The Christmas Tree, an article that explains its legend, origin and tradition, with some enlightening merry quotes to enrich the great value of the Christmas period.

Snowflakes felt so awesome in winter season. There is a main figure in Christmas known as Santa Claus. And the main theme of Christmas is jingle bell, a very famous tune known all other the world. People use this tune a lot all over the Christmas event, and it feels so good like something very positive that will bring peace and happiness in our lives.

Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.
T. S. Eliot

It is curious to what a degree one may become attached to a fine tree, especially when it is placed where trees are rare.
Christian Nestell Bovee

The Christmas tree is the dot on the i.
Frank Taylor

The trees that bud and blossom forth, Throughout the world from south to north, Are tokens that a life will bloom When manhood’s passed beyond the tomb.
T. Augustus Forbes Leith

Three things are needed to make a Christmas tree: ornaments, the tree and faith in the future.
Armenian proverb

I stone got crazy when I saw somebody run down them strings with a bottleneck. My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and I said that I had to learn.
Muddy Waters

My beer-drenched soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees in the world.
Charles Bukowski

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
Roy L. Smith

It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree that matters, it’s who’s around it.
Charlie Brown

A Christian should resemble a fruit tree with real fruit, not a Christmas tree with decorations tied on.
John Stott

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
Burton Hillis

I grew up with a Christmas tree, I’m going to stay with a Christmas tree.
Thomas Menino

The perfect Christmas tree, all Christmas trees are perfect.
Charles N. Barnard

Some Christmas tree ornaments do more than glitter and glow, they represent a gift of love given a long time ago.
Tom Baker

The Christmas tree is beautiful only when it is finished and when the lights can be turned on, the crib is not, the crib is beautiful when you do it or even when you think about it.
Luciano De Crescenzo

Taking down the Christmas tree makes it feel official: time to get back to joyless and cynical.
Greg Fitzsimmons

I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.
Linus Van Pelt

What will we find under the Christmas tree this year? Oh my God, I think the roots!
Carl William Brown

Glittering tinsel, lights, glass balls, and candy canes dangle from pine trees.
Richelle E. Goodrich

The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature.
Andy Rooney

There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.
Calvin Coolidge

The earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine.
James Irwin

Christmas tree stands are the work of the devil and they want you dead.
Bill Bryson

Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.
Eckhart Tolle

He that planteth a tree is the servant of God, He provideth a kindness for many generations, And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.
Henry Van Dyke

Now I’m an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.
Orson Welles

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 25 feet tall.
Larry Wilde

They’ve got plastic Christmas trees now. They’re hard to tell from the real aluminum ones.
Milton Berle

I was only kicking down the Christmas tree to get the star on top.
Ray Bradbury

I don’t know what I believe. I guess that makes me a christmas tree agnostic.
Stephanie Perkins

Only look what is still on the ugly old Christmas tree!” said he, trampling on the branches, so that they all cracked beneath his feet. And the Tree beheld all the beauty of the flowers, and the freshness in the garden; he beheld himself, and wished he had remained in his dark corner in the loft; he thought of his first youth in the woods, of the merry Christmas Eve, and of the little Mice who had listened with so much pleasure to the story of Klumpy-Dumpy.
Hans Christian Andersen

A Christmas tree, the perfect gift for a guy. The plant is already dead.
Jay Leno

The Christmas tree, twinkling with lights, had a mountain of gifts piled up beneath it, like offerings to the great god of excess.
Tess Gerritsen

A dog looking at a lit Christmas tree thinks: they finally put the light in the toilet.
Romano Bertola

Christmas trees don’t grow on trees; they need rainbows, lumberjacks, and Leprechauns on unicorns playing jock jams on glockenspiels.
Ryan Ross

Make your plate look like a Christmas tree, I tell people, mostly green with splashes of other bright colors.
Victoria Moran

There’s no experience quite like cutting your own live Christmas tree out of your neighbor’s yard.
Dan Florence

The smell of pine needles, spruce and the smell of a Christmas tree, those to me, are the scents of the holidays.
Blake Lively

Christmas is a very enjoyable event ever. It is a great feast for everyone. Kids, adults and grandparents. Everyone enjoy this occasion very much. Parents give presents to their children and this brings happiness in their hearts. An enormous amount of joy comes through this period which is a real gem for us. Therefore how could we avoid talking of one of the main symbol of this religious celebration, which is certainly the Christmas Tree, so let’s read about its fascinating history.

The Christmas tree today is a common custom to most of us. There are many interesting connections to ancient traditions such as Egyptian and Roman customs, early Christian practices, and Victorian nostalgia. However, most scholars point to Germany as being the origin of the Christmas tree.

Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.

In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk in his crown. At the solstice, when Ra began to recover from his illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm rushes, which symbolized for them the triumph of life over death.

Early Romans marked the solstice with a feast called Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon, farms and orchards would be green and fruitful. To mark the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.

In Northern Europe the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. The fierce Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder.

One of the earliest stories relating back to Germany is about Saint Boniface. In 722, he encountered some pagans who were about to sacrifice a child at the base of a huge oak tree. He cut down the tree to prevent the sacrifice and a Fir tree grew up at the base of the oak. He then told everyone that this lovely evergreen, with its branches pointing to heaven, was a holy tree – the tree of the Christ child, and a symbol of His promise of eternal life.

Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. Another story tells that perhaps it was Martin Luther responsible for the origin of the Christmas tree.

This story says that one Christmas Eve, about the year 1500, he was walking through the snow-covered woods and was struck by the beauty of the snow glistened trees. Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmered in the moon light. When he got home, he set up a small fir tree and shared the story with his children. He decorated the Christmas tree with small candles, which he lighted in honor of Christ’s birth.

Another legend says that in the early 16th century, people in Germany combined two customs that had been practiced in different countries around the globe. The Paradise tree (a fir tree decorated with apples) represented the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

The Christmas Light, a small, pyramid-like frame, usually decorated with glass balls, tinsel and a candle on top, was a symbol of the birth of Christ as the Light of the World. Changing the tree’s apples to tinsel balls and cookies and combining this new tree with the light placed on top, the Germans created the tree that many of us know today.

In the 1840s and 50s, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularized the Christmas tree in England. Prince Albert decorated a tree and ever since that time, the English, because of their love for their Queen, copied her Christmas customs including the Christmas tree and ornaments. An engraving of the Royal Family celebrating Christmas at Windsor was published in 1848 and their German traditions were copied and adapted.

Another story about the origin of the Christmas tree says that late in the Middle Ages, Germans and Scandinavians placed evergreen trees inside their homes or just outside their doors to show their hope that spring would soon come.

Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims’s second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.” In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.

The early 20th century saw Americans decorating their trees mainly with homemade ornaments, while the German-American sect continued to use apples, nuts, and marzipan cookies. Popcorn joined in after being dyed bright colors and interlaced with berries and nuts. Electricity brought about Christmas lights, making it possible for Christmas trees to glow for days on end. With this, Christmas trees began to appear in town squares across the country and having a Christmas tree in the home became an American tradition.

Research into customs of various cultures shows that greenery was often brought into homes at the time of the winter solstice. It symbolized life in the midst of death in many cultures. The Romans were known to deck their homes with evergreens during of Kalends of January 15. Living trees were also brought into homes during the old Germany feast of Yule, which originally was a two month feast beginning in November. The Yule tree was planted in a tub and brought into the home. But there is no evidence that the Christmas tree is a direct descendent of the Yule tree.

Evidence does point to the Paradise tree however. This story goes back to the 11th century religious plays. One of the most popular was the Paradise Play. The play depicted the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, their sin, and their banishment from Paradise. The only prop on the stage was the Paradise tree, a fir tree adorned with apples. The play would end with the promise of the coming Savior and His Incarnation. The people had grown so accustomed to the Paradise tree, that they began putting their own Paradise tree up in their homes on December 24.

Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850. In 1979, the National Christmas Tree was not lighted except for the top ornament. This was done in honor of the American hostages in Iran. The tallest living Christmas tree is believed to be the 122-foot, 91-year-old Douglas fir in the town of Woodinville, Washington. The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tradition began in 1933. Franklin Pierce, the 14th president, brought the Christmas tree tradition to the White House. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony now held every year on the White House lawn.

Since 1966, the National Christmas Tree Association has given a Christmas tree to the President and first family. Most Christmas trees are cut weeks before they get to a retail outlet. In 1912, the first community Christmas tree in the United States was erected in New York City. Christmas trees generally take six to eight years to mature. Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states including Hawaii and Alaska. 90 percent of all Christmas trees are grown on farms. More than 1,000,000 acres of land have been planted with Christmas trees. On average, over 2,000 Christmas trees are planted per acre.

You should never burn your Christmas tree in the fireplace. It can contribute to creosote buildup. Other types of trees such as cherry and hawthorns were used as Christmas trees in the past. Thomas Edison’s assistants came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees. In 1963, the National Christmas Tree was not lit until December 22nd because of a national 30-day period of mourning following the assassination of President Kennedy. Teddy Roosevelt banned the Christmas tree from the White House for environmental reasons. On the contrary the 2020 Christmas Tree is an 18 ½ foot Fraser Fir from West Virginia. It will serve as a centerpiece for Christmas decorations in the Blue Room of the White House. The White House Christmas Tree must stand 18-19 feet tall and reach the ceiling of the Blue Room, where the chandelier is removed each holiday season to accommodate the tree.

And last but not least, if you want to choose the perfect Christmas tree visit the website of The American Christmas Tree Association (ACTA) which is a non-profit organization established to help families create holiday memories and build traditions by choosing the perfect Christmas tree. www.christmastreeassociation.org/

Instead if you need a good short story for your children about Christmas or the Christmas tree, you can find many of them at this link:
https://americanliterature.com/author/hans-christian-andersen/short-story/the-fir-tree

Top 10 Tallest Christmas Trees in The World

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Christmas songs best ever written and sung with an article, a list and some videos from Youtube. Enjoy and be merry at least for Christmas.

There are a lot of popular and famous everlasting Christmas songs, and at this time of the year you always listen to them with joy and a cheerful state of mind. Take for instance “Silent Night” (German: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) which is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria and it was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011. The song has been recorded by a large number of singers from every music genre. The version sung by Bing Crosby is the third best-selling single of all-time.

The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire on the Salzach river in present-day Austria. A young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. He had written the lyrics of the song “Stille Nacht” in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked as a co-adjutor. The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Before Christmas Eve, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the Christmas Eve mass. Together they performed the new carol during the mass on the night of 24 December.

“Silent Night Holy Night All is calm All is bright Round yon virgin Mother and child Holy infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace Silent Night Holy Night”

Originally “Christmas carols” referred to a piece of vocal music in carol form whose lyrics were based on the theme of Christmas or the Christmas season. Many traditional Christmas carols focus on the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus, while others celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas that range from the 25 December to 5 January. As a result, many Christmas Carols can be related to St Stephen’s Day (26 December), St John’s Day (27 December), Feast of Holy Innocents (28 December), St Sylvester’s Day (31st December), and the Epiphany. Examples of this are We Three Kings (an Epiphany song), and Good King Wenceslas (a carol for St. Stephen’s Day).

Nonetheless, some Christmas Carols, both religious and secular, now regarded as Christmas songs have become associated with the Christmas season even though the lyrics may not specifically refer to Christmas – for example, Deck the Halls (a pagan Yuletide drinking song) and O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (an Advent chant). Other Christmas songs focus on more secular Christmas themes, such as winter scenes, family gatherings, and Santa Claus (Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, Home for the Holidays, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, etc.).

Among carols one of the best is for sure “Carol of the Bells” which is a popular Christmas carol composed by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 with lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. The song is based on a Ukrainian folk chant called “Shchedryk”. Wilhousky’s lyrics are copyrighted, although the original musical composition is not. The song is recognized by a four-note ostinato motif. It has been arranged many times for different genres, styles of singing and settings and has been covered by artists and groups of many genres: classical, metal, jazz, country music, rock, and pop. The piece has also been featured in films, television shows, and parodies.

But in more recent times a lot of new songs were born and they absolutely deserve to be remembered and sung, so you can find the most famous of them listed below. As far as I am concerned the one I prefer is – All I Want for Christmas Is You – by Mariah Carey because it is very moving, poetical and exciting and what’s more expresses one of our inner deepest emotional desire.

“I don’t want a lot for Christmas There’s just one thing I need I don’t care about presents Underneath the Christmas tree I just want you for my own More than you could ever know Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is you.”

Another very nice and amusing Christmas song that is also a rock one is certainly “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”. It was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie and was first sung on Eddie Cantor’s radio show in November 1934. It became an instant hit with orders for 500,000 copies of sheet music and more than 30,000 records sold within 24 hours. The song has been recorded by over 200 artists, including The Crystals, Mariah Carey, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra and The Jackson 5.

“You better watch out You better not cry Better not pout I’m telling you why Santa Claus is coming to town He’s making a list And checking it twice; Gonna find out Who’s naughty and nice Santa Claus is coming to town”

Here is now a list of fifty very famous Christmas Songs:

1) “Fairytale of New York” – The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl

2) “All I Want For Christmas Is You” – Mariah Carey

3) “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” – Band Aid

4) “Last Christmas” – Wham!

5) “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” – Michael Bublé

6) “Do You Hear What I Hear?” – Bing Crosby

7) “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)” – John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir

8) “Wonderful Christmastime” – Paul McCartney

9) “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” – Wizzard

10) “Merry Xmas Everybody” – Slade

11) “Merry Christmas Everyone” – Shakin’ Stevens

12) “Sleigh Ride” – Leroy Anderson

13) “Stay Another Day” – East 17

14)”Driving Home For Christmas” – Chris Rea

15) “Rockin Around The Christmas Tree” – Brenda Lee

16) “Step Into Christmas” – Elton John

17) “2000 Miles” – The Pretenders

18) “I’m Gonna Be Warm This Winter” – Connie Francis / Gabriella Cilmi

19) “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Darlene Love

20) “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” – Vaughn Monroe/Dean Martin/Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Our Playlist of best Christmas songs

21) “Stop The Calvary” – Jona Lewie

22) “Frosty The Snowman” – Gene Autry & The Cass Country Boys/Perry Como /Johnny Mathis /Kimberley Locke

23) “White Christmas” – Bing Crosby

24) “I Believe In Father Christmas” – Greg Lake/Toyah Wilcox/Elaine Paige

25) “Christmas Lights” – Coldplay

26) “Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” – The Nat King Cole Trio

27) “Thank God It’s Christmas” – Queen

28) “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of Year” – Andy Williams

29) “Santa Baby” – Eartha Kitt

30) “Christmas Wrapping” – The Waitresses

31) “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” – Frank Sinatra

32) “Please Come Home For Christmas” – Charles Brown, The Eagles, Jon Bon Jovi

33) “Spaceman Came Travelling” – Chris de Burgh

34) “A Winter’s Tale” – David Essex

35) “Lonely This Christmas” – MUD

36) “Cold December Night” – Michael Bublé

37) “Mistletoe And Wine” – Cliff Richard

38) “Merry Christmas” – Bryan Adams

39) “Christmas Time” – Don’t Let The Bells End, The Darkness

40) “Mary’s Boy Child” – Oh My Lord, Boney M

41) “Power Of Love” – Frankie Goes to Hollywood

42) “Blue Christmas” – Elvis Presley

43) “When A Child Is Born (Soleado)” – Johnny Mathis

44) “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” – Gene Autry

45) “Winter Wonderland” – Perry Como

46) “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” – Jimmy Boyd

47) “Mary’s Boy Child” – Harry Belafonte

48) “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” – Perry Como & The Fontana Sisters

49) “The Little Drummer Boy” – Harry Simeone Chorale

50) “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” -16th century carol

51) “Happy New Year” – Abba

52) “New Year’s Day” – U2

53) “New Year’s Day” – Taylor Swift

You can also have a look at the Best Christmas Songs with videos, lyrics, famous quotes and carols to enjoy the atmosphere of this magic festival and to practice the English language having great fun.

Read also our other posts on Christmas  ;

Christmas best songs (Karaoke) ;

Christmas quotes ;

60 great Christmas quotes ;

Christmas tree origin and quotes ; 

Traditional Christmas Carols ;

Christmas jokes ;

Christmas cracker jokes ;

Christmas best humorous quotes ;

Christmas food ;

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Christmas story ;

Christmas in Italy ;

Christmas holidays ;

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An Essasy on Christmas by Chesterton ;

See also the decorated complete carols page where you can also download the pdf file!

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Best Christmas Songs with videos, lyrics, famous quotes and carols to enjoy the atmosphere of this magic festival and to practice the English language having great fun.

The good and the beautiful are not forgotten; they live in legend and song.
Hans Christian Andersen

Using songs with lyrics is a very useful means to improve English skills and to have fun at the same time. The advantage of using pop songs to learn English is that you will also be learning something about English speaking culture, which could come in handy.

Music means a lot to people. Songwriters use their talent to communicate messages that are important to them, experiences that they’ve had in their lives and life lessons. And then there are those of us who enjoy listening to the songs and finding inspiration, motivation, support and so many other emotions from the words. But not all songs are meant to teach deep life lessons. Some are purely just meant to be enjoyed.

Can you believe that famous old songs by Michael Jackson, The Beatles and Elvis Presley are perfect for learning English grammar? Well, it’s not just about making learning fun, it’s about philosophy. The ancient philosopher Plato said that “Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.” Of course, Plato lived thousands of years ago, so that quote may seem a bit complicated to us today but in any case music is excellent because it has the power to move us.

If you want to learn actively, you can listen to the songs while following along with the lyrics. You can also simply listen to the songs without taking any notes. You won’t exactly “absorb” the English vocabulary and grammar structures automatically, but you may be surprised how much you can learn just by passively listening to songs. And if you hear something that catches your interest, you can always return to the song later on to find more information about the words or structures.

Christmas is such a joyous time of year. For many, the holidays bring back memories of family, food, fun and music. Studies show that hearing certain songs can cue specific memories in people’s brains. One very familiar type of song is the Christmas carol. From music lovers and churchgoers, to people all around the world who celebrate Christmas, carols are the beloved musical backbone of the festive season. Christmas carols are based on Christian lyrics and relate, in the main, to the Nativity. Christmas carols were introduced into church services by St. Francis of Assisi in the 12th century. Here you can find the 30 best Christmas Carols.

And now here are some best quotes from very popular English Christmas songs.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Where the treetops glisten and children listen, to hear sleigh bells in the snow.
White Christmas  (Karaoke)

He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good, for goodness sake!
Santa Claus is Coming to Town  (Karaoke)

A very Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.
Happy Xmas (War is Over)  (Karaoke)

Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride, in a one horse open sleigh.
Jingle Bells  (Karaoke)

I won’t ask for much this Christmas. I won’t even wish for snow. And I’m just gonna keep on waiting, underneath the mistletoe. All I want for Christmas is you, yeah. (And I) Don’t care about the presents. Underneath the Christmas tree. I don’t need to hang my stocking. There upon the fireplace (Ah) Santa Claus won’t make me happy.
All I Want For Christmas Is You  (Karaoke)

“Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”. Rockin’ around the Christmas tree. At the Christmas party hop. Mistletoe hung where you can see. Every couple tries to stop. Rockin’ around the Christmas tree. Let the Christmas spirit ring. Later we’ll have some pumpkin pie.
Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree  (Karaoke)

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away. This year, to save me from tears, I’ll give it to someone special.
Last Christmas  (Karaoke)

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We Wish You a Merry Christmas  (Karaoke)

Oh the fire is slowly dying. And, my dear, were still good-bye-ing. But as long as you love me so, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
Let it Snow  (Karaoke)

Christmas Eve will find me, where the lovelight gleams. I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.
I’ll be Home for Christmas  (Karaoke)

Sing a song of gladness and cheer For the time of Christmas is here Look around about you and see What a world of wonder This world can be.
A Christmas Carol lyrics  (Karaoke)

Our Playlist of best Christmas songs

There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found, for when they placed it on his head, he began to dance around!
Frosty the Snowman  (Karaoke)

What a bright time, it’s the right time, to rock the night away.
Jingle Bell Rock  (Karaoke)

Santa, tell me if he really cares. ‘Cause I can’t give it all away if he won’t be here next year. [Bridge] Oh, I wanna have him beside me, like oh-woo-oh. On the 25th, by that fireplace, oh-woo-oh. But I don’t want a new broken heart. This year I’ve got to be smart. Oh, baby.
Santa Tell Me  (Karaoke)

Doesn’t it feel like Christmas (it feels lovely) Doesn’t it feel like Christmas (feels so lovely) Doesn’t it feel like Christmas (oh oh oh oh) Yes, it feels like Christmas Doesn’t it feel like Christmas (it feels lovely) Doesn’t it feel like Christmas (feels so lovely) Doesn’t it feel like Christmas (the spirit of Christmas) Yes, it feels like Christmas
8 Days of Christmas Destiny’s Child  (Karaoke)

And so, I’m offering this simple phrase to kids from one to 92. Although it’s been said many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you.
The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)  (Karaoke)

Silent night! Holy night! All is calm! All is bright!
Silent Night  (Karaoke)

Christmas won’t be the same without you. Christmas won’t be the same if you go. You’re all I need to see, standing by my Christmas tree. ‘Cause Christmas won’t be the same without you.
Christmas Won’t be the Same Without You  (Karaoke)

Holidays are joyful, there’s always something new. But ev’ryday’s a holiday, when I’m near to you.
Merry Christmas, Darling  (Karaoke)

There’ll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting and caroling out in the snow.
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year  (Karaoke)

But I’d never steal from Santa, cause that ain’t right. So I’m going home to mail it back to him that night. But when I got home I bugged, cause under the tree, was a letter from Santa, and all the dough was for me!
Christmas in Hollis  (Karaoke)

Hark now, hear the angels sing, a King was born today.
Mary’s Boy Child  (Karaoke)

Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Let your heart be light. From now on your troubles will be out of sight.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas  (Karaoke)

Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer. Fun for all that children call, their favorite time of year.
Christmas Time is Here  (Karaoke)

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening. A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight. Walking in a winter wonderland.
Winter Wonderland  (Karaoke)

Merry Christmas, here I am, boy Gonna love you, gonna give you all I can, boy Merry Christmas, here I am, boy I’m the present and you know it, here I am, boy Merry Christmas, here I am, boy Gonna love you, gonna give you all I can, boy Merry Christmas, here I am, boy I’m the present and you know it, boy.
December Ariana Grande  (Karaoke)

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring Snowin’ and blowin’ up bushels of fun Now the jingle hop has begun.
Jingle Bell Rock Delta Goodrem  (Karaoke)

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock Jingle bell chime in jingle bell time Dancin’ and prancin’ in Jingle Bell Square In the frosty air.
Jingle Bell Rock Mean Girls (Funny video)  (Karaoke)

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, toys in ev’ry store. But the prettiest sight to see, is the holly that will be on your own front door.
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas  (Karaoke)

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy, do you hear what I hear?
Do You Hear What I Hear?  (Karaoke)

Grandma got run over by a reindeer, walking home from our Christmas eve. You can say there’s no such thing as Santa, but as for me and Grandpa, we believe.
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer  (Karaoke)

Rocking around the Christmas tree, have a happy holiday. Everyone dancing merrily, in a new old-fashioned way.
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree  (Karaoke)

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how faithful are thy branches?
O Christmas Tree  (Karaoke)

The mood is right, the spirits up. We’re here tonight and that’s enough. Simply having a wonderful Christmas time.
Wonderful Christmas Time  (Karaoke)

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a partridge in a pear tree.
12 Days of Christmas  (Karaoke)

Oh, what a laugh, it would have been, if Daddy had only seen, Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night.”
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus  (Karaoke)

I’ll have a blue Christmas without you. I’ll be so blue just thinking about you. Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree, won’t be the same dear, if you’re not hear with me.
Blue Christmas  (Karaoke)

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la. Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la.
Deck the Halls  (Karaoke)

Hark how the bells Sweet silver bells All seem to say Throw cares away Christmas is here Bringing good cheer To young and old Meek and the bold Ding-dong, ding-dong That is the song With joyful ring All caroling (Oh, oh, ah).
Carol of the Bells  (Karaoke)

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose. And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer  (Karaoke)

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King.
Joy to the World  (Karaoke)

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed. The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
Away in a Manger  (Karaoke)

Come and trim my Christmas tree, with some decorations bought at Tiffany. I really do believe in you, let’s see if you believe in me.
Santa Baby  (Karaoke)

Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King.
Joy to the World  (Karaoke)

Silver bells, silver bells, it’s Christmas time in the city. Ring-a-ling, hear them ring, soon it will be Christmas day.
Silver Bells  (Karaoke)

I really can’t stay (but baby, its’s cold outside). I’ve got to go away (but baby, it’s cold outside).
Baby It’s Cold Outside  (Karaoke)

Do they know it’s Christmastime at all? Feed the world. Feed the world.
Do They Know It’s Christmas?  (Karaoke)

Merry Christmas baby, sure do treat me nice. You bought me all those good ole presents, I love you baby, rest of my life.
Merry Christmas Baby  (Karaoke)

Happy New Year, Happy New Year May we all have a vision now and then Of a world where every neighbour is a friend Happy New Year, Happy New Year May we all have our hopes, our will to try If we don’t, we might as well lay down and die You and I
Happy New Year  Abba (Karaoke)

Read also our other posts on Christmas

Christmas songs ;

Christmas markets in England ;

Christmas markets in America ;

Christmas markets in Italy and Germany ;

Christmas quotes ;

Best songs ever ;

Entertainment ;

60 great Christmas quotes ;

Christmas tree origin and quotes ; 

Christmas jokes ;

Christmas cracker jokes ;

Christmas best humorous quotes ;

Christmas best humorous quotes ;

Traditional Christmas Carols ;

Funny Christmas Stories ;

Amusing Christmas stories ;

Christmas food ;

Christmas thoughts ;

Christmas story ;

Christmas in Italy ;

Christmas holidays ;

Christmas poems ;

An Essay on Christmas by Chesterton ;

See also the decorated complete carols page where you can also download the pdf file!

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Christmas great quotes and memorable aphorisms by The world of English, that is the English-Culture.com Blog and Carl William Brown.

The purpose and cause of the incarnation was that He might illuminate the world by His wisdom and excite it to the love of Himself.
Peter Abelard

It is a myth, not a mandate; a fable, not a logic, and symbol rather than a reason by which men are moved.
Irwin Edman

A woman spent all Christmas Day in a telephone box without ringing anyone. If someone comes to phone, she leaves the box, then resumes her place afterwards. No one calls her either, but from a window in the street, someone watched her all day, no doubt since they had nothing better to do. The Christmas syndrome.
Jean Baudrillard

Christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones. This year especially I understand why.
Queen Elizabeth II (December 2021)

What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?
Salman Rushdie

Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.
G. K. Chesterton

At Christmas we must all be more good-natured, not more stupid!
Carl William Brown

At Christmas everyone is better. It’s what happens before and after that worries me.
Lucy van Pelt (from Charles Schulz’s Peanuts)

People can’t concentrate properly on blowing other people to pieces if their minds are poisoned by thoughts suitable to the twenty-fifth of December. 
Ogden Nash

Midnight, and the clock strikes. It is Christmas Day, the werewolves birthday, the door of the solstice still wide enough open to let them all slink through.
Angela Carter

What life and death may be to a turkey is not my business; but the soul of Scrooge and the body of Cratchit are my business.
G.K. Chesterton

Whatever else be lost among the years, Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing; Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears, Let us hold close one day, remembering Its poignant meaning for the hearts of men. Let us get back our childlike faith again.
Grace Noll Crowell

The universal joy of Christmas is certainly wonderful. We ring the bells when princes are born, or toll a mournful dirge when great men pass away. Nations have their red-letter days, their carnivals and festivals, but once in the year and only once, the whole world stands still to celebrate the advent of a life. Only Jesus of Nazareth claims this world-wide, undying remembrance. You cannot cut Christmas out of the Calendar, nor out of the heart of the world.
Anonymous

Year of the Lord 2023, after 63 years this is the first Christmas without my mother who passed away last October, and I can assure you that I am heartbroken, desolate, anguished, sad, melancholy, anxious, angry, fearful and without any desire to celebrate, or to live.
Carl William Brown

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month. 
Harlan Miller

Scrooge went to the church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and for, and patted the children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of homes, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure.
Charles Dickens

Even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve. Yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age.
Terri Guillemets

Christmas is a time when you get homesick – even when you’re home. 
Carol Nelson

Any one thinking of the Holy Child as born in December would mean by it exactly what we mean by it; that Christ is not merely a summer sun of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate.
G.K. Chesterton

Christmas is just like your job. You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit.
Author Unknown

I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark
Dick Gregory

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. 
Charles Dickens

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.
Eric Sevareid

Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind.
Mary Ellen Chase

Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
Calvin Coolidge

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
Charles Dickens

Anything that inspires unselfishness makes for our ennoblement. Christmas does that. I am all for Christmas.
B.C. Forbes

I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year.
David Grayson

Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.
Washington Irving

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
Garrison Keillor

Call a truce, then, to our labors – let us feast with friends and neighbors, and be merry as the custom of our caste. For if “faint and forced the laughter,” and if sadness follow after, we are richer by one mocking Christmas past.
Rudyard Kipling

Wretched excess is an unfortunate human trait that turns a perfectly good idea such as Christmas into a frenzy of last-minute shopping.
Jon Anderson

Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, he must be a communist. And a beard and long hair, must be a pacifist. What’s in that pipe that he’s smoking?
Arlo Guthrie

Christmas itself may be called into question, If carried so far it creates indigestion.
Ralph Bergengren

Christmas is a conspiracy to make single people feel lonely.
Armistead Maupin

There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas; there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas.
Robert Lynd

Please to put a nickel, please to put a dime. How petitions trickle in at Christmas time!
Phyllis McGinley

This is the month, and this the happy morn, wherein the Son of heaven’s eternal King, of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born, our great redemption from above did bring.
John Milton

Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart … filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.
Bess Streeter Aldrich

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
Shirley Temple

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale

Christmas is a holiday that we celebrate not as individuals nor as a nation, but as a human family.
Ronald Reagan

Christmas – that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance.  It may weave a spell of nostalgia.  Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance – a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved. 
Augusta E. Rundel

Christmas gift suggestions:  To your enemy, forgiveness.  To an opponent, tolerance.  To a friend, your heart.  To a customer, service.  To all, charity.  To every child, a good example.  To yourself, respect. 
Oren Arnold

When you with velvets mantled o’er, Defy December’s tempests frore, Oh! spare one garment from your store, To clothe the poor at Christmas.
William Robert Spencer

It is the most human and kindly of seasons, as fully penetrated and irradiated with the feeling of human brotherhood, which is the essential spirit of Christianity, as the month of June with sunshine and the balmy breath of roses. 
George William Curtis

‘Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale; ‘Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man’s heart through half the year.
Walter Scott

Instead of being a time of unusual behavior, Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish.  Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a man has to be himself. 
Francis C. Farley

Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.
Dale Evans Rogers

Christ was born in the first century, yet he belongs to all centuries. He was born a Jew, yet He belongs to all races. He was born in Bethlehem, yet He belongs to all countries.
George W. Truett

God walked down the stairs of heaven with a Baby in His arms.
Paul Scherer

‘Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale; ‘twas Christmas told the merriest tale; a Christmas gambol oft could cheer the poor man’s heart through half the year.
Sir Walter Scott

It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.
Charles Dickens

Christmas is the time for looking ahead courageously through the gates of the swiftly approaching new year … of resolving that the coming months will reflect a kinder, more forgiving and less heedless person than mirrored in the past.
Ellen V. Morgan

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.
Roy L. Smith

Christmas began in the heart of God. It is complete only when it reaches the heart of man.
Author Unknown

Three phrases that sum up Christmas are:  Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men, and Batteries not Included. 
Author Unknown

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included. 
Bernard Manning

Merry Christmas! … What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented against you? If I would work my will … every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas,” on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.
Charles Dickens

Christmas begins about the first of December with an office party and ends when you finally realize what you spent, around April fifteenth of the next year. 
P.J. O’Rourke

The message of Christmas is that the visible material world is bound to the invisible spiritual world.
Author Unknown

Christmas is for children.  But it is for grown-ups too.  Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts. 
Lenora Mattingly Weber

May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace, The gladness of Christmas give you hope, The warmth of Christmas grant you love.
Author Unknown

The spirit of Christmas is always near; it shines like a beacon throughout the year. Don’t look in a store or high on a shelf, for sharing and giving are found in yourself.
Author Unknown

So stick up ivy and the bays, and then restore the heathen ways, green will remind you of the Spring, though this great day denies the thing, and mortifies the earth, and all, but your wild revels, and loose hall.
Henry Vaughan

From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.
Katharine Whitehorn

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! 
Charles Dickens

There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes.
G.K. Chesterton

Be merry all, be merry all, With holly dress the festive hall; Prepare the song, the feast, the ball, To welcome merry Christmas.
William Robert Spencer

I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Wouldn’t life be worth the living Wouldn’t dreams be coming true If we kept the Christmas spirit All the whole year through?
Author Unknown

The universal joy of Christmas is certainly wonderful.  We ring the bells when princes are born, or toll a mournful dirge when great men pass away.  Nations have their red-letter days, their carnivals and festivals, but once in the year and only once, the whole world stands still to celebrate the advent of a life. 
Author Unknown

Read also our other posts on Christmas  ;

Christmas quotes ;

60 great Christmas quotes ;

Christmas tree origin and quotes ; 

Traditional Christmas Carols ;

Christmas jokes ;

Christmas cracker jokes ;

Christmas best humorous quotes ;

Christmas food ;

Christmas thoughts ;

Christmas story ;

Christmas in Italy ;

Christmas holidays ;

Christmas songs ;

Christmas poems ;

An Essasy on Christmas by Chesterton ;

Quotes by authors

Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

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Entertainment

Halloween thoughts and poems, quotes and aphorisms by the World of English, that is English-culture.com blog and Carl William Brown

Halloween for the year 2025 is celebrated/observed on Friday, October 31st.

What the dead had no speech for, when living, They can tell you, being dead: the communication Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

For these beings, fall is ever the normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth… Such are the autumn people.
Ray Bradbury

But that’s what makes it so fun! Life is scary. So why wouldn’t we enjoy and make fun of that fear? It’s like life is trying to makes us fear it, and on this day we just mock its attempts and say ‘no, not today, today I’m not scared of anything you throw at me’.
Patricia Morais

The Harvest Moon glows round and bold, In pumpkin shades outlined in gold, Illuminating eerie forms, Unnatural as a candied corn. Beware what dare crawls up your sleeve, For ‘tis the night called Hallows Eve.”
Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes

Treats and tricks.
Witch broomsticks.
Jack-o-lanterns
Lick their lips.

Crows and cats.
Vampire bats.
Capes and fangs
And pointed hats.

Werewolves howl.
Phantoms prowl.
Halloween’s
Upon us now.

Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons

It’s Halloween,
The night we all play,
Trick or treat,
We won’t go away.
Be we ghoul or goblin, ghost,
We’ll knock on your door,
To see who scares you the most.
But cringe not in fear,
Or cry out in pain,
Cause it’s only a game,
Oh, what a shame.
But don’t despair,
In the cold night air,
Because we’ll be back,
And then you’ll be scared!
But not just one,
Or even two.
And so we bid you,
A sweet adieu.”

Anthony T.Hincks

One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.
Emily Dickinson

The jack-o-lantern follows me with tapered, glowing eyes.
His yellow teeth grin evily. His cackle I despise.
But I shall have the final laugh when Halloween is through.
This pumpkin king I’ll split in half to make a pie for two.”
Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons

Halloween shadows played upon the walls of the houses. In the sky the Halloween moon raced in and out of the clouds. The Halloween wind was blowing, not a blasting of wind but a right-sized swelling, falling, and gushing of wind. It was a lovely and exciting night, exactly the kind of night Halloween should be.”
Eleanor Estes, The Witch Family

‘Tis the night — the night
Of the grave’s delight,
And the warlocks are at their play;
Ye think that without
The wild winds shout,
But no, it is they — it is they.

Arthur Cleveland Coxe

A gypsy fire is on the hearth,
Sign of the carnival of mirth;
Through the dun fields and from the glade
Flash merry folk in masquerade,
For this is Hallowe’en!

Unknown Author

Download the pdf file about Halloween History

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100 famous proverbs, a list of 100 most used and famous proverbs, with a large introduction on their use, starting from John Florio up to our days, edited for the World of English blog by Carl William Brown, a sincere literary avenger. (Find out more about him on Amazon).

Chinese people visit this blog very often, but I earn neither a cent from China. Call it under-consumption core, call it frugality, call it “proudly stingy”, but you could at least offer me a coffee. 

Proverbs where largely collected and used by my old friend John Florio, but of course they were created and employed much earlier from a lot of other different writers all around the world. John Florio was a teacher, an interpreter, a grammarian, a translator, a lexicographer, a writer, a journalist, and a poet. I wrote something about him in my book on William Shakespeare’s genial aphorisms, so if you want to find out more you can download it for free. He was the son of an Italian Protestant exile, Florio (1553-1625) and became one of the most cultured and educated man in Elizabethan England during Shakespeare’s time.

Florio made the development of modern English language his primary mission. Firstly, he became tutor of Italian language to John Lyly and Stephen Gosson and many other writers, then with the accession of James I John Florio obtained a promotion and began a new life at court first becoming reader in Italian to Queen Anne and a year later Gentleman Extraordinary and Groom of the Privy Chamber to the King. In addition to his attendance on the Queen, John Florio was also tutor in Italian and French to Prince Henry at court. He probably supplemented his income also by serving as a minor cog in Sir Francis Walsingham’s vast machinery of state espionage. His dictionary, which by its 1611 edition contained over 70,000 entries, therefore more than the Italian dictionary of The Crusca Accademy published in 1612, catered for both the potential visitor to Italy and the reader who wished to read Italian books, now being imported to England in large numbers.

When we quote John Lyly we have to remember “Euphuism” that is a peculiar mannered style of English prose and it takes its name from a prose romance by this author. It consists of a preciously ornate and sophisticated style, employing a deliberate excess of literary devices such as antitheses, alliterations, repetitions and rhetorical questions. Classical learning and remote knowledge of all kinds are displayed. Euphuism was fashionable in the 1580s, especially in the Elizabethan court. Contents “Euphues” is the Greek for “graceful, witty”. John Lyly published the works Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and Euphues and his England (1580). Both works illustrated the intellectual fashions and favourite themes of Renaissance society – in a highly artificial and mannered style. The plots are unimportant, existing merely as structural elements on which to display conversations, discourses and letters mostly concerning the subject of love. Its essential features had already appeared in such works as George Pettie’s A Petite Pallace of Pettie his pleasure (1576), in sermon literature, and Latin tracts. Lyly perfected the distinctive rhetorical devices on which the style was based.

Florio probably knew Shakespeare; literary London was a small circle, they shared patrons in the Earls of Pembroke and Southampton and Love’s labour’s lost and The tempest both contain passages indicating a familiarity with some of Florio’s other published works. That Shakespeare shared the contemporary interest in all Italian things is suggested by the large number of his plays which are set wholly or partly in Italy, but that Shakespeare was in fact Florio, a theory first advanced in 1927 by the Italian journalist Santi Paladino in a fascist literary magazine, L’impero, is, to say the least, unlikely for many reasons; but the dispute and the research on this field is gathering always more interesting facts and information all around the world, even though as William would say, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” Anyway this is a real mistery, as the life of the great national bard of England.

Giovanni Florio, known as John Florio, is anyway recognized as the most important humanist in Renaissance’s England, the author who translated Michel de Montaigne’s Essais into English. When he arrived in London at 18 years old, John Florio found a job as dyer for the Venetian merchant Gaspare Gatti. His passion for literature and writing lead him, seven years later his arrival in London, to publish his first work, First Fruits, a bilingual language lesson manual structured in dramatic dialogues, where he showed that he was able to combine his love for literature, proverbs and poetry, with language teaching, explaining in this way mankind’s debt to literature and to great writers.

This work is particularly interesting as an expression of Florio’s observations and opinions on various aspects of London life at the time, making this book one of the most interesting of the Elizabethan language lesson textbooks. So, with First Fruits, John Florio left the job as dyer and officially began a new career as a language teacher, writer and translator, while having contacts at the same time with actors, writers, theatre businessmen and court men. In his own words we can read: “Firste Fruites which yeelde familiar speech, merie prouerbes, wittie sentences, and golden sayings. Also a perfect induction to the Italian, and English tongues, as in the table appeareth. The like heretofore, neuer by any man published (1578).

Second Fruits publication appeared 13 years later the first one and even contains dialogues about sonnets and poems themes that other language lesson books never dared to include, and of course proverbs, in fact he wrote: “To use them (proverbs) is a grace, to understand them a good, but to gather them a paine to me, though game to thee. I, but for all that I must not scope without some new flout: now would I were by thee to give thee another, and surely I would give thee bread for cake. Farewell if thou meane well; els fare as ill, as thou wishest me to fare.” It is true that proverbs were a usual feature of most Elizabethan language teaching books, and they were also employed in drama writing and theatre playings, but in no manual did they play such an important part as in the Second Fruits.

The proverbs of the book are, in fact, intertwined with those published in a corollary work by Florio, the Giardino di Ricreatione: six thousands Italian proverbs, without their English translations, one of the most important of the earlier collections of this kind. “Proverbs are the pith, the properties, the proofes, the purities, the elegancies, as the commonest so the commendablest phrases of a language.” Florio endeavored particularly “to finde matter to declare those Italian wordes & phrases, that never yett saw Albions cliffes.” Yet, the proverbs used in the Second Fruits seem to have been especially selected as those which could be transported from the Italian to the English without strain or loss of meaning. But in this book Florio also devoted an entire chapter to a discussion of “newes”, “devices”, “tales”, written reports, printed “letters”, rumors, and scandal; so we can say that The Second Fruits might also be considered as one of the earliest pieces of journalism written in England.

Talking about the use of proverbs in language teaching nowadays, we can say that they play a great part in gaining cultural knowledge, metaphorical understanding and communicative competence. Proverbs are a part of every language as well as every culture. They have been used to spread knowledge, wisdom and truths about life from ancient times up until now. They have been considered an important part of the fostering of children, as they signal moral values and exhort common behaviour. Proverbs belong to the traditional verbal folklore genres and the wisdom of proverbs has been guidance for people worldwide in their social interaction throughout the ages. Proverbs are concise, easy to remember and useful in every situation in life due to their content of everyday experiences.

Since a proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation, many scholars think that they should be used in teaching as didactic tools because of their content of educational wisdom. When it comes to foreign language learning, proverbs play a role in the teaching as a part of cultural and metaphorical learning. Linguists also claim that the use of proverbs in the teaching of English as a second or foreign language is important for the learners’ ability to communicate effectively.

What’s more proverbs “stick in the mind”, “build up vocabulary”, “illustrate admirably the phraseology and idiomatic expressions of the foreign tongue”, “contribute gradually to a surer feeling for the foreign tongue” and proverbs “consume very little time”. It was also said that proverbs are not only melodic and witty, possessed with rhythm and imagery; proverbs also reflect “patterns of thought”. As proverbs are universal, there are analogous proverbs in different nations that have related cultural patterns. Proverbs are therefore useful in the students’ discussions of cultural ideas when they compare the proverbs equivalents in different languages.

But as the experience shows the incorporation of proverbs in the foreign language classroom is rare. When proverbs are included, they are often used as time fillers and not integrated into a context. The proverbs that are used are often randomly picked from dictionaries, which often include archaic proverbs and new proverbs might therefore be missed. The suitability of proverbs in teaching is due to their form; they are pithy and easy to learn, they often rhyme and contain repetition figures like alliteration and assonance. Some scholars propose the use of proverbs in a range of areas within language teaching: grammar and syntax, phonetics, vocabulary development, culture, reading, speaking and writing. They state that proverbs, besides being an important part of culture, also are an important tool for effective communication and for the comprehension of different spoken and written discourses.

Obviously proverbs change with time and culture. Some old proverbs are not in use any longer because they reflect a culture that no longer exists, e.g. Let the cobbler stick to his last, which has vanished more or less, because the profession of the cobbler nowadays is rare. However, new proverbs that reflect the contemporary society are created instead, e.g. Garbage in, garbage out, a proverb created due to our computerized time. Old proverbs are also used as so called anti-proverbs today, i.e. “parodied, twisted, or fractured proverbs that reveal humorous or satirical speech play with traditional proverbial wisdom”. One example is Nobody is perfect, which as an anti-proverb is changed to No body is perfect.

Anyway working with proverbs and sayings during the lessons not only helps to diversify educational process and to make it brighter and interesting. Moreover it helps to solve a number of very important educational problems: proverbs in the classroom can improve students’ learning experiences, their language skills, and their understanding of themselves and the world in general.

This happens because proverbs provide opportunities for students to learn a lot of different things about each other and their shared values, human experiences and cultures, the world of linguistic rhetoric figures, since they are full of metaphors, rhymes, puns, irony, humor, definitions, and so on, all seasoned with a strong moral wisdom and an old and proved useful common sense. That’s why now I report in this quite dense article a list of the most used and famous English proverbs, selected by my large collection, that can naturally be used for language teaching and thinking learning as well.

1. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

2. A little learning is a dangerous thing.

3. A rolling stone gather no moss.

4. A stitch in time saves nine.

5. All is well that ends well.

6. All good roads lead to Rome.

7. Beauty is only skin deep.

8. Birds of a feather flock together.

9. A cat has nine lives.

10. The early bird catches the worm.

11. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

12. Every dog has its day.

13. First come first served.

14. Honesty is the best policy.

15. Actions speak louder than words.

16. Haste makes waste.

17. It is no use crying over spilt milk.

18. Necessity is the mother of invention.

19. No news is good news.

20. Out of sight, out of mind.

21. Rome was not build in a day.

22. Practice makes perfect.

23. Spare the rod, spoil the child.

24. The pen is mightier than the sword.

25. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

26. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

27. Among the blind a one-eyed man is the king.

28. Cash is the king.

29. Strike while the iron is hot.

30. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

31. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

32. Still waters run deep.

33. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

34. Many hands make light work.

35. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

36. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

37. Make hay while the sun shines.

38. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

39. Better late than never.

40. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

41. Ignorance is bliss.

42. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

43. The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest.

44. If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

45. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

46. It takes two to tango.

47. It’s the tip of the iceberg.

48. Don’t cross the bridge until you come to it.

49. Curiosity killed the cat.

50. Every cloud has a silver lining.

51. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

52. Money doesn’t grow on trees.

53. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

54. The cat is out of the bag.

55. You made your bed, now you have to lie in it.

56. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

57. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

58. Always put your best foot forward.

59. Look before you leap.

60. Be good and if you can’t be good, be careful.

61. Easy come, easy go.

62. Between the devil and the deep blue sea.

63. Don’t make a mountain out of an anthill.

64. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

65. After the feast comes the reckoning.

66. All that glitters is not gold.

67. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

68. Bad news travels fast.

69. Barking dogs seldom bite.

70. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

71. Beggars can’t be choosers.

72. The best things in life are free.

73. Better a live coward than a dead hero.

74. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

75. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

76. Blood is thicker than water.

77. Charity begins at home.

78. Clothes do not make the man.

79. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today.

80. Don’t put the cart before the horse.

81. Familiarity breeds contempt.

82. The first step is always the hardest.

83. A friend who shares is a friend who cares.

84. He who hesitates is lost.

85. He who laughs last, laughs best.

86. If you can’t beat them, join them.

87. In unity there is strength.

88. A leopard cannot change its spots.

89. Love is blind.

90. Love makes the world go round.

91. Abundance, like want, ruins many.

92. Laws catch flies, but let hornets go free

93. A man without money is no man at all.

94. Art has no enemy but ignorance.

95. If you cannot bite, never show your teeth.

96. Look not a gift horse in the mouth.

97. A good name is sooner lost than won.

98. A heavy purse makes a light heart.

99. A hungry man is an angry man.

100. A Joke never gains an enemy but often loses a friend.

Proverbs Quiz Test 1

Proverbs Quiz Test 2

Proverbs Quiz Test 3

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