Intro: Welcome to the English Tonight Podcast where you can learn English
online in your own time, even at 2 a.m. in your pajamas.
Janet: Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of the English Tonight
Podcast. My name is Janet and I am the host of this podcast. This is
episode #7. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day and life to
listen to this podcast. To find a free written transcript of this podcast,
please go to www.speakenglishtonight.com.
In this episode, I will be talking about my personal experiences of
celebrating Christmas in the United States. Before I begin, I believe my
experience is pretty typical, meaning that lots of people have this similar
experience to mine, but everyone is different and not all Americans are
people from the United States celebrate holidays, let’s say in the same
way. Just like in your country, everyone and their family may have
different traditions, values, and customs which is neither good or bad, it’s
just different. So, let’s get started.
Um people usually start getting ex-excited for Christmas, the day after
Thanksgiving. So, the last Friday of November. Many people uh go
shopping on this day, it’s called “Black Friday” in the United States and
there’re lots of sales. They also put up their Christmas trees and start
decorating their houses is very common um in late November and people
are in the Christmas spirit for about a month from late November until
Christmas.
Christmas is celebrated on two days, December 24th is Christmas Eve and
December 25th is Christmas. Even though it is only celebrated on one or
two days depending on your traditions, many people do different activities
and traditional things leading up to Christmas, so in the month or weeks
before Christmas.
Christmas is a holiday that is important in the United States. It is highly
commercialized, so many people seem to focus on material items such as
gifts and what they are getting for each other and spending lots of money
and it seems to be as time goes on pulling more and more away from the
original meaning that does come from the church. Um let’s see what else.
Many small children from birth to about age 10 believe in Santa Claus and
Santa Claus is a guy that is kind of big or fat and dresses in a red suit, red
and white suit and wears a red and white hat as well and he um flies
around the world I guess in a sleigh with reined…with reindeers leading
him. So, Santa brings gifts to girls and boys that have been good
throughout the year and they say that he brings coal to the girls and boys
that have been bad.
Um many people um bring their children to sit on Santa’s lap at malls and
get their picture taken before Christmas. So, many malls or large
shopping centers in the US have a big Christmas display and a real-life
Santa in the middle of the mall during December and families often wait
in long line so that their children can sit on Santa’s lap and get a picture
and then the kids usually tell Santa what they want for Christmas.
Another tradition that many people um have is making Christmas cookies.
So, many families like to get together and not just women; women,
children and some men as well I am sure, and they like to bake different
types of Christmas cookies. I know a few of my cousins love to get
together every year and they kind of go all out and are kind of ex…are
kind of extreme and like to cook like 10 or 12 different types of cookies,
which makes for a very long day, but they really like-like doing it, it’s
their favorite part of the year and they get to spend time with others and
people in their family.
Another thing, some people decorate the outside of their house, so they put
lots of different lights or different big, like Santas and reindeers and some
people kind of go um some people don’t put a lot, they just have a few
strands of lights and then other people have so many lights that you can
see their house from blocks and blocks away. So, it’s fine to drive around
at Christmas time during December and see houses that are all lit up um
with lights and decorations.
It is also very common for families to decorate Christmas trees inside of
their house. So, some people have plastic Christmas trees that they buy at
stores and then other people have real trees that they can just use one time
and then they…obviously the tree dies and they throw it out.
There are usually two different places that you can get live Christmas
trees; you can go to like the forest and there are places that actually give
you a saw, hand saw and let you walk around and chose the tree that you
most like and cut…actually cut it down by yourself and then you pay
when you leave, and then other places um you can find trees like in
parking lots of stores and malls and buy a Christmas tree there. Those are
called Christmas tree lots.
Now, let’s talk about the actual holiday. So, on Christmas Eve, we usually
get together with our family and I think it’s pretty traditional that um
people spend holidays with their family um if your family lives nearby.
Um on Christmas Eve, my family always got together with my mom’s
side of the family, so my mom’s relatives.
On Christmas Eve, we would exchange presents or gifts. We would eat a
lot of food, talk and drink just typical things that people do when they get
together.
After celebrating on Christmas Eve, we would go back home and before
going to bed on the 24th, which is Christmas Eve, we would leave a plate
of Christmas cookies and a glass of milk for Santa Claus and we would
put it by the fireplace um and m-most people believe that Santa Claus
comes down the chimney with all his gifts um but I guess if you don’t
have a fireplace or chimney, he would have to magically get in a different
way.
Um, so usually on…from Christmas Eve to Christmas morning, I would
have a really hard time sleeping, I would wake up, I would keep checking
to see if Santa came. I was kind of…I-I guess I was really excited as a
child to see what I was going to get for Christmas.
Um, I would usually wake up finally, I would, it was pretty early, like
around 6 a.m. and then I would try to convince my parents to get out of
bed and let us open our presents. Um, Santa usually left us gifts by the
fireplace and he also filled our Christmas stockings which are kind of like
big socks that are decorated and some of them have…um mine has my
name on it, it says Janet and other people just have their initials or you can
just buy generic red and green ones at the store.
So, Santa usually left um filled their stockings with different little gifts or
chocolates and I was also, I was very curious to see if Santa ate the
cookies and milk that we left for him.
So, after opening presents in the morning, I-we would usually have a few
hours to relax and usually as kids we were already playing with the new
things that we got and then later on Christmas Day, we would spend time
with my dad’s side of the family, so his relatives, his sisters, and brothers
and my cousins and again we would do the typical talking and eating and
drinking and exchanging more presents.
In my family was more common to give gifts to children, so kids, I guess
under the age of 18, adults really didn’t exchange gifts that much, but I
know that’s different from family to family. So, that’s all I have to say
about my Christmas as I was growing up. Remember, traditions are
unique to each person, so each family has different traditions during the
holiday season and obviously not all people celebrate Christmas.
It is interesting to find out how holidays are cerebrated in different
countries. I have celebrated Christmas in a few different countries. Let’s
see in Belgium, in Argentina, and the Dominican Republic and of course
the United States and each country celebrated in a very different way that-
than I was used to, but I love seeing and learning how other countries and
people celebrated their holiday-holidays because everyone is unique.
So, I am curious to know how you celebrate Christmas or any other major
holiday in your country. Do you do any of the same things that I do or we
do in the United States? Please let me know and what do you do
differently.
Again, this is episode #7 of the English Tonight Podcast. Thank you for
listening. I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new
year. Until next time, keep practicing your English and please, please do
not give up. Bye-Bye and take care.
Outro: Thanks for listening to the English Tonight podcast. For more tips on
improving your English or a transcript of this podcast, visit us at
www.speakenglishtonight.com
