The Holiday Season
In America, the holiday season begins on Thanksgiving day and lasts until New Year’s Day. Thanksgiving Day is the start of Christmas music and decorations. After all, Santa is in the Thanksgiving parade.
Decorating the Christmas tree is a long-awaited tradition. There are many colored ornaments, lights, candy canes, icing and naturally the star or angel on top. Children love hanging their stockings and putting up other various decorations, such as snowmen or angels. The Americans even put decorations on their roofs and lawns.
In December, many families send Christmas cards out to their friends and family with pictures of themselves and a brief account of what has happened in their lives in the past year. Towns will hold Dickens’ Christmas Weekends which includehorse drawn carriage rides, carolers, instrumental group performances, a live nativity, theater performances, and even a visit from Santa Clause. All the songs on the radio are about Christmas. Traditional holiday music such as "Silent Night" is played after pop songs like "Santa Baby". Television networks play Christmas classics like "Charlie Brown’s Christmas", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "It’s a Wonderful Life", or "Scrooge". Churches have sermons about the Christ child, perform cantatas, and sing Christmas carols.
Parties:
In school, the children celebrate the holidays with a party before they start their winter break. There are lots of sweets, holiday music and games. In December there are many holiday parties. A fun tradition at the work place, with friends or with family is called "secret Santa". The idea is to put all of the names of the people involved in a hat and then have everyone pick a name out of that hat. You are the "secret Santa" of the person whose name you pulled out of the hat. Over a course of a few weeks in December a few small gifts, like chocolate, will be given anonymously. Sometimes these gifts will include hints to the identity of the "secret Santa". Finally the game will end around Christmas with a bigger gift, with which you reveal your identity. Another gift giving tradition is a game called "dirty Santa". In this game, all participants bring a wrapped gift and then take a number from one to the number of people playing. The person who has number one begins. They choose and open a gift. The next person then has the option of choosing a new gift or stealing a gift that has been opened.
Christmas Eve:
The night before Christmas children leave cookies and milk for Santa before they go to bed. The famous poem "T’was the night before Christmas" by Clement Clarke Moore is often read to put the children to sleep. Legend has it that when the children are asleep, Santa and his eight flying reindeer go to every house in the world to give the good children presents and the bad children coal.
Christmas Day:
The children wake up early in the morning, so that they can open their presents. Extended family travel far distances to meet and share the holiday joy. Ham, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cake, chocolate, eggnog, wassail, vegetables, cookies and much more is prepared and attempted to be eaten. A parade on television with Santa is on television in the afternoon and many Christmas specials will be on all day. No stores are open on Christmas day…until afternoon.
The day after Christmas is called "Boxing Day". It is celebrated in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. It is a day to spend time with family and take advantage of the many sales.
English |
German |
holiday |
Feiertag |
Christmas |
Weihnachten |
decorations |
Dekoration |
Santa |
Weihnachtsmann |
long-awaited |
lang ersehnte |
ornaments |
Schmuckwaren/Ornamente |
candy canes |
Zuckerstangen |
| icing | Glasur |
stockings |
Strümpfe |
putting up |
aufstellen |
various |
unterschiedlich |
lawns |
Rasen |
themselves |
sich selbst |
| account | Beschreibung |
include |
beinhalten |
horse drawn carriage |
von Pferden gezogene Kutsche |
carolers |
Sternsänger |
live nativity |
lebende Krippe |
cantata |
Kantate |
celebrate |
feiern |
over a course of |
über einen Zeitraum von |
gifts |
Geschenke |
reveal |
aufdecken |
participants |
Teilnehmer |
eve |
Nacht |
legend has it that... |
der Legende nach... |
reindeer |
Rentier |
coal |
Kohle |
extended family |
Großfamilie |
eggnog |
Eierpunsch |
wassail |
Weihnachtspunsch |
prepared |
gemacht |
take advantage |
die Gelegenheit nutzen |
The Holiday Season - Zurück zu: Newsletter
