How the British Celebrate Christmas

Christmas carols are an inherent part of United Kingdom Christmas Songs. They originated in medieval England, when minstrels went singing from castle to castle. Today they are known as carolers. Groups of carol singers go singing from house to house and collect for charity. In schools and colleges too, carol services take place. Nativity plays depicting the birth of Jesus are put up by primary schools across UK which are performed by the young ones and attended by their parents.

As Christmas day approaches, children get busy writing letters to Father Christmas and post them. Houses are adorned with streamers, Christmas tree, baubles and lights. These days, the Christmas presents are too huge to be hung on the tree branches so they are kept at the bottom of the tree.

There are various other United Kingdom Christmas Traditions besides this which make the festival all the more beautiful here. The presents are conventionally given on Christmas Day though the exact time may vary from family to family. For the young ones, Father Christmas (or Santa Claus) leaves their gifts overnight while they are asleep. Some families also leave out a small treat for Father Christmas comprising a mince pie and a glass of sherry.
Mince pies are tarts made with pastry and stuffed with “mincemeat”. It’s a mixture made of dried fruits, sugar and spices.  The use of beef suet in this mixture has substituted meat which was always included in recipes earlier.

A traditional Christmas feast is incomplete without a roasted goose or turkey in the main course. For starters, you may be served with prawns or smoked salmon.  Items for the vegetarian in the family include a nut roast, which is normally served with roasted, boiled or mashed potatoes, roasted parsnips, and stuffing with gravy and bread sauce. This is normally followed by Christmas pudding.

The pudding became an intrinsic part of United Kingdom Christmas food on the initiative of Prince Albert when he first introduced it to the Royal Christmas dinner table. The Christmas Plum puddings are rich, dark puddings made with a range of dried fruits, nuts, spices, black treacle and sherry or brandy. The puddings are prepared well before Christmas to give the alcohol time to soak into the dried fruit. It is true, though, that people prefer to buy them from the supermarket these days. When the pudding is prepared at home, everyone in the household takes turns to stir the pudding and make a wish.  The mixture has to be stirred from east to west, in tribute to the three wise men.

Hiding a coin or some other object in the Christmas pudding is also a part of United Kingdom Christmas Tradition. The person who gets the piece of pudding with the coin in on Christmas day is considered to be lucky and their “pudding wish” will come true. This tradition is not so widespread now because of the inherent danger of swallowing the coins.
The other equally important part of United Kingdom Christmas Food is the Christmas cake. Christmas cakes are also very rich and dark containing all kinds of dried fruit, nuts, glace cherries, candied peel and are sweetened with black treacle. The cakes are wrapped with a layer of marzipan or almond paste and thick icing. Yummy!