Presents:

Transcription

1 Presents: A Christmas Podcast Ethan Strauss Ethan's English Cafe 12/24/2013

2 Transcript: Hello and welcome to Ethan's English Cafe's Audio Podcast. Twice a week, every week, we look at a variety of topics including news sties, cultural ideas, English lessons and sometimes you might hear a song two. This podcast is made by me, Ethan Strauss, a 33 year old Canadian who has spent the past 10 years teaching English in China. If you are listening to this podcast without our lesson guide in front of you, join us at as a VIP member to gain access to all kinds of great things including the podcast lesson guides which give you the full transcript, vocabulary, me detailed explanations of what we talk about here as well as quizzes to help test you so you can know what you are learning and where you should be practicing me. The address again is the first step on your road to fluency. Histy: Most people know the sty of Christmas has to do with the birth of Jesus, in the Christian religion, Jesus is said to be the son of God and it is said that he was bn on December 25th. However, this igin sty is likely not true f two main reasons: Jesus First, Jesus, if we accept he was a real person, was almost certainly not bn in December. The Christian sty of his birth include many things that just weren t possible in winter, f example the Shepherds were in the fields looking after their animals, but in December the animals would be indos, especially at night, as it gets colder in Winter. So when was Jesus bn? No one knows f sure, many biblical histians say Spring while other say Autumn, but either way it s definitely not December. So why did it get changed to December? That brings us to our second reason which involves another holiday called Saturnalia Saturn Christianity grew to power in Rome, however, befe Christianity became so powerful the Roman people were polytheists, meaning they had many Gods. One of these Gods was called Saturn. Saturn was the God of agriculture, so if you wanted good crops lots of healthy baby animals, you prayed to Saturn. Saturnalia was a holiday dedicated to Saturn to thank the God f the great harvest. During Saturnalia the Romans would have large feasts, give gifts, gamble and took part in role reversals, meaning the master would have to serve food to the slave. This holiday was very well loved by the Romans and a poet of that time called it The best of days. So when the Christians started competing f control of Rome they knew they had a hard job ahead of them, how could they compete with

3 Saturnalia when the Romans loved it so much? As you might guess, the best way to compete with a great holiday is to make your own great holiday. The Christians decided to celebrate Jesus birth on December 25 th as a way to allow the Romans to still have their fun, just with a Christian theme instead of a Saturn theme. However not all of Christmas s traditions came from Saturnalia, many came from other Pagan religions as well. The Christmas tree has many possible igins but the one most commonly used is from the Nse people, that is those who lived in Scandanavia. Often we will call the Christmas tree a Yule tree. Yule comes from an old Nse wd which I don t really know how to pronounce but looks like jólfaðr and means Yule Father. This is the name of the Nse God Odin who was considered the King of the Gods. So the Yule Tree, Christmas Tree, was iginally a tree that represented the Nse God Odin. When Christians converted Germany the tree was changed to today. Christmas Tree Presents and a feast from Roman, a tree from Germany, but we re missing someone, the most imptant part of a Christmas, Santa Claus! Who what is this fat, jolly man who gives gifts to people?! Well, it turns out, he s real! Or rather, he was real. He didn t look like we know him today, in fact, the image of Santa we know today was created by a man in the USA in 1881 when a newspaper asked him to create a picture of Santa f the children. But in fact the real Santa was a man from an area of the wld where Turkey is now located. But most of his life he spent in The Netherlands. Santa has another name that is common around Christmas and that is Saint Nicholas this is actually the name of the real man, rather Nicholas was his name, he later became a Saint after his death. In the local language Saint Nicholas was pronounced similar to Sinterklas, which later in English became Santa Claus. Every culture has their own ideas about Santa Claus and what he does but in most English speaking countries, he s a fat white man with a beard who rides a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer, all around the wld giving gifts to good boys and girls. Saint Nicholas Now of course the Santa as we know him today is not real, but many of things he does come from either the real man Nicholas, the Nse God Odin. Nicholas was a man who had great wealth but no children, so he had a habit of leaving gifts f people after he visited them, especially children. He would do things like put a coin in someone s shoe stocking, which is why we hang stockings f Santa to fill. He was very kind and helped a lot of people in his city, so he was very well loved. Santa as we know him today is a large white man, with a large white

4 beard who rides reindeer a hse, depending on which culture you are from, around the wld. He also has helpers called elves who go around the wld listening to people to find out which children are good, and which are bad. Odin, the Nse God, was a large white man with a large white beard who rode a hse around the wld and had helpers that were ravens who listened to everyone and told Odin what was happening in the wld. So, though today many will tell you that Christmas is a Christian holiday, it is in fact a mixture of many different holidays and cultures from around the wld that has now become one of the most popular and imptant of Western holidays. Activities: So now we have an idea of where Christmas comes from, but what do we do on Christmas? This is a bit of a hard question to answer because every family has its own traditions. But I ll try to give the best answer I can. F many, Christmas starts weeks befe December 25 th, people will spend a lot of time decating their house and yard with lights and decations. They will also get a Christmas tree and put it in the house where they decate it as well. There are many ways to decate a tree but most trees have one thing in common, a star an angel will sit on the very top of the tree. So we have the Christmas tree up and the lights are on outside, what s next? Next is Christmas shopping, buying gifts f those people who are close to you is a very popular activity. But I will give you a wd of warning; finish your shopping early! If you don t you will be stuck in shopping malls with thousands of people, all struggling to get the perfect gift and it is a terrible situation to be in! Now you have all your gifts, next thing you must do is wrap them. Find some nice Christmas wrapping paper and wrap the gifts so no one can see what is inside them, you can

5 then either place the gifts under the tree, which makes the tree look even me beautiful, you can hide them till Christmas Eve and when everyone is sleeping you can quietly put the gifts under the tree so it looks like Santa did it. House is decated, tree is up and the gifts are wrapped, now it s time to wait till December 24 th, Christmas Eve. Here s where it gets me complicated because every family has different traditions, but I ll tell you my family s tradition. Christmas Eve in my family we spend with our immediate family, we spend the evening together eating, drinking and watching some Christmas movies. Befe bed our mom would allow me and my two brothers to open one gift only. No matter if the gift was big small, we could only have one. Of course we would always choose the biggest gift so my mom would like to trick us but doing things like one year she put a small pack of batteries inside of a really big box. Of course I chose to open that box and got 4 AA batteries f Christmas Eve, I was not happy. That night you go to bed early and in the mning on Christmas you wake up early and go and wake your parents, once everyone is up we would gather around the Christmas Tree, which has many me presents than the night befe because Santa had come. And my oldest brother would hand everyone their presents and we d excitedly open them all one at a time. Once presents were open we would have some time to play with them and then we d all go to our Grandmother s house f our extended family party. There we will have great food, play games, watch movies and drink. Christmas supper is very similar to Thanksgiving supper, we eat Turkey, lots of vegetables and f dessert we have pies, cookies and cake. We drink whatever we like, however there is one drink that is traditionally just f Christmas and that is Eggnog. Eggnog is a very thick, sweet drink made from milk, eggs and vanilla, among other things. After dinner we all gather in the living room and open our presents. Now, I have a very big family, my mom has 6 brothers and sisters, they are almost all married and have at least two children each, many of those children are also married with children, so we have a lot of people. If I had to buy a gift f them all it would make me go bankrupt so instead what we often do is one of two Christmas gift giving games, White Elephant Secret Santa.

6 A white elephant is phrase that is used to talk about a gift that is very amazing but also very useless, it came from South-East Asia where Kings would sometimes give neighbours a white elephant as a gift. White Elephants are very rare so they are an amazing gift, but what can you do with it? Feed it and hope it doesn t destroy anything. So if a King gave you a white elephant it would be a great honour but also a great burden as well. The game White Elephant hopefully will not cause you any problems, here is how to play it. First, you must decide on a limit f how much money each person can spend, usually it s best to keep it low, maybe $15 $20. Every person who will join must buy one gift that is good f both male and females and they can t spend me than that limit. You must wrap the gift so no one can guess what it is and then you bring it to the party. During the party everyone puts their gift in the center of the room and everyone must pull a number from a hat, the person who pulls 1 is the first to play, 2 is the second and so on. The first person picks one present and opens it, that is their present. The second person picks a present and opens it, they now have a choice, they can keep their present they can switch with the first person, the first person cannot refuse. Then the third person picks a present and opens it, they can also keep the present they can switch with player 1 player 2, again the other players can t say no. The fourth person picks a present and they can switch with players 1, 2 3. Every person gets to pick a present and switch if they want to and the last person is the luckiest because they get the last present and after they can, if they want, switch with any other person in the room so they get their choice of a present. Eggnog The second game is called Secret Santa and it s a bit simpler, every person writes their own name on a piece of paper, all the names go into a bag hat, than each person comes to the front and pulls one piece of paper from the bag hat and they must buy a gift f whosever name is on the paper. If they get their own name, they should put the paper back into the bag into the hat and pull again. You cannot tell anyone whose name you got and you cannot switch names with anyone. You also cannot tell the person you are buying a gift f that you are their secret santa. The gift must be anonymous. Back at my Grandma s home, once we all have our present we then go back to just enjoying the evening however we want with our family and loved ones. Later we go home and sleep and the next day when we wake up we are faced with a large mess to clean up and lots of new toys and

7 games to play with. Other families will have other traditions, f example a family that is Christian will likely go to church on Christmas day to celebrate there with other religious families. Other families will go caroling, this is when you go from do to do and sing songs f the families who are at home. Sometime my family will go skating on the day sledding, where you ride a small sleigh down a hill at fast speeds. So as you can see, the traditions of Christmas are varied and it depends entirely on what you want to do to make your Christmas special. Song #1: Now, I think no Christmas would be complete without at least one song, today I m going to agree to do something my users have been asking me f, f a long time, I m going to sing a song, two in fact! The first song will be one of the most famous Christmas songs around called Jingle Bells. It s a fairly simple song that many of you might know, if you do, try singing along, the lyrics are below this audio file. So here it goes, Jingle Bells: Dashing through the snow In a one-hse open sleigh O'er the fields we go Laughing all the way Bells on bobtail ring' Making spirits bright What fun it is to ride and sing A sleighing song tonight! *Chus*

8 Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way. Oh! What fun it is to ride In a one-hse open sleigh. Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way; Oh! What fun it is to ride In a one-hse open sleigh. A day two ago I thought I'd take a ride And soon, Miss Fanny Bright Was seated by my side, The hse was lean and lank Misftune seemed his lot He got into a drifted bank And then we got upsot. One Hse Open Sleigh *Chus* Now the ground is white Go it while you're young, Take the girls tonight and sing this sleighing song; Just get a bobtailed bay Two fty as his speed Hitch him to an open sleigh And crack! you'll take the lead. Bobtail And that is the entire song Jingle bells. I should probably mention first off that most people don t actually know the second two verses of this song, just the first verse and the chus. So we re going to look at those two at a little slower pace so everyone can sing along. It starts out with Dashing through the snow to dash means to move quickly so it s saying they are moving very quickly through the snow. In a one hse open sleigh is talking about a sleigh which is a vehicle, like a car, but without an engine tires, instead it is made to move over ice and snow. Now you can have a sleigh with a roof one without, if you don t have a roof, so you can see the sky when you look up, it s an open sleigh, which, apparently, this one is. And they also say it s a one hse open sleigh, some sleighs have two hses pulling them even many me, but this one is probably a little smaller so one hse is fine. So they re moving quickly through the snow on a vehicle pulled by one hse. O er the fields we go, laughing all the way Now you might notice

9 that I didn t actually say over, I said o er, this is older English and mostly used in poetry to make the wds sound prettier, but it means the same thing as over, so they are riding the sleigh over the fields and laughing all the way. *hahaha* Next they say Bells on bobtail ring, now bells, as you should know by now, are little metal objects that make sound when you shake them, but a bobtail is not as well known, a hse s tail is quite long, but sometimes people don t want a hse with a long tail, could be f looks other reasons, and they will cut the tail quite sht, this is a bobtail. So the bells, which on the sht tail, are ringing and making noise. Making spirits bright, spirits here refer to their mood and a bright spirit would be a happy mood. What fun it is to ride and sing, a sleighing song tonight! So they are saying it s very fun and enjoyable to be on a sleigh and sing this song. Jingle bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way so they are saying they want the bells to make lots of sound the entire time they are on the sleigh. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one hse open sleigh! So again they are just repeating that it s lots of fun to ride their sleigh. So now you know the whole meaning, next I m going to sing it a little slower so you can all sign along. Here we go: Dashing through the snow In a one-hse open sleigh O'er the fields we go Laughing all the way Bells on bobtail ring' Making spirits bright What fun it is to ride and sing A sleighing song tonight! Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way. Oh! what fun it is to ride In a one-hse open sleigh. Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way; Oh! what fun it is to ride In a one-hse open sleigh. Christmas Bells Excellent! So there s the song, sry f my terrible singing, my voice is a little low f most songs unftunately but now it s your job to show me how much better you are at it than me! And remember this is an mp3 so you can rewind and play it again as many times as you want till you ve mastered the song and are ready to recd it f your next hit CD! So that s Jingle Bells, one of the most famous Christmas songs around, later on I ll sing another Christmas hit called Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, so stick around f that! But first we ll look at some English Christmas phrases and even a couple idioms!

10 English Phrases: I guess the first thing we should talk about is what we say to others around Christmas time. The most common sayings are Merry Christmas and Happy Christmas. Merry Christmas is me common in Nth America whereas Happy Christmas is me common in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. However there is another phrase which has been causing some controversy in the USA lately and that is Happy Holidays. Happy Holidays is used when you want to refer not just to Christmas, but all the holidays around the time of December. Other holidays include the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, the African themed holiday Kwanzaa The War on Christmas and even the sillier holiday Festivus, the holiday f the rest of us. However, some strongly religious people in the USA take offense to the phrase Happy Holidays because they feel it is taking attention away from Christmas, their holiday. I would say this seems all a little crazy in my opinion as all it is doing is including me people, not excluding anyone, which just seems friendlier. You can use whichever phrase you want anyway, if anyone takes offense just igne them as they probably are not the type of person you want to make friends with anyway! Those are some nice things to say to people, but what if you don t like Christmas? Well, don t wry, If you don t like the holiday, we even have a phrase f you! When someone tries to be happy and say Merry Christmas, you can reply Bah, Humbug! This phrase comes from a very famous movie called A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. One character in the film is named Scrooge, a man who hates Christmas and especially how much people give to charity on this holiday, so whenever someone tries to make him happy to tell him Scrooge how wonderful Christmas is, he always says Bah, Humbug. Bah is just a sound used to tell someone you think what they said was foolish wrong. If someone says I don t think Ethan s podcast is so wonderful! you can say Bah, Ethan s podcast is amazing! And humbug is an English wd that was iginally used to call someone a liar someone who tricks others. Nowadays we usually only use it to say that what someone has said is foolish nonsense, though in British English it is also a type of delicious candy.

11 Another wd we can call someone around Christmas is a Grinch, a Grinch is a person who does not have any Christmas spirit. It s often used when people don t want to take part in Christmas celebrations gift giving. It iginally comes from a very famous sty called How the Grinch Stole Christmas written by Dr. Seuss. So if your friend says I don t care about Christmas, it s all just a stupid holiday to make you buy me things. You can say Well, aren t you just a Grinch today! The Grinch like Christmas in July! There s not that many Christmas themed idioms but there are two we ll look at, the first is that something is like Christmas in July! Like Christmas in July means that the thing that is happening is very shocking and surprising but also a very happy thing, something that makes you feel great joy. Of course you can t use this on Christmas, it s only used f things that happen when they aren t expected to happen. F example if in march my mother gave me a new car, I could say A new car?! That s great, it s like Christmas in July! if your boss announces they will be giving you all extra money one month because you wked so hard you can tell your cowker This is great! It s The second idiom is quite different and it is that something is like Turkeys voting f an early Christmas. This means that the thing you are discussing is a very bad idea and will cause big problems f those who are choosing it. F example if your boss wanted everyone to choose whether not they would wk overtime this weekend, you could say Why would I choose me wk? It would be like turkey s voting f an early Christmas! This is because f Christmas dinner most people eat a turkey, so if a turkey voted f an early Christmas they would be voting to be killed earlier, which does seem like a bad idea. SONG #2: So there are some good Christmas phrases and a couple idioms f you to use this holiday season! We re almost done this extended holiday podcast but befe we finish, we re going to sing one me song. This was always one of my favourite songs as a child, it s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. This song is a sty about a reindeer with a shiny nose that gets laughed at all the time until one day, his nose helps save Christmas. I ll sing it first and then we ll look at the lyrics after. As always, if you want to sing along, the lyrics are right below this audio file on my website. So here we go, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer :

12 You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen., But do you recall? The most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Had a very shiny nose And if you ever saw it You would even say it glows And all of the other reindeer Used to laugh and call him names They never let po Rudolph Join in any reindeer games The Original Eight Reindeer Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say, Rudolph with your nose so bright, Won't you guide my sleigh tonight? Then all the reindeer loved him, And they shouted out with glee, Rudolph the red-nose Reindeer You'll go down in histy Rudolph and his Red Nose So there is it, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, hopefully you followed along and maybe even sang it out using the lyrics below. Now we re going to look quickly at just what those lyrics are saying. It s a pretty simple song so hopefully it will not be too confusing. It starts out naming eight names which might seem a little strange but these are the names of Santa s other eight reindeer. Rudolph was not iginally a reindeer at all but he was created f a Christmas TV special and added to the other eight as the ninth special reindeer. So we start with You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. Just a list of the other eight reindeer s names. Then we sing But do you recall? The most famous reindeer of all? which is asking if you remember the name of the reindeer most people know best. Then starts the actual song with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Had a very shiny nose which introduces the most famous reindeer and tells us his nose is shiny bright like a light, which is of course, quite strange f a nose. The next lines are And if you ever saw it, You would even say it glows which is just further telling us that if you saw the nose you would be surprised because it was very bright. After comes the rather unftunate news that And all of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names so we can know that Rudolph was not a

13 popular reindeer and in fact was probably quite unhappy with his nose because They never let po Rudolph, Join in any reindeer games So not only did he look different but he was not allowed to join the fun games the other reindeer played. But this all changes in the next verse when we learn Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say So it was very foggy one Christmas and Santa couldn t see where to fly his sleigh. But he had a great idea, Rudolph with your nose so bright, Won't you guide my sleigh tonight? He would get Rudolph to use his big red nose to light the way in front so Santa could still deliver all the presents and Christmas was saved. Then all the reindeer loved him, And they shouted out with glee, Rudolph the red-nose Reindeer, You ll go down in histy! So because he saved Christmas all the other reindeer decided they liked him now and they were very excited and said he would be famous. A nice lovely song though I don t think the other reindeer really deserve Rudolph s friendship as they seem to only like him because he is going to be famous. We ll sing the song again slowly so you can sing along with me this time! Here we go: You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen., But do you recall? The most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Had a very shiny nose And if you ever saw it You would even say it glows And all of the other reindeer Used to laugh and call him names They never let po Rudolph Join in any reindeer games Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say, Rudolph with your nose so bright, Won't you guide my sleigh tonight? Then all the reindeer loved him, And they shouted out with glee, Rudolph the red-nose Reindeer You'll go down in histy There is one me version of this song that is sung, its a bit of a silly version but people often will add extra wds after most of the lines. I will sing this version now and you can follow along in

14 the lyrics as well. It goes like this: You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen., But do you recall? The most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (reindeer) Had a very shiny nose (like a lightbulb) And if you ever saw it (saw it) You would even say it glows (like a flashlight) And all of the other reindeer (reindeer) Used to laugh and call him names (like pinochio) They never let po Rudolph (Rudolph) Join in any reindeer games( like hide and seek) Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say, (ho ho ho) Rudolph with your nose so bright, Won't you guide my sleigh tonight? Then all the reindeer loved him,(loved him) And they shouted out with glee, (yippie) Rudolph the red-nose Reindeer (reindeer) You'll go down in histy (like Elvis) And that s another version of it, its a little bit silly but it s also very popular and you ll hear some people singing it this way. Though the wds they sing after the sentence, can be changed, you can have all different kinds of versions. So whatever you want to sing afterwards. What I sang there is probably one of the me popular versions, but it s up to you to add whatever you d like. So there we go, our extended Christmas podcast! I hope you have enjoyed it, learned a little about Christmas and what it is as well as learned some new wds, phrases and even a couple songs. If you want the full transcript of this podcast, please go to my website and join us as a VIP member, you get full access to our Podcasts, video lessons, audio lessons lesson guides, online English Classes and me so what are you waiting f? You can also join our QQ group and chat with hundreds of other English learners, if you aren t sure what QQ is, it s a Chat program made in China that you can download at Using it you can chat with millions of English learners and join our fun and exciting QQ group! You can also join us at Facebook by searching f Ethan s English Café and be sure to like our page so we know you re listening and wanting me! This is Ethan Strauss saying

15 Goodbye and Merry Christmas to everyone listening from all of us here at Ethan s English Café! Vocabulary: Will soon be upon us: This saying means that what you are talking about will arrive soon. We use this f a wide variety of things including holidays and weather. "Chinese New Year will soon be upon us!" Or "That snow stm will soon be upon us!" Nthern hemisphere: The wld can be divided into two hemispheres, halves of a circle, the nthern hemisphere including Nth America, Europe, Russia, most of Asia and most of the Middle East and the southern hemisphere including South America, Africa, Australia and the South Pacific. Shepherds: People who take care of animals in the field, they usually stay with the animals all day and sometimes at night to make sure they are safe. "My father is a shepherd."

16 Biblical: Having to do with Christian Bible. "This is a biblical sty." "I am a biblical histy, I only study the histy of the bible. Saturnalia: A holiday celebrated by the Romans in honour of one of their Gods named Saturn. "Did you know that many Christmas traditions iginally came from Saturnalia?" "Saturnalia was one of Rome's favourite holidays." Polytheists: A belief in many Gods existing. Monotheists: A belief in only one God. Atheists: A belief that no Gods exist. "Is Ethan a Polytheist a Monotheist?" "Neither, Ethan is an Atheist." Harvest: The amount of grains and crops you get from your field each year. Can also be a verb which means to take the crops off the field once they are fully grown. "We have lots to eat because we had a really good harvest this year!" "Maybe you should harvest your crops earlier this year!" Gamble: A type of game where you bet money on something happening. "I like to go to Las Vegas to gamble." "You shouldn't gamble with all your money because what if you lose?" Pagan: The older religions that came befe Christianity in Europe. "The pagan religions taught people to live in balance with the Earth."

17 "Are you a Pagan? I'm a Christian." Nse: The people and religion from the area of the wld known as Scandanavia and Germany. "The Nse people had many different Gods." "My ancests were Nse." Scandinavia: An area of the wld that is now known as Finland, Nway, Sweden and Denmark. "I want to go on holiday to Scandinavia." "The Scandinavian countries have some of the best quality of life in the wld." Evergreen: A type of tree which stays green all year round. There are many types of Evergreen trees including Pine, Spruce Fir trees. "Christmas Trees are always evergreen trees so they look prettier." "I always plant evergreen trees, they look nicer." Jolly: Happy, friendly and easy to laugh. "He sure is a jolly person, he's always laughing!" "What a jolly holiday it's been!"

18 Saint: A person who has done great things to help the Christian religion while alive so when he is dead the church wants to honour him, so they make him a saint.. "Every Christian country has a national saint." "Saint Patrick is Irelands national saint." Reindeer: A type of deer that live in the Nth, it's the only deer where both males and females have antlers. "Santa has eight reindeer, nine if you count Rudolph." "Reindeer are often farmed f meat." Stockings: A long sock that is often wn by females. "If your stockings are wet you can hang them by the fire." "I have many stockings, my favourite are blue." Elves: A sht group of magical creatures that help Santa make gifts and watch children. "Santa's Elves must be very tired after Christmas." "I've never seen an elf so they must be very fast!" Ravens: A large black bird which is very intelligent. "Ravens look the same as crows but they are much bigger." "You can teach ravens to talk if you can catch one."

19 Wd of Warning: To tell someone something to warn them of a danger. "A wd of warning, you shouldn't go in there!" "Why didn't you listen to my wd of warning, now you're stuck." Immediate Family: Your family members who are closest to you. Usually Mother, Father, brothers, sisters and children. "I have a big family but only three immediate family members." "He isn't part of my immediate family." Extended Family: The family members who are not part of your immediate family. Usually Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, Nieces and Nephews. "I love my extended family, they are always so kind." "My immediate family is very close, but I never see my extended family." Among Other Things: A saying to tell people that the items you have listed are not the entire list. "Why do I love you? Because you are kind, smart, funny and beautiful, among other things." "Among other things, the biggest reasons are that it's too late and you're too sht." Bankrupt: A To have absolutely no money to pay your bills. "I almost went bankrupt in 2012."

20 "I thought he was bankrupt but now he just bought a new house!" Anonymous: Meaning no one knows who did it. "The internet is completely anonymous, it's both a good thing and a bad thing." "I got an anonymous love letter, I wonder who sent it!" Lyrics: The wds that are sung in a song. "I don't know the lyrics to this song." "I love the lyrics but I don't like the song." Verses: A song a poem is divided into many verses. Groups of sentences that are together. "Do you know all the verses to the song?" "When I sing this song I always fget the second verse." Chus: A verse of a song which is repeated many times throughout the song. "I think the chus is too loud, it hurts my ears." "I don't even remember what the chus says." Controversy: A lot of debate fierce discussion on an issue. "Homosexual marriage has created a lot of controversy." "I don't know why there's so much controversy, why do people care?"

21 Quizzes: Multiple Choice: 1. Christmas was iginally from. A) The USA B) England C) China D) Rome 2. Santa Claus was based iginally on. A) Jesus B) God C) Saint Nicholas D) Ethan 3. Santa has many helpers called. A) Ravens B) Wkers C) Elves D) Mike 4. In a man rides a one hse open sleigh. A) Rudolph B) Jingle Bells C) New Yk D) My dream 5. Another name f the Christmas Tree is. A) Odin Tree B) Green Tree C) Fire Tree D) Yule Tree 6. A Grinch is someone who Christmas. A) Hates B) Fears C)Loves D) Misses 7. What day is Christmas on every year? A) It changes B) February 19th C) December 25th D) December 24th 8. You should always start your Christmas shopping. A) In July B) Late C) After Christmas D) Early 9. Saturnalia was a holiday to celebrate. A) God of Agriculture B) God of War C) God of Love D) God of Parties 10. Ethan's family always opens one gift on. A) His Birthday B) Christmas Eve C) December 21st D) New Years True False: 1. Christmas is the West's smallest holiday. 2. December 25th is Jesus' birthday.

22 3. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was very popular all his life. 4. To go caroling means to go house to house and share your food. 5. Merry Christmas and Happy Christmas are both Christmas greetings. 6. Some families will go to Church on Christmas. 7. White Rabbit is a popular Christmas gift giving game. 8. During Secret Santa you must not tell anyone who you will buy a gift f. 9." July is almost upon us" means that it is almost July now. 10. A white Christmas means that Christmas is very successful that year. Mix and Match: A - Extended Family The area of the wld in the Nth. B - Immediate Family The wds of a song. C - Bah, Humbug Your close family including your mother and father. D - Bankrupt - 4. A person who looks after animals in the field. E - Evergreen - 5. Large black birds which are very smart. F - Nthern Hemisphere - 6. A phrase used to say you don't care about Christmas. G - Shepherd - 7. To have no money to pay your debts. H - Anonymous - 8. Family members including your Aunts and Uncles. I - Raven - 9. Something done where no one knows who did it. J - Lyrics A tree which is green all year round.

23 Answers: Mix and Match: 1.D 2.C 3.C 4.B 5.D 6.A 7.C 8.D 9.A 10.B True False: 1. False - Christmas is the West's most imptant holiday. 2. False - Though Christmas does celebrate Jesus' birth, December 25th is not when he was bn. 3. False - Rudolph was not popular till after he helped save Christmas. 4. False - To go caroling means to go house to house and sing. 5. True - Merry Christmas is American English. Happy Christmas is British English. 6. True - Many Christian families will go to Church. 7. False - White Elephant is a popular Christmas gift giving game. 8. True - The gift must be anonymous. 9. True - Upon us means it is here. 10. False - A white Christmas means there is lots of snow. Multiple Choice: A. 8 B.3 C.6 D.7 E.10 F.1 G.4 H.9 J.2

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