Americans React to How to Have a Very British Christmas 

2:40 - BURNING LETTERS? - I'm 60 years of age, I was born in the UK and this is the first time I've heard of burning letters to Santa.

When putting out mince pies and brandy for Father Christmas, don't forget to put a carrot out for his reindeer too. This was an essential addition in our house!

That was a very misleading description of Boxing Day. It's really not just a 'Black Friday' type event. It's a public holiday which to some extent serves as an extension of Christmas Day; people continue to eat and drink and celebrate (or suffer) with extended family. Yes, some go shopping but it's also traditionally a time to talk a walk, go to watch a football match and basically just get out of the house for some fresh air. Oh, and the Christmas Pudding is not a cake. It's extremely rich and dense - you won't want a large portion. It's traditionally served with a cream infused with brandy called brandy butter.

Boxing day.This is mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary entry for 19 December 1663. This custom is linked to an older British tradition where the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families since they would have had to serve their masters on Christmas Day.

And who still pulls the wish bone of the turkey with there pinky , maybe an older tradition but we still do it .😊

Oh my word, filling a stocking and getting them into our children's bedroom without waking them up was an annual event... but when they ran into to our bedroom on Christmas morning showing what had been left by Father Christmas was priceless ...

You guys *SERIOUSLY* have to take Sophia to a panto, you guys will enjoy it too - lots of adult jokes that the kids won't get 😉

When I was small we had a coal fire, my letters to Father Christmas were thrown up the chimney not into the flames, the heat carried the letters up the chimney to the north pole 😊, stockings were put at the end of the bed and usually contained a small toy, a mandarin orange & chocolate coins. My children had stocking right up until the left home, with the same sort of contents plus a comic, it kept them busy while my husband lit our coal fire before we had gas central heating, my children carry on the same tradition with our grandchildren. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Yorkshire, England 🇬🇧

The name comes from a time during Queen Victoria's reign when the rich used to box up gifts to give to the poor. Boxing Day was traditionally a day off for servants - a day when they received a special Christmas box from their masters. Boxing Day is also known as St Stephen's Day - Stephen was the first Christian martyr, stoned to death in c34 AD. Being a saint's day, it has charitable associations. Charitable boxes - collections of money - would have been given out at the church door to the needy.

4. We don't usually call the "chipolatas", they are usually called "cocktail sausages", but we usually use regular sausages wrapped in bacon, and they are called "pigs in blankets"

Santa magically comes down the chimney, so the letters magically find their way to Santa through the same chimney, total logic, how he gets down after 60 million cookies and alcoholic drinks is still a mystery, no wonder he only works one night a year

Brandy sauce is traditionally served with Christmas pudding, but custard is a good substitute. The alcohol is cooked out.

Letters don’t go on the fire they get ‘posted’ up the chimney where they fly to Father Christmas….

If you write your letter to Father Christmas, a little earlier, not only did the parents have time to buy the gifts, but if you posted it with the address included, the children get a card from the Royal Mail, from Santa and some letters make it all the way to the North Pole & the letter comes back, with a story. Those cards and letters are treasured forever.

Christmas pudding is not really like a cake - it's incredibly dense and you only need a tablespoonful or so in a dish and then smothered in custard, cream or brandy sauce. Leftover Christmas pudding is also lovely sliced, fried in butter and eaten with cream or ice cream.

Personally, our family didn't put Santa letters in the fire. We put them up the chimney above the flames. You didn't see them burn. They were supposed to be transported by the hot air out the top of the chimney.

Regarding the Christmas pudding ,it is placed on a plate after cooking then you warm some brandy pour over the pudding and then light it,we usually have the lights turned off at this point everyone cheers.She didn't mention the Christmas cake,a rich fruit cake covered in white icing (not frosting) decorated with a snow scene .Merry Christmas to you all

The paper crown tradition can be traced back to the ancient Romans, who wore festive headgear to celebrate Saturnalia, a festival that took place around the winter solstice. A lot of things we do in the UK are from pagen traditions slowly watered down over the ages. Mistletoe, for instance, was a druid ritual to bring it in the house for good luck for the household and ward off evil spirits, now used as a sign of love and friendship.

Panto is an amazing tradition. As said it's usually a 2 hour theatre production around a children's fairytale. It has men dressed as women and women dressed as men. A lot of audience participation. Singing and jokes aplenty aimed at kids but some more adult humour is usually slipped in. Each town usually has it's own panto and local news is often scripted into the panto.

In my house it was sherry rather than brandy. Monopoly kills family gatherings through people throwing a strop (Trivial Pursuit can have a similar result) - better off sticking to Game of Life or Cluedo (Scrabble lies somewhere in-between).

We had a pillow case of gifts at the end of the bed and my parents never woke me up!!

Some Christmas puddings are small individual puddings and others are large that you would dish out into bowls.

Our Christmas stockings had an apple, orange, nuts and usually a colouring book and crayons in them.

The British tradtion was always Sherry and Mince Pies for Santa, which you will discover if you Google it. Not sure why she said Brandy, perhaps because Sherry is not as popular as it once was, so people have started substituting it with Brandy. Most likely as they get to drink it after the kids have gone to bed! 😁

The biggest difference that jumps out for me is that you call it ‘The holidays’, we tend not to use that frase, here it’s just Christmas time. .Have a wonderful Christmas, don’t forget the mince pies..

With my children we put a pillowcase with presents in it at the end of their beds. It always contained a satsuma. In the past getting an orange in a stocking was a real treat because they were expensive ( my dad who was born in 1927 told me it was often the only time he had an orange all year)

The Queen was the first monarch to have a televised Christmas message, before television the King sent the Christmas message by the radio.

When I was young (back in the 60s) I remember we children sent letters to father christmas. We wrote them on tissue paper and then threw them in above the coals and watched them magically fly up the chimney. It seemed totally believable to us. Did anyone else do this?

Most kids in the UK, will pretend to be asleep when our folks sneak in to fill our Christmas stockings. Christmas pudding is very filling, so you don't need much to fill you up.

The Queen banned Monopoly in her christmas household as it always evoked arguments. Christmas pudding can be served with custard, double cream, brandy or rum sauce or brandy butter. Some people have the leftovers fried the next day.

We used a pillowcase as a sack for some toys left at the bottom of your bed. Larger presents under the tree. Mince pie & milk for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph.

Bread sauce is made by placing an onion pierced with cloves in milk and infusing it. Afterwards you place grated/shredded Bread into the liquor and creating a sauce to serve with the food.

How do parents sneek in answer very carefuly and quitely ( I used to have a spare stocking so the empty one was laid at the bottom by the child then swapped by "santa" ) best feeling in the world when i was a child was waking up early and feeling the stocking full of pressies with your feet 😂

Growing up in the 1960s, my mum would always make our Christmas pudding (months in advance) and would include a sixpence (because it was silver) in it. Whoever got the sixpence in their portion was meant to get good luck.

Santa found a bottle of scotch one year in our house, after that he found the fridge, ate a whole christmas pudding, threw up in the bathtub, and went to sleep on the lounge floor where the kids found him on christmas day, where somebody had been sick on him. He has been strictly excused alcohol on christmas eve for the last 34 years and has behaved himself ever since.

She forgot Christmas Cake! A rich fruit cake, baked months in advance, and regularly dosed with Brandy afterwards. Finally covered with marzipan, royal icing and decorative icing. Eaten on it's own in the South and with cheese in the North (Wensleydale is best or Cheshire).

I grew up in Scotlad so Santa had Whisky also a carrot for the Raindeer. Parsnips are wonderful. Our gravy is diffrent to yours and i love bread sause. The white on the xmas cake is brandy sause which is butter icing sugar and brandy all mushed together. I have never gone shopping on boxing day.

Christmas crackers are a traditional Christmas favourite in the UK. They were first made in about 1845-1850 by a London sweet maker called Tom Smith. He had seen the French 'bon bon' sweets (almonds wrapped in pretty paper) on a visit to Paris in 1840. He came back to London and tried selling sweets like that in England and also included a small motto or riddle in with the sweet. But they didn't sell very well. In 1861 Tom Smith launched his new range of what he called 'Bangs of Expectation'! Legend says that, one night, while he was sitting in front of his log fire, he became very interested by the sparks and cracks coming from the fire. Suddenly, he thought what a fun idea it would be, if his sweets and toys could be opened with a crack when their fancy wrappers were pulled in half. However, looking into the history of the Tom Smith company, it's thought that Tom actually bought the recipe for the small cracks and bangs in crackers from a fireworks company called Brock’s Fireworks. The story of him sitting by the fire was probably added to help sell his new items. Crackers were also nicknamed called 'cosaques' and were thought to be named after the 'Cossack' soldiers who had a reputation for riding on their horses and firing guns into the air. When Tom died, his expanding cracker business was taken over by his three sons, Tom, Walter and Henry. Walter introduced the hats into crackers and he also travelled around the world looking for new ideas for gifts to put in the crackers. The crowns might have been inspired from Epiphany cakes from Europe which are often decorated with a paper crown on the top.

Father Christmas must get pretty drunk drinking all the alcohol, and rudolph gets a lot of carrots :) if the house didn't have an open fire? Father Christmas has a "magic key" of course!! 😂

The stockings....best way to sneak in and "fill" them...DUPLICATE STOCKING!! put the empty one on their bed, when they're asleep, remove the empty one and replace with the full one. That way u spend no more than a few seconds in the room and voilà

Hi both…..we don’t generally call Christmas time “ the holidays”, it’s just Christmas. Chrimbo is just a shortened version of the word Christmas 🤷‍♀️….us Brits do love a shortened word haha! Christmas pudding is lush if you like lots of fruit but it’s very rich so go steady! Crackers are fun and the hat never fits me lol! I’m just heading off to spend Christmas in Cornwall with my family….its where I come from. Happy Christmas to you both and Sophia 🎄🎅🏻⛄️❤️

Myself and my family don't go shopping on Boxing Day - the video is a bit tongue in cheek here. It is a Bank Holiday so most people don't go to work. In fact, many people have the whole period from Christmas Day to New Year's Day off, sometimes as part of your annual paid leave allowance . Boxing Day is often a day for meeting up with friends and family you didn't see on Christmas Day, and a day for eating up Christmas leftovers and bringing out generally lighter food. We traditionally have cold meats and chutneys, with bubble and squeak and baked beans.....

Letters to Santa used to go in the fire as the smoke took the message to Santa. Now letters are posted and the wonderful post office deal with them. Santa fills the stocking used to be with nuts and oranges as they were expensive and were a treat.

In the UK, it was traditional to put a silver sixpence coin into the mix, so some lucky person would get it with their pudding. The pudding can be served with Custard, Cream, or Cream laced with Cognac or Baileys Irish Cream. 🎄🎀🎄

As a Brit, I've never heard of putting the letters to Santa on the fire. We always "posted" them to the North Pole !

They make sure they oil the hinges before opening the door and sneaking into the room and putting the gift into the stockings.

LMAO "Sending the letters to Hell" Satan must so confused and annoyed that he's getting all this post and everyone's spelling his name wrong!!

We have never thrown our santa letters in the fire. Pudding is nothing like cake which we also have. Black friday happens in november, boxing day has always happened only just recently the sales start on that day. We also sometimes call it crimble. She doesnt know what shes talking about😆. Hope you had a great day with best wishes from the UK

I'm from the UK & our stockings were always around the fireplace. The letters were left in the chimney when the fire was out & not thrown in the flames.

I remember as a kid waking up to a stocking and pillowcase full of goodies. We always burnt our letters to Father Christmas. We always left a Sherry n mince pie with a carrot for Rudolph

Just thought it needs to be made clear that you pull crackers between two people (usually everyone around the table pulls together with those on either side) and the person that gets the biggest part gets the prize inside. Mentioning as I recently saw (in a film) Americans attempting this tradition but pulling it like this woman did.

Don't need a fireplace..santa has a special key 😂 so says my mother 😂😂😂😂😂

Christmas Pudding with Custard Cream Brandy Sauce Heated up brandy in a ladel lit and poured over hot pudding This not done much now. It was a spectacle bringing into a darkened room Spooned into bowls Used to put sixpence in pudding ( coin) and lucky to find

I'm a Brit and I've never heard of burning letters or taking the tree down within ten days. Also, whipped cream on christmas pudding? No, it's brandy sauce. Happy christmas 😃

During the six yrs we lived in VA, we certainly celebrated Christmas as we always had. Many of our neighbours had a lesser event. I think this may be because only Christmas Day itself is a holiday for many Americans, whereas in the UK (Canada, Australia, etc) and in much of Europe, the days off work run from midday on the 24th to January 3rd.

Playing Monopoly with family at Christmas is the perfect way to end up having a massive argument, resulting in at least 1 person going for a walk 😂

Merry Christmas to a very lovely family.

Letters were left on the mantlepiece for Father Christmas to read. Stockings were also hung there. I think this vid is a general mish mash of what some people do. Happy Christmas to you all 🎄

Tbh none of this was true for me. Wrote letters and posted them. This was normal not everyone had a chimney especially if you lived on a council estate. We left out whatever was available in the cupboard. Never had stockings by my bed. We had stocking fillers that were left around the Xmas tree.

We do hang stocking on the fireplace and fill them when the kids have gone to sleep and place them on the end of their beds so when they wake up they see Santa has been and get excited. Bread sauce is not a thing everyone has gravy is a must though. Bread sauce is basically milk infused with onion cloves and bay leaf then thickened with fresh breadcrumbs. Christmas pudding after cooking is turned out on a plate and has brandy poured over and set on fire before taken quickly to the table to get the OOhhh's out lol then dished out and served with either brandy butter, cream or custard. Christmas crackers are pulled by two people whoever gets the middle section has won the goodies inside, kids love them. usually pulled anytime during or after the meal. Have a great Christmas xx

Mid 50’s when I was a kid our house was heated by open fires only and yep,letters to Father Christmas magically went (I wonder if that’s where JK Rowling got the chimney travel idea from 🤷‍♂️). And I agree with an earlier post, “The Holidays” just sounds strange,holidays are what you go on in the summer!!

I love Christmas pudding with brandy butter! Yum! Butter, and sugar whipped together and then brandy beaten in.

A blessed Christmastide to all three of you, and all whom you love. 🎄🤱 Santa doesn't visit Britain at all. His boss, Father Christmas does (leaving America to his assistant 😅). In Wales, as Father Christmas is a little large, our gifts are delivered down the chimney by Sion Corn (an elf named Chimney John). 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

I was always told when I was younger that boxing day came from putting your empty boxes from Christmas outside for bin men to take away, when they worked that day in the past. That could be wrong though. Have a Merry Christmas.

As a child, I remember waking up early on Christmas Day and feeling the weight of the presents on my bed. It was so exciting. We also leave carrots for Fr Christmas’ reindeer.

We post our letters to ‘Santa, north pole’. If we put our address on letter, there is a person in Royal Mail, who replies to the letters as Santa. The Christmas pud you saw, was a family sized one that you would cut and share. We often start planning for Christmas in the summer. It’s a huge deal to us. Stockings. Go on the beds for Santa to fill. This is usually 1 or 2 small pressies, a juice drink an orange maybe a small snack. (Different around the regions). The main presents are under the tree in lounge/living room. The stockings are opened on waking but the main presents might be opened in the morning but many families open presents in afternoon after early dinner is cleaned away. We usually do ours about 3pm. Happy Christmas xx

Hope you and your family have a great christmas and a happy new year

Brandy butter ( Brandy, icing sugar and butter mixed) melted over Christmas pudding.

We didn't burn our letters to Father Christmas - they went straight up the chimney by the force of the hot air from the fire. My mum would hold them above the flames and let go, and they would 'magically' fly up the chimney straight to the North Pole.

We used to send our letters up the chimney to Santa 🧑‍🎄 clause 😂😂😂😂

MY family ALWAYS send our kids in the Royal Mail letter box to Santa!!! Do people HAVE many fires these days? 🤔

When I was a kid in what feels like "Victorian Times" now, we used to give all the people who delivered things to our doorstep a "Christmas Box" tip. In the week before Christmas. When we had daily/weekly visits from the milkman, bread man, paper boy, rent collector, loan collector, insurance man, Football Pools man, and garbage collector etc.

Happy Christmas Steve, Lyndsey and Sophia. Our family tradition is to open gifts just before lunch. We have scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for breakfast with a Buck’s Fizz, late lunch, in between open the gifts. We always remember the loved ones no longer with us, we toast them before the meal.

The chippolatas wrapped in bacon are called 'Pigs in blankets' btw :)

I would note that the Xmas Pud is indeed portioned up in bowls after being set on fire. It can be served with custard, double cream or brandy butter.

The letters don't burn in the fire. They go up the chimney with the heat of the fire and the draw of the fire. It really looks magical as they fly off to Father Christmas 🎅

Hello Both. One of my neighbours used to leave the veg peelings on the doorstep telling the kids that Santa’s reindeer had called by. No chimneys in my street! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda I chi, in Welsh. Chrimbo is just a childish version of Christmas.

Boxing Day is generally accepted to have its beginnings in that the day after christmas, you would box up gifts and food for your workers and give them a half day off to visit their families, workers being house servants who would have been needed to work on Xmas day.

And a carrot for rudolff 😊

When I was a little girl, we left a mince pie and a cup of tea out for Father Christmas and a bowl of water with one or two carrots inside for the Reindeer to eat. My dad would get dressed up, eat and drink everything and then walk upstairs to place my stocking and a few presents at the foot of my bed.

I'm feeling a little hoarse as well. I hope the RSPCA don't find out😂😂

Also with the drink we usually do whisky rather than brandy because me and my dad prefer that.

A lot of what she says does not apply to all of Britain. My children and grandchildren put their letters to santa in a special santa post box, and the post office replied. Never heard of burning letters or throwing in the fireplace. Our stocking were at the bottom of our bed, or attached to the fireplace. A lot of traditions vary throughout the country and families.

Very Happy Christmas to you and your lovely family. Make traditions with Sophia, it's so lovely to look back over the years and remember loved ones. She's a beautiful little girl. Have a great Chrimbo!

One thing she kinda breezed past is how huge a deal television is on Christmas Day in the UK. Many tv shows air special Christmas themed episodes that air on Christmas. Particularly comedy shows and soaps. Here in America Christmas themed episodes air earlier in the month and not on the actual day itself.

Christines pudding, and rum sauce....which is a sweet white sauce with the addition of rum to flavour..

1st let me say I used to be a Postman (mailman) and we used to get a lot of Letters Posted to Santa at Christmas, which we forwarded on to a Special dept that would read them and if there was a return address They would often reply to the letters on Santa's behalf. 2nd I always convinced my kids it had to be Mince Pie and Brandy left out for Santa otherwise they would be on his naughty list for next year. I also Agree Monopoly is a Brilliant Game, But a lot of things are being exchanged between the USA and the UK. We never had Trick or Treat at Halloween, when I was a kid, We called it Mischief Night and we used to knock on doors and run infuriating the Neighbours. Christmas Pudding is served like that on the table but I wouldn't advise trying to eat a whole one to yourself they are very filling and usually sliced up in individual portions around the table. The Alcohol is usually Heated on the stove until it is ready to flame off and it burns the Alcohol off so it makes it safer for Children to eat. Boxing day may have had many different reasons but the norm now is for Supermarkets to Cut the Prices to the bone on Boxing day especially on Christmas Lines because they can clear the shelves for the January Sales, It's either that or pay staff to store them until next year, and of course some of the Christmas food stuffs wouldn't survive until next year. Merry Christmas to you all see you next year.

Pantomimes start from around October til about Feb. Sorry for the overload messages. Also i have never heard of the Xmas tree coming down after 12 days , it is usually down before New Years

HI STEVE AND LINDSAY DEBRA HERE FROM SOUTH WALES UK Say hi to Sophia for me, I hope she is being a good girl and not getting to excited for Santa, so she stays on his good childrens list. MY CHRISTMAS DAY Just like you guys, Santa, (as that is what we called him as well), left my filled stocking by the fireplace, my parents (aka Santa) left stuff for me to amuse myself with whilst I waited for my parents to get up later that morning and thren open up my main gifts. In my family we left pulling our christmas crackers until after our lunch, which was a stuffed roast turkey with vegetables (carrots, sprouts, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, roasted parsnips and honey roasted carrots) and gravy, cranberry sauce and stuffing and of course pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in streaky bacon (American style bacon)). Then we had our dessert of Christmas pudding and custard whilst we pulled our christmas crackers. Oh boy did we feel full after that meal or what! After lunch whch we normally had at around 1:00 p.m. we lounge out around the tv watching a special christmas soap episode followed by the Queen's speech (now of course the King"s speech) at 3:00 pm to 3: 15 pm followed by a film usually a James Bond or a musical depending what channel you was watching. Then we started on our christmas chocolates ( mmm mmm mmm). That basically is my christmas day here in my little part of South Wales. I would now like to take this opportunity of wishing you, Lindsay and Sophia a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2024.

the sauce on the pudding is likely a rum or brandy sauce, the tradition in my family is my nana started with everyone at her yhouse then it was my mam then in 2012 it was my turn till my disability started getting worse now my daughter is doing it, and boxing day we get the family for turkey and chips. HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

People have Brandy sauce on christmas pudding or custard or cream. Its rich, I love it!

50 year old Brit here and never heard of putting letters on the fire. As a child I always wrote father Xmas a letter and it got sent to the North Pole

The best thing about stockings left on kids beds is the extra half hour or so asleep they can buy you! My kids always used to have a few small toys, some chocolate, a drink and satsuma just to keep them occupied for a bit! Also, about traditions being lost, try starting your own with your kids. When mine were born we were poor as church mice our first few xmas', and we made many of the tree decorations. Now fastforward to my kids all being grown and i still had those old decorations we used to use, so i split them between them for their own trees. Its only a little thing but always sparks memories when they come out.

We used to leave out sherry, coincidentally sherry was my grandmother’s favourite tipple. The history of the Christmas cracker is interesting if you feel like looking it up. Advent calendar’s as a child born in the late sixties were just pictures behind the doors no chocolate. And I’m with you I love Monopoly but as an only child I used to play it by myself.

Bread sauce is really good. Its a different consistentency from gravy. I think you could imagine it more like one of your ' fixings'. Its bread soaked and cooked in milk so it has the consistency more like a very thick white sauce. Its made with spices that compliment the rest of the Christmas meal such as nutmeg and cloves. You don't cover your food with it totally but have a bit of it with certain bites of your meal usually the meat.

For the letters, I think the tradition of burning the letter is for the person living away from the letters box like farmer.

Christmas pudding does not taste of alcohol it taste off fruit and spices

the christmas pudding would be served to the table like that (but on fire) and then dished into plates with cream or brandy butter (yet more alcohol) to your plate.

My partner and I spend Christmas just the two of us - but we still go the whole hog! You can never have too many leftovers! My fave tradition is making the kilties though (that's what we call the bacon wrapped sausages in Scotland!). It was the great Christmas job I started doing to help my Mum when I was a "big" girl, and 30 years later, hundreds of miles away ot still takes me home to the memory of all that love and laughter. The little traditions matter so much!

In Scotland we have different traditions. We call him Santa where England calls him father Christmas