Trivia of the Week: Christmas Lights

One traditional Christmas activity is getting the Christmas lights out of a box in the attic and untangling them. Sometimes one light is loose or broken, and none of the lights will light up until it is found and fixed!...

Idiom of the Week: Father Figure

“I used to get extra help from my science teacher after school. I would talk to him about my problems, and I learned more from him than just science. He was a real father figure for me.” A father figure is a man who is not your father (including other male relatives),...

Word of the Week: Nutcracker

Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite is classical music that tells a famous Christmas story. A girl receives a nutcracker shaped like a soldier and goes on a magical journey. Lyrics have been set to all the songs, telling the story about landscapes of candy and armies of...

Picture of the Week: Reindeer

Reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh. There used to be eight reindeer, but they were joined by Rudolph, so now there are nine. Santa’s reindeer are special because they can fly through magic....

Phrase of the Week: Do Not Open Until Xmas

Label on a package: “Do not open until Xmas” This label appears on a package containing a Christmas gift. In writing, we often see “Xmas” instead of “Christmas”. X looks like the first letter in the word “Christ” when written in Greek, so it is an old abbreviation of...