Today we're going to talk about
CHRISTMAS!
And we will be joined by three friends.
And we'll all share our Christmas traditions with you.
Yes, Christmas is relatively important in my country.
And that is in France.
Because most people celebrate it.
In France, most people would celebrate Christmas on the 24th,
And you call it...
But...
The actual Christmas day is the 25th.
Christmas Day, everyone will have the day off,
and also, then there will be, no actually that
will be a day off afterwards for new years eve,
but children, they have their, they have a school holiday for two weeks
around the Christmas period.
The main thing is that people just come together
and most people spend their time with
their family and friends,
so that's the most common thing that you do.
It's a lot about the food as well
that you spend a long time around the dinner table,
enjoying different dishes.
In France a lot of people go skiing around that time.
Yes! If it's snowing outside,
then people will go and build a snowman.
So the one thing I would say which is special is
getting together and then..
So I do a little bit differently
than most French people because I
celebrate Christmas on the 25th,
and I don't do anything on the 24th.
Most people on the 24th,
they would...
get together as a family,
they would have their big Christmas meal on the 24th in the evening,
and then they would go to Mass in the evening,
The midnight... the Messe.
That's what they would do.
And then they would come home and open their presents.
But in my family, it's a little bit different.
What we do is... we don't do anything on the 24th.
It's just an ordinary day.
On the 25th, we would get up extra early,
so that's a little bit different than usual.
And then we would open up our presents
and then prepare lunch and eat lunch together.
So I guess it's special
that we have traditional Christmas food
and we get together.
So.. what I usually eat,
is quite different to what the French people eat in general.
So maybe I will describe quickly both.
I have a mixture of from
French and English Christmas, I guess.
So, I will definitely have Brussels sprouts
for Christmas but that's something that
really doesn't exist in France.
Instead they have green beans,
or so I believe.
But, having a turkey,
that's something that is traditional,
and something that would be done in my family, as well.
Then,
there are some families that would have
oysters for example,
or snails as a starter.
But I've never had that.
For me that would be any strange,
Especially as a vegetarian.
But yeah, foie gras as well!
That's a traditional sort of festive food in France.
And of course the wine!
Oh, the wine!
And you have different wine for
different dishes,
so you can't mix them,
you have to be very careful with that in France.
Oh!
And i just remembered.
In France,
what is very important is of course..
And that's what you would have for dessert.
And my family, we're quite lucky
because we get bûche de Noël,
and then, few hours later,
we get Christmas cake.
So we do both the French and
the English version of Christmas somehow.
And, with the bûche de Noël, what it is,
it's a Christmas log.
And it's a...
cake, basically.
Cake base and then on top
it can be any flavour you want.
But the traditional one would be either
chocolate...
or chestnuts.
And then you can also have vanilla, strawberry,
whatever you want.
But it's meant to look like a log,
and that's a very traditional thing that you can't miss
and you have it with
champagne, of course.
So nowadays I would say there are
not so many common gifts because people
just, you know, go to the supermarket and,
or to any kind of shop and buy whatever
they want, or even order off the internet
whatever they want to give to their
family members or their friends.
But what used to be quite traditional would be
that you would buy a new pair of shoes
or slippers for the children, and then
and they would get
an orange,
for Christmas.
And that,
Can still be used as a traditional thing to be done
in families, but it's not really how I think
most children will think of Christmas today.
If they get an orange, I think they
will probably pull a face because
they'd rather get a toy or chocolate, instead.
I think I will have to think it's a...
talk about this one in terms of how I
felt at the time, not looking back.
But...
At the time I was really, really
annoyed with my mom with this present,
is that I got a bra!
And, I was maybe 11 years old.
This was my first bra, or 10, I'm not sure.
Anyway, I was really annoyed and I said...
I was embarrassed, as well, because this was
in front of my grandma, and I thought,
'How dare you give me this?'
'I don't need this!'
'I will never ever need this!'
'I will not wear it!'
And I just sort of, you know, threw it away.
I just didn't want it but,
eventually I did actually wear it.
It was the most uncomfortable thing to start with,
but I guess, you know,
it was probably sort of a good gift,
just that at the time I really
didn't think about it like that.
Chocolate for breakfast.
Or, if I can,
chestnuts..
or...
I don't know.
The stuffing, for example, all of these things.
Oh!
I forgot to mention.
Les treize desserts, as well, these are the
nuts and... mixture of nuts, and
marzipan with dried fruit.
That's something I feel is really important for me.
It's not Christmas if it's missing.
And then of course
the other thing that I would say, which is
necessary for Christmas is being around...
your beloved ones.
Thanks for watching our Christmas Culture series.
If you've anything you wanna share about Christmas
in this country
or in your country,
you can do so in the comment section below.
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And, until our next video,
Bye!
