Siobhan Thompson, host of the BBC America series Anglophenia, compiled this humorous look at British Christmas traditions that "never made it to America." Although the fun of Christmas crackers is pretty common in the U.S., at least in my experience. I often see them for sale in stores, and my family has been popping them and putting on the silly hats for years now. What's your take on the British Christmas traditions highlighted in the video? -Via Laughing Squid
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The last several years we have had the Doctor Who Christmas invasion as part of our tradition so we have sat through the Queen's speech as well.
Last year, my SIL brought crackers to the family gathering. POP, confetti, funny hats -it was almost like New Years Eve.
And the only time I've bumped into people do something similar, both on a camera and for a written survey, they seemed to not have the greatest scruples/work ethic/understanding of what they were doing. They wanted to asked if I knew who my senator and representative was, or who was the Lt. governor. The problem was both times I was on a trip out of the state I live in, but neither surveyor seemed to care. When I told them who was "my" representative, they marked it as wrong one the written survey (the video one I didn't bother sticking around for). I also saw them pestering foreign tourists to answer their questions too.
That said, a lot of people I've met from countries other than the US asked why people and education in the US is so obsessed with history, and talked of how wars and history before the 20th century was rarely covered in their schools, as civics and contemporary issues were more valued. This varies a lot from country to country, but for some they don't see videos like this as a big deal (at least without being told that some of this should have been in just about every student's curriculum at some point).
Besides, they don't need to know any "common man" items/issues, they're *all* going to be wildly rich and famous and not have to deal with "normal" life when they grow up.