Transcript Christmas in Great Britain

Christmas tree
Who Decorated the First Christmas Tree?
Christmas tree is becoming popular in England
in the 1840. No one knows for sure. The custom of
bringing an evergreen tree indoors and decorating
it at Christmas started in Germany. One legend
says that Martin Luther started the practice. Luther
was an important Christian leader. According to
the story, he noticed the starlit sky as he walked
home one Christmas Eve about the year 1513. He
thought the stars looked as if they were shining on
the branches. When Martin Luther arrived home,
he placed a small fir-tree inside the house. He
decorated it with lighted candles.
Decorating Christmas trees became popular in
Germany. Prince Albert took the tradition to
England. Both German and English people brought
it to America.
Traditions
In Great Britain many customs and
traditions are connected with
Christmas, and most of them are still
popular today . Houses are still
decorated with holly and mistletoe.
Decorating the house with '' holly'' is a
custom, which comes from England.
Holly is a bush with shiny red berries
and leaves with sharp edges.Because it
remains green throughout the year it
was believed to hold a promise that the
sun would return. Mistletoe is another
Christmas symbol .Springs of it are
tied together with ribbons and hung
up in doorways. Anyone standing
under the mistletoe gets to be kissed.
SANTA CLAUS
Children leave sock or stocking at
the end of their beds on Christmas
Eve, 24th of December, hoping that
Santa Claus will come down the
chimney during the night and
bring them small presents, fruit
and nuts. They are usually not
disappointed!
Presents
Christmas is closely
connected with giving presents.
They give presents to each other.
It is not only children and
members of a family. It is
a tradition to give Christmas
presents to the people you work
or study with.
Another custom is to hang up
the stockings over the fire
place. This tradition came from
Germany. It is believed that Santa
fills them with toys and sweets
when he comes down the
chimney.
HOLIDAY
There are a lot of
traditions connected
with Christmas but
perhaps the most
important one is the
giving of present.
Family members wrap
up their gifts and leave
them bottom of the
Christmas tree to be
found on Christmas
morning.
Sale
 Stores attract millions of shoppers a record high discounts. As expected,
the appetite of Londoners and revenue stores will not affect even the
credit crunch.
 Approximately 3.57 million people have already bought something at the
beginning of sales.
 Some London department stores, for example, Debenhams on Oxford
Street, just after Christmas, write down their products by 70%.
 Opportunity to save money has forced some buyers in the early morning
queue at the entrance to stores.
 According to Loretta Frazer, manager of the department store Selfridges
in Birmingham, the store opened at 8 am waiting for more than 500
people.
 "Sales are a great opportunity to save money. In the first hour of the
beginning of sales, we earned 65% profit on sales of designer handbags,"
- says Fraser.
 Many buyers are not willing to stand in line and shoving in the dressing
room, master internet shopping. Online sales of some stores have
already started on December 25.
 Profits of large British shops on the Internet for sales this holiday
season reached a record sum of 52 million pounds (104 million dollars).
Выполнил: Голубев Артем,
ученик 8 «М» класса.