Monday, January 08, 2007

Christmas and Boxing Day

Christmas Day, we hung out at my flat most of the day. We took a brief walk down to Hyde park and watched the geese/ducks/pigeons gorging themselves on bread. It was then back to the flat to watch the queen's speech. Each Christmas, she gives a short little feel good type of speech reflecting back on the year. A few uniquely British Christmas customs are mince pie, Christmas pudding, and Christmas crackers. Christmas pudding is kind of like a mixture of fruit cake and upside down cake with a brownie color and moist texture. Not really pudding in the same sense that Americans use the term.

Christmas crackers are not a food. They are basically a miniature fire cracker which make a pop similar to those little white snap pops you may have gotten from Walmart and throw on the ground. You get a partner and each pull on one end and whoever is holding it after the pop (like breaking a wishbone) gets to keep the prize inside. We had a fun time being generally silly and laughing at the cheesy jokes contained within the cracker along with the prize.

The day after Christmas is known as Boxing day. Traditionally, people would get a box together filled with food, small gifts, or a bit of money and give it as a gift to their servants on this day. Nowadays, it is a big time shopping day. Oxford street was packed to the brim with people trying to get after Christmas bargains. We also had the opportunity to go see the musical "Wicked." It is a story of the Wicked Witch of the West from her perspective on the Wizard of Oz. The basic concept is that she was a political disident labeled as "wicked" by the spin doctors. It was very well done with extraordinary acting/singing/set design.


A Christmas Cracker

1 comment:

liz said...

Thanks for the explanation. I always thought "Boxing Day" was when everyone sat at home and watched a match on t.v. Who knew? So you saw Wicked, eh? My roommate is SO jealous!

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