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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"This is a fantastic opportunity for our students!  I'm sure Spellzone will be invaluable in helping them to improve their spellings and therefore improve the quality of their writing in all subject areas!"

Teacher, High School, UK