A British Christmas

Christmas is coming.  I’m looking forward to it as I’ve been busy recently, and need a break.

What is so special about Christmas in Britain?

As it is the time when many of us Christians remember the birth of Jesus, Christmas is above all for our children.  This is the time when we celebrate them, and give them presents.

It is also the season of the shortest days.  As with Belarus, there are fewer than eight hours of daylight in the South of England, but fewer than six in the Shetlands Isles, the northern most part of Britain.  So there is good reason to cheer ourselves up and celebrate together (and the further north in Europe, the more important may be the Christmas festival).

I recently visited Vetka, near Gomel, after some snow.  The sun was shining and I was told of Pushkin’s famous poem Winter Morning.  I don’t think there is any as bracing to the senses as bright sunshine on a cold white landscape.

In Britain, many of us (well I certainly do!) hope for a white Christmas, with snow on the ground and the sun shining.  Unfortunately, this is quite rare, except perhaps in the mountains in the north of Scotland.  But there is a tradition of taking bets on whether it will be there will be snow at Christmas.

Although I don’t think it’s particularly British, children enjoy having an advent calendar to count down the days to Christmas.  The best ones have chocolates or other sweets behind “windows” that need to be opened each day up to Christmas.

Like other traditionally Protestant countries, we sing Christmas carols during advent in churches and outside around Britain.  We have many excellent cathedral, and other, choirs.  The Service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Chapel in Cambridge is the most famous of the concerts typically put on across Britain in the run up to Christmas.  Choral societies often sing Handel’s Christmas oratio Messiah.

We delight in putting up Christmas decorations in our homes and workplaces to cheer us up.  Our most famous streetlights are those in Regent Street, one of the main shopping streets in the centre of London.  Who turns them on has become something of a celebrity sport.

Although the tradition stemmed from Germany, especially due to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, many people buy Christmas trees.  There is an association of Christmas tree growers who claim 6 to 8 million trees are sold in Britain each year.  London and Newcastle receive a large tree from the Norwegian cities of Oslo and Bergen respectively as a token of appreciation for the British support of Norway during the Second World War.

Amongst the special Christmas foods, perhaps the most British are mince pies.  Wikipedia tells me that the original recipes were brought to Britain from the Holy Land by Medieval crusaders.  Maybe – but the mix of meat and fruit is no longer produced – most mince pies now are a mix of dried fruits and spices (“mincemeat”) in pastry.  Delicious after an evening of singing outside in the cold.

We Britons can be highly self-critical and censorious of the commercialism of Christmas.  Certainly, the shops are very busy before Christmas, and maybe even more so after, when the winter sales begin.

But we have a strong tradition of charity at Christmas.  Many organisations open shelters for the homeless.  Carol singers often collect money for charity in public places.  And we buy a lot of charity Christmas cards to send to our family and friends, for which a greeting card organisation estimates that about £50 million a year is raised for charities across Britain.

As in other countries, we usually have a party with our work colleagues, sometimes outside the workplace.  We have a specific British event at Christmas:  the pantomime.  This is a musical comedy show for all the family, where men dress up and act as women, and a young woman dresses and acts as a male hero.  It has some longstanding conventions that are peculiarly British.

Christmas pantomimes have boomed in recent years, despite the economic difficulties.  This may be because they are “pure escapism”.  More importantly, some theatres have only survived because of the profits they generate from their Christmas pantomimes.

As for celebrations on Christmas day, we tend to eat turkey.  This became the traditional meal by the time Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” in 1843.  We also eat a Christmas or plum pudding, which is heavy, full of dried fruit, spices and fat.  Not for those who need to lose weight.  And then we pull Christmas crackers – apparently another innovation from Victorian times.

Most people tend to eat the main meal as a lunch on Christmas day.  After which, we sit down to watch the annual Queen’s Christmas message.  This is when Her Majesty the Queen passes on her best wishes to the nation and the Commonwealth.  The tradition began in 1932 when the first Director General of the BBC suggested that the then King give a message to inaugurate what later became BBC World Service radio.

The day after Christmas is also a holiday – Boxing Day.  This is apparently named for when employers would give their staff a Christmas present in a box.  This is also St Stephen’s Day, as celebrated in Ireland.

After eating so much food, we need some exercise.  So it’s a day when many people play or watch sport.  There is usually a full fixture list of professional football, horse racing and many other events.  It used to be a day when many people in rural areas went fox hunting.

There are even some hardy souls who go swimming that day – although perhaps the most famous is the Christmas Day swim in the Serpentine, an artificial lake in Hyde Park in the centre of London.  I realise now that they are not so extreme exercise compared to the various swims that Russians and Belarusians undertake in winter.

There are some more recent traditions of which I suppose the most notable are “Christmas specials” on television and radio.  And I like to settle down with a double Christmas edition of a magazine that my wife has bought me when the articles are more reflective and wide ranging than usual.

As a nation with a lively interest in popular music, there is great competition to have the Number One song at Christmas.  Record companies try to find a suitable song, or use the more recent fad of talent shows to launch a “number one single”.  One of my favourite Christmas songs is one by John Lennon that didn’t reach number one.

Christmas should be a time to give thanks for our lives.  A time for rest, reflection and celebration of the good fortune we have.  And to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

I shall be having a quiet time with family and friends.  But I may also be pondering what to write about as a result of our competition in association with our Belarusian partners at Budzma on themes for my first blogs of 2014.

Best wishes for a Happy Christmas and New Year to all.