myguideBritain Blog

Dreams of a white Christmas

January 2nd, 2008

Christmas has just been and gone, and I had a great time.

Christmas is a very important time of year in the UK, as it is when families all come together, have a roast turkey dinner and exchanges presents.

My family and I have had an adventure this year getting all the Christmas lights, decorations and most importantly the Christmas Tree from out of the attic and putting them on display. There are a wide variety of trees that you can choose from in Britain, white trees, black trees etc. This year we decided to go with the traditional pine green tree, themed with golden tinsel and beads, glittering baubles and reindeer and taking centre piece is the shining star at the top. It looks beautiful, and my 9-month old son cannot take his eyes off it.

I started my Christmas shopping late this year and so I have been frantically rallying-round different stores searching for the ideal presents for my family and friends. I bought a few of the essential gifts that everyone needs for Christmas, socks, dressing gowns and slippers of course! I finally got them wrapped, gift-tagged and placed neatly under the tree ready to rip open Christmas morning.

Now of course Santa brings all the presents on Christmas Eve and leaves them under the tree for the children. Santa only comes once the children are fast asleep and gets in down the Chimney. If you have a house with no chimney then he has a magic key so there’s no need to worry kids! Also, we have to leave some milk for Rudolph the Reindeer and a small glass of Sherry and some cookies for Santa to keep him going for the rest of the night… this is what we tell the children of course!

Here in Britain all the family get up very early on Christmas morning so that we can sit with the children and watch their faces light-up as they open their presents. While the children are opening their presents ‘the chef’ (whoever that may be, mam, dad, nan) is in the kitchen roasting the turkey, boiling the vegetables and stirring the gravy in time for dinner.

Dinner is normally around 2 o’clock, which has given us plenty of time to open all our presents and clear the empty wrapping paper. For dinner we have all the traditional British trimmings, for starters a warm minestrone soup, for main course all the vegetables, turkey, gravy and apple sauce and for dessert is Christmas Pudding (made from Dry fruits) with white or brandy sauce.

After dinner we all sit around the television and watch the Queen’s speech when she gives her message to the country. The children then start discovering their new toys and we have merry chit-chat along with a few glasses of wine and play family games.

The only disappointing thing about Christmas day in the UK is it very rarely snows, and alas there was no snow again this year. But it certainly didn’t ruin my first Christmas with my new baby.

Entry Filed under: All of Britain