Рождество за границей: истории от наших носителей языка

Personally, my Christmas in the UK is usually quite quiet but involves eating a copious amount of delicious food. We usually buy a fresh Christmas tree and decorate it with garlands, fairy lights and a selection of tin and glass ornaments (tinsel is common in the UK but both of us hate it). We usually decorate the house with candles and wreaths as well. We often go to church on Christmas Eve for a “carols by candlelight” service and I usually follow this by meeting my friends and people from my school days in a local pub for Christmas Eve drinks, something my wife, who is from the US found rather a strange custom when she came to the UK 8 years ago. We also sometimes attend church on Christmas Day. Typically in the UK, the turkey is the centerpiece to the Christmas dinner (although fish was the centerpiece meat for my wife, not one that I have given into yet). We have it complete with good stuffing, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce, mashed/roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts as well as a range of delicious sides from both the UK and US, typically my wife and I make meatballs to celebrate my wife's Scandinavian heritage and the food she grew up with back in the US. We particularly enjoy a range of good cheeses, chutneys and pâté for Christmas too.

When I was growing up, my grandparents would insist on watching the Queen's Christmas speech after Christmas dinner when they would come around my parents’ house for Christmas dinner. A tradition that has continued since their passing. We usually visit my parents during the Christmas period and often have a gathering with my uncles, aunts and cousins between Christmas and New Year, where we have time to catch up on each other’s' lives, enjoy good food, watch holiday films and play board games. My New Year varies from year to year but we often watch the countdown to midnight and the fireworks light display shown on the TV in London and see the New Year in with a nice glass of champers!

I do remember going on treasure hunts around the house as a child, probably so my parents could have extra time in bed!

Слово/Словосочетание	Перевод
a copious amount of something	огромное количество чего-либо
a Christmas tree	рождественская ель
a garland	гирлянда
fairy lights	электрическая гирлянда
tin and glass ornaments	металлические и стеклянные елочные украшения
tinsel	«дождик», мишура
a wreath /riːθ/	венок
Christmas Eve	рождественский сочельник, канун Рождества
a carol	рождественская песня
a centerpiece	главное украшение, важный элемент
stuffing	начинка, фарш
pigs in blankets	сосиски в беконе или сосиски в тесте
cranberry sauce	клюквенный соус
mashed/roast potatoes	пюре / приготовленная в духовке картошка
Brussels sprouts	брюссельская капуста
meatballs	фрикадельки
heritage	традиции (здесь)
chutney /ˈtʃʌtni/	чатни (индийская кисло-сладкая приправа к мясу)
pâté /ˈpæteɪ/	паштет
to come around	наносить визит
board games	настольные игры
a countdown	обратный отсчет
midnight	полночь
champers	шампанское (разговорное)
a treasure /ˈtreʒə(r)/ hunt	поиск сокровищ

At my house, we have a Christmas dinner and a Christmas brunch the following morning. I wouldn't say my family is very “traditional”, but for our brunch we usually have bagels, cream cheese, and salmon, as well as eggs and bacon. Since Christmas songs are usually playing on the radio in every American store between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we're usually sick of them by the actual holiday :-)(I don't think I'm alone in saying that). We usually have a Christmas tree covered in Christmas bulbs, lights, and tinsel. As for movies, “Elf” is a must-watch, and “Christmas Story” and “It's a Wonderful Life” are close seconds.

Слово/Словосочетание	Перевод
Christmas brunch	рождественский поздний завтрак, заменяющий ранний обед
a bagel	бейгл — выпечка из дрожжевого теста в форме бублика, может быть с начинкой
Christmas bulbs	елочные шары
must-watch	что-то для обязательного просмотра

My family always did Christmas a bit last-minute! We would drive out to the local Christmas tree farm on the 23rd or 24th of December and pick up a bargain tree. My mum, 2 sisters and I would then try and pile a large fir tree plus ourselves into our tiny 3 door car. It was always a very uncomfortable drive home!

The next challenge was to get the tree to stand up safely in the living room, and of course, decorate it, and all before my dad got home. My mum would climb into our loft and drop huge boxes of old decorations down to us. We had to catch them so that the glass baubles didn’t’ break. Some of the baubles were quite old. These were usually particularly ugly, often brown in color, or odd looking figures of Santa or elves. Despite always my mum’s best attempts to keep the worst decorations away from the tree, our tree was a slightly mad looking mishmash of colors and styles with bits of old tinsel and decorations of all styles and colors. The best bit for me was hiding the chocolates at the end, and turning the lights on.

This was followed by a mad rush to clean up all the mud, pine needles and broken decorations before my father came home from work!

On Christmas Eve we all put our presents under the tree and everyone shook theirs to try and guess what they were. At bedtime we left a glass of milk, a mince pie and some carrots by the tree for Father Christmas and his reindeer. We each left one of our dad’s hockey socks at the end of our bed, ready for Father Christmas to fill them with presents. It was very exciting to wake up the next day and feel the sock, full of gifts by your feet at the end of the bed!

Christmas breakfast was always chocolate coins, which we found in our socks. We snacked on chocolate all morning until we had stomach ache, or it was time for lunch. Lunch was very traditional: a roast turkey with cranberry sauce, Brussels’ sprouts and roast potatoes. It was accompanied by crackers, with silly hats and poor jokes, and followed by Christmas pudding with brandy butter (my first ever taste of alcohol).

After lunch we usually had a walk in the rain (no white Christmases in England) and then played a board game, or cards. After some years my mum banned this tradition because there was usually a fight, or tears, especially if the game was monopoly!

The day ended with cheese on toast and more chocolates, this time in front of the TV. Classic films for us were “It’s a Wonderful Life” or as we got older “Love Actually” or “Bridget Jones’ Diary”.

Since those childhood Christmases, nothing has much changed except that on Christmas Eve I go to the pub with my friends. We drink mulled wine or cider (hot wine/cider with spices) and the atmosphere is wonderful! Nowadays, instead of leaving a mince pie for Santa, my mum leaves one for me, in case I come home a little bit tipsy from the pub!

Слово/Словосочетание	Перевод
to do something last-minute	делать что-то в последний момент
a fir tree	ель
a loft	чердак
glass baubles /ˈbɔːb(ə)l/	стеклянные елочные шары
an elf (plural — elves)	эльф (множественное число — эльфы)
a mishmash	мешанина, смешение цветов/стилей
pine needles	сосновые иголки
to shake	трясти
a mince pie	рождественский пирожок со сладкой начинкой
a reindeer /ˈreɪnˌdɪə(r)/	северный олень
Father Christmas	Санта-Клаус
chocolate coins	шоколадные монетки
to snack on (something)	подкрепляться, перекусывать (чем-то)
a roast turkey	запеченная индейка
a cracker	хлопушка
Christmas pudding	рождественский пудинг
brandy butter	сладкая смесь бренди (например, коньяка), масла, сахара и пряностей
mulled wine	глинтвейн
cider /ˈsaɪ.dər/	сидр
to be a little bit tipsy	быть немного навеселе

Here's my input... Christmas music from: Various artists (You'll hear these being played over and over in the UK shops in December!). And Check out the ridiculous amount of views on YouTube!

1. Wham! — Last Christmas (1986).

2. Band Aid — Do they know it's Christmas (1984).

3. Mariah Carey — All I Want For Christmas Is You (1994).

Christmas is very big here in Ireland. We definitely go all out and when December arrives, out come the decorations, the trees, the lights, and the manger. In fact some people actually start preparing for it by having a dry November which is when they give up alcohol for the month, to save money and prepare themselves for the numerous Christmas parties. Something every workplace will have is a party and they usually start at the beginning of the month, so people start getting into the spirit of Christmas early. Traditionally we are supposed to put up the tree around the 8th, which is also the day that people often head to the city to get the shopping finished.

Another Christmas tradition is the 12 pubs of Xmas, which is when people, dressed in their Xmas jumpers make an attempt to have a drink in 12 different pubs on the same night. As you can imagine, it can be a very loud and drunken night but a good way for friends to get together and sing “Fairytale of New York” an Irish Xmas song that has been voted the best Xmas song in the world. In fact, you can't get through a day during Xmas without hearing this song!

In my family, Christmas Eve is always exciting. We do the last minute shopping in the morning, braving the crowded shops and supermarkets, where people are stocking up on enough food to feed themselves for a month! After that, we go to the pub, early in the evening, and it's lovely catching up with people that you normally meet only at this time of the year. There'll usually be a bit of dancing and a singsong as well and then some people like to go to midnight mass afterwards. Christmas morning differs from house to house, depending on whether there are kids there. In my house, I always get up, not too early, but I'll open my presents with my mother and brother and then after that I head to my dad and stepmother's house for more presents. A very unusual activity we then go to see is the Christmas morning swim. Out on the lake, some brave men and women jump into the freezing water for a very quick swim, all to raise money for charity. I have never done it myself, I prefer to stay nice and warm, but it's nice to go down there to support those who do and it's always lively with some music and mulled wine. Evenings then are with my extended family — aunts, uncles, cousins. We all gather at the family home and have a big feast of turkey, ham, vegetables, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, desserts, beers, baileys. In Ireland, it is very usual to gain a few pounds over the Xmas period. If you are not eating a dinner, you are scoffing chocolates and crisps nonstop!!! As you can imagine, the gyms are packed come January.

I now live most of the year in Mexico, and I usually spend New Year's Eve there where celebrations differ a little, but I always come home for Christmas. It really is the most wonderful time of the year :-)

Слово/Словосочетание	Перевод
a manger /ˈmeɪndʒə(r)/	ясли
to give up	бросить, отказаться
the spirit of Christmas	дух/атмосфера Рождества
to brave	не побояться
to stock up	запасаться
a singsong	пение хором в компании
midnight mass	всенощная
to raise money	привлекать средства, собирать деньги
charity	благотворительность
a feast	банкет, пиршество
ham	ветчина, окорок
gravy	подливка на основе мясного сока или бульона
to scoff	уплетать, жадно есть
crisps	чипсы