas cards is very much a UK thing.

We send cards to people we care about, even people we don't.

We give cards to everyone at work.

Like anyone you see, you give them a Christmas card.

But if you don't see all the members of your family or your close friends

around the Christmas period, then you have to post those cards in advance.

So you have to be organised again.

You have to get everyone's address, you have to write the cards in advance.

Go to the post office,

put your stamp on,

post them,

and this year I definitely have to do it because our stamps are changing.

They're changing our stamps and making them more digital.

I think they're putting a barcode on them, which is very unusual, which

means our traditional stamps have to be used up before the end of the year.

And I've got books of stamps in my purse, so I must send Christmas cards this year.

And what we tend to do is go for a little Christmas family photo shoot and we have

some nice photos taken of the children in, you know, nice Christmas settings

and then we make one of those photos a Christmas card to send to people.

I always think that's quite nice.

So coming back to the chaos of Christmas, I think that's what it is.

It's all the admin.

That's what makes pre-Christmas so chaotic.

As a child, christmas is just magic.

You just enjoy it.

But as an adult, Christmas is chaos.

It's all like so much more admin.

You have to decide who you're going to buy presents for and

how much you can afford to spend.

And then when you know that, you're gonna have to decide, well,

what are you actually gonna buy?

And I'm very much a person who believes in giving gifts that are useful, not just

give a gift for the sake of giving a gift.

I like to make sure it's a good gift, it's a useful gift that it won't

just clutter someone's home and life.

I want to give them something that's going to be of value to them, and that's hard

to, that's hard to do as you get older and everyone gets older around you and

they seem to have everything they need.

How can you then provide value in an easy way and in an inexpensive way?

It's very difficult.

So you have all this admin to deal with.

It can really weigh you down, especially if you've got a big family.

Ugh, that's so tricky.

And if you are married or with a long-term partner, you don't just

have your own family to think about, you have their family to think

about as well, which is a nightmare.

It's like, well, I don't know your family that well.

All right guys.

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling tense, just from talking about

all the things that I need to do.

I need to make my Christmas card list.

I need to book my Christmas photo shoot.

I need to make the cards and send the cards.

I need to decide who I'm buying Christmas presents for.

I need to then decide what I'm buying, try and make the most

of the Black Friday sales.

I need to go into the attic.

I need to get everything down from the attic.

We need to decorate the house.

I need to create magic for my children, and I need to have a good

time and work and exercise and do all that stuff at the same time.

I hope you all have enjoyed today's episode.

Please do feel free to share your thoughts and feelings about the pre-Christmas

chaos and when you think it's okay to start selling Christmas stuff in the

shops and playing Christmas music.

When is it okay for Christmas to truly start, for you?

Tell me.

Let me know.

You can find me on Instagram, on YouTube, on Facebook.

Just look for English Like a Native

and that's where you'll find me.

Until next time, guys, take care and goodbye.