When Christmas is just around the corner, most people have very little Christmas shopping left to do. But it's a well known fact that on Christmas Eve, most of the shoppers on the streets are men. So is that last minute rush just a fun part of the Christmas shopping experience for men, and do they actually like Christmas shopping? Yvonne Archer goes in search of a few answers.

Listen to London Life
	Men and Christmas Shopping

As you listen to the programme, try to find the answers to these two questions - and then check your answers by doing the quiz.

1. If Christmas Eve is the day before Christmas, when is New Year's Eve?
2. If we think that money has become more important than Christmas, for example, what's the word we can use to express that opinion?

Words and expressions from the programme

before the day is over
before the end of the day

eve
the day before an event, in this case, Christmas Eve is the day before Christmas

exciting
stimulating, exhilarating, interesting

crowds
very large groups of people who are in the same place at the same time

the rush
the great hurry

a hassle
something that's annoying, irritating, difficult to do and causes lots of trouble

commercializes
is mainly an opportunity to make lots of money from an event

Jamaican English
Jamaican patois - the type of English that's spoken by people from the island of Jamaica, which is in the Caribbean Sea

murder
the crime of intentionally killing a person, but in this case, an informal adjective used to describe something that's very unpleasant and difficult to do

I can't be bothered
I don't want to make the effort


Try our quiz below to practise some of the language used in the programme.

Programme script (pdf - 44k)