ADVENT Resource 1 Advent begins .. weeks before Christmas. Advent means .

in Latin and Christians use this period to . .. Some may which means to eat nothing. Usually people count down the period to Christmas using an Advent .. . They are made of paper or card and have .. windows on. Each day-from December 1st to Christmas .- a window opens and a picture or a is revealed. Click here to see an advent calendar. XMAS Resource 2 Where does the abbreviation for Christmas to Xmas come from? X is the letter Chi, which is the first letter of .s name in the ..alphabet. Click here and find out a) what 24th December is called

TRADITIONAL COLOURS Resource 3 Red and green are the traditional colours of Christmas. What does red symbolize?................................... Christmas decorations are put up on. .

CHRISTMAS PLANTS Resource 4 Name the plants people use to decorate their homes in the UK. Then translate them into your language. HINTS CHRISTMAS PLANT It is sometimes called the Friendship plant. Its a symbol of success and victory. It was thought to protect from lightning The prickly leaves are a symbol of the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when he was crucified and the berries are the drops of his blood They are a symbol of everlasting life with God. They were used in sports. KISSING UNDER THE MISTLETOE Resource 5 According to Christmas custom, any two people who meet under a hanging of mistletoe are obliged to kiss. Originally a person had to pick a before kissing a person. When all the berries had gone there could be no kissing. MY MOTHER TONGUE

CHRISTMAS TREE Resource 6 The Christmas tree became popular in England in ..when Queen Victorias husband, Prince Albert, brought a Christmas tree over from .and put it in Windsor Castle. The traditional Christmas tree is a tree but now-a-days more people buy artificial trees to save the earth. In the past times they decorated Christmas trees with .. Nowadays we decorate Christmas trees with the objects below. Can you name them? Find their English name here.

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CAROLS Resource 7 Christmas carols are special songs which are sung during the Christmas season. The word carol comes from the ancient Greek word .. The carol Silent Night was written in 1818, by an Austrian.Joseph Mohr because the .was broken and would not be prepared in time for Christmas Eve. So he wanted to write a carol that could be sung by choir to guitar music. He sat down and wrote three stanzas. Later that night the people in the little Austrian Church sang Stille Nacht for the first time. FATHER CHRISTMAS Resources 8 and 9 Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nicholas. He was a who lived in the fourth century AD in a place called Myra in .. (now called Turkey). He was a very shy man and wanted to give money to poor people without them knowing about it. There are several legends about St. Nicholas. It is said that one day, he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse of money down the .. The house belonged to a man who couldnt afford a .to marry his daughters. The purse landed in the . which one of the girls had put to dry by the fire! This may explain the belief that Father Christmas comes down the chimney and places gifts in children's stockings. On Christmas Eve Father Christmas piles all of the toys onto his and rides across the sky with his . The most famous one is Rudolf, the reindeer at the front who leads the way with his red nose.

CHRISTMAS CRACKERS Resource 10 Christmas crackers are part of the Christmas dinner. Crackers were invented by Thomas Smith in . .He came up with the idea during a visit in .. He thought what a fun idea it would be, if .. and toys could be opened with a crack when their fancy wrappers were pulled in half. There is a cracker next to each plate on the Christmas table and people wearing paper . pull the crackers to find their surprise gifts inside them. CHRISTMAS PUDDING Resources 11 Christmas Pudding is the traditional end to the British Christmas dinner. It is made of raisins, nuts and cherries. They brandy all over it and set it as they bring it to the table. Initially it was made of beef and mutton with raisins, currants, prunes, wines and spices and looked like a .. .As time went by, they added eggs and breadcrumb and became the dessert we all know. It was .in 1664. Traditionally silver was hidden inside the Christmas Pudding to bring good luck. The start the preparations for it on the Sunday before Advent Sunday is sometimes known as '..Sunday'. BOXING DAY Resource 12 Boxing Day is celebrated on . and is also called . The name had many origins. According to one of these a box day was the day when the . box, collection boxes for the poor often kept in , were traditionally opened so that the contents could be distributed to people. Some churches still open these boxes on Boxing Day. Also its common in England for householders to give extra money to the paperboy or the milkman for example. Boxing Day is a holiday in the UK, which means that is not a working day. MERRY CHRISTMAS
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