介紹聖誕老人
美妙的節日聖誕節馬上就要到來之際讓我們一起去了解一下這個節日吧!以下就是介紹聖誕老人的的英語閲讀，供你閲讀參考。
santa claus is someone who will remain in the heartsof children forever. he is the make-believe personwho brings toys and other gifts to children atchristmas.
to grown-ups, he is a special symbol of goodwilland selfless giving. santa claus also has some other names: saint nicholas, st. nick, kriskringle, pelznickel.
two of his names -- santa claus and saint nicholas -- both come from the dutch who settledin new york long ago. the dutch believed saint nikolas gave gifts to children. they honored thiskindly saint with a yearly festival on december sixth.
the english-speaking people who lived nearby greatly enjoyed dutch festivals. and theybrought the saint and the custom of giving gifts into their own celebration at christmas dutch spoke the name "saint nikolaas" very fast. it sounded like "sinterklaas." and so,when the english said this word, it sounded like santa claus.
west of new york, in pennsylvania, many german farmers had also heard of saint nikolas. butthey called him pelznickel. this word came from "pelz," meaning fur, and "nickel" for so, to the germans of pennsylvania, saint nicholas or pelznickel was a man dressed in furwho came once a year with gifts for good children.
soon, people began to feel that the love and kindness pelznickel brought should be part of acelebration honoring the christkindl, as the germans called the christ child. after a time, thisbecame kris kringle. later, kris kringle became another name for santa claus himself.
whatever he is called, he is still the same short, fat, jolly old man with a long beard, wearing ared suit with white fur.
the picture of santa claus as we see him came from thomas nast. he was an american painterborn in bavaria. he painted pictures for christmas poems. someone asked him to paint apicture of santa claus. nast remembered when he was a little boy in southern germany. everychristmas, a fat old man gave toys and cakes to the children. so, when nast painted thepicture, his santa claus looked like the kindly old man of his childhood.
and through the years, nast's painting has remained as the most popular picture of santaclaus.
santa can be seen almost everywhere in large american cities during the christmas stand on street corners asking for money to buy food and gifts for the needy. others arefound in stores and shopping centers. it is easy to find them by the long lines of childrenwaiting to tell santa what they want for christmas. if one took a vote among children to learnwho their favorite person was, there is no question who would win -- santa claus.
聖誕老人是孩子們心中永遠銘記的人物。他讓孩子們相信，聖誕節之日他會為帶來玩具或其他禮物。
對於大人們來説，聖誕老人象徵着美好的願望以及無私的給予。人們還把聖誕老人叫做：聖尼古拉斯、聖尼克、克里斯•柯林格勒和佩爾茲尼克爾。
聖誕老人和聖尼古拉斯這兩個名字起源於很久以早居住在紐約的荷蘭人，他們認為是聖尼古拉斯給孩子們送禮物的，因此在每年12月6日共同歡度節日來記念這位善良的聖徒。
住在這些荷蘭人附近的説英語的人們也一起歡度這個節目。並且他們也將聖徒的傳説和送禮物的習俗一併納入了自己慶祝聖誕的方式之中。荷蘭人説聖尼古拉斯時速度非常快，聽起來象“聖尼克”。而這些英國人發這個音的時候，聽起來就象“聖誕老人”。
在賓夕法尼亞州的紐約西部地區，許多德國農民也聽説了聖尼古拉斯。但是他們稱他為佩爾茲尼克爾。這種叫法來源於"pelz,"意思是皮毛，再加上代替尼古拉斯發音的"nickel"。同時，對這些賓夕法尼亞州的德國人來説，聖尼古拉斯或者佩爾茲尼克爾是帶着送給好孩子的禮物每年降臨世間一次的穿着毛皮大衣的人。
很快，人們意識到佩爾茲尼克爾帶來的愛心和善意應當融入到christkindl的慶祝節目中(德國人稱之為幼年基督)。過了一段時間，這一節目被稱為kris kringle。再後來，kris kringle就成為聖誕老人的另一個名字。
不論被叫做什麼，他始終就是同一位穿着帶毛的紅色衣服的矮矮胖胖、喜氣洋洋、長鬍子老人。
我們現在看到的聖誕老人的樣子是那思特創造的。他是位美國畫家，出生於巴伐利亞州。他為聖誕詩附畫，有人請他畫聖誕老人的圖畫。那思特便回憶起他在德國南部的童年生活，那時，每次聖誕節，一個胖胖的老爺爺都會給孩子們送來玩具和蛋糕。因此，他畫出的聖誕老人看起來就是他童年時代那位和藹可親的老人的樣子。
這麼多年以來，那思特的聖誕老人畫一直最受人們喜歡。
在整個聖誕季，美國的各大城市隨處可見聖誕的身影。有些站在街角募捐些錢，來為窮人買食物和禮物。還有的聖誕老人出現在各大商店和購物中心，在這些地方，很容易找到他們，因為孩子們都排着長隊要告訴他，他們想要什麼聖誕禮物呢。如果我們在孩子們中間做一個最喜愛人物的投票，毫無疑問，聖誕老人必定當選。