The holiday seasons, as we call it here to be more inclusive of other religions and cultural traditions celebrated around this time, usually starts the day after Halloween when in shops start replacing the dark and creepy decorations with the colourful and merry ones.
Witnessing this change in stores is pretty traumatic in a way because you experience first-hand how holidays have become commercialized and the co-called atmosphere is nothing more than a well-planned marketing scheme.
But I don’t mean to be the Grinch so I will tell you what I enjoy the most about this festive time in England.
Around the end of November or beginning of December you start noticing posters publicizing “The Christmas Lights Switch on” all over the UK.
It is one of the most anticipated events in all cities, from greater London to the smallest town in the country.
It takes place in the city or town centre, where all the inhabitants gather, officially starting the Christmas celebrations by switching on for the first time in the season the Christmas lights on the biggest tree in town.
I really enjoy the moment the lights are turned on because I like to see the expression of the children during that special moment.
Lights on!
This period of the year coincides with the moment children start writing their letters to Santa Claus and mailboxes for the North Pole start popping up here and there around London and outside.
And as there is no Christmas without Santa Claus, in England there is no Christmas without Santa’s magical elves.
The English tradition called “The Elf on the Shelf” consists of hiding an elf puppet in the house, in charge of making sure that the child of that house behaves well.
During the night, the elf is believed to return to the North Pole to report to Santa Claus the events of the day, leaving signs of his passage the next day.
I think it is a great idea to have children behave better and I know that the Elf ‘helps’ teaching some good behaviours too.
I know tradition calls for the Elf to play some pranks on the family members too but this part of the tradition I do not understand…if the Elf is there to be a role model, why should it play pranks?
Elf on the shelf sample
But my absolute favourite part of the Christmas holiday is the singing done by the Christmas carollers.
The Christmas carols are Christmas songs and the carollers are a chorus of singers who perform such songs from door to door in exchange of a donation or sometimes they perform on busy shopping streets.
The money collected is normally given to charity or churches and often provide meals to homeless people around the holidays.
And this is the newest tradition I have learnt about.
It is an old tradition but it is something new for me: the Yule log.
The tradition of the Yule log has very ancient origins, since the time when each family used to save a log of hardwood to burn during the shortest day of the year, lighting it with the remains of the previous year's log.
People gathered around the fire while the stump burned slowly, creating a continuity between the previous year and the one to come, as a promise of prosperity and protection.
I had often seen the words ‘Yule’ or ‘Yuletide’ in Christmas songs and the term refers to the winter solstice holiday so it is connected to the Pagan holiday which existed even before the Christian Christmas holidays.
