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Christmas in Other Countries

Christmas in Other Countries
Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25 . It is a joyous holiday where families get together, give each other presents, decorate houses, sing traditional songs and go to mass . The word Christmas comes from the old English “Christes Maesse” , which means Christ’s mass . Although Christians believe that Jesus was born in the small town of Bethlehem, we don’t know the exact date of birth because stories about Jesus Christ were written down much later. By the 4th century Christians were divided into two churches: the eastern church was in Constantinople, today’s Istanbul, and the western church was based in Rome. Today, most countries celebrate the Christmas holidays from December 25 until January 6. Three wise men visit Jesus Christmas customs Giving presents is a special part of Christmas. Decorating the house is an old custom that comes from pagan times. Our traditional Christmas tree also comes from northern Europe. Words Related:  Christmas

Tell Me about Christmas - Part 1 Mulled Wine So every Boxing Day, we hold a mulled wine party for friends and family in our house. What we do – you go and buy these little sachets of spices you can get in supermarkets, and then in the morning, just get loads and loads of cheap cheap cheap red wine, the cheapest red wine that you can get; and put it in a massive massive sort of soup pot. Put some fruit juice in there, put some chopped-up fruits in there, and then add these spices and add some sugar, and just let it bubble away, let it simmer away over a few hours. And so in the afternoon, when all the friends come round, we serve it up and it’s a lovely warm drink for a cold December afternoon - very spicy, very Christmasy, and very alcoholic. Mince Pie Hello! But now, well actually up from Victorian era, they were changed to be a dessert. Christmas Pudding In my family, we always have Christmas pudding and it’s about that big. And then when you serve it, you have to switch all the lights off. Turkey Leftovers

Education to the Core: Holidays/Christmas Around the World Unit and Mini-Books Hi there! Just finished my Holidays/Christmas around the World Unit! Here is a little peek! If you know me, you know that I always tie tons of information and reading into my lessons. I also included the black line masters for all of you out there like me that don't like replacing your color ink cartridge all the time;) As you celebrate your holidays around the world unit, have the kids write about everything they learned from each country! I have also included graphic organizers for those kiddos that need to organize their thoughts first before writing. Find this product in my store. If you would like to see a sample from my book to see the quality of my work, please download this awesome freebie of Holidays/Christmas in America! I wish you all a very blessed Holiday season!

Christmas Day in the UK December is here and many people are starting to think about Christmas. In some places preparations for Christmas such as displays in shops and lights in the streets start as early as October! I am living in Spain at the moment, last year I spent Christmas in Finland and this year I will be spending Christmas with my family in the UK. It is very interesting to experience the different traditions in different countries during Christmas time. In my family, we usually get up very early on Christmas day and open our presents. My mother likes French food, so we have a French style breakfast with bread, croissants and lots of different cheeses. Some people go to church at Christmas and I go on my own because I am the only Christian in my family. Sometimes it can be difficult to remember the meaning of Christmas.

Tell Me about Christmas - Part 2 Advent Calendar Hi, I’m gonna tell you about our advent calendar. This has got all the days until Christmas Day on. And what happens is today’s the 14th of December, so we find the window with the 14th on. And when I was a child we’d have these, and in the family, each child would take it in turns, different day, to open the window and would be very excited about it. Mistletoe People often put mistletoe in their homes at Christmas. Christmas Cracker Christmas crackers are something that most people have at Christmas but I think they… It’s a bit of a silly tradition really because nobody, nobody takes Christmas crackers very seriously. And then inside the cracker, you find usually three things I think. So I think what happens is people kind of think, “oh, we’re not gonna bother having Christmas crackers because they are rubbish anyway” but then you just feel like, “oh well, but it wouldn’t be Christmas without Christmas crackers”.

Christmas Below, you will find a wide range of ideas and resources to help you when you are teaching children at Christmas time. If you have any relevant resources to share, please email them and I will add them to this page. Thank you! Favourite Christmas Activities - Share your ideas for Christmas lessons and activities to use throughout the festive season. Donkey's First Christmas - Foundation Lesson Plan - A lesson plan for children aged 4-5, based on the book Donkey's First Christmas (available here). <A HREF=" Merry Christmas Banner - A long banner with the text 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year'. Find ideas and resources linked to popular Christmas books!

Christmas Traditions, Christmas History, Christmas Around the World, The Christmas Story and Christmas Fun and Games! - whychristmas?com The Best Places To Learn About Christmas, Hanukkah, & Kwanzaa Check out my New York Times post: Ideas for English Language Learners | Celebrate the Holidays ELLs learn about tamales, holiday food traditions and Three Kings Day at my latest holiday-related New York Times Learning Network post. It includes a student interactive and teaching ideas. Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are all coming-up, and I thought it would be timely to create a “The Best…” list focusing on those holidays. Obviously, there are a lot more materials about Christmas out there accessible to English Language Learners than there are for the other two events, but I have found some for all of them. Also, check out The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Holiday Content Quickly & Easily andHere Are My Favorite Fun Christmas Resources (and “Feel Good” Christmas Stories For Christmas Day).The Best Christmas Videos For English Language Learners – Help Me Find More The Best Resources For Helping Beginner ELLs Learn About Christmas Christmas Around the World is a slideshow from CBS.

Christmas worksheets, Christmas flashcards, printable Christmas games, Christmas cards, Christmas party supplies and lesson plans materials to print Christmas Flashcards Set 1: vocabulary: Santa Claus, a reindeer, a sleigh, a snowman, Christmas lights, a bell, an angel, an elf, a bow, mistletoe Free Christmas Song to download: DreamEnglish.com has written a version of Jingle Bells to match the vocabulary in the MES Christmas flashcards set one. It's a free download you can use in your classes. Check out the site and song! Got time? Make your own Christmas worksheets: bingo, board games, crossword puzzles, dice, reading, writing worksheets and more! free Christmas listening tests, listening exercises, audio and worksheets Free Santa Game: Santa and his reindeer have been trapped in mazes!! Tools for Educators is an MES site with 10+ worksheet generators to make vocabulary and language building teaching materials, using the images from these flashcards. 123 Listening is a website developed by MES and Dream English. MES Games is an online ESL games site for students. Print old MES files: here are the old (2006~2014) christmas files

The EFL SMARTblog: Merry Christmas Mr Bean Teacher's note; The activities in the worksheet at the bottom of this post are based on the full episode available on DVD or on y cannot be embedded here). This post contains some exercises based on the embeddable youtube clips. The answers are in the worksheet. DVD availablehere Mr Bean celebrates the traditional British Christmas: the baubles, the crackers, the nativity scene, the carols, the presents, the turkey and the mistletoe... they are all here. You are going to discuss Christmaswatch the Christmas Mr Bean episode and do some activitiesfind Christmas words in a word search exercise write the story in the past tensefind out more about the typical British Christmas and some of the Christmas things in the video. Discuss Do you celebrate Christmas? Watch clip 1 Answer the questions in the interactive exercise after you watch Did Mr Bean have any Christmas decorations? Now do exercise 1 (the answers to questions 9 and 10 are in the next clip) Watch clip 2

Printable Christmas Coloring Pages What color do you think of for Christmas? Red, green, gold, silver, orange … and of course these colors go wonderfully with the lovely smells of Christmas – pine needles, smouldering log fires, spices, candied fruits ….oooh! Here you’ll find our original and free printable Christmas coloring pages for kids and this year we’re really excited about our new gigantic wall hanging Christmas tree coloring page. If you take a closer look…. our huge Christmas tree is full of busy wintery and festive goings on, with branches becoming roads and decorations as houses, trains and trees. Some of our absolute favorite Christmas things – candy cane, holly, Gingerbread man, Rudolf the reindeer, a Christmas tree and of course Santa Claus are also here. When you have a party with many kids and adults, it’s a good idea to prepare a coloring station with plenty of printable coloring pages and a pile of coloring pencils on a table, so kids can easily get going themselves together.

50 holiday activities for Teaching English We have loads of holiday related materials. Get a start on our Christmas page or in our resources. Also some nice full lessons in our Lessons In A Can or purchase hundreds of resources for the holidays in our store. Also you can subscribe to Digital Resources for one lifetime fee to get hundreds of thousands of lesson materials/ideas. However, since I'm busy making Christmas lists, thought I'd make a nice one to share with fellow teachers and inspire with a few things in my brain for teaching lessons related to Christmas. So here is my brain purge. Get all the 50 lists. 50 Holiday Activities for The English Language Classroom Make snowflakes and angels. 101 Questions about Christmas. Decorate the classroom. Write Christmas cards to a classmate. Write a letter to Santa Claus. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Play Christmas carol “Pass The Paper”. Sing some Christmas carols. Simon Says. Watch the incredible short film: The Snowman. Go Christmas Shopping! Learn Christmas Vocabulary.

Christmas Activities for Kids We've got well over 100 original Christmas colouring pictures at Activity Village, so we've got... Enjoy these new Christmas colour by number pages. Just print and follow the instructions! All these... New this year, a small collection of our popular "colour by pattern" colouring pages with a... If a child makes the effort to colour a Christmas card by hand, the result will always be treasured... We hope you enjoy this huge (and ever growing) collection of Christmas printables - including free... Christmas is the perfect time to settle down to some good kids crafts: the days are short, the cold... Making Christmas cards for friends and family is a great excuse to sit down with your children for... We have collected together some fun Christmas origami models to enjoy with your kids. These colouring pages of various "characters" can be coloured, cut out and assembled to create a... Our Christmas Fuse Bead Patterns are a great craft activity for kids on long winter afternoons!...

Christmas Videos - Free Online Videos for Kids Alfred Molina shares A Visit from St. Nicholas. There's no party like a Reindeer Party with the Imagination Movers! Video for the song "Santa, Where Are You?" by Super Simple Songs. Little Snowflake from Super Simple Songs tells a short story of a snowman brought to life by the magic and beauty of snowfall. CeeLo Green Featuring The Muppets Linus explains what Christmas is really all about. The Muppets sing "Joy to the World". The celebration of Christmas as we know it today stems from the traditions of several different cultures. This is the official music video for "Christmas is Creepy"! An animated Christmas Card, and a homage to a great song, a great band, and a great Holiday. Ruled a legal holiday in 1894, Christmas has had its fair share of strange traditions. If you want to make a homemade Christmas card and save some money, here's a great way to add some fun to it. Music video by Justin Bieber performing Mistletoe. The Muppets perform ''Ringing of the Bells''.

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