Tis the Season for Christmassy Idioms

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This year, to get us in the festive spirit, we’ve made a list of all the Chritmassy expressions we could come up with – can you think of any others?

  • a grinch – a grumpy and mean-spirted person
  • a white Christmas – a snowy Christmas
  • all the trimmings – all the traditional accompaniments (usually used in reference to a meal)
  • Bah humbug! – a phrase used to express grumpiness and disdain for Christmas
  • Boxing Day – the day after Christmas (which is a public holiday in Britain)
  • Christmas comes but once a year – since Christmas is celebrated only one time a year,we should make the most of the occasion (this expression is either used to persuade people to help those in need or to persuade people to indulge on food and treats)
  • don’t get your tinsel in a tangle – don’t stress yourself out by trying to make Christmas perfect
  • don’t look a gift horse in the mouth – don’t find fault in something that has been given to you as a gift
  • good things come in small packages – a present doesn’t need to be big in order to be good
  • it’s the thought that counts – the kindness behind an act is what’s important even if the act itself is considered imperfect
  • like turkeys voting for (an early) Christmas – an expression used to describe a particularly self-defeating action or decision
  • the more the merrier – the more people or things involved the better an occasion will be
  • the proof of the pudding – the real value of something cannot be judged by its appearance or the theory behind it but must instead be judged on experience or results
  • to deck the halls – to festively decorate your home
  • to quit cold turkey – to abruptly and completely give something up
  • to trim the tree – to decorate the tree
  • trimmings – decorations

If you enjoyed this post, why not check out our other articles about idioms?

From all the team at Spellzone, we hope you have a lovely Christmas and New Year!


24 Dec 2016
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One of the students has put in a huge amount of effort in completing Spellzone at least 3 times a week since his arrival with us in January. Looking at his scores after the latest GL testing, his standardised score has risen from 99 to 131. This is a truly phenomenal result. I just wanted to share the best result I have ever seen.

Terrie Penrose-Toms, Casterton College

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