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Transcript:
[00:00:03.980] - Oliver (Host)
Welcome back to English and Beyond, an intermediate or advanced-level English podcast for people who are learning English as a foreign language. For this podcast, if you don't understand every word the first time you hear it, don't worry. Have a look at the transcript online, which is available at www.morethanalanguage.com.
[00:00:29.160] - Oliver (Host)
So welcome back to another episode. This is actually the final episode for 2024. I'm very happy with what I've got planned for today, and a big part of the reason for that is because I'm going to discuss Christmas, which will include a lot of my own memories of Christmas. And in reality, that is a big part of Christmas for me, the nostalgia of remembering your own personal version of the holiday from when you were little. So before we begin, I'm going to ask you for a Christmas present, and you can probably guess what it is: please share my podcast. As you can probably imagine, it takes a fair amount of work to do this and the Spanish podcast every week, and I'm not very good at publicity. I don't really know how to do it, so the only way the podcast grows is through word of mouth and referrals. So please consider sending it on to anyone you know who's learning English.
[00:01:23.090] - Oliver (Host)
So Christmas! In the Christian West, there's no bigger holiday. Whether you're religious or not, this day is the highlight of the year for many people. That said, every year, Britons complain that it seems to begin earlier and earlier.
[00:01:39.320] - Oliver (Host)
People express perplexity, they express significant confusion when the Christmas lights suddenly appear on the streets in November or even earlier, although these lights seem to spend a few weeks just hanging there before they get switched on. Suddenly, Mariah Carey's Christmas classic, All I Want for Christmas is You is everywhere and inescapable.
[00:02:03.630] - Oliver (Host)
Actually, quickly, speaking about Christmas classics, if you listen to my episode about superstitions, you may be interested to know that my friend who I interviewed for that episode, Charlie, has done an EP, a short music album of covers of classic Christmas-themed songs or songs released at Christmas. My personal favourite of the collection is 2 become 1, an honorary Christmas song from the Spice Girls, which was the Christmas number one in the year of its release. You can find this EP on Spotify by searching for Shylent Night, Shylent spelled S-H-Y-L-E-N-T. And Shylent is a mix of shy, as in timid, and silent, as in the classic hymn, Silent Night. Anyway, this is my first Christmas after beginning this English and Beyond podcast, and it was therefore inevitable that I would do a Christmas episode. Many people love Christmas, but it does often seem that there is an equally big group of people that love to complain about it, about its commercialism, about the loss of its roots, about the decreasing importance of family within the holiday.
[00:03:16.690] - Oliver (Host)
But everyone feels that the way that their family did Christmas growing up was the right way to do Christmas. For example, when I was little, I remember feeling totally aghast, totally horrified that some of my friends' families waited until they went to church on Christmas Day before opening their presents. At my young age, that seemed to me to be tantamount to child cruelty, almost as bad as child cruelty, but unsurprisingly, those children have grown up into parents that continue that tradition because that's what's right for them and their families. As it happens nowadays, I can actually see that there's something nice about that delayed gratification, that length of time that the families wait before they get the joy of their presents.
[00:04:07.550] - Oliver (Host)
Traditions in general are an interesting part of Christmas. Many Christians complain that the West has lost sight of the meaning of Christmas. But what exactly is the meaning of Christmas? I think it's up for debate, and you'll get as many answers as people that you ask. But I think it's interesting that a lot of the traditions that we generally associate with Christmas are probably not really Christian at all. For a start, Jesus, whose birth is celebrated with Christmas, probably wasn't even born in the winter.
[00:04:40.910] - Oliver (Host)
Many scholars, due to various contextual clues in the Bible, consider it rather more likely that he was born during the spring. So why do we celebrate his birth in December? If you listened to my episode on Halloween, you'll have heard how the Christian Church often incorporated pagan holidays into their religious calendar to placate, to calm the new Christians, the former pagans, who didn't want to give up the most enjoyable elements of their former lives and former religion. The most important date in the Roman pagan calendar was a festival that fell during mid to late December, starting around the 17th of December and lasting up to six days. This event was called Saturnalia, and it was genuinely the most exciting period in the Roman calendar. It was a time of celebration dedicated to Saturn, the Roman God of agriculture and time. It was a festival full of merriment. Romans would walk the streets and greet each other with "Io Saturnalia!" Everyone would give gifts to each other, and even the poorest and most disadvantaged of Roman society would benefit. According to some sources, slaves and masters would trade places for a day, with the masters serving their slaves a delicious feast, for example.
[00:06:04.380] - Oliver (Host)
Since Saturn was the God of agriculture, one of the other traditions of Saturnalia makes a lot of sense. The Romans would bring trees and greenery into their homes and decorate them for the festival. I guess the idea of using evergreen trees, trees which don't lose their leaves over winter in this way, kept everyone feeling positive and as if life were flourishing during the cold winter months. The Romans also created what we call wreaths, those circular decoration created using branches and leaves to hang on their front doors. We have seasonal greetings, gift giving, feasting, tree declarations, and wreaths in a mid to late December festival of Merriment. Of course, over the centuries, Christmas has evolved into a very different celebration. But as a classicist, someone who studied Greek and Roman culture, it's fascinating for me to think about how much of our modern holiday, its joy, its indulgences, owes to ancient Rome. Now, obviously, the basis of the modern Christmas is primarily linked to Christ, and I think it's important to remember that personally. But I do also think these potential origins in a Roman Pagan Festival give us some licence, some permission to have our own interpretation of how we should treat Christmas, and it means that there's not one single correct way to celebrate it.
[00:07:36.550] - Oliver (Host)
With that in mind, let's fast forward 2,000 years to my own childhood Christmases, which were probably appropriately Roman in my family's competitiveness and grasping nature. Now, with this podcast, I'm understandably conscious that I reveal a lot of my thinking and personality, and this can be somewhat embarrassing. This episode is an excellently embarrassing example of this. My siblings and I were, by all accounts, spoiled-rotten. To spoil means to diminish something's value, to ruin it. We can describe children as spoiled when they behave badly because their parents have ruined them by bringing them up badly, or because the kids are just naturally rotten. Think of the kids in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for a good reference. How spoiled were my siblings and I? Well, we couldn't even open our Christmas presents in the same room because we would fight. Please, listener, do not turn off this episode in disgust. I know I have been awful in the past, but surely it means something that I can recognise it now, and I can confess my awfulness openly for your judgement. But if you're still here listening, imagine this: three separate rooms, three piles of gifts, three children glaring suspiciously at each other from the doorway.
[00:09:03.980] - Oliver (Host)
And yet, even with all that effort from my parents to avoid conflict, there were still some memorable incidents. One particularly noteworthy year, my younger brother received a little toy dog, a small mechanical one, that barked and walked. As it happens, I had asked for that toy. My parents had decided it was too young for me, so they gave it to him. Fair enough, no problem. I can say nowadays. However, my little brother, although young enough to receive this toy, this puppy, as a present, apparently, was old and mature enough to know how to torture me most effectively, sidling, creeping into my room to play with the little toy right next to me. Delightfully provocative, and provoke me, he certainly did. I'm sure my mum rolled her eyes and sighed as she watched her fighting children rolling on the ground, ignoring their lovely presents. Another Christmas ruined by these spoiled kids.
[00:10:07.800] - Oliver (Host)
That said, I certainly didn't need my little brother's help to ruin Christmas for myself and everyone else. I had turned spoiling Christmas into a bit of an annual tradition. For as long as I can remember, during my childhood, I was obsessed with finding my presents, hidden carefully by my mother before the big day itself. Every every cupboard, every secret hiding place in the house was thoroughly searched. Every year, without fail, I would find them eventually. My mum would try more and more inventive ways to prevent it, but nothing would stop me. You know what? It was always a let down. It was always a disappointment. I remember feeling so nervous during the search. I would wait for my mum to be distracted or to go out for even a very short trip to the shops, and then the hunt would begin. Adrenaline would course through my veins, adrenaline would run through my veins, and in a state of near frenzy, I would tear the house apart, looking for my presence like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings. I would feel such excitement, such anticipation in my frenetic searching. And then, curiously, all of that excitement evaporated, it disappeared the moment I laid eyes on those hidden treasures. All I would feel is disappointment with myself and a bit of self-disgust. It's funny to think about now, but there's something almost philosophical about that, right? The idea that the anticipation is often way more enjoyable than the reality. A lesson I might usefully have appreciated more at seven years old if I hadn't been so focused on rummaging through my mum's wardrobes, throwing her clothes everywhere, hunting for my presents.
[00:12:00.080] - Oliver (Host)
In doing all of this, in ruining the surprise for myself, I probably significantly contributed to the increasing de-romanticisation of Christmas in my household, to making the holiday every year less romantic. When I was little, my parents used to drag out of the loft, out of the attic, all sorts of Christmas decorations. There was so much tinsel, so many Christmas lights, a variety of winter Wonderland models. It was a veritable, it was a true Santa's Grotto in our living room for the whole of the Christmas period. But as the years went by, my mum lost more and more interest in unpacking and repacking all these Christmas goodies every year. My mum has some classic sayings, of which I shared a few with you already. One of her seasonal sayings, one of her catch phrases that she reserved for December was, "It's going to be different this year. It's a lean Christmas in the English and Beyond household this year." It's a 'lean Christmas', meaning it was going to be simple and joyless, my mum rediscovering her Scottish Presbyterian roots, and year by year, that actually did become more true, probably because of me. As you know from her episode and everything I've told you about her, my mum is a no-nonsense woman, and this only increased as the years went past.
[00:13:26.480] - Oliver (Host)
When it came to wrapping presents, you could forget festive wrapping paper and ribbons. Instead, she would pile our gifts into black bin bags. Yes, you heard that right: father Christmas, Santa Claus came bearing rubbish bags to our household. And by the time I was a teenager, she was so fed up with my present-hunting escapades that she stopped trying altogether. Instead, she'd basically print out her Amazon order list and say, "Here you go, this is what you're getting this year." Not exactly a magical Christmas moment, but efficient. I will give her that, and also completely my fault.
[00:14:05.910] - Oliver (Host)
Then there was my younger brother's approach to Christmas dinner, which was equally practical, if not downright minimalist. While the rest of us loaded our plates with turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, and Brussels sprouts, he would have only two things, the turkey or the chicken, and the pigs in blankets. For those who don't know, pigs in blankets are sausages wrapped in bacon; essentially, the carnival's ultimate snack. He was, in many ways, ahead of his time: a pioneer of the all-meat, carnivore diet. Personally, I've gone back and forth between eating meat and being a vegetarian over the years, so I'll leave the pigs and blankets to my brother, and instead, I'll wax lyrical, I'll praise something else: the cauliflower cheese and the Yorkshire puddings.
[00:14:54.580] - Oliver (Host)
The former does what it says on the tin. It's literally just cauliflower and cheese, but my God, it's delicious. The second, the Yorkshire puddings, are savoury puddings made from a butter of eggs, flour, and milk or water. They soak up the gravy of the main meal, and they taste genuinely delicious. One of the hardest bits of doing Christmas this year in Valencia with César's family will be missing out on my mum's Christmas dinner.
[00:15:24.090] - Oliver (Host)
As I look back on these memories, I realise how much they've shaped my understanding of what Christmas is. It's not about perfect decorations or extravagant gifts. It wasn't about Saturnalia style revelry (partying), or even the religious aspects of the holiday. It was about the chaos, the imperfections, and the moments of joy and laughter in between. Christmas in my household is messy. It's bin bags instead of bows. It's fighting over toy dogs and eating nothing but bacon-wrapped sausages. It's the traditions that we've created, intentionally or accidentally, that the holiday special, and that's what I've come to love about it. And that's what I'm going to miss this year in Spain.
[00:16:09.490] - Oliver (Host)
So, now, listener, before I turn to César, I want to hear from you. I haven't said this for a while, but I really do love to hear from you. And since I'm taking the Christmas week off from the English and Spanish podcasts, I'll have more time than usual to read your emails and reply in detail. So what are your Christmas traditions in your country? Do you prefer the extravagant or the the minimalist, the polished, or the chaotic? Do you recognise any details of my family's habits as being similar to your own? Send me an email at oliver@morethanalanguage.com or post a comment on the transcript website, Spotify or YouTube, and let me know. And if you've enjoyed this episode, as I said earlier, I'd be very grateful if you could leave a review or share it with a friend, considering it my Christmas wish without any bin bags necessary.
[00:16:59.610] - Oliver (Host)
So César, I already know the answer to these questions, I think. But how much of your Christmas would you say you recognise from my confessions?
[00:17:11.450] - César (Guest)
Let me think. Almost none.
[00:17:16.960] - Oliver (Host)
Well, you didn't have siblings to fight with.
[00:17:20.730] - César (Guest)
I thought you were going to say you didn't have any Christmas, right?
[00:17:23.690] - Oliver (Host)
You didn't have presents.
[00:17:27.280] - César (Guest)
Well, when I was little, I was an only child. So I didn't have anyone to argue with about my presents.
[00:17:36.700] - Oliver (Host)
You were also a much nicer child, I think, than my siblings and me, because I think that you... I mean, I think we must have been awful. I actually think that we're relatively nice people now, relatively grateful.
[00:17:59.770] - César (Guest)
So It could have been worse.
[00:18:00.880] - Oliver (Host)
No, but I don't know how it happened. I don't know. When I think back to what we were like, I just think, "My God, we were so spoiled".
[00:18:10.660] - César (Guest)
But I'm surprised because, for example, in my household, there was a limit of presents you could ask, not Santa, because we didn't have Santa in Spain back then.
[00:18:19.430] - Oliver (Host)
You could ask for from Santa.
[00:18:21.210] - César (Guest)
Ask for from Santa. Thank you.
[00:18:24.430] - Oliver (Host)
Or, you could: there are a limited number of presents you could ask Santa for.
[00:18:28.460] - César (Guest)
There was a limited number of presents you could ask Santa for.
[00:18:33.600] - Oliver (Host)
It's quite a difficult structure.
[00:18:35.300] - César (Guest)
Yeah, it is. In our case, it was the three wise kings that come and leave us presents on the sixth of January. But my mum always used to say to me, you can only choose three or four things, because otherwise, I would have got the the brochure from the toy shop, and I would have got many things as well.
[00:18:58.240] - Oliver (Host)
The brochure.
[00:18:59.550] - César (Guest)
Brochure.
[00:19:00.130] - Oliver (Host)
Or the brochure, some people would say brochure.
[00:19:03.570] - César (Guest)
Is this a French podcast now?
[00:19:05.100] - Oliver (Host)
Oh, no. Now my sister's going to ring me up and say, "Why did you pronounce it that way?" Let me think. Brochure. Brochure. The brochure.
[00:19:14.300] - César (Guest)
I think it It sounds more familiar, the first one.
[00:19:17.360] - Oliver (Host)
The brochure.
[00:19:18.160] - César (Guest)
The first option.
[00:19:19.820] - Oliver (Host)
But anyway, we digress. We are going off topic. So, Christmas and your limited number of presents, three to four.
[00:19:29.830] - César (Guest)
Yeah. And normally, from the three or four things I would ask Santa for, I would get maybe one or two. And the other ones were just things that Santa thought they were useful, like socks.
[00:19:47.700] - Oliver (Host)
Do you have the joke in this country of receiving socks?
[00:19:52.750] - César (Guest)
Yeah.
[00:19:53.440] - Oliver (Host)
So like, socks is considered a terrible-
[00:19:56.900] - César (Guest)
I hated it. I still hate it, by the way. If someone is listening to this and is going to buy me some socks for Christmas, please don't. I think socks, scarfs, and perfume.
[00:20:07.410] - Oliver (Host)
Yeah. Oh, no, I like - I mean, I used to get for Christmas a cologne, a perfume, that I didn't realise how expensive it was. In my 20s, I'm talking about my parents used to buy me this every year, and I had asked for it, but I'd never looked up the price. Cologne is - It's ridiculously expensive, always.
[00:20:32.120] - César (Guest)
I thought perfume was more expensive than cologne.
[00:20:35.350] - Oliver (Host)
It probably is because...
[00:20:36.320] - César (Guest)
We're not French.
[00:20:37.270] - Oliver (Host)
No, but it probably is because they charge women a premium for all of these things, even if they're the same thing, basically, right? Beauty products, I think always more expensive for women, aren't they? But the cologne that I got, I'm not saying this like, Oh, I got the most expensive cologne, it's just I had no idea how expensive colognes were. And my mother complained to me one year about how expensive this what cologne was, and I looked it up and I was horrified by how much it costs. And I haven't actually got it since then. But yeah, no, it's ludicrous.
[00:21:09.860] - César (Guest)
Yeah, I was thinking about more like the type of cologne or perfume or other the parfum that you get at the supermarket.
[00:21:18.770] - Oliver (Host)
Should we apologise to the French listeners? Why? Probably. I had to apologise to the German listeners in the latest episode of the Spanish podcast. I said, Weihnachten.
[00:21:31.680] - César (Guest)
It's fine, we're sorting out our accents, no worries.
[00:21:34.130] - Oliver (Host)
Well, yes, we are. That's a New Year resolution for us both. Okay.
[00:21:42.380] - César (Guest)
In fact, with socks, I've got a funny story. It's actually a sad story. Because on my dad's side, we used to do the Secret Santa for the Christmas Eve.
[00:21:57.380] - Oliver (Host)
We should explain what Secret Santa is. So in lots of languages, you call it Invisible Friend, don't you?
[00:22:03.770] - César (Guest)
Well, in Spanish, I don't know about French or Portuguese or Italian.
[00:22:06.960] - Oliver (Host)
Okay, but Invisible Friend is where a group of people...
[00:22:11.300] - César (Guest)
Or Secret Santa.
[00:22:12.120] - Oliver (Host)
Secret Santa, sorry, is where a group of people will decide that they're going to buy gifts, so you buy one gift for someone else in the group. You don't choose them, but instead you're given their name in a kind of a lottery, in a raffle, in a draw. And so you have to buy a gift for that person. And normally, there's a money limit for the Secret Santa, and almost always the gifts are terrible or they could be offensive. If someone buys you, I don't know, a diet plan or something like that for Christmas as the Secret Santa. You never know who it's come from, but it's...there's a lot of potential for offence. Anyway, so.
[00:22:57.550] - César (Guest)
So I receive that year, I think the budget, the amount of money we had to spend was around €30.
[00:23:04.750] - Oliver (Host)
That's quite a lot.
[00:23:05.620] - César (Guest)
Yeah, and you can make a good present with €30. Anyway.
[00:23:09.480] - Oliver (Host)
With your dad's side of the family, you were doing Secret Santa?
[00:23:12.380] - César (Guest)
Yeah. I can't remember what I bought for the person I had to buy a present for, but I invested the money. I spent €30 in that present. But the person who had to buy something for me - I don't know what happened, but I ended up receiving a pair of socks. It wasn't even a real pair of Nike socks. It was a knockoff. It was an imitation from Nike.
[00:23:43.320] - Oliver (Host)
What were they, kind of, the Nike tick, kind of upside down or misspelled or something?
[00:23:49.040] - César (Guest)
They were from... Because I saw them, I had seen them on (in) the equivalent in Spain of Poundland would be the stores where everything is €1.
[00:24:00.010] - Oliver (Host)
Yeah, so you'd seen them in a Poundland.
[00:24:02.000] - César (Guest)
So this person spent €1 in (on) my present, which was... I was a teenager by then, so I wasn't very understanding. Maybe one of my relatives was struggling with money, but at the time, I wasn't very understanding with that kind of financial struggles, I guess. So I was really upset and I was like, This is not fair. I spend my €30, I'm just 13, and someone spend only €1 on me.
[00:24:31.250] - Oliver (Host)
I'm sure that whoever it was-
[00:24:33.200] - César (Guest)
I know who it was.
[00:24:33.820] - Oliver (Host)
Who was it?
[00:24:35.690] - César (Guest)
A cousin.
[00:24:36.790] - Oliver (Host)
Which cousin?
[00:24:38.150] - César (Guest)
I'm not going to disclose -
[00:24:40.240] - Oliver (Host)
Tell me how I'll edit it out.
[00:24:41.040] - César (Guest)
His or her name.
[00:24:42.520] - Oliver (Host)
I'll edit it out. Presumably, you don't do the Secret Santa with that side of the family anymore.
[00:24:56.280] - César (Guest)
No, we don't celebrate Christmas together.
[00:24:58.740] - Oliver (Host)
No.
[00:24:59.060] - César (Guest)
With that side of the family. That's another thing because sometimes things happen in families.
[00:25:07.300] - Oliver (Host)
That sounds very sinister.
[00:25:08.830] - César (Guest)
No sinister. What I mean is like, well, there are arguments and people stop talking to each other and this part of the family doesn't talk to this other part of the family. And on my dad's side, we don't celebrate Christmas together anymore.
[00:25:24.330] - Oliver (Host)
Well, I was going to say, in fact, that we've done Christmas once before in Spain, or I've come... We actually, interestingly, you and I, in the eight years that we have known each other, have only celebrated Christmas together once.
[00:25:42.060] - César (Guest)
Do you mean Christmas Day, the 25th?
[00:25:44.690] - Oliver (Host)
Twice. Once when, during COVID, where everyone was locked in their countries, and we planned to go to Spain, and we couldn't.
[00:25:53.930] - César (Guest)
But we got COVID.
[00:25:55.870] - Oliver (Host)
We got COVID, yep, that was the year that everyone in the UK had COVID. That Christmas. Then another time, we came to Spain and celebrated it together. But you've never celebrated Christmas Day with my family, and I've only done it once with your family, and it was with your mum's family. You actually did your own version of the Secret Santa, but it was quite interesting. We went to a restaurant on Christmas Day, which probably is possible in the UK, but I have no - I, I don't know anyone who ever does it. My mum always threatens that she's going to go on strike and refuse to do Christmas dinner. And she's like, "We can just get a bloody Chinese takeaway and you'll be happy with it" on Christmas Day, which actually - I mean, I love Christmas dinner, but it would actually be quite interesting to have a takeaway on Christmas. But so, we went to a restaurant on Christmas Day in Spain with 40 to 50 of your closest relatives.
[00:27:01.000] - César (Guest)
Yeah, and that's why we celebrate it in a restaurant, not in a house.
[00:27:05.660] - Oliver (Host)
Because you couldn't cook for that many people. And they did their own version of Secret Santa, where you didn't buy a gift for someone, but you bought a gift with €10 worth of value. And then you play a game where you... It's like pass the parcel, almost, where you pass them all around the table, and then when the music stops, effectively, you end up with the one that you've got, which was interesting.
[00:27:27.120] - César (Guest)
It was fun.
[00:27:28.010] - Oliver (Host)
Yeah. We're going to Christmas here again this year.
[00:27:32.220] - César (Guest)
We are actually in charge of the Christmas Eve on the 24th, which is a big night in the Spanish Christmas.
[00:27:41.190] - Oliver (Host)
Curiously, apparently, I was reading an article in the newspaper in Britain. And we love to have newspaper articles written by people from other countries telling us why everything we do in the UK is wrong. A lot of the time, those articles are written by French people. You'll get an article where someone French will be like, "This is why British women get fat at Christmas", that kind of thing.
[00:28:06.020] - César (Guest)
That's horrible.
[00:28:06.910] - Oliver (Host)
Yeah, well, I think we love to fulfil our stereotypes of other countries while they tell us how awful we are. It's a particular kind of article, but it's obviously something that people enjoy because it's not just something for Christmas. It's something we like to do throughout the year, but it's especially at Christmas. I was reading an article from a French woman who married a British man and had Christmas in the UK. And she was saying that she couldn't believe that on Christmas Eve, all they did was basically go to the pub and have a drink. It wasn't a family thing. It wasn't a cause for celebration. It was just the night before Christmas. Whereas in France, in Spain, it's a much bigger occasion - that's when you have your actual dinner.
[00:28:56.690] - César (Guest)
Exactly. It's where everyone is actually not too tired, not too hungover, because it's the first celebration together on the 24th, that evening. So everyone is like, dressing up, and -
[00:29:08.260] - Oliver (Host)
You may be interested to know why British people get fat at Christmas and Europeans don't, apparently, is because -
[00:29:15.810] - César (Guest)
I mean, I'm sure that's not true, Europeans do as well.
[00:29:19.230] - Oliver (Host)
I'm sure.
[00:29:19.655] - César (Guest)
We put on weight.
[00:29:19.790] - Oliver (Host)
But this French woman was saying it's not the case. And she was saying that the reason for that, and you can tell me whether you think this is true, although you've never come for Christmas, for the Christmas period in the UK, really, but apparently, Christmas, although it's restricted to just the day on the 25th and then Boxing Day on the 26th, Christmas begins way earlier in the UK in the sense that at the beginning of November, people will start doing, kind of, pre-Christmas parties. It is true that we were invited this year to a couple of pre-Christmas parties, like a full month before Christmas. And everyone begins to eat and drink excessively in November saying, "Oh, but it's Christmas." But Christmas, basically for Britons, it's like November onwards, people eat and drink what they like, like mince pies constantly, things like that. Whereas in France, apparently they eat a lot on the day, but then they're done.
[00:30:20.410] - César (Guest)
Yeah.
[00:30:20.750] - Oliver (Host)
They don't-
[00:30:21.380] - César (Guest)
It's only two, three days max.
[00:30:22.590] - Oliver (Host)
Yeah, of excessive eating, excessive drinking, whereas we do it for a month and a half, two months. Do you think that's true?
[00:30:30.510] - César (Guest)
Maybe it is true, so we haven't been invited to any Christmas party in Spain so far.
[00:30:35.410] - Oliver (Host)
I don't think we can conclude something about Spanish culture from that. That might just be us and our lack of friends.
[00:30:43.450] - César (Guest)
No, but apart from Christmas Eve, Christmas lunch, New Year's Eve, and the Three Wise Kings' Day, I don't think there's any other occasion where people eat excessively. Maybe during the Christmas lunch or Christmas dinner for companies. But, yeah, I think most people put on weight.
[00:31:05.220] - Oliver (Host)
Are we going to have an English and Beyond Christmas dinner?
[00:31:08.180] - César (Guest)
Yeah, we have to. That's true. I was thinking that actually, that we have to organise something for English and Beyond and Spanish Language Coach, combine, like a combined Christmas dinner. Where do you want to go?
[00:31:22.220] - Oliver (Host)
McDonald's.
[00:31:23.780] - César (Guest)
But they don't even have a vegetarian menu in Spain.
[00:31:27.240] - Oliver (Host)
The food equivalent of the black bin bags of my youth, of my childhood Christmases.
[00:31:32.800] - César (Guest)
In Spain, we can only have fries and McDonald's - chips.
[00:31:36.850] - Oliver (Host)
Yeah.
[00:31:38.010] - César (Guest)
Okay.
[00:31:39.320] - Oliver (Host)
OK, well, we've actually discussed very little of Christmas, I feel, but we probably have got to the end of this episode. So, César, this is, as I think I've said already in this episode, this is the last episode of 2024. It's about six months since we began this. It's been a really nice period. Maybe it's the Christmas spirit infecting me and making me more emotional. But I've had a very good time doing this podcast with you this year, so thank you very much.
[00:32:10.630] - César (Guest)
It's been a pleasure to be on this podcast this year as well. You're going to hate this, but I want to congratulate you for your consistency, for your enthusiasm with this podcast. The listeners of this podcast cannot see what I see, which is how enthusiastic you are creating every single episode. So I'm hoping that 2025 is going to be a really good year for English and Beyond as well.
[00:32:38.050] - Oliver (Host)
You are right - I have not enjoyed that praise, and I will probably eliminate it. It's made me feel very uncomfortable. But thank you, listener, for listening to us talking about nonsense all year. And I hope that you have enjoyed this episode, and I hope that you come back and join us again in 2025.
[00:32:59.880] - César (Guest)
Thank you very much, and happy Christmas.
[00:33:02.890] - Oliver (Host)
Well, actually, I've got a little sign-off because there are various different ways. So let's sign off, finally, with some seasonal meetings. First, as the Romans would have said, Io Saturnalia. Now, we'll say, Merry Christmas. As I would say in my family, which we'll know if you listened to my episode in September, have a lovely New Year and Lang May Yer Lum Reek. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you in 2025. Bye-bye.
[00:33:32.360] - César (Guest)
Bye.
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