Participating once in an exchange program in the United States I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to stay with and be part of an American family for the whole year. What amazing and unforgettable time it was! That was a unique chance for me to get an inside look at traditions of the country and experience the life style of an average American family. All events were memorable for me in one way or another, but Christmas was the best of all. In Russia I watched a lot of movies about Christmas secretly feeling a little jealous of all the nice traditions American people have.

Christmas, as it goes in one of the popular American songs, “is the most wonderful time of the year”. Streets, buildings, trees are illuminated with lots of colored lights, everywhere you go you hear merry tunes of the well-known Christmas carols that create an atmosphere of joy and happiness.
Americans like a lot to decorate their houses and front yards trying to outbid their neighbors in the amount of ornaments, originality and cost of the design. On trees they place garlands of hundreds little twinkling lights and stars, the more the better. They erect giant snowmen and Santas, lighted reindeers with sleighs, they also arrange nativity scenes showing the baby Christ lying in manger and Mary, Joseph and wise men around Him.

Participating once in an exchange program in the United States I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to stay with and be part of an American family for the whole year. What amazing and unforgettable time it was! That was a unique chance for me to get an inside look at traditions of the country and experience the life style of an average American family. All events were memorable for me in one way or another, but Christmas was the best of all. In Russia I watched a lot of movies about Christmas secretly feeling a little jealous of all the nice traditions American people have.

Christmas, as it goes in one of the popular American songs, “is the most wonderful time of the year”. Streets, buildings, trees are illuminated with lots of colored lights, everywhere you go you hear merry tunes of the well-known Christmas carols that create an atmosphere of joy and happiness.

In the second part of the Christmas story we'll talk about: gift receipt, gingerbread house kit, holiday return policy and rose bowl.

Gift Receipt.

When you buy something as a gift for your nearest and dearest, you may ask for a Gift Receipt. Very often during holiday time (Christmas, St Valentine’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving), you will be offered such a Gift Receipt without asking for it. In case your relatives or friends do not like the gift, they can go to the store with the Gift Receipt and return it for money. As a rule, the price of the gift is not indicated on the Gift Receipt. On this receipt you can only find the name of the store and code or number of the purchased item.

Gingerbread House Kit.

It is a set of gingerbread cookies of various shapes and sizes. They can be assembled into a beautiful and eatable Christmas decoration. You can build a house using the elements included in the Gingerbread House Kit. You can put up a fence from cookies around the gingerbread house; plant tiny Christmas trees covered with snowflakes. You may put rabbits and gingerbread men under the Christmas trees. The gingerbread house and everything that surrounds it should be together with special white icing sugar which you will find in the Gingerbread House Kit. Included in the Kit is also a special platform or a building tray, where you should place this eatable Christmas decoration consisting of the house and its surroundings. The Kit also includes assorted candies: multicolored lollipops, gumballs, mini jellies, sprinkles, candy canes and the like intended for decorating this work of culinary art. “Create a treat!” — is written on the box with Gingerbread House Kit. This easyto- build kit contains everything you need to build your own gingerbread house. Very often it contains tasty cookie figures: snowmen, ginger kids, animals and trees and one bag pre-made icing. Traditionally, a Gingerbread House is assembled and decorated by all members of the family. It goes without saying that children participate in this magic process with joy and excitement.

Christmas Wish List.

Such Wish Lists include things that people, mostly kids and teenagers, would like to get as presents on Christmas. Those Wish Lists can be completed long before the holidays. Making such lists is an attempt to systematize and organize the process of giving presents desirable and useful. Very often while shopping, parents in response to their children’s request to buy something say: “Put it on your Christmas Wish List!” After such a Wish List is finalized, the family and friends decide on who will buy what.