Xmas Facts - Reading Tasks For B2 Learners

What you can’t have known about Christmas:
Interesting Xmas facts (Part 2)

1. Christmas trees have been sold in the U.S. since 1850.
2. Christmas trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.
3. Bolivians celebrate Misa del Gallo or “Mass of the Rooster” on Christmas Eve. Some
people bring roosters to the midnight mass, a gesture that
symbolizes the belief that a rooster was the first animal to
announce the birth of Jesus.
4. The British wear paper crowns while they eat Christmas
dinner. The crowns are stored in a tube called a “Christmas
cracker.”
5. In Poland, spiders or spider webs are common Christmas trees decorations because
according to legend, a spider wove a blanket for
Baby Jesus. In fact, Polish people consider spiders to
be symbols of goodness and prosperity at Christmas.
6. Alabama was the first state in the United States to
officially recognize Christmas in 1836.
7. Christmas wasn’t declared an official holiday in the
United States until June 26, 1870.
8. Oklahoma was the last U.S. state to declare Christmas a legal holiday, in 1907.
9. Christmas has its roots in pagan festivals such as Saturnalia (December 17-December 23),
the Kalends (January 1 -5, the precursor to the Twelve Days of Christmas), and Deus
Sol Invictus or Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun (December 25). The Christian
church heartily disapproved of such celebrations and co-opted the pagans by declaring
December 25 as Christ’s day of birth, though there is no evidence Christ was born on
that day.
10. Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nikolas of Myra (also
known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker, Bishop Saint Nicholas of
Smyrna, and Nikolaos of Bari), who lived during the fourth
century. Born in Patara (in modern-day Turkey), he is the world’s
most popular non-Biblical saint, and artists have portrayed him
more often than any other saint except Mary. He is the patron
saint of banking, pawnbroking, pirating, butchery, sailing,
thievery, orphans, royalty, and New York City.
11. Puritan Oliver Cromwell outlawed Christmas celebrations and carols in England from
1649-1660. The only celebrations allowed were sermons and prayers.
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12. President Teddy Roosevelt, an environmentalist,
banned Christmas trees from the White House in
1901.
13. There are approximately 21,000 Christmas tree farms
in the United States. In 2008, nearly 45 million Christmas trees were planted, adding to
the existing 400 million trees.
14. The first person to decorate a Christmas tree was reportedly the
Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546). According to
legend, he was so moved by the beauty of the stars shining
between the branches of a fir tree, he brought home an
evergreen tree and decorated it with candles to share the image
with his children.
15. Approximately 30-35 million real (living) Christmas trees are
sold each year in the U.S.
16. Christmas is a contraction of “Christ’s Mass,” which is derived from the Old English
Cristes mæsse (first recorded in 1038). The letter “X” in Greek is the first letter of
Christ, and “Xmas” has been used as an abbreviation for Christmas since the mid 1500s.
17. In 1962, the first Christmas postage stamp was issued in the United States.
18. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), there are 2,106 million children under age 18
in the world. If there are on average 2.5 children per
household, Santa would have to make 842 million stops on
Christmas Eve, traveling 221 million miles. To reach all
842 million stops, Santa would need to travel between
houses in 2/10,000 second, which means he would need to
accelerate 12.19 million miles (20.5 billion meters) per
second on each stop.
19. Christmas purchases account for 1/6 of all retail sales in the U.S.
(Source: randomhistory.com)
Task 1: Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE?
a) People have been selling Xmas trees since the middle of the 18th century.
b) People grow Xmas trees for one and a half decades before they sell them.
c) “Mass of the Rooster” is a famous Bolivian celebration. Bolivian people think that a
rooster announced the birth of Christ first.
d) Paper crowns are worn while British people have their Xmas lunch.
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e) A spider web is one of Polish people’s ornaments on Halloween.
f) Before 1970, people in the USA did not celebrate Xmas officially.
g) The Christian Church disliked winter pagan festivals, therefore, they declared that
Christ’s birthday was on 25th December so as to gain followers.
h) The original Santa Claus was Turkish.
i) Teddy Roosevelt did not allow to put up Xmas trees in the White House in 1901.
j) 30-35 million artificial Xmas trees are sold in the UK annually.
k) The letter “X” in the word of “Christmas” comes from the Greek language.
Task 2: Can you match the words in the box with their definitions?
fir, purchase, outlaw, precursor, thievery, pagan,

prawnborking, annually, accelerate, rooster,
orphan, puritan, pirating, royalty, patron saint
1. A child who has lost both parents through death, or less commonly, one parent
2. Evergreen tree
3. People of royal blood or status
4. Ban or make illegal
5. A person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main
world religions
6. A person or thing that comes before another of the same kind;
a forerunner
7. A member of a group of English Protestants of the late 16th and 17th centuries who
regarded the Reformation of the Church under Elizabeth I as incomplete and sought to
simplify and regulate forms of worship
8. Lending money on portable security
9. Robbing or plundering (a ship)
10. The protecting or guiding saint of a person or place
11. Buying
12. The action of stealing another person's property
13. Every year
14. Speed up
15. A cock (animal)
Task 3: Research work on famous people: Use the Internet if it is necessary and
answer the questions.
Do you know who Oliver Cromwell, Martin Luther and Theodore Roosevelt were?
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Answer key
Task 1:
a; False
b; True
c; False
d; True
e; False
f; False
g; True
h; True
i; True
j; False
k; True
Task 2:
1. orphan
2. fir
3. royalty
4. outlaw
5. pagan
6. precursor
7. puritan
8. prawnbroking
9. pirating
10. patron saint
11. purchase
12. thievery
13. annually
14. accelerate
15. rooster
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Xmas Facts - Reading Tasks For B2 Learners

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Xmas Facts - Reading Tasks For B2 Learners

Uploaded by

What you can’t have known about Christmas:

Interesting Xmas facts (Part 2)

fir, purchase, outlaw, precursor, thievery, pagan,

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