pov: your teacher told you to watch it during quarantine

2:54 'It's then soaked in alcohol, aged for several months, boiled again, soaked in alcohol again, and then set on fire'. Possibly the best description of Christmas pudding I've ever heard.

"Because he is a grownup." I don't know why but that made me laugh really loud. :)

I'm Danish but my dad lives in England. Some of my best memories are of spending Christmas at his house, because I LOVE British Christmas! In Denmark we have our Christmas meal on the 24th, and afterwards we dance around the Christmass tree and then open presents. Often we were too tired as children to play with our presents afterwards. But when I had Christmas at my dad's, we opened the presents in the morning on the 25th in our pyjamas, and it was SO cozy and 'hygge'! We had mince pies and the whole day to play with our presents. We would also go for a long walk around noon with the dogs, and say hi to the neighbours who were also walking (my dad lives out in the country and everyone would go for a walk around the same time, it was magical!) I also love the cheesy Christmas TV shows! All in all I adore British Christmas!

Our family tradition is to "accidentally" miss the Queens speech them pretend to regret it

"Come to a British Christmas, we soak everything in alcohol, and then light it on fire!" I love this video. XD

This girl should have her own television show, funny, lovely and her narration does not irritate at all. Wonderful.

I am from Pakistan and for me Christmas was always about watching Christmas specials on Cartoon Network. That is my childhood Christmas memory :D

Also, side note on Scottish traditions - The Christmas pudding is called a "Clottie Dumplin" in some parts of the country. Because it's a dumpling (fruit cake) that was traditionally boiled in a rag, or a clottie. Originally these were two different deserts, made in different ways, but in some places the name stuck while the desert itself changed slightly.

I have seen Dr Who, there is no way I will visit London during Christmas

#9: "Pretty much every theatre in the country puts on a pantomime." Oh no they don't! _Audience: Oh yes they do!_ Oh, and has anyone seen the villain around here? _Audience: He's behind you!_

we give him alcohol because he is a grown up. Love it. we do leave carrots for the raindeer as well tho

Also to make the Queen's Christmas message more interesting, what we do choose words or events that you think she will say i.e Family, Commonweath etc, and each time she says it you have to drink.

I know it's probably no longer a strictly British tradition, but the Doctor Who Christmas special is also a staple of British television viewing on Christmas day.

whattt im english and ive never heard of burning the letters, we actually sent them.

Bread sauce is a southern English thing. In the North Redcurrant or Cranberry sauce with the Turkey is more usual. Some shops are open on Boxing Day, but not all by any means, so it's not the best day for shopping. I'd say the biggest thing about Boxing Day is watching Football, eating leftovers or spending the day with family or friends you didn't see on Christmas Day.

Wait, you told them what Pigs in Blankets were and you DIDN'T tell them they're called Pigs in Blankets?!

How is there so much animosity in some of the posts on one of the most light hearted channels I watch?!?!?

I laughed at the brandy and minced pie comment 😂 one year we forgot milk and my dad ate all the cookies, so we ended up leaving beer and nachos for Santa. Easily one of my favorite memories.

She said that they leave brandy for Santa because he's a grownup. We leave milk and cookies because he's driving.

As a American with English and German ancestors.I try to combine as many Christmas traditions from the U.S,U.K and Germany every year in my house as much as possible.It's so much fun.Christmas will always be my favorite holiday and favorite time of the year.

So the Brits load Santa up on alcohol before he crosses the pond? Lucky the guy hasn't crashed in the Atlantic or been pulled over for FUI(Flying Under the Influence)

watching the Queen's Christmas message has become our new favorite tradition in my house, Thanks BBC America ^.^

Absolutely love this channel! I love the personalities and the info on everything UK! My grandmother was from Birmingham, and I've always wanted to visit. Thank you for putting out such awesome content! Plus, the ladies are a totally lush! Seriously! Keep up the great work!

Americans hearts must sink knowing they have to work the next day. Boxing day is a day to recover from over eating and drinking xD

Best joke: "What do you do when you see a space man?"/"Park in it, man!"

when I was younger I thought boxing day was to remember all the boxers who fought

My sister was so scared of Santa coming in her bedroom so we hung the stocking outside her door LOL

On Boxing day one family member puts on a buffet for the rest of us (it varies every year). It normally consists of ham, prawns, little party foods, sandwiches, biscuits and such. Anyone else do this or is my family even weirder than I thought?

This was so interesting! Always love learning about other cultures and traditions! :D

Canada, in the past, under British rule, still to this day celebrate a lot of what the Brit's say differentiates themselves from Americans. ❣🇨🇦

This 5- minute video gave me more insight into what British Christmas is like than any school textbook. Thanks a lot!

I live in America and at my local theatre we have a British director and this year we put on a pantomime! We did Aladdin and it was one of the most fun productions that I have ever been a part of. Next year we are doing Sleeping Beauty and I'm so excited! I'd love to go to England and see one there.

I'm an American who's lived in London for nearly 22 years, which means 21 British Christmases. You forgot #11: No Public Transport. If you can't drive you're stuck, and the taxi drivers are quids in, as they charge 3 times the normal fare on Christmas Day. I always look forward to the first day back at work after New Year's, where everything returns to nearly normal. This series is hilarious, BTW.

Everything you said was spot on but, one more thing I look forward to every year: The Doctor Who Christmas Special!

In our family Christmas was highly scheduled. Thanksgiving segued into the Christmas season. While Thanksgiving Day and the Friday afterwards we had Thanksgiving dinner and leftovers, on Saturday after Thanksgiving we would have turkey sandwiches and that Sunday we had Turkey stew which was created from what was left of the left overs. It was actually quite good. But food was only part of the schedule. Friday was the day we cleaned up after Thanksgiving and put the Thanksgiving decorations away which usually meant throwing them away since most of those were disposable. On Saturday we would go out and search for our Christmas tree. Usually we wandered out into the town woods and picked out a tree and cut it down and brought it back. Then Saturday night my father would put it on the stand and string the lights. We then would decorate it. From then until Christmas Eve we would put up some decoration each day. My parents would ration the decorations so that no day would be without a decoration from each child going up. The first weekend of December, unless that happened to be the weekend right after Thanksgiving in which case it would be the next one, we would go see Santa Claus. Today that is done at a mall or some store where you pay a fee and then get your photo taken with Santa. No fee no sitting on Santa's lap. That's the way it works today. But when I was a kid the town hired a Santa who would sit on a great throne in the town square every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The line would wrap all the way around the square and sometimes down the road towards the fire station. Sometimes it was cold. The rest of the time it was very cold. We didn't care. The various fraternal organizations from the Rotary to the Masons to the Kiwanis and Lions etc. would go around handing out free coffee, donuts and treats for the kids, usually candy canes, hot chocolate and cookies. In our extended family we had 11 birthdays in December. So on the weekend before Christmas we always had a big birthday party with a giant birthday cake with the names of everyone who had a December birthday and candles for all of them and then we'd sing happy birthday and all the birthday people would circle the cake and have a contest to see who could blow out the most candles the quickest. Aunt Karen always won. She played the trumpet in high school. Christmas Eve we were all required to go to bed early. My grandfather would read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and one or two other Christmas stories and then we were tucked into bed. We were ceremoniously "locked" in our rooms with a "magic paper padlock" and if we broke the lock we'd get coal for Christmas. We took very good care not to break the lock. That would be around seven at night. Then downstairs they would play Christmas music really loud. Sometimes Christmas carolers would come to the front yard and sing. We'd all rush to look down from our bedroom window and open the window despite the cold to hear them sing three or four Christmas carols. Then we'd close the sash and rush back into our beds to get warm again. In that old Victorian house it originally had coal heating and my father never removed the old ducts so we could hear the Christmas music echoing up through the vents until we fell asleep. Sometime in the night we would be woken up by the sound of hoof steps and the jingling of bells on the roof and a lot of noise and commotion. We could hear the sound of boxes and toys being dumped onto the floor echoing up through the duct work and into our rooms. Then we'd hear some way over dramatic "Ho! Ho! Ho'ing" which was always followed by some loud banging sounds going up the chimney and some sounds on the roof and a final jingling of bells. By this time the Christmas music had been long silenced. There was nothing but the occasional tinkling sound of the wind blowing ice crystals into our bedroom windows. It was always the same, we'd run to our bedroom door and crack it just a little bit open. If the paper lock was still there we had to go back to bed and wait. But if it had been replaced by an unlocked golden sparkling padlock then we could run down stairs and begin tearing through the loot below. No matter what my father was always the first one downstairs. We never knew how he managed to beat us downstairs every time. Christmas morning was always a magical time. It was a time we could be kids and not worry about many rules. We could tear through any gift that was "from Santa" as long as it was addressed to us. We didn't need to worry about what to do with wrapping paper or saving the pretty ribbon. We didn't have to keep it neat. We just went into a Christmas present feeding frenzy. Mom usually dragged herself downstairs about an hour into our Christmas morning. By then all the Santa gifts were open. Papa was always groggy and when Mom came down Papa would drag himself back up to bed. This was the time Mom would go around and gather up the debris and then we'd have a more formal unwrapping of gifts from family and friends. That took until sunrise or sometimes a little afterwards. It was during this time when we usually noticed all of the additional Christmas decorations and just how magical the whole house looked with all the added lights and candles. Then Mom would get us all ready for Christmas mass. We liked it because they always sang Christmas carols and the church was always decorated in such a festive way with pine bows and holly and candles. They never turned on any electric lights during Christmas mass. I remember when I was really young the Mass was said in Latin but they changed that though I don't remember when other than it was when I was still a young kid. There were often people chanting Christmas music in Latin in my earliest memories of Christmas. After mass we could play with our new toys and watch Christmas shows on TV while Mom made Christmas dinner which was really Christmas lunch since we ate at noon. We always had Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, home made roles and breads, stuffing and pink cauliflower. Mom soaked it in cranberry sauce over night which made it sweet. She soaked broccoli in apple juice and that made the broccoli sweet as well. Those were our Christmas vegetables served raw and crunchy. And of course there was cranberry sauce and occasionally other side dishes. Papa always dragged himself back downstairs for dinner and was usually dressed in a suit and tie which he hardly ever wore any other time. After Mom and Papa cleaned up we all piled into the car with gifts and treats dressed up in mostly red and green clothes and drove to our grandparents where Grandpa (the same one who read to us the night before) was always watching a football game on TV. It was a big old black and white TV, around 17 inches which got all the channels. Those were called "all channel" TVs since they had UHF channels. That meant instead of having only four channels like we had he got an extra three. We thought that was the coolest thing. Except he never let us watch it. Kids were all kicked outdoors at that point where we soon were distracted by sleds and toboggans and other ice based ludicrously fast forms of transportation. We had to be dragged back inside when it got dark out, usually an hour after sundown. At that point we all sat around my grandparent's tree and it was more gift exchanging and usually there were at least one gift for each of us that Santa somehow misdelivered at the wrong house. Then we had Christmas supper which was about the same as Christmas dinner except with more people, a bigger turkey and a larger variety of trimmings. After supper we could stay up as late as we wanted to, engorge ourselves on as much deserts, milk and soda pop as we could with no restrictions and fall asleep in our p.j.'s around the fire place next to the tree. By that point Grandpa had relinquished the TV to us though there rarely was much of interest to kids by that point. Somehow, magically, we would wake up in our own bed's the next morning with all our newly acquired loot spread around our room surrounding our beds as though in a way to remind us how fortunate we were. The next week or two, depending on the calendar, we continued to enjoy our Christmas vacation from school. The tree and decorations always stayed up until New Years Eve. New Years Day everything came down. By the time we went to bed New Years night, not a trace of Christmas was left except a few scant leftovers like fruit cake which usually was left over until Easter and of course, our Christmas gifts which by then had been incorporated into our inventory of possessions, some already broken or worn to the point of being useless and some already abandoned due to a miscalculation by an elf. Most were neatly stowed in their new homes, a toy box, dresser or closet or book shelf. Half would be forgotten by the next time Christmas rolled around. A few would never be forgotten, like the GI Joe in full combat gear and and articulated hands and his tank and foot locker with all the accessories! Or the red bicycle from Sears, the Flexible Flyer, Lincoln Logs and the best toy ever LEGOS! My mother and her poor bare feet and broken vacuum cleaner would disagree on that last one.

She forgot to mention the silver sixpence in the Christmas pudding!

"Every theatre has a panto with high camp, cross dressing and audience participation" Oh No They Don't!

Brussels Sprouts are delicious!

When you say "America" you mean specifically "United States of America". Here in Canada we have Christmas crackers, paper crowns, Christmas pudding on fire, HRH Message, and Boxing Day is a Holiday. And we sit around and watch Mrs. Brown's Christmas special on the TV.

Happy Crimbo to you! Love all of your videos!

When I was a child and lived in Bicester, I recall that decorations consisted of spraying fake snow on the windows. We stenciled Happy Xmas and a number of snowflakes like our neighbors. A gent dressed as Father Christmas drove though the neighborhood in a sled pulled by a horse or two and handed out a present a piece to all the children whose parents had the presence of mind to dress them quick enough to meet him in the street before he traveled to the next area. I wonder if they still do that though it was 40 years ago. It was a fond memory of my time there in the UK.

Thank you so much for making us laugh so much. Merry Christmas

In my Canadian city, we have a recycling program where the city will pick up your tree for free. The trees are mulched, then used as fertilizer throughout the city.

It's funny how Australia has adopted bits and pieces from both countries. For example, we leave out cookies and milk for "Santa" but we also have boxing day specails (like black friday) and Turkey.

"We leave him brandy and a mince pie... Because he's a grown up." Oh hell yeah. I always assumed Father Christmas visited America first to line his stomach with the milk and cookies before approaching the spirit isles.

Alcohol -as much as possible- with and in your dessert pudding sounds right to me, bedside pressies in stockings and paper crowns all round. Christmas dinner with brussel sprouts has been a family favourite for ages, along with any roasted bird you can think of ... Siobhan, you're a gem ! Please carry on ...

Here in Canada we do a lot of these traditions as well! Merry Christmas!

You missed out the fact that at least two members of the family will drink one too many sherries, thus bringing out some obscure antagonism which has been gently simmering since last Christmas. The drunken participants in this dispute will then retire to the kitchen/garage/back-garden and scream insanely at each other for the next hour and a half, while everyone else watches James Bond on TV. This time honored ritual is compulsory and must be enacted at least once at every British Christmas gathering.

Canadian Christmas shares a lot of these traditions. I also have Christian traditions mixed in too so I'd say my Christmas is pretty enjoyable.

Very entertaining and educational video indeed, thanks for posting

kto tu jest bo baba z angla kazala wlaczyc ten filmik? XD🎄🎅🎆

I'm surprised Christmas Television wasn't mentioned! It's almost a tradition that all the old family films are broadcast almost back to back over the days surrounding Christmas. Doctor Who as well.

In Canada we get the best of both the Yanks and the Brits Christmas so I love eating both pie and Christmas pudding as I watch the Queen's message.

I have an artificial tree, and I'm definitely not in the majority in the states, but I like to keep my tree up through February because I love it and it makes me smile. And bitter cold and snow make me sad and grumpy. Plus I work retail, which in the US is kinda sole crushing. So I hang onto to all the holiday happy I can.

This just got me hyped up for christmas

Apart from dousing the Christmas Pud in brandy and (hopefully) setting light to it, as a child the Christmas Pud also had money scattered through it. Sixpence coins were the going rate for me as a toddler and later 5p pieces. If you escaped swallowing it or breaking a tooth on it you got to spend the money on sweets.

I so want to attend a British Christmas. It seems so much fun.

I started loving boxing day here in the US back in 2006 because of all the football (soccer) matches that are televised live on TV so early in the morning. Just a great way to get over the NBA and NFL matches played on Christmas day. I have the morning to enjoy watching soccer without people telling me to switch off the television, because, you know...Americans still hate soccer. Even though we have a (somewhat) strong league now.

Thank you so much for the video! It helped me to write my project on British Christmas.

In the states, pumpkin and/or pecan pie are traditionally eaten as dessert after a Thanksgiving meal. I've not heard that many have them as a Christmas dessert.

'It's like your Black Friday but no one gets trampled' that almost makes me want to go to London on Christmas. But Doctor Who...

After living in England for nearly eight years, the things I miss the most are pantomimes and the Evensongs and Christmas programs put on by our sons' schools. We also can't get sausage rolls and mince pies here. I can make the pies that taste similar but our sausage is completely different, so I can't even make them. I also miss the week of movies that were on TV for the week between Christmas and New Years. We used to just run the recorder that whole week and have plenty of things to watch for months! LOL Sigh. I just miss England in its entirety. Happy Christmas everyone!

Hi, there. I´m a Brazilian teacher of English. I loved this video and I´m definetely going to use it with my students. Thanks a lot!

Love this series. I just found it. And it helps demystify many English traditions. Just wondering... do you think the "Leaving stockings by the bed" tradition stems from the original St. Nicholas putting gifts in shoes? Originally the shoes were put outside the front door but then moved to outside the bedroom door. So... you see where I'm going with this? Anyway. Very good. Glad to have found your channel. I look forward to seeing all your videos and to any you add in the future.

OF COURSE THE PUDDING IS BOILED. this is the UK we're talking about.

As an international student in the UK, I would love to spend typically British christmas one year, seems so much interesting than what my British acquaintances told me...

If you chop the brussel sprouts up, salt and pepper them. Add a bit of oil, and bake them until they browned they taste pretty decent.

Yorkshire puddings are a British tradition, you can't have Christmas dinner without them. :D

In my family it is compulsory to wear the paper hats from the christmas crackers and the first and second people to take theirs off have to do all the washing up.

We wish you a Merry Crimbo, We wish you a Merry Crimbo and a Happy Hogsmany!

Idk about britain, but the most important part of a proper murican christmas is getting hammered and feasting. Love the video! Instantly subscribed! keep up the fantastic work!

It's just not Christmas without an argument over monopoly.

OMG! She got everything right about my British Christmas! 👌

Your vids are so funny, and true! Good work! 😄😄

University Challenge Christmas Special and the moment the cheese board comes out for teatime!

Actually Boxing Day is for us to recover from the inevitable hangover and go to football matches. Not that it matters much as a lot of people will take a week or two off for Christmas and New Year.

You missed out the Doctor Who and Downton Christmas specials!

Regarding the stockings, we practiced the custom in a "half" British way. Mom was both Swedish and English. So we hung them by the fireplace, but on Christmas morning we always found them stuffed full of goodies at the foot of our bed.

Where I'm from (Michigan) we tend to take our trees down before New Years. It's considered tacky to keep them up afterwards. Though I have seen a new tradition of putting up small trees and decorating them for the season, which I think is pretty neat.

British Christmas sounds bloody fun! I love soaking things in alcohol and lighting it on fire!

I'm British and I have never burnt any Xmas letters or have know anybody else to either. Also I have never hung a stocking by a bed it's either been hung by the fire place or placed under the tree and I've never left brandy out for santa it's always a glass of milk, a mince pie and a carrot for the reindeers. This presenter is obviously an upper class person from snobby London haha

I have made subtitles for this video because there aren't any, and the automatic one has many mistakes. What do you say about the tree? Can anyone help with this word? :D Minute 4:22: I've certainly seen people keep their old brown dried __________?? Christmas trees

Here’s how it goes in my family: 1. The letters to Father Christmas are just left on the piano/piano stool 2. We put a stocking near our beds and find sweets in them (I love that part of the video! A complete stranger who has been watching you? He also sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake) 3. We leave out a Schnapps and a few biscuits (we’re a German family, I take it there are no more questions to be asked?) 4. YAYYYY DANGEROUS EXPLOSIVES AHHHHH FUN FOR ALL! (Joking) We usually get things like hole-punchers or bottle openers, that awful pun and the paper hat/crown thing (which we all wear immediately) 5. We always wear them, and the grumpy relatives usually aren’t there with us and if they were, they wouldn’t be grumpy 👍. The arguments for me consist of the paper crowns, monopoly and Brussels sprouts. What’s the most popular Christmas wine? But Mum, I don’t want my Brussels sprouts!! 6. We often do Raclette for Christmas - or go for the more German salmon, duffy potatoes and beetroot 7. I’ve actually never seen a real-life Christmas pudding in front of me, but that does sound wonderful. Alcohol, fire and more explosives and alcohol. Yippee! 8. We don’t live in England anymore so we can’t get the Royal Christmas Message. I think we did watch it every year and pretend to be interested. 9. Yeah, I’ve never been shopping on Boxing Day, but I wouldn’t want to. I wouldn’t get trampled though, either. 10. Read the above 11. We usually take our tree down on the first or sixth of January of the new year (unless it’s brown and dead) I really enjoyed this video! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

The xmas pud would traditionally have coins in it which the lucky finder could keep provided they didn't choke on it first. A lighter alternative to the xmas pud is a sherry trifle which is also heavily laden with alcohol. Not that we Brits are all hopeless drunkards who spend the whole festive season completely sozzled. Don't forget the tins of Quality Street and Roses sweets with everyone fighting to get their favourite. Oh and the epic hunt for the corkscrew/bottle opener. You end up having to borrow one from a neighbour and then yours suddenly reappears in mid January.

what about Yorkshires? I refuse to go along with all that "it doesn't go with turkey" stuff, imo Yorkshire Puddings are a key part of Christmas dinner

Not forgetting the Boxing Day hunt popular with the posh that my family watered down to a two hour long gallop on horseback through rough ground and hedges. I miss it...

very few of these I actually do now, we have Christmas crackers and Christmas dinner but it's beef, chicken and pigs in blankets, with gravy, roasties and Yorkshire puddings. desert is usually jelly and strawberry whip

The burning of the letter sounds very pagan: ie blowing out candles on your birthday so your wish goes up with the smoke and comes true (air magick).

For my whole entire life I thought we ate chicken for Christmas but last year mum told me that it was turkey. MY LIFE IS A LIE

I'm an anglophile, everything about the culture, holidays,food,music I love the people God bless you and god save the queen ,I love that part .

We're a stocking by the bed sort of family. The "stocking stuffers" even get wrapped up, at least in our house. So much excitement unwrapping the minute the kiddies awaken! I would hazard a guess and say you would find just as many families who hang stockings by the fire as you would putting stockings by their beds here in Canada 🇨🇦.

American shows don't have Christmas specials the way the BBC does. I think American Christmas celebrations would be vastly improved if we adopted the Doctor Who Christmas special as mandatory viewing. :)

There's other traditions, like there's ALWAYS a James Bond movie on TV on Christmas Day (no idea why) and removing the Christmas tree means stuffing it behind the shed and leaving it there for the rest of eternity as you can't be arsed to take it down the dump and the bin men are too miserable to take it as you didn't leave them a tip. But Guy Fawkes night is a lot more fun in the UK, Children get to set fire to effigies of Catholics and celebrate that were a protestant nation with hideously overpriced, underpowered fireworks and no one gives a shit!!!

this was awesome

I have a Jamie Oliver video on preparing a traditional Xmas dinner, and thankfully some British traditions did not make it to Australia - Brussels sprouts yuk. A lot of Australian Xmas traditions are based on the Brits, but we are developing some of our own. As much as I like the traditional Xmas dinner (the chestnut and pork stuffing is to die for) it is really great to have Chritmas in Summer, we are finally fusing our own traditions onto the great British Xmas traditions e.g. having seafood - prawns, crab, Balmain bugs, fish such as salmon - with, or even instead of turkey. Also we can eat fresh food in season - cherries yum; sing carols by candlelight in parks; play backyard cricket after Xmas lunch. Seasons greetings to you all.

Traditionally we should actually eat a goose (turkeys being a North American bird), hence the references in Christmas Carol and Sherlock Holmes. It was swan at one point, but Queen Victoria banned the killing of swans - I believe they still remain under Royal protection.

I live in the US, and my family has Christmas crackers (though we call them poppers), and go to a pantomime every year... The most recent one I went to was Peter Pan!

I really enjoyed her mood 😊

In Australia the tree is plastic for reasons that may or may not have to do with the fact that in Summer the temperature can get up to 40 degrees Celsius.