You don’t need an Advent calendar to know that Christmas is coming, but opening a little numbered door to reveal a prize is an idea that everyone – religious or not – can get behind. Here’s a brief history of Advent calendars.

WHAT IS ADVENT?

Advent is the four-week period beginning on the Sunday nearest the feast day of St. Andrew the Apostle (November 30) through the following three Sundays. Historians estimate that Advent, which derives from the Latin word for coming, has been celebrated since the 4th century. Originally, the period was a time for converts to Christianity to prepare for baptism, but it’s now more commonly associated with the anticipation of the anniversary of Christ’s birth on December 25.

ADVENT CALENDAR ORIGINS

Advent calendars typically don’t follow the period of Advent described above. Instead, they begin on December 1 and mark the 24 days before Christmas. Today, most Advent calendars include paper doors that open to reveal an image, Bible verse, or piece of chocolate. The tradition dates to the mid-19th century, when German Protestants made chalk marks on doors or lit candles to count the days leading up to Christmas. The first known Advent Calendar which is from 1851. Other early styles were the Advent clock or the Advent candle – a candle for each of the 24 days until Christmas, like today’s Advent wreath. In religious families little pictures were hung up on the wall – one for each day in December. Another tradition was to paint chalk strokes on the door, one per day until Christmas Eve.

THE FIRST PRINTED ADVENT CALENDARS

The German Gerhard Lang is widely considered the producer of the first printed Advent calendar in the early 1900s.

Around the same time, a German newspaper  the “Neues Tagblatt Stuttgart” included an Advent calendar insert as a gift to its readers. Lang’s calendar was inspired by one that his mother had made for him and featured 24 colored pictures that attached to a piece of cardboard. Lang modified his calendars to include the little doors that are a staple of most Advent calendars today and they became a commercial success in Germany. Production stopped due to a cardboard shortage during World War II, but resumed soon after, with Richard Sellmer emerging as the leading producer of commercial Advent calendars.

Dwight D. Eisenhower is often credited for the proliferation of the Advent calendar tradition in the United States. During his presidency, Eisenhower was photographed opening an Advent calendar with his grandchildren and the photo ran in several national newspapers.

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THE $50,000 ADVENT CALENDAR

One of the most expensive Advent calendars to ever hit the shelves was a 4-foot, Christmas-tree shaped structure carved from burrelm and walnut wood available through Harrods in 2007. Each of the $50,000 calendar’s 24 compartments housed a piece of organic chocolate from Green & Black, with proceeds going to support cocoa farmers in Belize.

THE WORLD’S LARGEST ADVENT CALENDAR

According to Guinness World Records, the world’s largest advent calendar was built in 2007 at the St. Pancras train station in London. The massive calendar, which measured 232 feet and 11 inches tall, and 75 feet and 5 inches wide, celebrated the reopening of the station following a renovation.

THE LEGO ADVENT CALENDAR

For several years, LEGO has produced an Advent calendar set, featuring figures or constructible accessories behind every numbered door.

source: sellmer-verlag.de, mentalfloss

And now that you are familiar with the history of the advent calendars watch the video and fill in the gaps in the script.

Advent is the start of the Christmas season in Britain, it begins four …… (1) before Christmas. Advent calendars are a …… (2) to Christmas Day, they start on the 1st December. The windows of the calendar are opened every day leading up to Christmas where you can see a pretty picture or find some chocolate inside.

The very first advent calendars were produced in the early 1800’s in …… (3) although not the cardboard type we get these days. Christians thought of different ways of counting down the days from the start of Advent to Christmas Day. At first Christians kept track of the days by making …… (4) on their door, which were rubbed off one by one as Christmas got closer. Advent Candles and putting up a small religious picture to mark each day were other ways of counting down the days.

The first actual advent calendar which we still buy today was produced in the early 1900’s, although first mass-produced in 1908 by Gerhard Lang who worked at the Reichhold & Lang printing office in Munich, Germany. The business produced over thirty different calendar patterns until the 1930’s. These calendars had 24 …… (5) and were a lot better decorated than the advent calendars we have these days.

Before long, advent calendars had doors which when opened contained religious pictures, and some had chocolate in to keep the children’s attention. This was proving to be popular over the years but had to be put on hold when World War Two started, because paper, …… (6) and chocolate were limited. However, once the war was over the production of advent calendars soon picked back up in 1946, not containing chocolates though.

Towards the end of the 1950’s, chocolate advent calendars re-appeared and started to spread across the world. Ten years later, many countries were using the advent calendar to count the days to …… (7).

Advent calendars are still very popular all across the world and now come in thousands of different varieties, some with just pictures in, others with just chocolate. The religious meaning of the advent calendars has been lost though. Also they don’t stop on Christmas Eve, normally they have a bigger door for Christmas Day.

Just remember, you’re never too old for an advent calendar, I got a Thorntons Advent Calendar this year, you can see it in the video above!

Key

1. Sundays 2. countdown 3. Germany 4. chalk marks 5. doors 6. cardboard 7. Christmas Day

Types of trees used

Both natural and artificial trees are used as Christmas trees.

Some trees are sold live with roots and soil, often from a nursery, to be planted later outdoors and enjoyed (and often decorated) for years or decades.

Artificial trees have become increasingly popular, as they are considered more convenient and (if used for several years) less expensive than real trees. Trees come in a number of colours and “species“, and some come pre-decorated with lights. At the end of the Christmas season artificial trees can be disassembled and stored compactly.

The first artificial trees that were not green were the metallic trees, introduced in about 1958, and quite popular through the 1960s.

Other artificial trees may look nothing like a conifer except for the triangular or conical shape. These may be made from cardboard, glass, plastic, or from stacked items such as ornaments. Such items are often used as tabletop decorations.

Fordítsd le a szavakat, kifejezéseket angolra!

1. tűlevelű fa
2. karácsonyi égők
3. műfenyő
4. faiskola
5. színes díszek
6. asztali dísz

Key

1. coniferous tree
2. Christmas lights
3. artificial (Christmas) tree
4. nursery
5. colourful ornaments
6. tabletop decoration

Fun Christmas Facts

1. “Jingle Bells” was written for Thanksgiving, not Christmas. The song was written in 1857 by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title “One Horse Open Sleigh”. It was supposed to be played in the composer’s Sunday school class during Thanksgiving as a way to commemorate the famed Medford sleigh races. “Jingle Bells” was also the first song to be broadcast from space.

2. Rudolph’s red nose is probably the result of a parasitic infection of his respiratory system. According to Roger Highfield, the author of the book “The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey” the world’s most famous reindeer has a red nose due to a parasite. However, Rudolf’s relationship with his parasite is symbiotic: after all, the red nose illuminates the path through the winter night for the whole reindeer team.

3. In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas (the Dutch version of Santa Claus) arrives from Spain, not from the North Pole. And that’s not the only weird thing about the Dutch Christmas. Sinterklaas has his little helpers, but they are not adorable hard-working elves: they are black-faced boys and girls who can steal your kids if they misbehave, and bring them to back Spain which is, according to the Dutch, a severe punishment.

4. In Germany, Poland, and Ukraine, finding a spider or a spider’s web on a Christmas tree is believed to be a harbinger of good luck. According to one legend, a spider wove a blanket for Baby Jesus, according to the other – a spider web on the Christmas tree turned silver and gold once the sunlight touched it. One way or another, decorating a Christmas tree with artificial spiders and spider webs will inevitably bring you luck and prosperity!

5. Santa stretches time like a rubber band, in order to deliver all the gifts in one night. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there are 2,106 million children under age 18 in the world. If we assume that each household has in average 2.5 children, Santa would have to make 842 million stops on Christmas Eve, traveling 221 million miles. Given the different time zones, Santa has 36 hours to deliver gifts, therefore his average speed would be approximately 650 miles per second. It is less than the speed of light (therefore, it’s, theoretically, doable but still quite hard for a chubby old man). Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University, suggests that Santa uses relativity clouds to get the work done. Relativity clouds, based on relative physics, allow Santa to stretch time like a rubber band which gives him months to deliver gifts, while only a few minutes pass for the rest of us.

6. Two weeks before Christmas is the one of the two most popular times for couples to break up. According to data analyzed from Facebook posts and statuses, couples are more likely to end their relationship two weeks before Christmas and two weeks after Valentine’s day, during the spring break. Christmas Day, however, is the least favorite day for breakups.

7. In Armenia, the traditional Christmas Eve meal consists of fried fish, lettuce and spinach. Many Armenians fast for a week before the Christmas Eve, that’s why, in order not to stress the stomach, the menu for the Christmas dinner is pretty light.

8. Japanese people traditionally eat at KFC for Christmas dinner. Although the percentage of Christian people in Japan is close to zero, every Christmas, kids and grown-ups head to the closest KFC to enjoy some fried chicken – the closest food to turkey that you can get in Japan. It’s all thanks to a successful “Kentucky for Christmas!” marketing campaign in 1947. First aimed at foreigners, KFC offered a “Christmas dinner” that contained chicken and wine – a meal that remotely resembled the food expats and tourists had at home. After a huge success, Kentucky Fried Chicken started promoting this offer every year, until the fast food chain became strongly associated with the holiday season.

9. The “X” in “Xmas” doesn’t take “Christ” out of “Christmas. Xmas is a common abbreviation of the word Christmas, however, some people think that this spelling is not right, because it takes the “Christ” out of Christmas. Don’t worry, no one is taking the “Christ” anywhere. In the Greek alphabet, the letter X (“chi”) is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ or Christos.

10. The first artificial Christmas tree wasn’t a tree at all. It was created out of goose feathers that were dyed green. The first artificial Christmas trees were developed in Germany in the 19th century, due to a major continuous deforestation. The feather trees became increasingly popular during the early 20th century and finally made their way to the US.

11. Iceland has 13 Santas and an old lady who kidnaps children. Christmas in Iceland is a colorful fusion of religion, fairy tales and folklore. Instead of one Santa, the kids are visited by 13 Yule Lads that either reward children for good behavior or punish them if they were naughty. The holiday period begins 13 days before Christmas and each day one of the 13 Yule Lads comes to houses and fills the shoes that kids leave under the Christmas tree either with sweets and small gifts or rotting potatoes, depending on how that particular child has behaved on the preceding day. The mother of Yule Lads, half-troll, half-beast, horrifying old woman Grýla, kidnaps naughty kids and boils them in her cauldron.

12. In Germany, Heiligabend, or Christmas Eve, is said to be a magical time when the pure in heart can hear animals talking. They can also see that rivers turn into wine, Christmas tree blossoms bear fruit, mountains open, revealing gems hidden inside and bell ringing can be heard from the bottom of the sea.

source: pastbook.com

Which country can you relate the followings to?

1. bell ringing in the bottom of the see., Christmas tree blossoms bear fruit

2. Sinterklaas, black-faced boys and girls

3. 13 Santas and an old lady, Yule Lads

4. spider, spider’s web, artificial spider

5. fried fish, lettuce, spinach

6. KFC Christmas dinner

7. dyed goose feather artificial Christmas tree

Key

1. Germany

2. The Netherlands

3. Iceland

4. Germany, Poland, Ukraine

5. Armenia

6. Japan

7. Germany, US

One of the early Christmas traditions begun by Christians in Britain was the decorating of the home with evergreens.  While the Christmas tree would not find its way from Germany to Britain until 1840, holly, ivy, bay, and rosemary were all used as symbols of everlasting life.  What’s more, rosemary stood as a symbol of remembrance and bay of valour.  Holly, with its masculine symbolism and ivy as its feminine counterpart were also meant to represent the stability of a home.

White Christmas Origin

In 2014, it was reported that it’s only snowed in Britain on Christmas 4 times in the last 52 years.  The image of a white Christmas is thought to have originated with the writings of Charles Dickens.  During his lifetime, he grew up in a “Little Ice Age” and it snowed each Christmas for the first eight years of his life, supposedly influencing him to include it in his imagery for A Christmas Carol and other works.

Christmas No. 1s

The tradition of the Christmas no. 1 single began in 1973 when Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody” hit the top of the charts on Christmas Day (though other Christmas songs had made it to the top spot before this).  As Christmas is a major time for buying albums (along with many other items), it became part of British culture for bands to contribute songs especially for the holiday season.  Since 2002, these have largely been singles by singers affiliated with the programme X-Factor.  This trend was beaten in 2009 by a successful radio and Facebook campaign to get Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 single “Killing in the Name” as the no. 1 (specifically for its line “F*** you! I won’t do what you tell me!”).   The highest selling Christmas single was Band Aid’s 1984 hit “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” at 3.5 million copies.  The second highest is Wham!’s “Last Christmas” in the same year with 1.4 million.  The Beatles have the record for the most no. 1 singles on Christmas Day at 4 with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1963, “I Feel Fine” in 1964, “Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out” in 1965, and “Hello, Goodbye” in 1967.

Father Christmas Lives in Scotland

Letters to Father Christmas that give his address as “Toyland” or “Snowland” will typically go to Edinburgh.  Ones addressed to the North Pole will go to the post office of Santa Claus Holiday Village on the outskirts of Rovaniemi in the Arctic Circle of Finland.

Christmas Present from Norway

Oslo has sent London a Christmas tree every year since 1947 as a thank you for Britain’s contributions to the fighting in World War II.  The tree is placed in Trafalgar Square.

Welsh

In the Welsh language, Christmas is called “Nadolig Llawen.”

Christmas Savings

Britons usually spend nearly £22 billion during the holiday season, special Christmas discounts and coupons will save consumers £51 million.  Shoppers also spend £700 million on unwanted Christmas gifts, like the horrible jumper your aunt gave you.

What’s in the Box?

Boxing Day’s name originates from the “Christmas box” that servants and staff would receive from their employers on the day after Christmas.

Hogmanay

Celebrated in Scotland the same way that New Year’s Eve is celebrated in England and the rest of the world, Hogmanay was once more popular than Christmas.  Christmas wasn’t treated in the festival sense that it is today and Hogmanay was the time for friends and family to get together to celebrate the solstice and exchange gifts.  Christmas was a normal working day in Scotland up until 1958.

First Christmas

The very first Christmas holiday celebrated in England is believed to have taken place in York in 521 A.D., by none other than the mythical King Arthur, whose forces marred the celebrations with their retaking of the city.

source: anglotopia

What can you connect to the following words? Can you fill in the table?

Key:

The craze started after author Carol Aebersold penned the children’s book of the same name in 2005. Now it is a Christmas decoration sitting on the shelf of the homes but parents are supposed to move the puppet around the house each day. Why? They help Santa so that the little elf can watch over the children and report back to Santa whether they should be on the naughty or nice list.

However, the elf on the shelf has taken on a new meaning to Internet friends in the last few years who have hilariously turned the elf on the shelf into a meme.

The rhyme in the name elf on the shelf has grabbed the attention of meme lovers on the internet since 2017 and it also appeared on Instagram in 2020 as well.

The meme constitutes the creator typing ‘You’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf’ and then a picture of the meme with another rhyming pair of things.
In 2020 thanks to Instagram, a new meme challenge was born where celebrities are superimposing images of other celebrities that rhyme with their name into their pictures.

Elizabeth Banks shared a red-carpet photo of herself with Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump imposed sitting on her shoulder.

Reese Witherspoon also responded to Banks, writing “Oh hey @elizabethbanks! I see your Hanks-on-Banks and I raise you a Grease-on-Reese. #myelf” with a photo of Grease’s Sandy and Danny dancing on her shoulder.

Queen of Christmas tunes Mariah Carey shared a picture of Jim Carrey as the Grinch tiptoeing on her shoulder, writing: “Throwing some tinsel on this challenge and presenting you #CarreyOnCarey 😄”

sources (articles; video and picture; Meme picture): Metro, The U.S. Sun; Elf On A Shelf, Michael Bublé, Youtube; Celebrities Pose with ‘Elf on a Shelf’ Memes, Daily Blast LIVE, Youtube

Itt pedig meghallgathattok egy kedves dalt ebben a témában:

source: The Elf on the Shelf’s Night Before Christmas Song & Music Video, The Elf on the Shelf, Youtube

2.Plum Christmas Pudding
The tradition of eating plum pudding on Christmas might have originated with a Roman Catholic Church decree to make a 13-ingredient pudding to represent Christ and the apostles. On the informally named “Stir It Up Sunday,” on the Sunday before the beginning of the Advent season, families made this pudding by taking turns stirring the batter from east to west to commemorate the Magi’s journey.

Plum stood in for any dried fruit, as reflected by Victorian pudding recipes that included raisins, currants, beef suet, citrus zest, almonds, and spices — but not plums or even prunes.

3.Buche de Noel
The Bûche de Noël is a log-shaped cake meant to evoke the Yule log that once burned in European homes throughout Christmas as well as the massive decorated logs that Celts used to burn outside to celebrate the winter solstice – the term “yule” refers to this day of the year.

To honor this tradition in an edible and decadent way, sweet cakes were baked and rolled to mimic the aspect of a log. Nowadays, chocolate Yule logs are commonly made of layered or rolled genoise sponge cake filled with mousse or buttercream. Often decorated with marzipan or meringue mushrooms, forest creatures, or holly leaves, the log can be simply dusted with powdered sugar and decorated with a few red berries.

4.Fruitcake
The recipes for the heavily fruit-laden, sometimes boozy fruitcakes we associate with Christmas today have their roots in the Middle Ages. Dried fruits and sugar were expensive imports, so using them in large quantities was strictly a special-occasion endeavor; that’s why fruitcake was also a traditional wedding cake option. Plus, in the days of hard-to-regulate wood-burning ovens, successful cake baking was a tricky effort, and taking the risk of burning such precious ingredients was only reserved for the very knowledgeable and only during special occasions.

Although there are as many fruit cake recipes as there are cooks, they all agree on the use of spices, a combination of dried or candied fruit, and some liquor or wine.

5.Mincemeat
Mincemeat, in its original incarnation of a mixture of chopped meat mixed with dried fruits, sugar, and spices was a way to stretch a meat supply and use up leftovers. Over time, less and less meat was included in the recipe, so that the mincemeat we know today is made entirely from fruits, sugar, alcohol, and sometimes, in a nod to its origins, suet.

By the 16th century, mince pies were a British Christmas specialty. Some suppose that mincemeat pies were popular at Christmas thanks to the Saturnalia tradition of presenting sweetmeats to Roman fathers in the Vatican. Puritans condemned mincemeat pies as a Catholic custom, which may explain why they’re less popular in the US than in the UK.

source: the spruceEats

Válaszd ki, melyik szó leírását olvasod a feladatban.

1. Robbie Williams used to prefer New Year’s Eve.
2. He met Graham Norton’s wife who completely changed his opinion
   about Christmas.
3. Robbie’s wife works as a professional memory maker.
4. Robbie’s house in America is full of his American relatives and friends
   so British people rarely visit them.
5. Robbie’s American friends wanted to make up a British Christmas tradition.
6. This tradition is called as “bake the bread”.
7. According to this tradition two American relatives hold the baguette either end.
8. While British people in the room are chanting the name of the tradition,
   somebody karate chops the bread.

keys/megoldások:
1. A;
2. B, Robbie Williams’s wife made him change his opinion about Christmas;
3. B, she is like a professional memory maker
4. B, Robbie’s house in America is full of British people and his extended American family and friends also come.
5. B, Robbie and his British friends decided to make up a British tradition for their American friends to fool them.
6. B, it is called as “break the bread”
7. C, he mentions two American people, it is not clear whether they are relatives or friends.
8. A

Most pedig egy másik “kitalált” karácsonyi szokásról olvashattok, mely amerikai családoknál elterjedt. Rajtuk keresztül került el oda, ahonnan “eredetileg” származik. Mi is ez?
A karácsonyfán elrejtett kapros ecetes uborka formájú dísz. Készítettünk hozzá egy olvasott szövegértéses feladatot is nektek.

Every family has its own holiday traditions and some might hide a Christmas dill pickle ornament in their tree.
This tradition, which allegedly has roots in Germany, has been adopted by a growing number of American households in the Midwest and elsewhere. Usually, the glossy green ornament in the shape and texture of a pickle is hung somewhere deep in the tree. The first child to find the pickle on Christmas morning is the recipient of good luck in the coming year and a special gift. (The other children are presumably fresh out of luck.)

Many of these families are under the impression that the Christmas pickle, or Weihnachtsgurke, was brought over to the United States by German immigrants. It’s been said the people of 19th-century Spreewald were too poor to have actual ornaments so they hung pickles instead.

However, the reality is that the vast majority of Germans have never heard of this tradition. In 2016, after word of Americans hanging pickles was picked up by German newspapers, a survey found that 91 percent of German households had no idea about Christmas pickles or what they were intended to represent.

It turns out that clever marketing may be behind it. When retail giant Woolworths began importing German ornaments in the 1890s, they noted that some were in the shape of a pickle and began ascribing a deeper meaning behind it. This was no ordinary ornament—it was a pickle steeped in the customs of an exotic land.

Much later, in the 1990s, ornament artisans began relating the apocryphal story of the pickle, saying its green color blended with the tree and that a child would be rewarded for their “keen observation” in finding it.

One prominent German ornament manufacturer, Lauscha Glass Center, started making the ornaments in the mid-1990s – but only after one of their employees visited Michigan and saw the Christmas pickle adorning trees there.
So, if you’re looking to do something different this season, consider the pickle. Happy holidays.

source: MentalFloss

interesting expression:

to be fresh out of luck: Having bad fortune, experiencing a misfortune

source: Dictionary.com

A cikk elolvasása után válaszd ki, hogy a megkezdett mondatokat melyik opció (A vagy B) egészíti ki, az olvasottak alapján. Lesznek mondatok, ahol mindkét opció helyes (AB) lesz.

The origins of the speech

Originally the speech was called the King’s Christmas Message as first it was delivered by King George V Queen Elizabeth II’s grandfather in 1932 and was meant to be a one-off event to inaugurate the BBC World Service. The idea for a Royal Christmas speech has come from Sir John Reith, founder of the BBC. King George V addressed the 52 member states in the Commonwealth of Nations with the following words through the radio: “I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all; to men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them, men and women of every race and colour who look to the Crown as the symbol of their unity. To those who are celebrating this day with their children and their grandchildren, to all, to each, I wish a happy Christmas. God bless you.” The broadcast time of 3 pm was chosen so that all parts of the Commonwealth could listen to the broadcast at a convenient and reasonable time. Today, the message is broadcast to New Zealand at 6:50 pm local time, Australia at 7:20 pm local time, and Canada at midday local time, as well as live on the Royals’ YouTube channel. The first Christmas speech, written by the famous writer Rudyard Kipling, was 251 words long and lasted about three minutes. Today’s Christmas speeches are written by Queen Elizabeth II herself and are about 656 words on average, lasting approximately 10 minutes.  

From radio to podcasts, and 3D

The first Christmas speeches were broadcast on the radio from a makeshift studio at Sandringham connected by telephone lines to the Broadcasting House. The broadcast was extremely well received. Over 20 million people listened to it. The King’s slightly gravelly voice was particularly well-suited to his image as the ‘grandfather’ of the empire.

But the Christmas speech didn’t become an annual tradition immediately. There were no Christmas messages in 1936 and 1938. The custom of the yearly Royal Christmas Address was established in 1939 when King George VI wanted to reassure people and boost morale during WWII.

Queen Elizabeth II gave her first Christmas address in 1952 and has given a speech every year since then apart from 1969 when instead of broadcasting a Christmas message she wrote one having felt that she and her family had been in the spotlight too much after the release of the documentary film ‘Royal Family’ in connection with the investiture of the Prince of Wales. The Queen wrote ‘I want you all to know that my good wishes are no less warm and personal because they come to you in a different form.’

Since 1952 the Queen has delivered 66 Christmas Day speeches so far and is going to broadcast her 67^th speech this Christmas. In 1952 when she took over from her father she did so with the following words: “Each Christmas at this time, my beloved father broadcast a message to his people in all parts of the world. Today I am doing this to you who are now my people. My father and my grandfather before him worked all their lives to unite our people ever more closely and to maintain his ideals which were so near to their hearts. I shall strive to carry on their work.” In 1952 the broadcast was shown on television for the first time, but with sound only. In her first Christmas address, the Queen described the British Commonwealth and Empire as an “immense union of nations” which “can be a great power for good – a force which I believe can be of immeasurable benefit to all humanity.”

The first real televised broadcast took place in 1957 as by then, television was part of most homes. The Christmas broadcasts from then on were illustrated with scenes from all over the Commonwealth. In her first televised Christmas broadcast, the young Queen of 31 was wearing a particularly elegant dress and was speaking from her office. A photograph of Prince Charles and Princess Anne, aged 9 and 7, was visible on her desk.

The broadcast was first shown in colour in 1967. 2006 was the first year when people could download the speech as a podcast. In 2012, Sky News produced the Christmas address in 3D. Viewers were able to see the Queen wearing their 3D glasses. On a “behind the scenes” video we can even see the Queen watching herself on the screen with 3D glasses instead of her usual rimless spectacles. To accommodate to the digital world nowadays the broadcast is live on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram as well as on television and the radio.

The Queen’s Christmas speech typically reflects on the year past and the major events that have happened in it. She also mentions her own personal milestones of the year, talks about the real meaning of Christmas, and gives a message of love and peace. The speech addresses global, national, and personal events. The planning of the speech begins months before Christmas as soon as the Queen decides on the theme for the year. It is recorded a few days before Christmas and is embargoed until 3 pm on 25^th December.

Fascinating facts

– Elizabeth II was only 14 years old when she first delivered a speech on the radio to encourage the children of wartime Britain in 1940. The speech is available on YouTube.

– The Christmas message attracts huge crowds of viewers. In 2015, the Queen’s message was the most-watched Christmas Day TV programme in Great Britain, pulling in 7.5 million viewers in total, beating Downton Abbey’s 6.9 million.

– The length of the speeches varies from 4 minutes 52 seconds in 1977 to 20 minutes 29 seconds in 1978. The average length is about 10 minutes.

– The images of the Queen delivering her speech have some characteristics. The same props are there year after year: a Christmas tree and an illuminated lamp to express the hope of the light of Christmas. Christmas cards are displayed in the room and there are framed photographs in the background.

– Apart from the colour of her hair, the Queen has changed remarkably little over the years. She always wears plain dresses in a different colour every year, brighter when she was younger (green, pink, yellow), softer or darker now (all shades of blues, purple or very dark red) with the same type of jewels: a watch, pearl earrings, three strings of a pearl necklace and a different brooch each year.

– During the 1957 broadcast, some viewers complained that their radio transmissions were interrupted by an American police radio frequency and they could hear a police officer saying “Joe, I’m gonna grab a quick coffee.”

– According to mathematicians at UCL, the Queen has said 42,000 words during her Christmas addresses. But only 3,991 of them are distinct. That means that she has used 90% of the words more than once in a Christmas address. The Queen likes to repeat the phrases ‘shining example’ ‘weak and innocent’ and ‘the Commonwealth.’

– The three keywords in all her Christmas messages are “Family, Commonwealth, and Christmas.”

It’s a vision that is watched – unseen by the Cratchits – by a fast-repenting Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present who is showing the miser the error of his ways.

Duly chastened by his supernatural experience, the newly festive Scrooge sends over, on Christmas morning, a turkey that is “twice the size of Tiny Tim” – and will certainly feed more people than the goose. This set the seal for the popular English Christmas meal. But what did people eat at Christmas time before goose and turkey?

A time of gifts

In the anonymous late 14th-century poem Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain is served “many delicacies” on Christmas Day in the castle of Sir Bertilak, but no meat in the meal he eats on Christmas Eve, which was a time for fasting.

During the medieval period, it was traditional in wealthier households for a boar’s head to take pride of place at the centre of the festive table – a tradition alluded to when Sir Bertilak presents Gawain with the head and flesh of the boar he has killed. A 15th-century carol, The Boar’s Head, celebrates the dish like this:

Chief service in all this land

Wheresoever it may be found,

Served up with mustard.

Of course the poor would have eaten what they could get, including scraps from their master’s table if they had access to them.

Good bread and good drink

For the Elizabethans, no specific food was special during Christmas time. In Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry (1573), Thomas Tusser recommended: “Good bread and good drink”. Meat was the dominant foodstuff:

Beef, mutton, and pork, and good pies of the best

Pig, veal, goose, and capon, and turkey well dressed.

Potatoes – a product of the New World, like the turkey – were not a regular feature of feasts until the middle of the 17th century. Even then they remained expensive – which is why bread and pies dominate in descriptions of Christmas foodstuffs before Dickens. Vegetables are rare in descriptions of early feasts and do not feature in the Cratchit Christmas dinner. The Brussels sprout – a member of the cabbage family, specially developed by 16th-century Belgian farmers – may have become a staple of the modern Christmas dinner in part due to fashion and an increasing awareness of nutrition, and the fact that cabbage had a reputation since ancient times of preventing drunkenness.

Robert Herrick’s Ceremonies for Christmas (1648) urges “merry, merry boys” to bring in the Christmas log and to consume strong beer and white bread “while the meat is a-shredding / For the rare mince-pie”. The yule log would have been lit on Christmas Eve; the modern confection of sponge and chocolate is a nod towards this old tradition. On the contrary, mince pies used to be savoury – in Hannah Woolley’s popular cookbook of the time, The Queen-Like Closet (1670), there is a recipe for “good minced pies” containing veal. Puddings too were often savoury, similar to haggis – although it is the sweet plum pudding that would become the traditional Christmas pud.

Twelfth night

Yet for the Elizabethans, and subsequent generations too, Twelfth Night (January 6) rather than Christmas Day was the main focus of revelry during the Christmas season. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (first performed around 1602) Sir Toby Belch evokes the historical figure of the Lord of Misrule. When Sir Toby mocks Malvolio’s puritanism with “Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?” he anticipates the banning of such food during the English Commonwealth of 1649 to 1660.

Herrick’s poem Twelfth Night, or King and Queen (1648) describes the Twelfth Night Cake – a spiced fruit cake containing a bean and a pea that represents the king and queen with the recipients of each being crowned king and queen for the night. Herrick’s “bowl full of gentle lamb’s wool” (hot ale, roasted apple pulp, and spices) is used to wassail (toast) the pretend king and queen.

Samuel Pepys makes several references to Twelfth Night Cake in his diary, including an entry for January 6 1668 where he describes “an excellent cake” that cost him nearly 20 shillings – about one day’s salary from his job as Clerk of the Acts at the Navy Board.

Twelfth Night remained the focus of festivities during the Regency period and Jane Austen would have been familiar with the eponymous cake. She also mentions Christmas in her novels but does not specify the Christmas Day meal. In Emma, there is a Christmas Eve dinner at Randalls, the home of the Westons, where saddle of mutton is served, and in Persuasion, a visit to the Musgroves during the Christmas holidays reveals tables “bending under the weight of brawn and cold pies”. Brawn here indicates a dish of meat from the head of a pig set in its own jelly and so harks back to the boar’s head from medieval times.

The closest most of us get to Boar’s Head these days is likely to be a pub whose name commemorates it. So we can largely thank Charles Dickens, who was himself very fond of turkey, for the tradition of the Christmas dinner turkey – a gift from the newly reformed Scrooge, which now forms the centrepiece of most Christmas tables.

source: theconversation.com

What did people eat for Christmas or Twelfth Night in different periods of history in Britain? Can you find the information in the text?

Key

The reverse advent calendar is becoming increasingly popular. Instead of (or as well as) eating a piece of chocolate to mark the days that lead up to Christmas, the idea is to put aside an item each day to donate. The aim of making a reverse advent calendar is to help the less fortunate at Advent, at this special time of the year.

All you need to do to participate is to grab a box and, every day from the 1st to the 24th December, place one non-perishable item in it. At the end of the 24 days, you will be ready to give a box of gifts to people who desperately need your help.

Reverse advent calendars are a lovely way to support people who are struggling to afford the basics at Christmas time. Food banks really appreciate every single donation – it makes such a difference in the short-term

How to make a reverse advent calendar

The first task is to decide what you’re going to collect. You can either pick a theme – toiletries, books, clothes, food, toys – or decide to do a mix.

Then, find a box or container that you can put your donations in each day. This can be a cardboard box, or a carefully and festively decorated calendar complete with glitter-covered doors, depending on your creative skills. After all, what matters is what’s inside.

Each day, choose an item to go in your reverse advent calendar. Then, on the final day take your collection to a church, a charity or someone in need.

You will definitely make someone very happy with your gift!

source: twnews.co.uk

Can you collect items that you can put into a reverse advent calendar box?

1. toiletries

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2. non-perishable food

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3. gift items

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4. toys

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Key:

1. toiletries: toothbrush. toothpaste, soap, deodorant, shampoo, hairbrush, comb, after shave, razor, shaving foam
2. non-perishable food: flour, sugar, chocolate, canned food, dried fruits, nuts and seeds, cookies, cereal bars, dried soups, UHT milk, fruit juice
3. gift items: colour pencils, felt-tip pens, crayons, colouring books, Christmas ornaments, books, exercise books, pens, hat, scarf, gloves, ribbon, hairband
4. toys: toy car, puzzle, doll, plush animals, board games, ball

Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25, is one of the biggest celebrations of the year in many countries around the world. Christmas is a very important day for the members of the Christian religion because it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. At church services around the world, people retell the story of the birth of Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem. In many countries the Christmas season actually lasts for almost a month. Streets, squares, homes and shops are decorated and illuminated everywhere.

Many of the traditional Christmas customs originate in pagan festivals. Thousands of years ago people were often afraid of the long, cold winter nights. When the days finally became longer, people celebrated the return of the sun by making bonfires, feasting on large meals and exchanging gifts. After the birth of Christ, many of these traditions were combined with the celebration of Christmas.

The word Christmas, itself, comes from the Old English name ‘Cristes Maesse’. The first recorded observance occurred in Rome in AD360, but it wasn’t until AD440 that the Christian Church fixed a celebration date of 25 December.

Christmas in Britain

Most people are on holiday in the UK and stay at home with their families on Christmas day, the main day for Christmas celebrations in Britain, when the family members gather to have a Christmas dinner at midday. During the weeks before Christmas, people send cards and go to Carol services and put up Christmas decorations in their homes. There is one very British Christmas ritual, which is watching the Queen’s message on TV. The tradition began in 1932 when King George V read a special speech written by Rudyard Kipling. The broadcast was an enormous success. Queen Elizabeth II continues the tradition to this day. Every year she broadcasts her message on Christmas Day, and it is heard by millions of people all over the world. In England most people watch or listen to it after their Christmas Dinner!

Pulling a Christmas cracker is also a popular British tradition. But what is a Christmas cracker? Christmas crackers are tubes made of brightly coloured paper. When pulled apart, it makes a pop sound. Crackers usually contain a small gift, a paper hat and a joke. Crackers are famous for their very bad jokes! The party hats look like crowns, similar to the ones worn by the Wise Men. There is normally a cracker next to each plate on the Christmas dinner table.

Christmas in the United States

Just like in the UK, Christmas in the USA is observed on the 25^th of December. Here the festive season begins on the fourth Thursday in November, just after the Thanksgiving holiday. Christmas Eve in the USA is not an official holiday, which means that most people have to work. However, many workplaces hold Christmas parties and celebrations. After dinner on Christmas Eve, children go to bed early but not before hanging up their stockings on the fireplace or the end of their bed to be filled with gifts by Santa Claus. On the following morning, children wake up to look for their presents in their stockings and under the Christmas tree.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day is a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. It is also a holiday in many other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations. It is based on a long custom of giving gifts to poor people. It is usually celebrated on 26 December, the day after Christmas Day. In some countries the public holiday is moved to the next weekday if 26 December is a Saturday or Sunday. Boxing Day is an old custom going back to the Middle Ages. 

Christmas in Hungary

In Hungary the Christmas tree is decorated on Christmas Eve. In addition to the usual decorations, Hungarians also put fondant candies on and under the tree. According to the Hungarian tradition, the Christmas presents are brought by baby Jesus, although some families (who belong to other religions or are atheists) follow the Santa Claus tradition, which was promoted also by the communist government that ruled until 1990. Typical Hungarian Christmas dishes include: fish soup or bouillon, stuffed cabbage, roast turkey with stuffing, and the famous poppy seed or walnut rolls, which is a traditional Hungarian pastry, mostly eaten during the winter holidays. It is basically a kind of sweet bread, known as ‘beigli’ in Hungary. During the last few decades other variants (such as chestnut, plum jam, prune, or even cocoa) have become popular, too.