British Celebrations

English people celebrate Christmas and Scottish people celebrate New Year. That’s why New Year’s Day is celebrated by very few people in the South of England; but in some parts of the North, and everywhere in Scotland, it is a family holiday.
In England families and friends gather on Christmas Eve for celebrations the next day. Housewives are usually busy preparing food for next day, and children are sent to bed with the words that, if they don’t go to sleep, Father Christmas won’t bring them any presents. In Britain, Father Christmas ‘comes’ at night, and then fills’ the stockings, which children hang on their beds. Or, in some families, the presents are put on the floor under the Christmas-tree in the living-room.

At children’s birthday parties a birthday cake, with as many candles on it as the child has years, is added to the usual party tea. Only smaller children have this kind of birthday party; teen-agers generally prefer to be taken out to a meal in a restaurant, or to the theatre, or both. When a boy or girl celebrates a 21st birthday, there is often a big evening party, or a dance, either at home or at a hotel.

After that, birthdays are forgotten, except in the family circle.

House-warming is a party given by a person or family after moving into a new home. It is celebrated by English people very much in the same way as it is with us.


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British Celebrations