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.