British up your Christmas — how does Christmas in the UK look like?
Even though most students return to their homes during the Christmas break, living in the UK will make you quite familiar with some British traditions. You might start drinking more tea, or welcome people by saying “hi, you alright?”. So why not take some of British Christmas traditions with you back home? If you are a student in the UK, you have the chance to make your holiday season a bit multicultural!
Christmas crackers
Christmas cracker is a festive table decoration made out of cardboard. There is a small gift hidden in the middle of a cracker, and when two people hold each end to pull it apart, the gift goes to one person who pulled a bigger half! The cracker makes a cracking sound when being opened and that’s how it got its name. This is a famous Christmas tradition in many other English speaking countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Stockings
If you’ve seen at least one Christmas movie in English, whether American or British — you have probably seen stockings hanging above the fireplace. Stockings are a very old tradition, related to both Father Christmas/Santa Claus and St. Nicholas. The bigger the stocking, the more presents fit in the sock! Nowadays you can get personalised stockings for each member of your family — is there a better present idea if you want to British up your Christmas?
Yule log
The wood resembling cake has its origins in France actually, but became very popular in the UK as well. It’s made out of sponge cake and rolled up like a roulade to look like a wood log. Along with yule log, another famous British desert is the Christmas cake, which is basically a fruitcake with dried fruit such as sultanas, raisins and cherries, but often soaked with alcohol such as whiskey.
Mince pies
It’s not how it sounds! The British like to spice it up for us foreigners by using confusing words that don’t actually reflect their meaning. Usually, mincemeat means literally minced meat, but during Christmas time, mincemeat means a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices. The recipe dates back to the 13th century, and mince pie is a small sweet pie filled with mincemeat. It is also, as the Christmas cracker, famous in other English speaking countries.
If you want to British up your Christmas even more, especially if you don’t study in England, but rather Scotland, Wales or Cornwall; here’s how to say “Merry Christmas” in languages spoken there:
In Scots (a Scottish dialect) Happy/Merry Christmas is ‘Blithe Yule’
In Gaelic it’s ‘Nollaig Chridheil’
In Welsh (which is spoken in some parts of Wales) it’s ‘Nadolig Llawen’,
In Cornish (spoken by some people in Cornwall in south west England) it’s ‘Nadelik Lowen’
And in Manx (spoken by some people on the Isle of Man) it’s ‘Nollick Ghennal’.
