Holidays

CHRISTMAS

Christmas

To me Christmas is the beginning of the family, is the

gathering of a family. The reunion of the family begins long

before the Christmas night, the “ride” starts at the buliding of the

Christmas tree. Then comes the presents exchange, which makes

children impatient. However, the most important for me is the

harmony that I experience when I'm with my family at Christmas

meals and when we are opening our gifts.

I think Christmas is the best celebration of the year, because

that's when the family comes together and is possible to see the

happiness on the faces from the younger to the older. My

Christmas food matches the traditional Portuguese meal, from the

codfish with boiled potatoes on Christmas Eve to the “old

wreck” on Christmas Day.

Tatiana – 11ºB

Christmas holidays

At Christmas I usually visit my grandparents. I

usually eat codfish and potatoes. My family eats all together and we talk about our lives.

At Christmas my family opens the presents at

midnight, although most people open their presents in the next morning.

This Christmas Santa Claus was nice to me,

because I received many presents like a camera,

lots of clothes, chocolates and money… after

having opened the presents, we played same games together.

Ana Isabel – 11ºA

Christmas Holidays

On my Christmas Holidays I did a lot of things like eating

“rabanadas”, a lot of chocolates, codfish (unfortunately)

and “sweet dreams” as usual in our tradition. But the best

part was when I received the presents and the activities that

I did during the holidays, like playing football, talking with

my friends and going out with them.

Luís Moreira- 11ºA

Christmas holidays

Here in Portugal, our Christmas holidays normally start

on 18th or 19th December. This year they started on 18th

December.

I started my holidays buying some gifts for my family,

like I usually do. I bought gifts for all the people that are very

important to me. This is a thing which everyone does in this

time: it’s tradition.

At Christmas, me and my mother cooked all the food

which is normally codfish and some potatoes and for people

who don’t like codfish, we prepared some roast pork.

After dinner, we all watched TV until midnight and then

we opened our presents. This year I received some gifts, but

the one I most enjoyed was my new phone.

This is the time of peace and love!

Rita Lopes – 11ºA

Christmas is one of the most important holiday

seasons in our country.

It's a time to spend with the family, when

immigrants return home and we all join our

beloved ones around the table to eat and talk.

That's how we spend Christmas Eve and

Christmas Day.

João Rui Matos – 11ºA

My Christmas holidays Tuesday, 12th January On my Christmas holidays, I was always at home, because I don't usually want to go out on this time of the year.On Christmas' Eve afternoon, I helped my mother in the kitchen with the cakes and desserts. At my house, Christmas' Eve was spent (as always) only with/by three persons: me and my parents. I have a brother but he usually spends this evening with his wife and daughter. Midnight was the time when we opened the presents, despite my parents falling asleep in the living room at around 21 or 22 o'clock.

On 25th, my aunt and my uncle came to have lunch at my house.

In all these days the fireplace was lit on, as the weather was cold and so we got more comfortable. On New Year's Eve, the situation was similar. The evening was spent only with my parents. At midnight we drank our glass of champagne and went to the balcony to watch the fireworks all around our house.The dinner from the 5th to 6th January – Kings´ Day – was in my house, with a big part of my family, at least the ones who are still in Portugal. To conclude, I must say that Christmas in my house may not be as exciting as it probably should.

Teresa Soares – 12ºI

My Christmas:

I ´m going to talk about how it was at Christmas, the season I like best.

I love to go with my mother to the shops to buy decorations for the house and I

love to decorate the pine tree with my family.

In my family we can say that Christmas is very traditional. Normally it is spent

with most of the family (grandparents, mother, uncles, aunts, cousins, .) here at

home, as we like our night's supper.

My mother has the habit of making Christmas sweets (“rabanadas”/ a kind of

French toast, king cake, “dreams”,...) and my grandmother cooks “old rags”. After

Christmas dinner, until midnight, I usually play cards or monopoly with the family,

it is always funny.

When it's midnight it is always so nice to see my little cousins open the gifts, with a

gleam in their eyes and that smile of curiosity. And as my mother says, it is the

home of the children!

As my parents are divorced I spend 24th December night / Christmas Eve with my

mother ´s family and 25th with my father´s family. This my Christmas.

Ana Pereira, 11ºB

My Christmas holidays are the same every year.

A lot of family members reunite to enjoy Christmas Eve day and

Christmas Day, so there's good company and I spend great moments.

As for presents exchanges in my family we make a raffle ticket game,

because this way we don't need to spend a lot of money buying gifts

for all the family members, and that's funnier, as we don't know who is

going to receive our present.

For dinner we have a lot of different foods, the same for desserts. So

I'm going to talk about only the ones I love, like "rabanadas" similiar

to "French Toast" and "Créme Brulé".

Floriano Silva

11ºA

My Christmas:

Well, my Christmas was good, the best possible. It was very traditional regarding

food, family and Christmas tree. The only thing missing was Santa Claus. But as

now as we are not small children, as we are teens so it is not so funny. To see the

joy in their eyes and their smile makes us happy with the date. This year I spent

Christmas with my mother in my stepfather ´s family ´ house, which was a bit out

of the ordinary, but also good.

We had the usual codfish with boiled potatoes, sweets, and of course, the gifts

which could not miss. It was another Christmas celebrated in family." But best of

all, I had my Christmas holidays that were meant to rest and refresh.

This was my Christmas!

Marcela Rodrigues 11ºB

My Christmas

During Christmas holidays I spent most of time resting, but also studying. Unfortunately, I was ill, so I didn’t have a great time. In spite of my illness, I really enjoyed Christmas. I spent Christmas Eve at my relatives’ house and we had a lot of fun together. We did karaoke, we played cards and we danced. This year, Santa Claus was very nice to me. He brought me a lot of presents. I received a pair of jeans, two boxes of chocolates, a scarf and three hundred euros. I used to eat “rabanadas”, “Serra da Estrela” cheese, sweets at Christmas time but as I was ill, I had to go on a diet. So I had to eat codfish, potatoes, roast lamb and drank water. The saddest part was that I couldn’t eat any cakes at all.

Carla Patrícia Mendes High School “Carolina Michaëlis”

11ºA

My Christmas holidays

My holidays were a little boring because in the first week I worked in a clothes shop,

but, on the other hand, those days were really funny, because I went out to have

dinner with my schoolmates, went to the cinema and it was fantastic to see them

again because I missed them already!

My Christmas was with my family and was very noisy because of my cousins, but it

was very pleasant as I could meet an aunt that lives far away.

We ate the traditional Portuguese meal: boiled codfish with potatoes and vegetables,

and roast meat and the traditional desserts. At midnight the youngest people

received presents.

On my holidays I could meet my old friends and remember the past with them, it

was very funny and I felt enthusiastic.

On New Year’s Eve I was with my family and with my friends, as usual, but this year

I sang a lot in the “singstar” game, with my friends; it was very funny and exciting.

We laughed a lot.

Those were my holidays.

Joana Paiva nº14 11ºA

My own Christmas My Christmas was quite nice. I spent it with my dad’s family because my parents are divorced. All started on the twenty fourth December. I was at my mom’s home when my dad arrived to pick me up to go with him to my aunt’s house. At that time, my mom was already in a two-hour- trip to my grand-mother’s house, in a village near Régua. My father and I went to my other aunt’s home near Douro to get my favorite candy/dessert of Christmas. Its name is “mexidos/formigos “ in Portuguese. I simply love it! We arrived home right at 8.00 pm. It was time to start having dinner. In that house, we were eleven people. So, the dinner table was completely full. The dinner was: boiled cod with a lot of olive oil, potatoes, spinach, cabbage and fish. Finally my favorite time came… The dessert! There were a lot of different types of dessert: molotof, custard / crème brulé, mexidos, dried fruit, vermicelli / angel´s hair and bolo-rei (king-cake). Of course the most I ate was mexidos but I savoured a bit of “molotof” and “bolo-rei” too. After dinner, we played Bingo until eleven o’clock. At eleven o’clock we all shared the presents that were around a Christmas tree. It was a nice moment. All family was together. After this moment, we started playing Bingo again. Playing Bingo it’s like a tradition in my family in this epoch. We played it until midnight. Then, my father and I simply went home. We slept and woke up too late. We spent another day with our family… Playing Bingo!

How did you spend your Christmas? André Diogo – 11ºB