Usually it's gingerbread man not girl but I suppose if there's on gender of gingerbread cookie there's another. Otherwise in theory they would never reproduce there wouldn't be any gingerbread cookies. :sad:

Eleana tiene razón fruitcake tiene una mala reputación y quisiera añadir que la merece. No obstante sirve bien como un quisio.

A propósito: Si una persona es nuttier than a fruitcake
significa que es desquisiado

A propósito: Una otra palabra Christmastime es Yuletide

Ahhh!! Thanks for explaining. It was the "NP" stuff that I didn't follow with. I'm not very good with grammar. :)

YES, I use "jingle bells" as a noun phrase. I don't know of any commonly used name for that type of bell, and since we usually only see them at Christmas time anyway, it's easy to refer to them as "jingle bells", and everyone knows exactly what I'm referring to.

I would probably guess that the sense is from the song. But I never thought of the word "jingle" as an imperative when it's used in the song. I suppose you may be right. But when I consider the song (and just discussed this with a colleague), the word "jingle" is simply modifying "bells". "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way...." just says to me that I'm hearing the jingling of bells (that specific kind of bell) and that it happens the entire time that the sleigh is moving along.

Not sure if that answer is sufficient........

By the way - you can't even imagine the kind of conversation two MATH teachers could have about a point of English grammar......... LOL!! :D

By the way, I really do NOT like fruitcake...........

"envolturaNF de regaloNM" es también "papel de regalo", por lo menos aquí.

¿Como se dice "Christmas Day"? O ¿es que no hay traducción adecuada? No me sorprendería porque parece importar mucho menos en las culturas hispanohablantes que en las anglosajonas.

It's like pipe tobacco

A que sí. La mitad de mis amigos universitarios eran estudiantes de mates. :p

Me too! :-)

Ours is not soft as panettone and it has walnuts in it. It goes stale so you cannot keep it for a long time.

*************

I thought garland = guirnalda

@pjt33: Hmmm. I'm not a linguist, but for what's it's worth, here are my :twocents:

The noun 'jingle bell' is a particular type of bell. It is also known as a 'sleigh bell', which happens to be a noun composed of two words, too. It's possible that the 'sleigh' in 'sleigh bell' could be an adjective, a verb, or a noun. No dictionary I checked gave an etymology. It would be my guess that the 'jingle' in 'jingle bell' could also be an adjective, a verb, or a noun. The Random House dictionary says the word was coined around 1885.

Jingle bells can be bought in any city of America. You can buy a single bell, or you can buy them in a group. Many people hang them on walls, doors, doorknobs, or on a horse's harness.
Bands and orchestras buy a group of jingle bells mounted on a wood block with a handle. The percussionist holds the handle with one hand, the jingle bells hanging downward, and bounces the block into the palm of his/her other hand to make the bells ring.

My take on the song "Jingle Bells" is not the same as yours. I hear "Jingle bells (noun), Jingle bells (noun), Jingle (present tense 3rd-person plural verb) all the way." "Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh!"

Jingle is clearly onomatopoeic, and I would bet with pjt that jingle is an imperative in that annoying song. Having said that, Jingle bells (noun) is just as likely. In this particular case, I'm afraid I don't care much. :rolleyes:

Edit: Wiki says

Music historian James Fuld notes that the "the word jingle in the title and opening phrase is apparently an imperative verb."[3] However, it is commonly taken to mean a certain kind of bell.

So there we are. It is possible that at the time of writing the song, Pierpont meant the verb. On the basis of the expression in the song, the noun 'jingle bell' was invented, or just misunderstood. This is my theory, which is either brilliant, or total crap. :thinking::D

is lanturn (sp??) in there? Or wait, the New Year has nothing to do with Chinese New Year right...?