Let's Learn English! Topic: Christmas Verbs! 🎅🎄🎁
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Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about Christmas verbs. The verbs we use when we talk at Christmas time. Uh Christmas has its own unique verbs related to things like the Christmas tree, gifts, all of the things that happen at Christmas time. So, in this English lesson, I'll help you learn, I think over 25 verbs. Some of them are phrasal verbs. In fact, I think three quarters of them are phrasal verbs.

but all of the verbs that we use at this time of year. So, welcome to this English lesson about Christmas verbs. To celebrate. So, the English verb to celebrate means that you do something special for a certain thing. You can celebrate your birthday. You celebrate your birthday by having a party and maybe people come over and they give you gifts. When you celebrate Christmas,

Christmas it might mean that you go to church. Maybe you go to church on Christmas Day. Maybe you celebrate Christmas in a more secular non-religious way. Maybe you have people come over for a Christmas party. Maybe you buy gifts and you get together with your family. But this is certainly a time of year where some people celebrate Christmas.

celebrate Christmas with my family. Um you might be from a different country or you might have a different religion and you might not celebrate Christmas or you might celebrate a different thing at this time of year. But certainly the verb to celebrate is a very common verb. People will say what are you going to do to celebrate Christmas? Oh I'm going to cook a large meal and invite my family over. That is how I celebrate Christmas.

give and to receive. So one of the major things that happens at Christmas is that people buy gifts for other people. So you give a gift. That means I buy a gift and then I wrap that gift and then I give it to another person.

opposite of course would be to receive a gift. Yesterday I was happy because I received some gifts at school. Sometimes students buy their teachers gifts and so I was happy because I received a couple of gifts. It was a

peppermint tea and a little gift card. So that was kind of nice. So at Christmas you can give a gift but at Christmas you might also receive a gift. Hopefully the arrows help you understand the direction. When you give a gift you are the giver. You are the person who has something and then you give it to someone else. If you are the receiver it means someone has given you a gift and you get to keep it.

fun. Gift giving is probably a really cool part of when you celebrate Christmas. To count down. So when you count down it means you think about how many minutes or how many hours or how many days remain before a certain event. If you're going on a trip you might count down the days. So you might say to someone in 10 more days I'm going on a trip. In five more days I'm going on a trip. And

People often count down the number of days until Christmas. It says here that in four days it will be Christmas. So tomorrow I would say oh it's three days till Christmas. It's two days till Christmas. You might count down the days. We also do this on New Year's Eve by the way. Uh we count down how many seconds before we yell happy New Year. So we're like ten, nine, eight. We count down the number of seconds.

look forward to. This is a bit of a tricky verb to explain. In English when you look forward to something it means something is going to happen in the future and you are very very happy about that. I look forward to Christmas Day. I look forward to having Christmas dinner with my family with my brothers and sisters. I look forward to getting gifts. None of those things have happened yet. But

are going to happen but I'm already happy about it now. I am looking forward to it. So when you look forward to something you are happy about something that is going to happen. Maybe you are looking forward to going on a trip. Maybe you are looking forward to a time where you have holidays.

Okay, let's talk about the tree. You might have to go out into the woods or just go to a Christmas tree farm and cut down a tree. You'll take an axe or a saw. This person is using a saw and you will find a tree that looks really nice and you will cut down the tree. You will use the saw or the axe to cut down the tree. So, the tree was standing and

after you cut it down the tree is no longer standing. Many people will go and cut down a Christmas tree at this time of year to put it in their house um and then they will well I'll get to the other verbs in a moment but they will cut down a tree to um make it seem more festive in their house. We use the word festive a lot at this time of year.

But if you're like me you might just get out the Christmas tree. We used to go and cut down a Christmas tree many years ago. But a few years ago we bought a fake tree. So now we get out the Christmas tree. Our Christmas tree is in a box in the basement. The room below the house. So around the end of November or the beginning of December we get out the Christmas tree. We go and find the box and

we bring the box up to our back room and then we yeah we get it out of the box. You could actually use the verb twice. You get the tree out of the basement and then you get the tree out of the box. So once again the English verb to get especially the phrasal verb versions have many many uses. But we get out our Christmas tree and then you either put up a

set up your Christmas tree. And this works for a real Christmas tree. This works for a fake Christmas tree. Um a few weeks ago we put up our Christmas tree. A few weeks ago we set up our Christmas tree. So the act of putting the tree in the tree stand so it is vertical. We would use the verb to put up or to set up.

set up one Christmas tree. Some people put up Christmas trees in every room of their house. We don't do that. We simply put up one Christmas tree. Uh we set up our Christmas tree in the back room and that's where it stays. One of you asked if I would take a picture uh sitting by the tree again this year. I'll see if I remember to do that on Christmas Eve. Uh and I'll post it on the community page.

Then of course you decorate. When you decorate the tree some people say trim the tree. I generally use the verb to decorate. When you decorate the tree you go and you have all ornaments to hang on the tree. Sometimes you put ribbon or tinsel on the tree. Maybe there's a little star or angel on the top of the tree. Those are all very common things to do. And then of course we usually put lights on the tree. We call them Christmas lights.

think in Britain they might call them fairy lights but we call them I call them Christmas lights. We put Christmas lights on the tree when we decorate the tree. And then of course when Christmas is over you have to take down the tree. Um you can't leave your Christmas tree up all year. That's just not common. Uh we usually take our Christmas tree down on January 1st. Sometimes January 3rd. We usually put up a

set up our Christmas tree the end of November or the beginning of December and then we take down our tree and then we put it away to let it wait for the following year. To put off. So in English when you put something off it means you should be doing something but you aren't doing that thing. Jen and I have put off

gifts for Christmas. We've put it off for too long. We've bought some but we've put off finishing buying our gifts for people. So again in English when you put something off it means we

you should do it now, you say, oh, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it on Tuesday. You put off that thing. Often when people have something stressful to do or something hard to do, they will put it off. They will just not work on it when they they should be working on it. I sometimes put stuff off. But when you're not feeling well though, it's okay. You're allowed to put things off. And

shop around. So, you might wonder why not just use the verb to shop. I will definitely shop at Christmas time but the verb to shop around. Let me see how would I describe this? If I needed to buy milk, I would go to the grocery store and I would buy milk. I would shop and get milk but when you shop around, it's more leisurely.

So, today, Jen and I are going to shop around. That means we're going to go to a lot of different stores. It means that we won't necessarily buy thing that

anything at each store. We're browsing. That's another word for it. So when you shop around it means you go to a lot of different stores. You might buy some things at one store and not buy something at a different store. You will just shop around in order to find the things that you need to buy. So hopefully that made sense.

to sing along. So somewhere around the end of November radio stations start to play Christmas music and sometimes you will sing along. If it's a song you know as the radio is playing the song or as you listen to the song you sing while the song is playing. By the way this is a great way to practice your English. You should always sing along. And

you don't just have to do this at Christmas time. Uh but if you are listening to Last Christmas by Wham! Or if you are listening to uh All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey. You should learn the words and you should sing along while you are listening to the song. So when you sing along it simply means that you sing while a song is playing. You sing along. To invite. So around Christmas time you might be planning to

have a party and you might invite people to the party. So if I was to have a party I might say to my brother hey do you want to come over Saturday? That is the act of me inviting my brother to the party. Um at work there might be a Christmas party and they might say everyone is invited. There's a Christmas party on Friday and we are going to have a small gift exchange. Please bring a gift that's worth $20. So if

might invite people to a party or you might be invited to a party. One of the two. To wrap. So this is probably one of the more common verbs if not the most common verb when we talk about Christmas. If you buy a gift for someone you need to wrap that gift. You need to put wrapping paper around the gift so they don't know what the gift is. So quite often Jen and I will wrap gifts for

quickly the day of. We usually give our kids gifts in the evening. Sometimes a day before Christmas or two days before Christmas. Um it depends when we can do it. Um but we will wrap the gifts. We usually just use brown paper. We actually use the same paper that we put on the bottom of our bouquets that we sell at market. We use the same brown paper. It looks a lot like that to wrap.

gifts that we give to our children. It's just very simple and it's very easy and cheap to do. To set out. So after you wrap the gifts you need to set out the gifts. You could also use put out like you can put out the gifts but Jen and I usually set out the gifts. That means we take them from our room because we wrap all the gifts in our bedroom and keep them there. Hopefully my kids are

watching this. Hopefully they don't know the secret location. Um but then we will set out the gifts. We will put the gifts under the Christmas tree. Um and they're usually there for a few days if we are if we have planned well but I think this year they all they might all be set out the day of. We'll see how things go. We'll set out some gifts later today because we have most of them but I think it will take a while before uh we

will all be there. And then to open a quite a simple verb. Obviously at Christmas you will open gifts. Okay? So you wrap the gift and then you give the gift. The person will receive the gift from you and then they will open the gift. They will take the wrapping paper off or if it's just a simple box they will take the lid off. Uh they will open the gift.

to pop over. Sometimes people will pop over to give you a gift. This is common when it's someone who you won't be spending time with at Christmas. A good example would be a neighbor.

neighbor might pop over and bring you a Christmas gift. They aren't coming to your Christmas party. They're not family. They're not one of your good friends. There's someone you know well. They might phone you and say, hey, can I pop over? And give you something for Christmas and then they will come. So, when you pop over, it means to visit someone's house or apartment for a short period of time. If someone is

to pop over to talk to me. I would probably talk to them at my front door. I probably wouldn't even invite them in because if they said, hey, can I pop over for a minute? They don't, it doesn't mean they want to come in and have a cup of tea or a cup of coffee and stay for an hour or two. It means they might even leave their car running.

they walk up to the front door, talk for a few minutes, and then leave. So, you might have people pop over at Christmas. To light up. So, at Christmas, we put up lights but we also sometimes say we want to light up the room. So, you might say, oh, we're going to put Christmas lights in this part of our house to light up the room.

you light up a certain area of your house it means that you are putting more lights in. You are making it brighter. Stores will often light up the front of their store with Christmas lights at this time of year. So they will light up the store. To get together,

gather. So at Christmas you will often get together with other people. We use the verb get with the word together to talk about any time people are in one spot for a special event. You might get together with people for your birthday. You might get together at Christmas with family. You might get together after work one day to celebrate a colleague's birthday. So whenever you are with other people you

an event or to celebrate something, we often use the verb to get together. So, I'm going to get together with my family tomorrow. Uh and then we are going to get together with Jen's family next week. So, that's the use of the verb. That actual use of the verb in Bob's life.

gather is more of an older word. I don't really use this verb much anymore. But people will gather for Christmas. I think get together is more common. In fact get together can also be used as a noun. Like you might go to a get together.

Um and I think to gather is something you might read in an older book. Like people will gather for Christmas um at the town square or something like that. But uh yeah, definitely has an older feel to me, that verb. This verb has come up in a few lessons lately. I think this is the third time in a month. When you host, it means people are coming to your house. People are coming to your apartment. You are the person who is planning the party. Um

So, if Jen and I host Christmas, we make sure our house is really clean. We decorate a little bit more because people are coming to our house because we decided to host the party. Um this year, we are not hosting. We are going to other people's houses and I like that a little bit better. I think it's a little easier to

easier to visit someone else than it is to have 20 or 30 people come to your house. I do like to host like it is fun. We hosted Christmas last year for my brothers and sisters. Uh but this year it will be at um my sister's place.

bake. So you bake all year round. It's fun to bake cookies. It's fun. It's fun to bake things but at Christmas you might bake special Christmas treats. You might bake shortbread cookies. That's a very common thing to eat at Christmas. It's a a white cookie. Um you might make a

might bake gingerbread cookies or you might bake the pieces for a gingerbread house. Gingerbread is a spicy kind of cookie. A spicy kind of treat that we have at Christmas time. You you're going to try and not do this but it's kind of hard. You tend to overeat at Christmas.

Um so I tend to overeat at Christmas because everywhere I go there is a lot of food. It's fun to eat at Christmas. You eat things you don't normally eat at other times of year uh of the year. So it's fun to eat but it's important to try to not overeat. This looks yummy. A bunch of different kinds of cheeses. The reason people tend to overeat at Christmas is because we buy more expensive food.

This looks like expensive cheese. I don't normally buy this type of cheese. Um so if I was at a Christmas party and they had that cheese, I might overeat a little bit.

send. You might send Christmas cards. This has become less common I think as people just send a greeting via email. My friend just sent me a nice email letter the other day instead of a Christmas card. But you might send Christmas cards to people. That was hard to do in Canada because Canada Post was on strike. We didn't have mail for almost a month. But you might decide to send a Christmas card. So

you might listen to music. It's interesting because we often add the word to when we're using listen with music. So when I go for a walk I listen to music. At Christmas time I listen to Christmas music. Um so it's an important way and use of the verb to listen. Um so I think some of you probably listen to a lot of English music in order to learn new English words and to practice your English.

dress up. So someone might dress up as Santa Claus. You might have a very formal Christmas party and you might need to dress up. You might need to wear a tie. Um pretty much every Christmas party I go to is very casual though. But if you go to a parade.

last person in the parade at Christmas parade is Santa and often there will be a person who will dress up as Santa. The person will put on a fake beard and put on a red I guess a Santa suit we would call it would dress up by putting on a Santa suit.

To exchange, I use this verb a few times already. Sometimes you will exchange gifts. So as parents, we buy our kids gifts and give them gifts. But at work, if you have a party, you might exchange gifts with someone. You might have a gift exchange. That means you're giving one gift and you're getting one gift.

Um we actually didn't have a Christmas party at work. I think it's going to be in January. It didn't quite work out. But sometimes we will exchange gifts. So you're you're told buy a gift that anyone would like. That's about $10 or $20 and then we have a little gift exchange. Maybe we play a game to exchange the gifts or maybe we actually know who we are giving the gift to.

then to return. This is the sad part of Christmas. Sometimes people get a gift that they don't like and then after Christmas they will return the gift. They will bring it back to the store to get money for that gift. So sometimes people buy gifts. They give gifts and people don't like the gifts so they return the gift. In fact it's quite common to give someone what's called a gift receipt.

a gift. Especially if an adult is giving a gift to another adult and they don't know if they're going to like it. They might give them a special receipt from the store called a gift receipt that allows that person to return the gift.

Um and then you could also sometimes return the gift or exchange it. If someone bought me a shirt or sweater for Christmas and it was too small, I could go to the store and return the shirt or I might exchange it for the right size. I would give them the small and they would give me the large uh because that actually fits better. And then this is my last slide. A lot of people will crash at Christmas. This is an informal verb that means I

to sleep or relax or just watch TV after

a busy event. Okay? So when Jen and I host Christmas after everyone leaves we just crash. We just lay on the couch and do nothing for an hour. Because we're exhausted. Maybe when you go to a Christmas party and you talk to people for three hours you are really tired afterwards and you go home and crash. So it simply means to sit down or lay down on a couch. You might fall asleep. You might just watch some

silly television but you will crash so it's another word for relax I think hi Bob the Canadian here thank you for listening to this English podcast lesson if you would like to support me in the work that I do as an online English teacher please visit patreon.com slash Bob the Canadian