Christmas

Billions of people from all around the world celebrate the holiday Christmas! Christmas day is December 25th. While Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, many people who are not religious also celebrate Christmas. Christmas is celebrated through various exciting traditions and activities. While every family has a different way of celebrating Christmas, many customs are shared between families. Popular ways of celebrating Christmas include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with friends and family, and of course waiting for Santa Claus to arrive! Let's take a look at some of these popular ways to celebrate Christmas in the United States of America. 

On Christmas people often give their friends and families gifts. Although Christmas is not truly about material things, it can be great fun to pick something out for someone you care about. A great part of the tradition of giving gifts is getting to wrap the presents in colorful and festive wrapping paper and put them under a Christmas tree. 

Many families decorate their homes with a Christmas tree. In a lot of places in the United States, you can go pick out and cut down your Christmas tree yourself. Families then bring the tree home to decorate it. To decorate a Christmas tree, first, you put on the lights. Then, you put on the garland. Next, you put on the ornaments, and finally, you put a tree topper on the top of the tree. Some typical tree toppers are stars or angels. Christmas trees light up a home with Christmas spirit. 
What are the steps to decorating a Christmas tree? 
First, _________________________
Then, _________________________
Next, _________________________
And finally, ____________________

Singing Christmas carols is a great way to spread Christmas cheer! People often listen to Christmas carols and Christmas music for the whole month of December. In the United States, there are many classic Christmas songs that you can expect to hear as soon as it is December. Below I have added a few links to some of our most popular and traditional Christmas songs! 

Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer

Jingle Bells

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

The Night Before Christmas

On the night before Christmas, or Christmas eve, there are also many Christmas traditions. On Christmas eve people hang stockings by the fireplace, leave a letter for Santa, leave cookies and milk for Santa (at my house we always left carrots for the reindeer too), and maybe watch a Christmas movie! On Christmas eve, children go to bed anxious to see if Santa Claus will visit them overnight and leave presents for them. Below is a classic poem about Christmas eve. 

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Fill out this template to write your own letter to Santa! 

Another popular thing for people to do around Christmas time is to decorate their homes! Here are some photos my mom sent me this year of how she decorated our house for Christmas. 

My mom loves snowmen decorations. 

My mom decorated our front lawn with Christmas lights. 

This is my cat Sebastian sleeping in front of our Christmas tree. 

This is my cat Harley helping my mom wrap presents. 

Christmas Vocabulary 

Jesus of Nazareth

exchanging gifts

decorating Christmas trees

church

Santa Claus

Christmas tree lights

garland 

ornaments 

tree topper 

Christmas carols

reindeer

bells 

Christmas eve 

Christmas cookies 

a letter to Santa Claus 

stockings 

I hope you had a nice time learning about how Christmas is celebrated in the United States (or in my family at least), and that you all have an absolutely beautiful Christmas. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!