圣诞倒计时开始啦！

　　Counting down the days We all go crazy for it! The feeling of frenzy is kicking in and panic among the people is starting to spread. It’s only 6 weeks until Christmas! It is official: counting down the days until the greatest day of the year in Britain has started!

　　Christmas in Britain is a truly magical season, bringing families and friends together to share their time and the much loved traditions which have been around for centuries. And to ensure that everyone enjoys it, a lot of planning and preparation goes into it.

　　Christmas decorations and food start to appear on the shelves and shop window displays as early as October! Shop managers are busy recruiting extra staff for this hectic (and very profitable!) period of time. People start to put Christmas tress up as early as late November, while some very organised individuals may even be done by then with their gift shopping. All cities are busy decorating their centres by putting beautiful, fairylike displays of Christmas lights. In London the lights have already been switched on since 12 November, illuminating London’s Oxford Street in a blanket of bright white lights and 1778 baubles, creating a perfect Christmas setting. So, as you see, it is difficult not to get sucked into this magical festive Christmas madness.

　　Even children love counting down the days until Christmas. But why wouldn’t they? The anticipation of receiving numerous wonderful gifts is preceded by the fun of having an Advent calendar. For those who have never heard about it... an Advent calendar is a special calendar used to count the days in anticipation of Christmas. Such calendars have 24 ‘windows’, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. One is opened every day. But what’s most exciting is that behind each window there is a delicious piece of chocolate, which both children and adults cannot resist every day! So… all that waiting for the greatest day of the year is being kept very sweet!

　　But the preparation would not be completed without planning the Christmas menu. There is so much you can choose from to accompany your perfect Christmas dinner: pigs in a blanket (bacon wrapped cocktail sausages), Brussels sprouts with almonds, roast potatoes, mash potatoes, carrots, parsnips and swede…just to name a few. But let’s not forget about my old time favourite: mince pie. I promise, you will not find any meat inside these pies although the name suggests otherwise, mince pies are purely fruit-based pies! And a word of warning! It is considered unlucky to cut a mince pie with a knife!

　　As you see it is all very exciting (personally, I cannot wait for Christmas!) so to see it all unveiling in front of your own eyes and discover all the interesting cultural differences it would be best to convince your dear foreign British friends to invite you for a Christmas dinner itself! So start thinking of ideas of how to achieve that, but let’s be honest, it shouldn’t be difficult, after all British people love socialising and having fun!