Christmas is the biggest festival in Britain and is celebrated on 25th December. The four weeks before Christmas are called Advent, and are traditionally celebrated in churches by lighting a candle each Sunday during this time. Nowadays, many people in Britain are not very {{U}}(21) {{/U}} , but they still celebrate Christmas, and {{U}}(22) {{/U}} —the preparations begin long before Advent. In fact, as early as September or October, you start to see signs that Christmas is {{U}}(23) {{/U}}
The first places to tell us that we should be thinking about Christmas are the shops. People in Britain spend {{U}}(24) {{/U}} over ￡ 600 ( around $1,000) per person on Christmas every year, and the shops encourage people to spend more and more. Shops put up Christmas decorations, play cheesy Christmas songs or {{U}}(25) {{/U}}, and some shop workers wear Christmas hats. Some big shops on Regent Street and Oxford Street in London create {{U}}(26) {{/U}} in their windows with moving characters, falling snow, colourful lights and music.
So what do people buy {{U}}(27) {{/U}} Christmas? Well, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards to send to friends and relatives, presents for loved ones and wrapping paper to wrap them up with. And of course food ! {{U}}(28) {{/U}} the special Christmas dinner of roast turkey or goose, people buy lots of chocolates, nuts and snacks for everyone to enjoy.
Children are the people who get the most excited that Christmas is coming. They start making lists of presents they would like, and give them to their parents, or send them to {{U}}(29) {{/U}} . In December, they can also open Advent calendars, which are a way of counting down to Christmas. These calendars have a window to open for every day from the 1 st to the 24th of December (Christmas Eve).
A basic Advent calendar has a Christmassy picture behind each window, but most children's favourite calendars are chocolate Advent calendars, which show a chocolate for every day of the month. It' s a great build-up to the {{U}}(30) {{/U}} that goes on at Christmas!