Christmas in Britain is wonderful, much 1) BETTER than Christmas in America.
In America, Thanksgiving is probably the best holiday. It is great because you don’t have to give gifts or send cards or do anything but eat.
The trouble is that it comes 2) LESS than a month before Christmas. So when on 25 December Mom brings out another turkey, you don’t say, “Turkey! YIPPEEE!” but, “Ah, it 3) IS turkey again, isn’t it, Mother?”
Most Americans think that Thanksgiving 4) HAS BEEN HELD on the last Thursday of November since ancient times. They think that it 5) HAS BEEN GOING on ever since.
Thanksgiving 6) IS THOUGHT to be wonderful for all kinds of reasons.
While in Britain the Christmas shopping season seems 7) TO START after the August bank holiday, Christmas mania doesn’t traditionally begin in America until the last weekends in November.
Moreover, Thanksgiving is a holiday without 8) SENDING greetings cards or decorations. On Thanksgiving you sit at a table and then go and watch a game of American football on TV.
But there is one thing I miss about England. It’s Boxing Day. In America there is no Boxing Day. On 26 December everybody goes to work.
If there 9) WERE one thing I could take from England, it would be Boxing Day.
2 won't have increased
3 will go
4 will increase
5 will have restored