I used to wonder why the same Christmas specials were shown on TV and the same Christmas songs played on the radio year after year. But now I understand.

We made a week’s worth of holiday lessons last year for English, baby! and did the same this year. But when I went back and looked at what we did last year, I realized a lot of it is still good! (Of course, check the site all next week because the new stuff is better, but still.)

It’s no surprise that people often go home for the holidays. The holidays are themselves a home in a way. We return to them every year and they’re largely the same. There’s a trick to creating holiday content that is timeless. I did it a couple of times last year, and made a couple of our lessons more dated. Have a look at last year’s holiday lessons and see which ones you can tell are a year old!

Jingle all the Day

I was particularly proud of my ability to work a photo of Twisted Sister into last year’s holiday music lesson. Did you know they have an actual holiday album?

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Broken Bulb

Of course, I had to include some holiday decoration flirtation on the soap opera last year. This is filmed on the roof of our office building.

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Christmas Movies

Since so many of the movies discussed in this lesson are classic, it hardly seems outdated. OK maybe the part about Queen Latifah.

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Fruitcake

This year’s slang is “ham.” I guess there’s something about the all the cheer this time of year that makes me think I can get away with puns.

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Hanukkah

Dang it. I should have done something Kwanza this year.