How do you people celebrate Christmas in England?

Answer 1

A few days before Christmas, families put up Christmas Trees (fir trees with lights) and Christmas Decorations, including holly and mistletoe. Standing under mistletoe is traditionally associated with kissing.

The biggest tradition is for families to meet and have Christmas Lunch together - roast turkey etc. and Christmas Pudding, generally eaten late in the afternoon of Christmas Day. This is a heavy meal and most people eat and drink too much. In the afternoon, some families watch the Queen's Christmas Speech on television. They also play games and watch other television programmes.

Families exchange Christmas Presents on Christmas Day.

Some days earlier they will have sent Christmas Cards.

Children receive presents the night before Christmas delivered by Father Christmas (Santa Claus) on his sleigh drawn by reindeer.

We also sing Christmas Carols.

The holiday may last a few days and always includes Boxing Day (26 December) when the food is probably leftover turkey.

(Back in Victorian times, middle class people gave little presents to their servants in boxes on Boxing Day.)

Christmas celebrates the birthday of Jesus Christ. That is why we call this time of year 'Christmas' - we celebrate the 'Mass', or church service, for Christ.

The word Christmas (or Christ's Mass) comes from the Old English name Cristes Maesse - Christ's Mass - and is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. 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.