How's this for an unusual Christmas dinner? The menu is from a five-star restaurant and made by a world-famous chef. Then it is put in a tin and heated up in a microwave oven. It sounds strange but that is what will happen now on board the ISS (International Space Station). They came up with the idea as a way to celebrate special occasions, such as the arrival of a new crew member, a birthday or Christmas. As a new crew member has just arrived, a couple of weeks before Christmas, there will probably be two celebrations now.

Most people spend Christmas with their families but some people don't. I remember in my first job I was working in a hostel for the homeless. We were all on duty on Christmas Day, although some of us had the day off on Boxing Day while others had New Year's Eve free. Ten years ago I was actually teaching English on the twenty-fifth. This is because in Russia Christmas is celebrated in January (as it is all over the Orthodox world). I personally don't celebrate Christmas so it doesn't make any real difference to me. The one seasonal thing I will be doing this time is cooking. My plan is to try to make all twelve of the traditional Polish dishes, which I have never done before.

Most army barracks in Britain have a role-reversal tradition on this one day of the year. That means that the superior officers (the commanders, who normally give orders) swap places with the soldiers and take orders instead. This means they serve them dinner, get them drinks and don't have to be called 'Sergeant'. They make a few jokes back to them such as 'Yeah, yeah. Remember, this all ends at midnight tonight, so enjoy it while it lasts!'

Prisons often make a change to their regime by letting the inmates out of their cells for the day. They are still in the building (although some let them home for a couple of days or even a week) but in one hall playing Monopoly or other board games. There's always a sarcastic comment when someone picks up the Chance card that says 'Go to jail'!

Finally, not so much strange but different when compared with Poland, there are millions of people celebrating Christmas in Australia. As this is in the southern hemisphere, the festival takes place in the middle of summer. Rather than spend all the day at home, sitting in front of a fire and roasting chestnuts, most families go to the beach in the afternoon. One of their traditional dishes is Pavlova, which I'll get round to learning to make one day. In the meantime, I've got a bit of Polish cookery to learn.

Happy Christmas.

On this much larger wordsearch there are four places that traditionally have a lot of people in them around Christmas. How many can you find? There are also four types of Christmas decorations, and four things you can find on Christmas cards.

I I N B V M B P F U K C B E K V V C W H N F B H A K Z M U J

I Q A A T O S M T S H A Q U C I U A W N A H P B J K U X R D

D Q Q E F Y F X T F S T V D C G Q B C O D N A A F M U D D F

D M H M K T I A A K T N G T H Y P Z R H R P G R C W Z W P P

K E G E J N O N E W H A O O U E N C F I Z Q K U X A B X O K

D F F T J V I V A O G R N W R W O C S K C L B J N J T E K W

Y Q H X G V N A V T I U R I C P B H C S T A S Z B H N V R D

H H R V S L V Y H A L A C O H B Y J E G K Y U M O F F B S F

W I C X R O B I N C Y T Z T D V O L L D V T H R N Z V K G H

W G U Z Q E Y C Q Q R S W Z E E E A K N R H T H F A O B K K

U H N Y T E H W L T I E D V I G M L W N V Q X X O G U D M S

B S W W A I Y T W K A R P P N S P O J V Y N T C B R E O W Z

F T S Y L P N D C P F L M A J B N E E H U M V R B U R A O B

F R B D X T A S Y N I I B A P J Q D D L M N M C R V C X S T

S E R O T S T N E M T R A P E D B H C T B I D D N D F S Q Q

O E Q K C H G J C L X A R N Q V G C O N C W J R F I Z L K G

N T W D P H B L C R B F I P X V C V Y W O W T R O T U Z U X

X E V H O Z H N E G L U L T B X P S Z U K H R U G N V U Y H

C S N X K I B L T S X A A U R G N Y N T I Z C I U F B S E Q

I Q R V X N C J Z Q D J Y B D Q H F N H C S L N N C O S R X

T L T D R E K Y H G R U Y X X N O T L B B J Q Z C C G T Y K

D V S D W G Z C X I F D Z V W B P Z R F X F W Z R W D T V D

J C V K B A P T M T O Q S O Z C I X P V U T I U U M L Y Y J

X H V C X D C X Q P B K M I E H H Q G Q A P K F I T T C B R

Y R D F E R L P I O P X Q I V A B C P M M P A V W H Q D R D

R Q N L E Z H C S G D U D Q C U T E S U O Q Z B U B P V X Z

L W M J C M R P D R U R X I Y W J C L I O D U E Q H L V A O

S I Y O P J C O H B O R V K B Z R P J N A B A X Z D I P F Q

N I T F D N E E X M S M N J B Y Z N Z X Z I R V N X T M A G

E A M W S R W A K I X Z O U X A O V D T N T C V N G K W V H

KEY

department store

church

high street

restaurant

paper chain

tinsel

bauble

fairy lights

robin

angel

snow

Victorian children

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