10 English Expressions About Christmas That You Might Not Know!

Well hello,

and welcome to this English lesson about Christmas.

Christmas is just around the corner.

In English, when we say something is just around the corner,

it means it's going to be happening soon.

In a few days, it will be Christmas.

And so I thought it would be a good idea

to make a little English lesson for you about Christmas,

where I teach you some idioms and phrases

that are just commonly heard around this time of the year.

So stick around, and you'll probably learn something new.

There's a bunch of phrases in here

that I've never taught before in a Christmas lesson.

(joyful music)

So the first phrase I want to teach you

is the phrase white Christmas.

I've been dreaming of a white Christmas.

That's actually a line from a song,

but I do like it when we have a white Christmas.

A white Christmas is when there is snow on the ground

on Christmas day.

I don't know what's happening this year,

but I think there's very little chance

that we're going to have a white Christmas this year.

We've had snow once or twice.

It comes down, it sits on the ground for about half a day,

and then it melts.

So a white Christmas

is when there's lots of snow on the ground on Christmas day.

And I'm not sure we're going to have

a white Christmas this year.

I should probably mention a couple things

about Happy Christmas versus Merry Christmas.

These are phrases that people say around Christmas time.

And usually mostly on Christmas day.

In North America, we generally say Merry Christmas.

That is the most common thing to say on Christmas day.

Merry Christmas,

and then later we even say Happy New Year.

In Britain though, in the UK,

they tend to say Happy Christmas, I think.

I've heard that when I watch British TV shows.

They say Happy Christmas to people.

And it sounds a little bit funny to my ear.

So you may hear both phrases,

depending on what flavor of English you are learning.

In North America,

you will most often hear Merry Christmas,

but if you're over in the UK,

you might hear Happy Christmas.

When I think about Christmas,

I usually think about Christmas trees.

People often put up a Christmas tree

in their house to celebrate Christmas.

It's kind of a Christmas tradition,

and you heard me use the verb to put up.

That's the verb we use

when we talk about putting up a Christmas tree,

or having a Christmas tree in our house.

People often put up their Christmas tree

around the beginning of December, and then their tree is up.

You'll hear people ask questions like this.

Do you have your tree up yet?

Or how long do you usually keep your tree up for?

And then the other verb we use is to take down.

People often take down their Christmas tree

at the end of December, or at the beginning of January.

So when you have a Christmas tree,

you put up your Christmas tree

when you want to have it in your house,

and you take down your Christmas tree

at the end of the Christmas season.

But I wanted to mention one other thing.

There are two types of trees.

There are real Christmas trees.

If I was to cut one of these trees down,

which I would never do, and put it in my house,

it would be a real Christmas tree.

And then we have what are called

artificial Christmas trees,

or informally, most people call them fake trees,

or fake Christmas trees.

So that's a tree that's made in a factory,

and it looks a lot like a real tree.

So you put up your tree, your tree is up.

You take down your tree,

and you either have a real tree or a fake tree.

Christmas isn't just celebrated in our homes.

Sometimes people at work have a lot of Christmas spirit,

and they want to celebrate Christmas too.

And there's two English terms that I know of

when it comes to the workplace and Christmas.

The first is what we call a Christmas bonus.

A Christmas bonus is when your workplace,

or your boss gives you extra money,

or some kind of gift, because it's the Christmas season.

Christmas bonuses are very, very cool.

Some people get a small Christmas bonus,

and some people, if their company did really good

in that year, they might get a huge Christmas bonus.

So a Christmas bonus is a gift you get from work.

It's usually money,

but sometimes it's actually something else as well.

The other thing I was thinking of was this.

Sometimes you will have a Christmas party at work.

It's maybe called an office Christmas party,

or a work Christmas party.

Or you might just say,

I have to go to a Christmas party at work,

but sometimes workplaces will have a party,

usually a week or two before the actual Christmas day,

where everyone, all the coworkers and the boss get together,

maybe have a meal, or just some stacks.

It might be during the work day,

or it might even be at night.

So a Christmas bonus, something cool you get from work

at Christmas, usually money,

and a Christmas party, an office Christmas party,

a time to get together with coworkers

to just enjoy each other's company

for a little bit during the Christmas season.

Kids, especially school-aged kids,

really enjoy Christmas as well,

because they get to have some holidays.

They get to have what's called Christmas break,

or Christmas holidays.

And it's usually about two weeks long.

If you work, you might get a few days off at Christmas.

You might get a whole week,

but if you go to school, you usually get two weeks off.

Sometimes even an extra day or two past that.

I know for me, I get two weeks off,

because I'm a teacher, and that's kind of a cool thing.

Most of my siblings, though only get about one week off.

So I don't mention it very often

that I get a two-week holiday, because it's Christmas.

Just because the students get it, so I get it too.

So Christmas break or Christmas holidays

is how we refer to the two weeks at Christmas

where kids don't have to go to school,

and teachers don't either.

Some people really like Christmas,

and some people actually don't like Christmas,

and we have a couple of English phrases to describe

those two types of people.

When someone really likes Christmas,

we would probably say

they have a lot of good Christmas spirit,

or they have good Christmas cheer.

So when you have good Christmas spirit,

it means you actually really like the Christmas season.

But if I was to say that you are a Scrooge,

a Scrooge is someone who during the Christmas season,

doesn't like giving gifts,

doesn't like singing Christmas songs.

They're just kind of grumpy and grouchy

about the whole Christmas season.

So we would call that person a Scrooge.

So if you have good Christmas cheer,

if you have a good Christmas spirit,

that means you really like Christmas,

and you enjoy everything that happens during that season.

But if you were to describe someone as being a Scrooge,

it means they're grouchy and grumpy,

and would rather just not have Christmas happen at all.

You probably know which one of the two I am.

I'm not a Scrooge.

Well, thank you so much for watching

this little English lesson about Christmas.

I hope it really helped you learn a few more terms,

and phrases, and sayings,

and idioms that we use in English

when we talk about Christmas.

By the way, if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there.

And give me a thumbs up

if this video helped you learn a little bit more English.

And if you want to know more about Christmas,

and how to talk about it in English,

I'll link a playlist here

to some videos that I made in the past.

Some English lessons from the past

that I think will really help you.

Bye, and Merry Christmas.

(joyful music)