Презентация "AMAZING CHRISTMAS FACTS"
презентация к уроку по английскому языку (9 класс) на тему

В презентации использованы материалы журнала Speak Out.
 

The Romans celebrated Saturnalia in honour of the god Saturn. It was supposed to be a period of chaos between the old and new year when the normal rules of society be ignored. People drank a lot, went wild and gave presents to each other. Saturnalia was adopted by the Roman Christians and become Christmas, celebrated on the 25^th of December.

The name ‘Santa Claus’ comes from the Dutch Sinter Klaus, short for Sinter Nikolaus or Saint Nicholas.

In 1399, King Richard II of England had a rather large Christmas dinner in London – the meal included 28 oxen, 300 sheep and deer, and thousand of chickens. Over 10,000 people were invited and the feast lasted three days! There were 1,000 cooks to prepare the meal.

Scientists say that Christmas trees are edible. The needles are a good source of vitamin C.

The first turkeys were brought to Europe by the Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez, who came across them in Mexico in 1519. In fact, thanks to the Aztecs we can now enjoy other tasty things. They grew corn, chilli pepper, tomatoes, pumpkins, peanuts and chocolate beans. Imagine the cinema without the Aztecs – no popcorn or peanuts or chocolates!

The well-known image of Santa Claus was invented by Coca-Cola. The producers of this soft drink were very unhappy because their soft drink was considered a ‘summer’ drink. They wanted to sell it in the winter too. So they hired a guy called Haddon Sundblom to make a nice ad for them. Sundblom immediately thought of Santa Claus. Actually, he modeled him more or less on his friendly neighbor, who had a round face, a short beard and a red nose… So thanks to Coca-Cola, half the world is now giving each other expensive gifts for Christmas.

An Internet site for Santa Claus was set up in 1997.

The Christmas tree originated in Germany in the 16^th century. It was decorated with apples.

In 1995, in Canada, Santa Claus was given his own postcode – HOHOHO.

King Henry VIII of England loved eating. He once sat down to a Christmas dinner that lasted twelve hours. The first course was served at 3pm on Christmas Day, and the last at 2.30 the next morning!

The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby’s White Christmas.

A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard. It was usually followed by roast peacock.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – probably the most famous Christmas story – was written in six weeks. It appead with four colour pictures in time for Christmas 1843. Dickens said he laughed and cried as he wrote the story. It was not easy to write – for inspiration he walked 2 or 3 kilometres each night ‘around the black streets of London…when all the good folks had gone to bed’. On Christmas Day in 1843 he went skating.

The largest Christmas cracker was 45.72 metres long and 3.04 metres in diameter. It was made by Australian international rugby player Ray Price to surprise his friends.

Christmas day lasts 172,800 seconds. Santa Claus would need to travel at 2,058 kilometres per second to reach all the places in the world during that time.

In 1988, the world-famous singer Madonna sent out Christmas cards to her friends – it was a picture of herself and her daughter, just like ‘Madonna and child’.

According to a survey, 7out 10 British dogs get Christmas gifts from their loving owners.

In the USA, Christmas trees are now called ‘Holiday Trees’.

Many Americans try to send Christmas presents and cards from Bethlehem, Santa Claus and Christmas – Bethlehem is in Connecticut, Santa Claus in Indiana, and Christmas in Florida!

About 2 million tones of Christmas presents are given at Christmas.

A girl in Washinngton was christened Merry Christmas – her surname was Day!