Christmas Day

Christmas (or Christ’s Mass) is observed in the UK on the 25^th of December *. It is the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

This is the favourite day for children. They wake up very early in the morning to find their stockings have been filled by Father Christmas and excitedly unwrap the presents before going down to breakfast.

Family presents are opened either late morning or during the afternoon. The family gather together to open the presents found under the Christmas tree.

Major customs:

Church services. Many people go to church to sing carols and to celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day. More people attend the church on this day than any other day of the year. People put on their best clothes to go to church.

The Christmas Dinner is the main Christmas meal and it is usually eaten at mid-day or early afternoon. A traditional Christmas dinner includes roast turkey** or goose, brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, cranberry sauce, rich nutty stuffing, tiny sausages wrapped in bacon (pigs in a blanket) and lashings of hot gravy. For pudding (dessert) there’s always a rich, fruity pudding which one douses in flaming brandy – said to ward off evil spirits.

A Christmas tradition involving the turkey is to pull its wishbone. This is one of the bones of the turkey which is shaped like the letter “Y”. Two people will each hold an end and pull. The person left with the larger piece of the bone makes a wish.

The Queen’s Christmas Message is a traditional feature of Christmas afternoon. At three o’clock in the afternoon, the Queen gives her Christmas Message to the nation which is broadcast on radio and television.

The Queen’s message is also broadcast throughout the British Commonwealth. The first televised broadcast of the Queen’s Christmas message was in 1957, but it is a tradition begun on the radio in 1932 by George V.

The Queen has made a Christmas Broadcast to the Commonwealth every year of her reign except 1969, when a repeat of the film “Royal Family” was shown and a written message from The Queen issued.

In 2007, The Queen launched her own channel on video-sharing website YouTube, which featured the message. The launch marks the 50^th anniversary of the Queen’s first televised festive address in 1957.

Christmas crackers. The pulling of Christmas crackers often accompanies food on Christmas Day. A Christmas Cracker is a brightly coloured paper tube, twisted at both ends. A person pulls on each end of the cracker and when the cracker breaks, a small chemical strip goes “Pop! ” and the contents fall out. A Christmas cracker traditionally contains a paper crown, a small gift and a joke written on a slip of paper. The gift in a cracker depends on how much you have paid for the cracker. The more you pay the better the quality of the gift. A box of 12 crackers costing £ 10 could come with gifts such as a shoe horn, compact mirror, playing cards, screwdrivers, address book, tape measure, pad lock, bottle opener, tweezers, travel chess, photo frame and pen.