Telling a story about Father Christmas Skills building

Telling a story about Father Christmas

Skills building 1: finding information about a legendary person

What does the word legend mean? Legend refers to the traditional story of a famous person or an event. Some of the stories can be true. However, most of the stories are unreal, mythical or even supernatural.

Can you give an example of a legend? There a lot of traditional Chinese legendary stories, such as Pangu cutting open heaven and earth or Nuwa patching the sky with five-colour stones.

Who do you think are legendary persons? The people in legendary stories, such as Pangu, Nuwa, Father Christmas, are legendary persons.

Step 1 taking notes about Father Christmas

You will first listen to a TV programme about Father Christmas and take some notes about this legendary person. Then you will read a web page about St Nicholas to learn more about Father Christmas.

Finish Part A after you listen to the first and second recordings. Father Christmas What he looks like a happy, (1) _____ fat man with white long _____ hair and a long white beard, dressed in a red suit (3) _____ with a (4) _____ black belt and the same colour boots

Where he lives North near the (5) _____ Pole Who his friends are toys elves: help make (6) _____ 12 reindeer: (7) _____ in number help (8) _____ the presents deliver

What he does goes down chimneys and places presents in stockings, in (9) _____ tree front of the Christmas (10) _____ bed by children’s (11) _____ or by the fireplace

The food he likes pies sweet mince (12) _____ Interesting facts was usually drawn wearing green (13) _____ before a famous advertisement used a picture of 1931 him wearing red in (14) _____

Read the passage in Part B and then answer the following questions: 1. Where did St Nicholas come from? St Nicholas came from a village called Myra in Turkey. 2. Why is Father Christmas modelled after him? Because he was very kind and generous especially to young people.

3. What is the origin of Father Christmas coming down the chimney? St Nicholas threw small bags of gold down the chimney to help the three daughters in a poor family get married. 4. What does St Nicholas look like? One of his bags of gold fell into a stocking hanging up to dry over the fireplace.

Skills building 2: asking questions about cultural differences

Is Father Christmas the same in every Western country? What is Father Christmas called in each country? Which custom about Christmas is different in each country? How is Father Christmas different in each country?

Do people in Western countries all send presents to other before or on Christmas Day? What presents do they usually send to each other? What do people usually eat on Christmas?

Step 2: finding out about different Christmas traditions Work in pairs to talk about different Christmas traditions in different countries by using some pictures of different Father Christmas from different countries.

Germany Christmas Man

Russia Father Frost or Grandfather Frost

France Father Christmas

Sweden Christmas Brownie

Netherlands Santa Claus

USA UK Father Christmas Santa Claus

Skills building 3: writing a story about a legendary figure

Make some sentences to begin a story by using the sentence structures given here. The following questions may help you. What can we say if we want to describe the identity of a legendary figure? He is Father Christmas, who travels from house to house and sends gifts to children on Christmas Eve.

What does he look like? He is an old man with white hair and a long, white beard and moustache. What are the different aspects of his character? He is very kind and happy. He loves children and helps their dreams come true.

What does he do? On Christmas Eve, he puts all the presents onto his sled and flies across the sky. He goes down the chimney and places presents in stockings for children. Who is Father Christmas based on? It is said that he is based on St Nicholas, the bishop of a village called Myra in Turkey over 1, 600 years ago.

Is there anything else that is interesting about Father Christmas? Yes. In Germany, people call him Christmas Man, while in Sweden, people call him Christmas Brownie, and in the Netherlands and the USA, people call him Santa Claus.

1. name: noun <1> [C] the word or words that a person, thing or place is known by: 远处那座山的山名是什么? What's the name of that mountain in the distance? <2> [C usually singular] the opinion or reputation that someone or something has:

他们正在尽力恢复生产厂家的好名声。 They're trying to restore the good name of the manufacturer. verb [T] <1> to give someone or something a name: 一个名叫丹尼斯的男子应声开门。 A man named Dennis answered the door.

<2> to say what something or someone's name is: 在第一个问题里, 你必须说出三类猴子的名称。 In the first question you had to name three types of monkey. 2. provide: verb [T] to give someone something that they need: