Merry Christmas
The winter holiday season is the most festive time of the year in the United States. Students from elementary school through college have about two weeks’ vacation, beginning shortly before Christmas and ending soon after New Year’s Day. 71 There are many parties to celebrate the birth of Christ and the arrival of the New Year.
72 Late in November, street lights and store windows are decorated with the traditional Christmas colors of red and green. Santa Claus, shepherd and angel scenes appear in shop windows. Winter scenes with snowmen, sleighs, skaters, and skiers decorate cards and windows.
The manufacture and sale of Christmas items is big business. 73 Smart shoppers buy their gifts far in advance, before the Christmas rush makes shopping a chore.
Although Americans enjoy the commercial friendliness of Christmas, the most beautiful and meaningful parts of the holiday occur at home. 74 Then they sit down to enjoy a traditional Christmas dinner—turkey or ham, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and cranberry sauce. Dessert is usually fruit cake, plum pudding, or apple pie. Most of the Christmas customs which Americans enjoy today are variations of traditions brought here by European immigrants, decorating the Home with evergreens for example. 75 Branches of evergreens were thought to bring good luck and guarantee the return of spring. Now, at Christmastime, decorated trees stand in about two-thirds of American homes. The modern American tree is usually covered with colored balls and strings of colored lights.
A. Many families gather around the tree and open their gifts.
B. In America, the spirit of Christmas arrives about a month before the holiday itself.
C. Many families go away for the holidays, but those who stay home have fun, too.
D. In America, it’s customary to exchange gifts with family members and close friends.
E. Stores depend on Christmas shoppers for about one-fourth of their annual sales.
F. Today the custom continues, but now it is for fun.
G. This winter custom began in ancient times.