How do you like to spend Christmas?

Christmas is and also has always been my most favorite holiday. This is because I have a lot of great memories of spending the Christmas holidays together with family. I am originally from the American city of Detroit in the state of Michigan. This is also the city in which I was born. During Christmas, the city of Detroit is like a “winter wonderland”. What is a winter wonderland you may ask? A winter wonderland is the typical type of scenery one would expect to see in northern regions consisting of snow-covered roads and trees in addition to festive, seasonal lights illuminating the outdoors. Another reason I love this time of year is because a great deal of people in town also decorate their homes as well as yards with Christmas displays and lights. This always looks very beautiful.

In Detroit, there is also an event called the Wayne County Lightfest. In this event people can drive their cars through a very large park in the city. The park is also quite extensively illuminated as well as lit up with Christmas lights.

Another thing I like to do during the Christmas season is to actually go to church. I think this is an enjoyable and also fun part of Christmas regardless of whether or not you are a religious person. In my case, I don’t often go to church at other times of the year, but in my experience I think Christmas is quite different. I think it’s actually rather quite similar to how Japanese people will visit a Shinto shrine at the end of the year or during the New Year’s holiday. Going to church for Christmas, more than being about the religious-aspect I think is a chance to connect with the local community at a very harmonious and jovial time of the year. I think you can really feel just what the Christmas spirit is like. You can experience people together singing traditional, customary Christmas songs such as “Silent Night”, “Little drummer boy” and so on. In addition to this, there will often be a plethora of traditional Christmas-related decorations to look at such as wreaths, ornaments and so on. You can also see many cheerful and friendly people dressed up and smiling joyfully.

An additional thing I liked doing during the Christmas season, especially when I was a child, was going shopping with my parents. Similar to large cities in Japan such as Tokyo and Osaka, there used to be several large department stores in downtown Detroit. These department stores have recently been phased-out and replaced by large shopping malls. However, they always had large events and sales during the time of year around the Christmas holidays. There would be huge crowds of people as well as large Christmas displays in addition to people dressed up in Christmas costumes such as Santa and his elves.

Luis

Vocabulary

extensively (adverb) – a great deal; a large amount

illuminate (verb) – to shine light on (something)

jovial (adjective) – full of happiness and joy

plethora (noun) – a very large amount or number

wreath (noun) – an arrangement of leaves, flowers, fruits, etc., in the shape of a circle that is used for decoration

phase out (phrasal verb) – to cease or stop operation of over time; to close