LEARN ENGLISH PODCAST: CHRISTMAS PHRASES, TRADITIONS, AND STORIES (WITH SUBTITLES)

- [Narrator] It's Christmas time.

There's no need to be afraid,

which is a very well-known lyric from the probably

the most famous or one of

the most famous Christmas songs out there.

And that is what today's podcast is going to be about.

I'm going to talk about Christmas traditions in the past,

Christmas traditions in the UK, and the US,

how these differ and how things have changed over time, too.

So we're going to use a variety of different tenses

and phrases, idioms, those types of things.

And even if you're not really interested

in the topic of Christmas,

you're still going to get a lot from this episode.

And if you're new here, my name is Jack from ToFluency.com.

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So Christmas is one of my favorite holidays.

And in the UK, it's probably the, well, it is.

It's the biggest holiday,

the biggest national holiday anyway, in the UK for it,

for most people.

So it's a time when everyone just stops for a few days,

they get their family together.

They exchange gifts and do lots of other fun things,

which we're going to go through today.

Now I'm originally from the UK,

but now I live in the US, things are a little bit different

in terms of celebrating Christmas,

but on the whole they're quite similar.

I think one of the biggest differences,

and it's probably a small difference,

is that Turkey is huge for Thanksgiving.

So in the US people during Thanksgiving

and on Thanksgiving day,

they'll eat a big Turkey, but in the UK,

people have a Turkey at Christmas.

Whereas in the US,

people tend to have a ham or some type of beef for Christmas

when it comes to food.

Now in the lead up to Christmas,

which means in the days and weeks before Christmas,

most people put up Christmas decorations.

Now this includes a Christmas tree,

and you can normally find a real Christmas tree anywhere

in your local area.

People go to these Christmas tree farms.

Sometimes they're out on a farm.

Sometimes it's a stall by the side of the road,

you choose your Christmas tree, the one you want to have,

they'll cut it down for you,

wrap it up and then you take it home.

Now, when you take it home, you put it in some water,

you put it in some kind of box to keep it steady.

And then you decorate the tree with ornaments.

You decorate it sometimes with tinsel.

If you're not sure what this is, T-I-N-S-E-L, tinsel,

you can look it up.

It's this very sparkly stuff,

which my parents never really liked tinsel.

And then to make it really magical,

you put up some Christmas lights on there, too.

So this is the centerpiece of Christmas.

When it comes to decorations.

However, in America,

in the US people go really far.

They tend to decorate the outside of the house

with big Christmas lights everywhere.

They'll put up different types of outside

ornaments and decorations,

like inflatable Santa Claus or inflatable reindeer,

so that people can really just enjoy this.

while they go past the houses.

And it's very popular in the US,

I think it's becoming more popular in the UK, too,

to decorate your house in this way,

just to show people that you are in the festive spirit,

and hopefully bring joy to some people.

In the run-up to Christmas as well.

This is a time to get your presents for family and friends.

Now, at the moment,

what we're doing is something called secret Santa,

where we all put our names into, well it's online now.

And basically you, if the six of you in the family,

you each have to get one person a present.

So it randomly selects a person

that you have to get the present for.

And this takes some of the stress away because you don't

have to buy a present for everyone.

It makes it easier as well.

And then you get the present for the person.

They open it.

And then everyone tries to figure out, to work out,

to calculate who got, whose present.

This secret Santa is really popular

in office workspaces as well.

So people tend to do that at the office.

On the whole, I buy my gifts right at the last minute

when I need to.

So for example, if you shop online,

you have a certain amount of time when you can buy

the present so that it gets delivered on time.

As I've recorded, I have done my shopping for this year.

I've bought all of the Christmas presents I need to buy.

So this is actually quite early for me,

but I only did it yesterday.

So things will come through, or some things came through

today and some things are gonna come tomorrow.

When I was younger, I used to go carol singing,

which means we used to sing different types

of Christmas carols.

And I did this at first in the community as a way

to just bring people joy as part,

I think of the local church.

And then when I got a little bit older,

my friends and I used to go to house to house for hours,

hours during the evening,

most days leading up to Christmas to go Carol singing,

to earn some more money.

So we would knock on somebody's door.

They would open it.

We would start singing a Christmas carol,

and then they would bring some money out to us,

once we had finished.

Schools in both the US and the UK breakup for Christmas,

which means that they take a break,

to break up for summer, to break up for spring,

to break up for Christmas.

So I remember the days, that the last few days of school

people used to get really excited,

because you didn't have school for a couple of weeks

and you had Christmas coming up and most kids I know,

loved Christmas, I know I did.

My friends did, my sister did.

And the last few days of school were always

a little bit easier.

Sometimes we would watch a movie in class.

We would do some kind of party games, have some fun,

maybe do some extra sport activities,

because it was very difficult to focus at that time

because everyone was just so excited about

the Christmas holidays.

And then when we broke up,

we used to just spend some time at home.

When I got older,

I would go downtown or to the town center and go shopping

for Christmas presents.

And Christmas is also a really good time for movies.

There were movies on TV throughout the day,

and this is probably one of the biggest differences

because when I was growing up,

we didn't have Netflix or any online TV.

We only really had five TV channels,

but most of them played Christmas movies and different types

of movies throughout the day.

So this was in the lead up to Christmas,

the first few days before Christmas,

on Christmas Day, on Boxing Day,

which I'll talk about in a second and throughout,

right until we went back to school.

So New Year's Eve, too.

Now I found a list with the biggest Christmas movies

in terms of ticket sales.

And number one is the Grinch.

There's also A Christmas Carol.

Elf is on the list, the Holiday, the Santa Claus,

I think really, out of those, I like The Polar Express.

If you like comedy,

try Elf, Elf, E-L-F.

A lot of people like this movie,

I think it's quite good.

I'm not a massive fan of it.

And if you like romantic comedies,

then The Holiday is a good one to watch and this

This will give you a good idea of what Christmas

is like in the US and the UK,

because it shows both of those countries

during Christmas time.

Now Christmas Day,

this depends on where you live

and what your family traditions are.

But most people, well,

most children wake up and they'll find their stocking.

Now, this is a sock filled with small presents

and fun stuff.

And it's usually at the end of their bed,

sometimes it's by a fireplace.

So this is like the start of it,

where the children will wake up and they can open up these

presents on their own.

And then Christmas morning,

some people go to church,

other people will go for a walk in the morning.

Maybe watch some TV, getting outside a lot,

a lot of the time depends on the weather.

A big thing is to have a white Christmas.

So a white Christmas is when it snows during Christmas.

Now, those who have Christmas during the summer,

never get this experience in their own country.

I remember one Christmas when it was snowy in the UK,

we had a snowy Christmas here last year,

but we weren't home.

We were, I think, in Florida at the time, on the beach,

we spent some Christmases in Florida where it's really sunny

and warm and yeah,

it's but to get a white Christmases is important

for some people.

It just brings about that magic of Christmas.

I think most people open their presents

up before lunchtime.

So before lunch people will open up that their presents.

And then one of the biggest things for Christmas Day

is Christmas dinner.

Now, Ricky Duvet said,

"The Sunday roast is the king of dinners,

"and Christmas dinner is a king of Sunday roast,"

which means that in the UK on most Sundays,

a lot of people will have a traditional Sunday roast

where they'll roast or cook some type of meat,

beef, turkey, ham, et cetera, maybe chicken

with roast potatoes, vegetables,

sometimes a Yorkshire pudding, and gravy.

My parents used to make a Sunday roast every Sunday.

It was just something we always had on a Sunday,

but then Christmas dinner is like this,

but it's a little extra special.

Now not everyone likes Turkey.

I find it okay.

It's not the best meat in the world, but it's fine.

But everyone in the UK has a Turkey for their Sunday roast.

But again, it's roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts

is very traditional

and different types of vegetables, gravy, cranberry sauce,

which is taking cranberries and making a sauce from this.

And then you all sit down in a very,

a more formal way than you normally have dinner.

And then in the UK, it's very common to have crackers,

Christmas crackers, which are these things that you have

and you grab one end of it and someone else grabs

the other end.

And it makes a popping noise when it breaks.

And then you either end up with the big part

or the little part.

And if you have the big part,

you get some stuff in there, usually a toy, a joke,

and then a Christmas crown,

like a little hat to put on during Christmas dinner.

People generally eat and sometimes drink too much

for Christmas dinner.

And usually the dad has a nap at this stage,

a nap on the sofa while everyone else watches

more Christmas movies.

So again, usually the family is all together

watching the same movie,

having the same type of experience.

Children tend to stay up late on Christmas Day as well.

To stay up late,

which is a phrase of verb, so that they can just enjoy

the day a little bit more.

But then Boxing Day, oh, Boxing Day,

my favorite day of the year,

which isn't celebrated in the US but it is in the UK,

I'm thinking Canada as well.

And it's just the day after Christmas.

And I think Boxing Day comes from

a tradition where factory owners would give their workers

a box on the day after Christmas full of stuff,

little presents, jam, stuff like that.

I used to work for a company that did this as well.

They gave us a Christmas hamper full of local products,

usually food, jam, honey, cheese, et cetera.

And then in the UK,

this is mainly celebrated by having parties, buffet-style.

And this is where people have the leftover turkey.

And then they'll use other things as well to create a buffet

where people can just get their own plate of food.

It's more informal, Boxing Day.

People feel a little bit more relaxed because Christmas can

be quite stressful for those who plan it and cook dinner.

So Boxing Day is a lot more relaxed.

It's also a big day for football,

as in soccer and most teams get their biggest attendance

of the year on Boxing Day.

So though, if your team is playing at home,

most people who normally go to a soccer game will go

on that day.

So usually they get their biggest attendances of the year,

even though the weather can be quite bad.

And again, everyone's in a good mood.

Christmas is over, distress.

'Cause Christmas can be stressful with presents

and making sure everyone has the right food

and that you got the right food in, shops are closed.

You can't go out to get something.

So on Boxing Day, it's like a release.

Everyone's had a good Christmas, they've eaten too much,

but they're ready to party again, the next day.

There are a few other things I want to talk

about including gifts.

Now, the way that children receive gifts

is through Santa Claus, who is this figure,

this guy from the North Pole,

he has some elves who creates the presents,

who makes the gifts for the children.

He has reindeer,

which he uses to help him fly through the air.

He has Mrs. Clause as well to give him help.

And on Christmas Eve, he sets off,

puts all the toys in his sleigh,

which he sits in while the reindeer take him around.

And then he goes to every child in the world,

goes on their rooftop,

down the chimney and leaves the gifts

under the Christmas tree.

Now you might be wondering, is Santa Claus real?

Is he real, well.

He is if you believe in him.

Now we did spend some time in Spain.

And one area of Spain was the Basque Country in Bilbao.

And I remember when I was there,

people told us about Olentzero, Olentzero.

And this is a character in the Basque Country who comes

to town late at night on the 24th of December

to drop off presents for children.

Now, in some places,

he comes a little bit later

and there are many traditions to this.

And it's interesting because he looks like a person,

like a very traditional Basque figure

who wears these traditional clothing,

and also the, I forget what it's called,

they're the hat that people in the Basque Country wear.

But throughout the world,

there are different types of stories and traditions

based on something similar to Santa.

And I wonder if you've got one where you live.

So that's all about the different traditions

and the main traditions when it comes to Christmas

in the UK and the US.

And like I said before,

a lot of it depends on where you live and the weather.

So for people who get a white Christmas, a snowy Christmas,

it does feel really magical,

but I did spend some time in Florida during Christmas,

like I said,

and it's just amazing to go swimming in the ocean

on Christmas Day.

So hope you found this episode interesting,

especially if you don't celebrate Christmas

or don't know much about it.

There is obviously a lot of religious aspects to this,

but I just wanted to talk more about the culture,

and the traditions and what people do, generally speaking.

And what I remember people doing when it came to Christmas.

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Bye-bye for now.