Christmas traditions.

Christmas Day is a family holiday in Great Britain. Traditionally, everyone gives each other presents; the British decorate their houses, put up Christmas Trees, and children write letters to Santa Claus.

Christmas is celebrated on December 25, but everyone gets ready for it long before that. The pre-Christmas period is called Advent, which starts four weeks before the holiday.

The symbol of Advent is a wreath with 4 candles, each of which is lit one at a time every Sunday. They are kept alight until Christmas Eve.

The holiday is impossible without gifts. For that reason, there are sales on Christmas Eve in all cities in England. Shop windows are decorated with figures of angels, Santa Claus, snowmen.

Streets are overcrowded; there are fairs and feasts for children on the squares. On Trafalgar Square, in the center of London, a huge Christmas tree is put up every year, which is a gift from the Government of Norway.

The second Christmas day is called “Boxing day”. The reason is that Santa puts the presents under the Christmas tree during the night of the 25th to the 26th of December and the next day, all unpack their present boxes.

One more symbol of the holiday is stockings hanging up on the mantel. A legend is connected to this tradition. Once, Santa delivered gifts, and when getting through a fireplace, he accidentally dropped some gold coins into stockings that were drying there.

Christmas Day is a time for miracles and realization of wishes. On this day everyone gives not only gifts but also postcards. To give cards is an English tradition that showed up in the 19th century when the first Christmas card was printed.

And of course, everyone wishes each other “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!”.