Lesson: Should You Skip Christmas?

Conversation

Answer the following questions. You might be asked to write them down or answer them out-loud.

1. Do you think it's necessary to celebrate Christmas? Why?
2. Are all holidays important enough to be celebrated?
3. Which is your favorite holiday? Why?
4. Do you agree that if we don't celebrate Christmas, we might get upset or disappointed?
5. In your point of view, is it important to celebrate the holidays? Why?
6. Why are some holidays so important for society?
7. Do you know the origin of any holiday?
8. Do you think people create holidays in order to have days off from work, school, etc?
9. Is the economy stimulating the creation or maintenance of holidays? Why?
10. Which holiday should exist to be celebrated that doesn't yet? Why?

Vocabulary

Look at the vocabulary below. Take time to explore the links for their definitions in English and their translations to Portuguese. When you are done, make a sentence with each word. Ask your teacher if you should write them down or say them out loud.

DT   absolutely

DT   ignore

DT   hop

DT   therapist

DT   practice

DT   admit

DT   lack

DT   skip

DT   unstable

DT   provide

DT   predictability

DT   otherwise

DT   bewildering

DT   frightening

DT   overwhelming

DT   unpredictable

DT   random

DT   huge

DT   childhood

DT   distressed

Video

Watch the following video but DON'T read the transcript yet.

After watching the video do this listening exercise.

Reading practice

Read the following transcript then do the associated reading comprehension exercise.

ExpandTranscript:

Here comes Santa Claus! It's that time of the year again and…
There is absolutely no way to escape the fact that the winter holidays are happening in America.
That's right: you can't ignore it, even if you wanted to…
Short of hopping on a plane and going to an island where they never heard of American culture.
And that's why I was having this conversation with Dr. Marie Hartwell Walker.
I'm psychologist and family therapist and I've been in practice for almost 35 years.
And she's written on the importance of the holidays for families. Although, she is the first to admit that the winter holidays can be really toxic for a lot of people.
If I go home for Christmas, will dad get drunk again? Will mom be, hmm, at me again about my weight or my grades or my, hmm, lack of having whatever, enough children, too many dogs, I don’t know.
So, since I was talking with a professional I thought I would ask: “Is it dangerous to just, I don’t know, skip the holidays … take a break?”
I don’t think it's dangerous to skip the holidays, but I think it is a missed opportunity. Our lives can be so unstable. Life changes day after day after day and traditions provide some predictability in an otherwise unpredictable world. So, just think of yourself as a small child and how many new things might happen within the course of a day. And some of those experiences may be confusing or bewildering or even frightening. And some of those new experiences are wonderful but can also be overwhelming. So, the nighttime ritual usually is something like dinner, bath, hmm, story time, drink. And the stories are two or three favorites right?
Yeah
It gives them something solid that they can hold onto in an otherwise very unpredictable world. And, that's important stuff! It's helping the child pull together all of that random new stuff and make some sense of it.
So if we're talking about Christmas, we're really talking about one huge tradition. We do the tree, we get presents, we sing these carols, we go to this event. And these traditions give us some predictability that help us pause and make sense of our lives.
You go home, mom makes the same cookies she has always made. You have the same turkey or roast beef you always had.
Right, but what if you don’t have good childhood memories?
Those winter holidays can be an opportunity to set something new in motion, and I really encourage the people who are distressed about the holidays to think about what they would like to have happen. What piece of that wish that you always had as a kid: Can you, in fact, uh, do now that you're the grown up? Because we can.

Writing practice

Write a couple of paragraphs talking about the Christmas traditions you follow. Make sure to use words you learned from the text and try to make it as long as you can.

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