你真的瞭解聖誕節嗎?大綱
They’re the essential bits of Christmas. Squeezing a fir tree into your living room. Eating an odd-looking bird. Welcoming an intruder who breaks in by coming down the chimney. Gazing at your fifth mince pie of the day and finally wondering what on Earth might be in it.
他們，是聖誕節最核心的部分。讓一棵冷杉樹擠滿你小小的起居室；吃一個外形奇怪的鳥獸；歡迎一個從煙囪闖進你家的“入侵者”；盯着第五塊鹹肉餅，好奇裏面究竟會有些什麼。
How many of us stop to think how it all began? Let’s have a look where our festive traditions come from.
有多少人會停下來想自己爲什麼要這樣做？你真的懂聖誕嗎？現在就來驗證一下吧。
Father Christmas
聖誕老人
Red robes, white beard, waist-slapping jollity and booming ho-ho-hos. He’s been around for ever, hasn’t he?
身穿紅色長袍，面長白色長鬍，歡樂地拍打自己胖胖的腰部，發出“呵呵呵”的聲音，他就是一直以這種形象陪伴我們成長，不是嗎？
Actually only since 1935, when Haddon Sundblo, a Madison Avenue advertising man, created Santa Claus for a Coca-Cola campaign.
直到1935年，麥德遜大道（美國廣告業中心）的廣告人Haddon Sundblo爲了可口可樂運動創造了聖誕老人。
In previous lives he was thinner and paler, a character based on a 4th Century Asian bishop called Nicholas, who became the patron saint of children in most of Europe.
先前他效仿四世紀一個叫的Nicholas亞洲主教，把自己弄得既瘦又蒼白。在歐洲大部分地方，孩子們都把這位主教看成是自己的保護神。
It was in Holland, where they called him Sinterklaas, that he earned his reputation for giving stuff away. A small pair of wooden shoes would be left by the fireplace and he would fill them with sweets.
在荷蘭，因爲他經常派禮物給人們，贏得了不少名譽，人們稱他爲聖尼古拉。如果人們在火爐旁放置一對小小的木鞋子，他就會把它們塞滿糖果。
What about Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer? Debt-ridden shopworker Robert Mays invented him in 1947 as the hero of a bestselling book that made him a fortune.
那紅鼻子馴鹿魯道夫又是怎麼來的？負債累累的店員Robert Mays在1947年創造了它作爲暢銷書的主角，因此贏得了豐厚的回報。Crackers
餅乾
The mastermind behind the Christmas cracker was a London sweetshop owner called Tom Smith. In 1847, after spotting French bonbons wrapped in paper with a twist at each end, he started selling similar sweets with a “love motto” inside.
想出聖誕餅乾的才人是倫敦一間糖果店的店主Tom Smith。在1847年，他發現法國小糖果用一張紙把兩邊扭着包裹，他也開始售賣相類似的糖果，並在裏面放有“愛的誓言”。
They were so popular as a Christmas novelty that Tom made them bigger and included a trinket. But the real flash of inspiration came when he poked the fire and a log exploded with a sharp CRACK! That gave him the idea for a package that went off with a Bang.
作爲聖誕節新奇的小禮物，這種包裝的糖果十分受歡迎，於是Tom把糖果製造得更大，裏面可以放一個小飾品。但是真正激發他靈感的是，當他戳破爐火引起一塊木頭爆炸而發出的巨大的聲音。這讓他想到可以把袋子爆破引起響聲。
He launched his “Bangs of Expectation” with top-of-the range gifts such as jewellery, ivory carvings, perfume and miniature dolls.
於是，他發射了名爲“期望爆炸號”的超級有分量的大禮品，如珠寶、象牙雕刻、香水和微型玩偶。Turkey
火雞
Goose was the popular choice for Christmas dinners for generations. Middle-class families with lots of relatives might go for a boar’s head, while the seriously rich showed off with a swan.
鵝是每個年代很受歡迎的聖誕節晚餐料理。中級家庭會和親戚們共享野豬頭，而最有錢的家庭會用天鵝來炫耀。
The turkey didn’t arrive until the 1600s, when merchants brought it back from America and marketed it as an exciting new festive taste – if you stuffed it with sage and onions and laced it with cranberries.
直到17世紀，火雞才呈現在大家眼前，是由商人們從美洲帶回來的，並推銷其成爲讓人心動的新的節日美食——如果你把它填滿鼠尾草和洋蔥，並用蔓越莓把它圍起來。The tree
聖誕樹
So who DID suggest cutting down a huge piece of shrubbery, dragging it into the house, covering it with lights, then sticking a model fairy on top? Then leaving it there until it drops needles all over the floor.
到底是誰建議砍掉一棵參天巨樹，然後把它拖進房子，掛滿節日燈，並在樹頂插上一個精靈模型，又任由它的針葉掉滿地上而不管？
Blame a German. The Romans had hung up the odd bit of green branch, but it was evangelist Martin Luther from Saxony who first decorated a whole fir tree.
要怪就怪德國人吧。是羅馬人開始掛起這種奇怪的綠色樹木的，但薩克森州的福音傳道者纔是裝飾起冷杉樹的第一人。
That was in 1510. The idea finally spread to Britain during Queen Victoria’s reign when her German-born husband Prince Albert had one sent over to remind him of his own childhood Christmases.
在1510年，這個主意傳到了維多利亞女王統治的英國。有人送了一棵聖誕樹給女王的丈夫—出生於德國的Albert王子，以喚起他對童年聖誕節的回憶。
Cards
聖誕卡
The first were sent in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole, boss of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was far too busy to write letters so had an artist design 1,000 cards, illustrated with a festive family scene on the front and printed with the greeting, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You”ified at being caught out, all his friends sent him one back the next year.
第一封聖誕卡是1843年由維多利亞和阿爾伯特博物館（世界上最大的裝飾藝術和設計博物館）的老闆Henry Cole先生髮出的。他由於工作太繁忙而沒空寫祝賀信，於是他請了藝術家設計1000份賀卡，在卡片首頁畫有家庭節日相聚的場景，然後印刷帶有“祝你聖誕節快樂和新年快樂”的祝福語。由於怕被發現沒回信，他的所有朋友都在下一年送回他一張卡片。
In 1880 cards became so popular.
1880年，聖誕卡開始普及。
Tinsel
金燦燦的裝飾
The first mass-produced Christmas decoration, it was made in Europe in the 1600s from sheets of silver alloy hammered until they were paper-thin and cut into strips.
第一批大量製造的聖誕節裝飾，是在17世紀在歐洲製造的，把銀合金片不斷捶打直到變成薄片，然後切割成條。
The idea was to reflect the light from candles and fireplaces. Problem – after a few Christmases, the silver turned black. A cheaper, throwaway tinsel made from aluminium-based paper swept the festive market in the 1950s. Problem – it went up like a flash when it caught fire.
這些裝飾是爲了反射蠟燭和火爐的光亮，營造溫馨氣氛。問題——在聖誕節一系列活動後，銀條會變黑。一種更便宜的，可丟棄的裝飾條使用鋁做的，在20世紀50年代橫掃節日飾品市場。問題——如果遇火它會像閃電一樣爆發。
