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HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our special Christmas programtoday, we play some Christmas music by Brooks and Dunn…we answer alistener’s question about how Americans celebrate Christmas … and,report about the one-hundredth anniversary of a popular Americantoy.
Teddy Bear Anniversary
Americans give and receive many gifts during the holiday season.One gift for children has remained popular for many years. It is theteddy bear. Shep O’Neal explains.
ANNCR:
The American-made teddy bearcelebrated its one-hundredth anniversary last month. In November,nineteen-oh-two, President Theodore Roosevelt made news when herefused to shoot a young bear while on a hunting trip. A cartoon ofthe incident appeared in newspapers.
Morris and Rose Michtom of New York City saw the report and madea small bear from a piece of cloth. They called it Teddy’s Bear andput it in the window of their store. Soon, the huge public demandfor the bears helped their store expand into the Ideal Novelty andToy Company. At the same time, the Steiff toy company in Germany wasmaking toy bears for sale. The company also called them Teddy’sbears.
An American toy company official saw the bears in Leipzig innineteen-oh-three and ordered several thousand to sell in the UnitedStates. Soon, the popularity of these bears spread around the world,and the toys became known as teddy bears. And they have been popularever since. Some experts say the teddy bear is the most popular toyever produced.
Mental health experts say teddy bears represent good things aboutpeople. Children love to play with them and even talk to them. Theseexperts say that teddy bears can help children who have been hurt orscared. Some American police departments keep teddy bears in theirpolice cars. Officers give them to children who have suffered inaccidents or fires.
One American group sends teddy bears to needy children around theworld. Operation Teddy Care was started in nineteen-ninety-five byBarbara Moran and her husband Bob Baker. They asked people in theircity, San Francisco, California, to give bears to send to thechildren in Kobe, Japan after the huge earthquake there.
A local newspaper and radio station did stories about theirappeal. Operation Teddy Care sent ten-thousand bears to Japan. Thegroup has also sent teddy bears to children in areas of conflict inEurope.
Teddy bears are not only popular with children. Adults love themtoo. Some people collect them and will pay a lot of money for them.What is the most money ever spent on a teddy bear? Innineteen-ninety-four, someone paid one-hundred-eighty-thousanddollars for a historic bear produced by the Steiff company innineteen-oh-six.
Celebrating Christmas
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mongolia. AmarkuuAyulguisaikhan asks how Americans celebrate Christmas. Christmas Dayis December twenty-fifth. But Americans who celebrate the holidaybegin preparing long before that. They buy gifts for their familiesand friends. Many make their homes look special for Christmas. Theyput colorful lights in the windows and on the outside of theirhouses. They put branches from evergreen trees on the doors andtables. Almost every home where Americans celebrate Christmas hasone important decoration – a Christmas tree. Some people cut down anevergreen tree themselves. Others buy one already cut. They put thetree inside the house. Then they cover it with lights and smallobjects made of glass, metal, paper or wood.
Tradition says that a kind old mancalled Santa Claus travels to every house on the night beforeChristmas. He leaves gifts of toys and clothing for the children.Family members leave gifts covered with pretty paper for each otherunder the tree. Some Americans open their gifts the night beforeChristmas. Others wait until Christmas morning. They may go tochurch or visit friends and other family members. They may eat aspecial holiday meal. Or they may take part in holiday activitiesfor sick or homeless people.
Christians celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus. Americansof other religions generally do not celebrate Christmas. However,many send holiday cards or gifts to their Christian friends. SomeAmericans do not observe Christmas as a religious holiday, but theydecorate their homes with lights and a tree. Whatever Americans doat this time of the year, they usually wish each other “MerryChristmas” and “Happy Holidays”.
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Brooks and Dunn Christmas Album HOST:
Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are the members of one of the mostpopular country music groups performing today. Brooks and Dunn havesold more than twenty-million record albums and have had at leasteighteen hit records. This year, the group released a special albumof Christmas music. Mary Tillotson has more.
ANNCR:
The new Brooks and Dunn Christmas album is called “It Won’t BeChristmas Without You.” It includes eleven songs about the winterholiday. One example is this famous song, “White Christmas.”
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Brooks and Dunn include some new holiday songs on their album.One of these is sung by Kix Brooks, “Santa’s Coming Over to YourHouse.”
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Most of the songs on the new Brooks and Dunn Christmas album aretraditional. We leave you now as Ronnie Dunn sings one of thesesongs. Some people know it as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.”Others call it “The Christmas Song.”
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HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special Christmasprogram today. And I hope you will join us again next week forAMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Ourstudio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was PaulThompson.