Merry Christmas
What does Christmas mean to you? For lots of people, this time of year is about spending time with family, eating delicious food, and waiting for a visit from Santa Claus.
對你而言，聖誕節意味著什麼？（在西方國家）很多人會覺得每年這個時候就是與家人共度時光、享受美食、然後等待聖誕老人的到來。
Merry Christmas
But after analysing more than 2 billion words of everyday spoken conversations, and comparing this to data collected in the 1990s, we found that the way we talk about Christmas really does seem to be becoming more commercial.
但是在分析了20多億個日常對話中的用詞，並將其與20世紀90年代收集的數據作完比較之後，我們發現我們談論聖誕節的方式確實變得越來越商業化了。
The research indicated that words associated with consumerism have risen considerably; the words sales, spend, shopping and retailers were amongst the most highly associated with Christmas in the language collected in the last ten years.
此項研究顯示，關於消費主義的用詞實現了猛增；銷售、花費、購物和零售商這些用詞在過去十年裡與聖誕節的聯繫最為密切。
Whereas the 1990s language seems more traditional, with the word Christmas likely to be associated with pantomimes, pudding, cracker and carols.
而在20世紀90年代，語言顯得更為傳統，聖誕一詞可能會與童話劇、布丁、餅乾和頌歌聯繫在一起。
Could this be down to the rise of Black Friday? Black Friday started in the USA, but has since moved to other parts of the world. There have even been reports of fights in shops, as customers all try to get their hands on some good deals.
所以聖誕節這是要為黑色星期五讓步了嗎？黑色星期五起源於美國，但是已經傳播至世界各地。甚至還會出現商家大戰的報道，因為顧客們都想做一些划算的交易。
The study also identified that excess isn't just about spending. The words party, goodies, frolics and knees-up were also all on the rise in the more recent language. Not surprising then that hangover has now become one of the 50 top words commonly associated with Christmas!
研究還證實，人們不僅會過度消費。派對、美食、玩鬧和聚會在近年的語言當中的使用也都有所上升。因此hangover (宿醉)成為常與聖誕節聯繫在一起的50個用詞之一，也就不足為奇了。
frolics n.嬉鬧
knees-up n.狂歡聚會
However, we haven't completely left traditional activities behind: Father Christmas, tree, cards and decorations are still some of the words most likely to be associated with Christmas time.
然而，我們並未完全遺忘傳統活動：聖誕老人、聖誕樹、聖誕卡和裝扮仍舊是最有可能與聖誕節時光聯繫在一起的用詞。
So what does Christmas mean to you? Let us know in the comments below!
那麼，聖誕節對你而言意味著什麼呢？在下方評論讓我們知道！
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