VOA词汇掌故2022--Expressions for Celebrating the Holidays

And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning¹ English.

December is a special month when many people celebrate holidays around the world.

There is the Winter Solstice celebration called Dongzhi in China and Toji in Japan. Jewish² people celebrate eight days of Hanukkah. And African American culture has seven days of Kwanzaa that ends on New Year's Day.

In many places around the world, today is a holiday – Christmas!

So, we will talk about holiday expressions that you can use in American English.

Let's start with the holiday spirit.

If you are in the holiday spirit, you feel good about holidays and are looking forward to them. Some people get into the holiday spirit weeks, even months before the actual holiday.

However, for some people, the holiday season can be a sad time. Or some people just do not like holidays. If you are not really into holidays, for whatever reason, you can say, "I'm not really in the holiday spirit."

But let's say you love holidays and are in the holiday spirit. If you get invited to some special holiday events, you can say you'll be there with bells on. For example, if I invite you to a holiday party or dinner, you can say, "Thanks! I'll be there with bells on!"

This doesn't mean that you will actually wear bells. It means you are very excited to attend the event. However, if you want to wear bells... well, you can do that too!

The expression I'll be there with bells on does not have to be used just for a holiday party. For example, let's say you are invited to a birthday party, you can also say you'll be there with bells on.

Now for better or worse, gift-giving is a big part of many holidays. So, let's talk about some expressions that come from gift-giving.

Sometimes the best things in life are very small and simple. For those things you can say, good things come in small packages.

This expression means you should not judge a gift, or anything, based on its size. Many smaller items may be of high quality or value.

For Christmas in the United States, many people put gifts under the Christmas tree. But some people also have stockings for small, less costly³ gifts and sweets. They stuff⁴ these stockings with them. So, the gifts are called stocking stuffers!

Many workplaces celebrate the holidays with gift-giving. But who has the money to buy gifts for all their coworkers? Not many.

That is why we use Secret Santa for gift-giving with a large group. Everyone in the group picks the name of one other person. That is the person you buy a gift for, and you become their Secret Santa.

It is also common for large families or large friend groups to have a Secret Santa. It saves everyone money and it is a lot of fun.

Many children who celebrate Christmas are warned that Santa is watching them throughout the year. If they are good, they go on the nice list. If they are bad they go on the naughty list.

Naughty means your behavior is a little bad. And parents tell children that those on the naughty list will not get any gifts or they will get something they don't want, like a lump⁵ of coal in their stockings.

So, if you are on Santa's naughty list, do not expect to get anything nice under the tree. You will just get a lump of coal in your stocking.

And that's all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories.

Words in This Story

Winter Solstice – n. the point in the sky occupied by the sun on or about December 22d when winter begins in the northern hemisphere⁶ : the December solstice

bell – n. a hollow⁷ usually cup-shaped metallic⁸ device⁹ that makes a ringing sound when struck

package – n. a small or medium-sized pack : a covering wrapper or container

stocking – n. a usually knit¹⁰ close-fitting covering for the foot and leg

stuff – v. to fill by packing things in

lump – n. a piece or mass of indefinite size and shape

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 Jewish   

adj.犹太人的，犹太民族的

参考例句：

• The coin bears a Jewish symbol.硬币上有犹太标记。
• They were two Jewish kids;I was friendly with both of them.他们是两个犹太小孩；我同他们都很要好。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

5 lump   

n.块状，瘤，很多；v.使...成块状，混在一起，忍耐

参考例句：

• I thanked him with a lump in my throat.我哽咽着向他道谢。
• If you don't like it,you may lump it.你不喜欢，也得容忍一下。

6 hemisphere   

n.半球，半球地图

参考例句：

• This animal is to be found only in the Southern Hemisphere.这种动物只有在南半球才能找到。
• In most people,the left hemisphere is bigger than the right.多数人的左脑比右脑大。

7 hollow   

adj.空的，中空的，空心的；空洞的，无价值的

参考例句：

• The boys scraped out a hollow place for planting trees.那些孩子挖了个坑准备栽树。
• Bamboo is a sort of hollow plant.竹子是一种中空的植物。

8 metallic   

adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的

参考例句：

• A sharp metallic note coming from the outside frightened me.外面传来尖锐铿锵的声音吓了我一跳。
• He picked up a metallic ring last night.昨夜他捡了一个金属戒指。

9 device   

n.器械，装置；计划，策略，诡计

参考例句：

• The device will be in production by the end of the year.该装置将于年底投入生产。
• The device will save much time and effort for us.这种装置会使我们节省大量时间和气力。

10 knit   

vt.编织，密接，结合，皱眉；vi.编织，变得紧凑，愈合；n.编织

参考例句：

• She could knit up a baby's coat in an afternoon.她能在一个下午织好一件婴儿的衣服。
• Our letters enabled us to knit up our old friendship.通信使我们恢复了旧日的友谊。