New Year's Eve is a very special day in European Culture. People have parties either at home or go out and enjoy themselves at restaurants or simply in the streets with friends around. I have tried all the above possibilities. What I like best is a mixture of all these. Last year we started a party at home then we went out to celebrate the coming of the New Year in the street to finish the whole celebration at a disco sometime in the morning of New Year's Day.

Shopping for Christmas is both fun and hard work. Finding out what to buy for the people I feel close to is always a pleasant task for me. They say I am quite creative at surprising them with something very special. I fully agree with the statement that both giving and receiving presents are great. Nevertheless I prefer giving to being given.

Every year, by the end of the fall semester the students of the English Department of Miskolc University organize a Christmas party. Usually it is great fun and a good occasion for both students and members of staff to socialize and have a good time together. This year I am especially looking forward to the event because I am one of the chief organizers of the party.

Decorating the Christmas tree is a whole-family attraction every year. It usually starts relatively early in the morning to have time to take the necessary measures if something unexpected happens. Last Christmas, for example, it turned out only in the morning of December 24 that the tree would not stand firm enough in any of the bases we had so we had to do some hectic rush to find something suitable. We managed to in the end but it took quite alot of extra time, not speaking of the extra money we had to pay. Nevertheless, we purchased a really strong and big one, so that will do this year as well - hopefully.

Christmas is my favourite holiday despite the fact that winter is not at all my favourite season. We normally start the preparations well before December 24, including buying a tall pine tree and the supplementaries, ornaments and light-garlands. Although we have plenty of these already, there is always something new on the Christmas tree every year.