English Language FAQ

We want some figgy pudding Please bring it right here! We won’t go until we get some We won’t go until we get some We won’t go until we get some So bring it out here!

Christmas is, of course, the celebration of  a certain event in Bethlehem , as recorded in the gospels of Luke and Matthew. But the immediate and enduring success of Charles Dickens’  A Christmas Carol  (1843) has played key role in shaping the secular elements of the modern festival. At the time Dickens was writing, Christmas was celebrated like any other religious feast-day. Though it officially lasted twelve days ( on the first day of Christmas, my true love … ) most of the activities associated with it took place in church on the night of Christmas Eve and the morning of Christmas Day. Many employers allowed their workers a second day off for Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day in the UK). Scrooge was not unusual, however, in insisting that Bob Cratchit return to his ‘dismal cell’ early on the 26th. Read More  (5 mins Medium article)

The word derives from the Latin 'natal' meaning birth. 

There are strong showings by Dylan Thomas, Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy and many others. In the USA, however, the runaway winner concerns a guy in a red suit. "A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, although the claim has also been made that it was written by Henry Livingston, Jr. The poem, which has been called "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American",[1] is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today. And no doubt, either, as to which has become the most popular reading. In one of his last recordings, Louis Armstrong beautifully evokes the childhood he never experienced. Take it away, Sachmo.  

‘Bah!’ said Scrooge. ‘Humbug! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money?  For finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer?' Photo by  Annie Spratt  on  Unsplash For Scrooge (and Scrooge McDuck!)  Christmas is 'humbug'. In the modern sense of the term, 'humbug' is roughly synonymous with the more recent 'virtue signalling'. In other words, insincere or hypocritical speech aimed at gaining social acceptance. Was Scrooge an early opponent of virtue signalling? Not exactly. Scrooge's complaint is more against the idea of charity itself. He sees this as a fraudulent commercial trick aimed at 'picking a man's pocket'.  The poor, he argues, are the responsibility of the prisons and workhouses. This view contrasts with that of Scrooge's nephew, Fred: 'Christmas is a good time - a kind, forgiving, charitable time' But what is a humbug?   In British English, a striped candy/sweet.  It's boil

Photo by  Milada Vigerova  on  Unsplash The word Advent   originates in the Latin word for 'coming'. It describes the immediate period leading up to the birth of Christ.  In the church calendar, this starts on the Sunday nearest to November 30 - November 28 in 2021.  Unsuprisingly, Advent culminates on Christmas Day Church customs Photo by  Grant Whitty  on  Unsplash The lighting of the Advent candle is the key custom from a Christian perspective. The wreath symbolizes the the journey from Adam until the awaited Second Coming - evergreens representing the eternal nature of  God.  The wreath holds four equally spaced candles. The three purple ones are lit on the penitential Sundays. The pink candle is for Gaudete, the joyful third Sunday in Advent.  Another Advent custom is that members of the congregation each look after  a statuette of the baby Jesus for twenty four hours.  Carols The singing of 'carols' originated from pagan mid-winter festivals but developed into the

There is no agreement about this. We can be pretty sure it is not  because:

Charles  Dickens'  A Christmas Carol  (1843) introduced many  memorable words, phrases and idioms into the English language . It also popularised the greeting 'Merry Christmas' which was not widely used at that time. Stave One is a particularly rich source of memorable phrases. Bah Humbug!   interjection . An exclamation of irritation or disgust.  Dead as doornail - obviously/conclusively dead. Ghost of Christmas Past :   noun.   A person or thing from a past you might choose to forget  Gruel - a thin liquid food of oatmeal - used to refer to cheap/poor food.  Scrooge: noun . Someone with cold/mean/miserly attitude. Also someone who transforms from bad to good. Tight fisted - ungenerous  Famous quotations  A Christmas Carol is one of the most widely quoted texts in literature. Here are some widely used examples from the opening description of Scrooge: Marley was dead, to begin with … Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. Oh! but he was …tight -fi

'picture print by Currier and Ives' mentioned in Sleigh Ride Several of the very best 'Christmas songs'  make no specific reference to the festival itself.

Frankincense is a gum resin with a strong smell. It comes from the Boswellia tree.

A very long time ago you might think as you hurry away from  I wish it would be Christmas Every Day and So Here It Is Merry Christmas, currently blasting out of every shopping mall in the western world. In fact less than thirty years before Roy Wood and Noddy Holder were doing their worst, Christmas was the catalyst for some magnificent songwriting. Sleigh Ride , White Christmas , Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, The Christmas Song ( Chestnuts Roasting) and many other standards were written during the mid 1940s and early 1950s. Many have identified the trauma of the Second World War as the inspiration - an idea made explicit in Hugh Martin's wistful  Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Make the Yule-tide gay. From now on our troubles Will be miles away. Here we are as in olden days, Happy golden days of yore. Faithful friends who are dear to us Will be near to us once more. Someday soon we all will be together

"A merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!" Which all the [Cratchit] family re-echoed. "God bless us, every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all. What is Frankinsense? And Myrrh A Paul McCartney story about the young John Lennon's late night encounter with a Nativity scene inspired  this fun  Fred & Rita playscript . Christmas Carol Teaching Pack More Christmas-related posts

 "A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, although the claim has also been made that it was written by Henry Livingston, Jr. The poem, which has been called "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American",[1] is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today.  And no doubt, either, as to the most popular reading. Take it away, Sachmo. 

Christmas Time!  (from 'A Christmas Dinner' ) And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good and will do me good: and I say, God bless it! (Fred explaining his attitude to Christmas to his Uncle Scrooge) All his life Dickens loved Christmas. As a young man he hosted parties like those found at Dingley Dell or at Mr Fezziwig's Ball. He loved to organise riotous games and show off his very impressive magic tricks - including a sensational one involving a flaming Christmas pudding. On the Twelfth Night he wrote sketches for family members to perform, often taking the lead roles himself.  Many have speculated that Christmas represented everything Dickens aspired to as a troubled, insecure child: family, fun, festivity, tradition, security and order. And according Claire Tomalin's  biography ( Charles Dickens: A Life )    he never gave up on the festival even in the latter, darker period i

The word Emmanuel is the Hebrew for 'God is with us'.  For Christians the birth of Jesus is the physical incarnation of this:   Mt:1:23: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Luke:1:26-39: 26: This is made explicit in  Hark the Herald Angel Sing: Glory to God in the ... Jesus our Emmanuel . ...  It is also the the theme of the most beautiful carols: 

The sun is shining, the grass is green, The orange and palm trees sway. The less well-known verse of the ubiquitous Christmas song give a clue to its origins.  Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas in the summer of 1940 in sunny California (another heatwave in 1949 also inspired Sleigh Ride . According to legend he told his secretary that he it was the 'greatest song ever' but there seems to have been no hurry to get it to the public. It finally surfaced on Christmas Day, 1941 when it was performed publicly by Bing Crosby for the first time in a radio broadcast. Again this received little attention. A year later  Crosby sang White Christmas in the film Holiday Inn : The song was on a soundtrack album released in July 1942. It was not the first single released from this LP and its initial popularity came via requests to armed forces radio stations. When it was finally released at the end of October it rose rapidly to the top of the charts, where it stayed until the New