Monday 14 December 2015

Christmas

Dear Students,

It is Christmas time. At school, we are working to a very tight schedule. In a week's time you are going to have your annual Christmas holidays. Before going on a holiday I fully expect us to share ideas about festive season on the blog and in our English class.

To begin with, read the article I am going to attach for you to look at. Share your ideas on the topic with your classmates. Should we change some old traditions or continue keeping the alive? Because it is a part of our culture but unluckily demolishing. Thus, what are the things your family does at Christmas? What is the sign of the first Advent and Christmas season? In addition, I wish you could upload the link to your favourite Christmas carol. So we could sing in our class.

Here is the news to amaze and to amass

Regards,
Ü.Lepp

12 comments:

  1. Dear teacher and classmates,

    It is nice to see a new posts. No news is good news - thus says the adage. I am pleased to note that this is not true. In my opinion it is no surprising that we are focusing at this time on Christmas. Christmas is just a theme, which you can always talk. And of course it is never too late to learn even things what we already know, because which is soon learnt, it soon forgotten.
    At fist, I read a article which you added and I stayed thinking about to burning spruce. I have to admit, that my family brings Christmas tree home from rarely. We will bring the room some of the spruce twig, but never whole spruce. Our family is made of traditional Christmas dishes as like sauerkraut, black pudding, oven-baked meat, pickled pumpkin etc. We always decorate the whole house of candles, coloured lights and the other decorations. In my family usually spends Christmas at home.
    Secondly, I think we should continue keeping some old traditions the alive, because otherwise the future generations will never know what were homemade traditions. Keeping old traditions we preserve the culture.
    Last but not least, the sign of the fifrst Advent and Christmas season is absolutely snow and dwarfs.When there is snow on the ground , it is a sign of winter and then comes the dwarfs who brings Christmas closer. As you requested I too add my favourite carol link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHf823TPJ7A

    Best wishes,
    Liisi

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear teacher and other co-authors,

    Christmas - the time of the year when people spend their money on things they do not need, making gifts to people who they dislike and later regret doing so. I do like winter, as long as there is snow but I do dislike Christmas because it has lost its true meaning.
    As we all know, Christmas is a religious day, the day which marks the birth of Jesus Christ. I do agree that great feasts and present are a part of this holiday, but nowadays it has turned into another shopping period, where people are fighting for the finest discounts and presents, often buying things just because of the low price. And just like that, we get the problem of overusing different products, which we just might throw away later. It is not that the tradition should change, it is the people and their way of thinking that should change.
    As for myself, my Christmas holidays are usually rather calm, we have our feast, give each other presents and enjoy quality family time. As for the presents, it usually involves simple things, nothing too spectacular or too expensive. The food on the table is usually traditional Christmas food. All in all, our family celebrates holidays peacefully.
    For me, the first sign of the first Advent and Christmas season nearing are found in shops, different chocolate calendars and special and limited edition treats. As for the Christmas carol, since I do not really like Christmas, I do not listen to Christmas songs. In addition, since I am fond of harder electronic music styles, I will just post something different, which is still calm and instrumental and so should be fitting for Christmas. It also has vocals so karaoke is possible - https://youtu.be/7-tNUur2YoU?t=11s
    Best wishes,
    Marius

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear teacher and classmates,
    I really enjoyed reading the article that has been uploaded. I got thinking of Christmas in other side-the mass of rubbish that we cause celebrating festive season. I thought about it and I think that recycling is very important, because then we can help to plant thousands of new trees and protect the woodland. It was really interesting article for me.
    I agree with the statement that we should keep alive our old traditions with reference to Christmas, but we should keep our eyes to that we don`t need so much cards and packaging. All in all I think that when it is a tradition to bring spruce at home in your family, then you should continue doing that.
    In addition my the most important time of the year in our family is Christmas time, because it is the only time when we have time to spend with all the family members and relatives because everybody have school or work and we don`t see each other every weekend. The Christmas time is the time we sit around big table and enjoy ourselves and listen some Christmas music and every Christmas night when our stomachs are fulled we watch home video which was made when we were little kids. It brings back memorys and it is the only way we can see our grandparents because now the are dead and my little brother hasn`t seen them. Then we explain things to him and we can laugh together about the time when we were young and foolish.
    I think that the first sign of the Christmas season is the decorations everywhere and when you walk in the store then Christmas music sings and the stores are preparing to sell a lot of tangerines.
    In conclusion I would like to upload the link of my favourite Christmas carol. The song is called "All I want for Christmas is you".
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY
    Best wishes,
    Krislin

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear teacher and classmates,
    Sorry for many delitions!
    Firstly Christmas time is every year a really special holiday for me and also for many other people. But as well as I can see society is spending more and more money to make other people happy. And this is why I think that Christmas is not very special anymore. Humans are shoping a tons of things that sometimes are not even necessary. So this is why I think that society have made christmas a environment pollution holiday. But definitely we should change our shopping habits in christmas time and focus on more important things like relations with our family members. In my family we have tradition that my kinsfolk come together and spend great time around the Christmas table.
    The last question was how I recognize when Advent and Christmas is coming, answer is simple- marketing is makeing all the job bringing out all the christmas things before Advent. But Christmas- TV is full of Christmas movies and also in Facbook people are start posting Christmas wishes.
    Lastly I add a Mariah Carey song ,,All I Want For Christmas Is You“ music link because I think that this is most known Christmas song- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY
    Best wishes,
    Kelli

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Ülle and other bloggers,

    I read the article, which you mentioned in your post.In my opinion, Christmas is tradition about an emotions and feelings you can`t touch, not about things or gifts.
    Christmas,like all the other traditions, have been spoiled with supermarket seasonal discount. Likewisely, the gifts what we usually buy from stores on sale. They are cheap and meaningless. If you want to make a special gift, then it should be self-made or present, which you would like to keep for yourself. Moreover, the present should have a piece of your soul, then it would be reminder of you. Certainly not glittering wrapping paper or varicoloured cards.
    I have a big family, but all my sisters-brother have settled down kilometres of me. Formerly they all came together to village Vinski, but now they celebrate with their own families. When I was a child, we all used to go to forest and looked for in a matching size fir. Now I decorate my appartment with coloured lights and figures cut-out from paper.
    The signs of Advent is different chocolate calendars designed with Disney characters. In all homefolk we can see burning candles on Advent Sunday evenings. Christmas season signs in a store is definetly sale, tangerines and glogg. Also on shop shelves, we can notice a loads of decorations and chocklates over designed for Christmas season.
    At last, I post my favourite Christmas carol.Every christmas my family listened to one disc, which my sister brought from Finland. It was ensemble called Saukki & Pikkuoravat. I like different music styles, thats why I add Finnish song- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l8RyKkMcGM .
    Best wishes,
    Nadežda

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear bloggres.
    Christmas is around the corner and people are getting ready for upcoming holiday. This means strores are overloaded with people.

    As for the Christmas traditions whether they should be changed or kept alive. I think as time goes by and everything changes, so why not to cahnge traditions also. Old traditions do not appeal to new generations anymore and in order to keep the holiday alive, traditions should be changed.

    On Christmas in my family, we bring a spruce from woods, eat Christmas food and make presents.

    First sign of Christmas season is Christmas songs, which I do not reallu like. Their harmony and melody is kind of too soft and warm for my taste. Second thing that comes into mind is candle. Graveyard is especially beautiful on any kind of bigger holiday. There is just this beautiful sea of candles. It is like the are having their own holiday there.

    My favourite Christmas song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OnDjkoTdck

    Best wishes,
    Egert

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Egert. Nice and simple ideas. Pretty well written in english.

      Best
      Ü.Lepp

      Delete
  10. Dear teacher and co-bloggers,

    The article you added got me thinking about people’s recklessness and all the environmental destruction they do. It is heartsore how people leave their Christmas trees rot or just throw the trees away instead of recycling them. In my opinion it would be a good idea to collect the trees with other householders and take them to an common collecting place. That way people can make a contribution to saving the environment.

    For me, Christmas is the most wonderful, kind, forgiving and charitable time of the year. I am delighted of the Christmas traditions in Estonia and we should definitely try to continue keeping them alive. Our family Christmas holidays are almost every year equal with the previous ones. Before Christmas I go to the woods with my sister and father and try to find a perfect spruce to bring home. For one day we let it melt of powdery snow and when it is in it’s place, we decorate it together, which in my opinion is the beginning of Christmas spirit. On the 24th December all our relatives gather to my grandmother’s house. Every Christmas we have a traditional Christmas meal, we exchange gifts with each other and most importantly – we enjoy the get-together-time.

    The signs of first Advent is certainly, as the others said, the different chocolate calendars and sweets in the markets, but also the Advent concerts next to the main Christmas trees in different cities and villages. For me, the primal sign of Christmas season is actually pure white snow, however, in recent years we have had shortage of it...

    I enjoy listening to Christmas carols so-so-so much! Unfortunately I don’t have the most favorite carol, but with you I decided to share this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfyCdcaw7OE

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hello everybody,
    I read the article and I noticed that it is ten years old. I think that for now the numbers are much bigger. In my opinion we don't have to change our Christmas traditions. Instead of that people must reduce making waste or we will soon end up on a giant waste ground.
    On Christmas I bring a spruce from forest. My mother makes gingerbread and on Christmas eve we eat a traditional Christmas meal which includes potatoes, blood-pudding, sauerkraut and pork. And we also go to the cemetary to light some candles.
    First signs of Christmas are Christmas theme goods which appear at shops in the middle of November.
    My favourite carol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWv72L4wgCc

    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,
    Martin

    ReplyDelete