Preparations for Christmas 圣诞筹备

“Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.”

Christmas is the biggest festival in Britain and is celebrated on 25th December. The four weeks before Christmas are called Advent, and are traditionally celebrated in churches by lighting a candle each Sunday during Advent.

Nowadays, many people in Britain are not very religious, but they still celebrate Christmas. But watch out - the preparations begin long before Advent. In fact as early as September or October, you start to see signs that Christmas is on the way.

The first places to tell us that we should be thinking about Christmas are the shops. People in Britain spend on average over ?600 (around $1000) per person on Christmas every year, and the shops encourage people to spend more and more.

Shops put up Christmas decorations and play cheesy Christmas songs or carols; and some shop workers wear Christmas hats. Some big shops on Regent Street and Oxford Street in London create wonderful displays in their windows with moving characters, falling snow, colourful lights and music.

So what do people buy in preparation for Christmas? Well, Christmas decorations; Christmas cards to send to your friends and relatives; presents for your loved ones andwrapping paper to wrap them up with.

And of course food! Apart from the special Christmas dinner of roast turkey or goose, people buy lots of chocolates, nuts and snacks for everyone to enjoy.

But the children are the most excited that Christmas is coming. They start making lists of presents they would like, and give them to their parents, or send them to Santa Claus. In December, they can also open their Advent calendars.

Advent calendars are a way of counting down to Christmas. They have a window to open for every day from 1st – 24th December (Christmas Eve).

A basic Advent calendar has a Christmassy picture behind each window, but the children’sfavourite is usually a chocolate Advent calendar, with a chocolate for every day of the month. It’s a great build up to the overeating that goes on at Christmas!

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GLOSSARY 词汇表

traditionally

传统上的

on the way

即将来临

on average

平均

per person

每一个人

encourage

鼓励

cheesy

俗套的

carols

圣诞颂歌

Christmas decorations

圣诞装饰

loved ones

亲人

wrapping paper六级分数线

(礼品)包装纸

apart from

除…之外

snacks

小吃

Santa Claus

圣诞老人

calendars

日历

Christmassy

圣诞的

favourite 最喜欢的

最喜欢的

build up

累积

overeating

大吃大喝;过量吃喝