An English Christmas
Christmas Day, December 25th, celebrates the birth of Christ, and is thus the greatest of Christian festival. However, many people feel that the religious meaning of Christmas is diminished by the commercializations of it.
As Christmas draws near, the big shops stay open long after dark, and get more and more crowed. Everyone is buying Christmas presents for friends and relations.
The home is decorated with colourful paper chains, leaves of holly and mistletoe, and attractive greeting cards received thought the post from friends. In the corner there may be a Christmas tree with its branches decorated with shinning ornaments such as coloured lights and glass balls, and sometimes hung with gifts.
- mistletoe: an evergreen plant (= one that never loses its leaves) that grows on trees, with small, white fruits and pale yellow flowers. Mistletoe is often used as a Christmas decoration, and it is traditional to kiss someone under it. 美洲寄生子属植物；槲寄生枝条（常用作圣诞装饰物，按西方习俗，可以与站在枝条下面的人接吻）。
On Christmas Eve, it is said, Father Christmas, also called Santa Claus, brings presents but only to good children. He knows just what every child wants, and he brings it all in a great sack. On Christmas Eve, when the children are asleep, he comes silently down the chimney and leaves the presents near their beds. Christmas Eve comes at last. When the children go to bed they often hang up a large stocking or a pillow-case to receive the presents. "Now go off to sleep quickly," says the mother, "because he won't come until you're asleep!" But they are too excited to sleep and are not even drowsy. So they just pretend to sleep, hoping to catch a glimpse of Father Christmas. Meanwhile, unknown to them, mother and father are busy filling stocking and pillow-case with presents in the next room. When they are sure the children are really asleep, the parents creep like robbers into theirs bedroom and leave the presents near their beds.
- drowsy: being in a state between sleeping and being awake. 睡意朦肬的，半梦半醒的，似睡非睡的。
The next morning it is Christmas. The children wake up with shouts of "He's come!" and immediately start opening their parcels. The grownups, less excitable, save their own presents till breakfast time. After breakfast, many people go to church; but the children will be playing with their new toys, and the mother will probably be preparing the Christmas dinner. This includes poultry for the main course, salads, breads, and vegetables, and features a variety of desserts, for example, pies, puddings, and ice-cream.
In the afternoon many families listen to the Queen broadcasting to the Commonwealth. In the evening, after a huge tea, often including a big Christmas cake covered with frosting as sweet as candy and as smooth as pudding, the family will probably sit around the fire eating nuts, sweets and fruit, talking or watching television, or playing party games.
- frosting: a sweet food used to cover or fill cakes, made from sugar and water or sugar and butter. 糖霜；给（糕饼等）撒糖霜。
Everybody likes to be happy and full of goodwill at Christmas time. The great writer Charles Dickens loved Christmas, and described its merriness and warm-heartedness in books like A Christmas Carol, with drawing-room scenes of blazing log fires, while the December snow outside made all country white. This is why people today talk of a "good, old-fashioned Christmas", and why many hope it will be a "white" one but it seldom is, for snow is a rarity in December.
- goodwill: friendly and helpful feelings. 善意，友善，友好，亲善。
- merriness: 快活；愉快。
- rarity: something that is very unusual, or the quality of being very unusual. 罕见的东西（或人）；稀有，罕见。
The theatre plays its part during the Christmas season by putting on special shows for children. The circus is another thing that parents may very well take their children to see as a Christmas treat. Loins and tigers have been patiently trained to leap through the air and even the more docile beasts like elephants and horses do astonishing tricks.
- docile: quiet and easy to influence, persuade, or control. 温和的；温顺的，驯服的；易控制的。
So the children usually count the weeks, then the days, to Christmas. And almost everyone enjoys the happiness of Christmas.