"The traditions of the Christmas celebration "(Virtual excursion).

The traditions of the Christmas celebration (Virtual excursion).

T : Welcome, dear friends and our guests. I am very glad to see you today. Our party is devoted to the most interesting, the most important, the most beautiful, and of course, the most favourite holiday among all people all over the world!Can you guess what holiday it is? (Christmas,slide 1)

T: Before starting, let's see what you know about  Christmas?

Let's do the quiz ( https://www.liveworksheets.com/cj13051sr)

T: There are many Christmas traditions in different countries, but today we shall speak about Christmas traditions in Great Britain.

 Christmas time is the only time I know in the long calendar of the year, when men and women...seem to open their shut- up hearts freely, and to think of people below them.

Charles Dickens(slide 2)

T: Різдво- тож єдиний час, який я тільки знаю в довгому календарі року, коли всі люди... вільно відкривають свої серця, що досі були немов би замкнені на замок, і переймаються співчуттям до знедолених.

Ч. Діккенз.

В1: Christmas preparation in the UK start at the beginning of December. Many children have advent calendars. For each day of December, they open a small door with the date on it. Behind the door they find a picture of something associated with Christmas, like a present or a Christmas tree. Some advent calendars have chocolates inside the doors.

В1: And now we're going to watch the film about preparation to this holiday

(Watching video “Christmas in Great Britain”) https://youtu.be/YzSGEeaYvJc

В2: Today our students have prepared some information about this holiday.

P1: The Germans are believed to be the first to use the Christmas tree in their celebrations and Martin Luther was the first to place a star on the top of the tree. This star represents the star appeared over the stable in which Christ was born.

 In Great Britain, the Christmas tree became popular while Queen Victoria ruled the country (slide 3).

P2: Besides the Christmas tree, holly and mistletoe are used to decorate the house. Branches of holly are put up behind pictures and mistletoe is hung over doors, so the young people have a chance to kiss the girls under it, plucking each time a red berry from the mistletoe. It is said that the girl who was not kissed under it at Christmas would not get married that year (slide 4).

P3: On the Christmas Eve children hang their stockings, so that Santa Claus could put presents into them: oranges, sweets, nuts and if the child didn't behave properly Santa Claus can put there a piece of coal as punishment.(slide 5)

P4: Santa Claus got his name from a man known as St. Nicolas, who lived in the fourth century. He gave his wealth to the poor and often to children. After he died, the Dutch brought this legend to colonial America. Soon the Dutch name Sinter Klaus became Santa Claus.

(slide 6)

P5: Carol singing is an essential part of Christmas. No church or school is without its carol service. Carols may be traditional or with some variations that express different feelings. Carols were used for the first time during Christmas in the fifteenth century.

Usually children come around in the evening to the front doors and start singing carols and people who live in these houses give children candies, nuts, pies and so on, to thank them for carol singing.(slide 7)

P6: A typical Christmas lunch includes turkey with cranberry sauce and pudding. Every young woman in each household helps to stir the Christmas pudding, if she wishes to be married that year. Usually a coin or two are hidden inside the pudding and part of the fun is to see who finds it. After the lunch they go to the sitting room to listen to the Christmas speech of the Queen, shown on TV.(slide 8)

T: Today I've baked pudding for you. Let's drink tea with milk.