Christmasses past.

Christmas was, as it is now, primarily a family affair. We certainly got fewer and smaller presents but did get presents from grandparents, some of our aunts and uncles and some friends of our parents. We also had a Christmas stocking first thing in the morning.

Turkey did not come in until the 1950s, during and just after the war we ate one of the hens we reared for eggs in the back garden. In the early 50s one of the officers (my DF was in the army) reared some turkey pullets on some spare land on the camp and we got a 'free' turkey at Christmas for several years.

New Year, for us children was a non-event. There was always a New Year dinner/dance at the Mess, so my parents left us with a baby sitter and went to that. New Years day, was not a bank holiday, just an ordinary working day.

I remember fabulous Christmas's with Lots of presents laid out on a chair, but the presents were actually quite small - with one major one that was kept at the back. My favourite was always an annual...Bunty, Judy or whatever!

We put a stocking on our beds and that was filled with bits and pieces, nuts and things with a tangerine at the foot! Oh the joy of feeling that on our feet when we woke.

Christmas day was just Mum/Dad and us 3 children. Turkey and all the trimmings but mum put out plates of nibbles too so us children weren't the slightest bit interested in the actual dinner! No aunties, uncles or extended family. We would wake up and see the stocking, wake mum and dad (which might have been 4 a.m. or some ridiculous hour) but we had to wait until mum went downstairs and declared "He's Been" (later found out this was because she wanted to light the fire so it was warm downstairs).

I have wonderful memories of Christmas and carried on the tradition with my own children.

My Grandchildren enjoy it just as much but their expectations are so much higher (in way of presents) plus now, some of their parents have to work part if not all of Christmas day. Its changed but I still remember the excitement of it all as a child.

We used to watch Blue Peter, and count down the weeks as they lit the candles on their advent hanging thing. (2 tinsel covered coat hangers)
We put out one of my dads socks to hopefully be filled by father Christmas; and he duly obliged.
We ate Christmas dinner at 1pm so mum could watch the queens speech afterwards.
Christmas 'Top of the pops', and then Morecambe and Wise later on. Happy times.

Christmas Day in our house began with opening our Christmas stockings. Breakfast, and then Church with Dad and Mum. Mum put the turkey or goose in the oven before we went out. Then, after Church we had our Christmas dinner. Afternoon spent relaxing and opening our gifts.
Boxing Day was the big one. Mum almost always hosted the family party. All Mum's brothers and sisters and families arrived in the afternoon for high tea and general games and hilarity. Sometimes we had around 20 people in our little council house. It was lovely.

Some of you are so young! No television in my childhood Christmases. One of my father’s socks on the end of the bed, gloriously lumpy in the cold dark morning. Real candles on the tree, lit for a short time only as obviously dangerous. Probably roast chicken, but what I loved was the pudding and rum sauce. The same decorations every year, paper bells that folded flat and unfolded as a sort of paper honeycomb bell shape. Holly from the garden, which had to be washed because, although we didn’t live in a city, it had a light layer of soot.

It was all so simple and so exciting. I remember being half afraid of the idea of Father Christmas.

Just to carry on a bit from the OP, (hope you don't mind Daddima), what was in your stocking.

We had:- an apple and an orange,
a puzzle book
a clockwork toy or torch
a tube of chocolate dragees (remember those)?
a sugar pig
a tin of sweets
socks or handkerchiefs
a box of pens or pencils.

I think that was about it, but it was the same every year, we loved it.

A sugar mouse in mine hildajenni! with a bit of string for a tail.

We didn't have a tv but we did have a piano!

I remember getting a tin of Derwent crayons from FC - more than once.

Dads sock on the bed filled with a tangerine,nuts,chocolate money some crayons and colouring book, packet of hankies and a tin of toffees Then a present under the tree I remember getting a collider scope (sp) it was mesmerising. I used to go to the offie with my Dad to buy fizzy drink,sherry and Advocate, then chicken for dinner Christmas pud with Mums white sauce no rum. Nuts, dates and Clarnico soft mints, also a big bowl of fruit on the sideboard.
No tv in our house, we played board games and listened to the radio, no family came visiting.

Yes presents much more limited. Some new clothing, a book, sweets, maybe a doll or a board game. We did have TV but it was only on for certain programmes. Definitely family only and chapel played a big part in our Christmas celebration.

I used to love the smoker's set with coconut tobacco and a chocolate pipe. I think there was a liquorice lighter too with candy cigarettes and matches. Such fun! Not politically correct but actually I've never smoked.

We decorated with holly on Christmas Eve and spent time painting the edges of the leaves with sandshoe whitener to make it look variegated. It was very important to have holly on every picture and clock. I still try to do that but, luckily, we do have a variegated holly in the garden so no painting is needed.

We had the clip on holders for the candles for the Christmas tree and I remember the few minutes of magic whilst they were lit.
I still have some of my Mum's old decorations dating back to the 1940's and we use them every year.
Christmas didn't start for us until Christmas Eve even right up to the mid 60's.
Dinner was special usually Chicken and only served after Dad came home from the pub - in those days they closed about 12.30p.m.

Oh the choccy smokers set!
Also the sweet shop, Annual, and Bluebird tin of toffees.Not forgetting the selection box, plasticine, crayons, homemade knitted jumper and woolly hat.
Always roast chicken for Christmas lunch.After breakfast was present opening time ( we always went to the midnight church service) so had breakfast at about 9 a.m.
There always seemed to be snow outside ( there probably was, where we lived at the time.)
No relatives visited.

We had holly on pictures and clocks as well. We kept chickens and at Christmas 3 were killed one for us and one for each gran. Christmas day was just our family, but Boxing Day we went to my Nanna's. We had ham and pork pie for tea, then tinned fruit and evaporated milk, mince pies and Christmas Cake. After tea the grown ups played cards for pennies, we were given sweets and sent to the front room where my brother and cousin tormented me because I was a girl.

Chocolate smokers set in our house too! And a Bunty or Broons annual. And one year I got a set of 12 Derwent crayons that I treasured so much, I didn't want to spoil them by actually using them. I can only remember 2 other presents: one year I got a pair of 2nd hand brown school shoes and another year my grandmother gave me a sewing set.

Getting up on a morning to find the tree had been decorated including the famous sugar fairy in cellophane which came out every year. Some years I was allowed to stay up while it was decorated - we always had the same set of lights which had a Santa on them - mum and dad still had these years later and he had to keep changing the bulbs which never worked. We had long twirly foil things hanging from the ceiling with drawing pins. My dad always got up first to light the coal fire and would also shout up 'he's been'. I never had a stocking but as above presents were piled on a chair with the biggest one at the bottom. This was the only time of the year we had a chicken. We usually went to visit relatives in the afternoon but we probably walked. I remember going to my cousin's one year with a new teenage doll complete with stockings. We left my birth town when I was 8 so things changed a bit but it was still always a special time. Coming from up north New Year was always great fun - probably why I hate it now as its not the same. One year sticks in my mind - I was 12 or 13 and there was a present just from my dad - perfume - the orange scented one I've forgotten the name of. It made me feel very grown up - that was the year I also got a portable typewriter in a case which I still have in the garage. Christmas was magical - an only child I have no one to share these memories with now my parents are no longer here but it definitely wasn't about gifts. It was all about the run up to the day, the decorations, the book about Christmas I always used to read, going shopping with my mum in the cold weather and my beloved aunt coming to stay and sharing my room. I hope to try and create memories that will last for my little grandsons who will be here from NZ this year although I doubt the 2 year old will remember them

We used to go to my grandparents for Christmas. Grandad worked in the West End and used to buy a turkey from one of the markets, and we had frozen peas which was a great treat when no one had a fridge or freezer. Real candles on the tree of course. The grown ups drank Dubonnet and I had a little glass of cherry brandy and there was a constant background smell of cigars.

Nothing really changed until the late 60' when I met DH and was introduced to Panetonne, Asti Spumante, little squares of Torrone in pretty wrappers, and amaretti biscuits ( and setting fire to the amaretti wrappers) Quite different from anything I'd seen before.

Christmas 1957

The cherryade is opened on Christmas Eve,
Not a moment before.
The classroom paper chains and streamers,
Tea towel shepherds and plastic baby Jesus are done with.
And the motley carols have drifted to the heavens on wings of innocence.
Now the tree lights lie strewn across our carpet
While Dad swears and sweats and unscrews each bulb.
Mum, sighing, arms folded,
Dreams that one year, just one year,
The lights might work first time.
But there is magic in the climb to bed
A pillowcase at my feet.
And a long long night before us.

We unwrap our presents, whispering in the first threads of dawn.
Always an orange, always a sugar mouse
Always the Robin Annual.
We creep downstairs to the front step
To fetch the frozen milk with the beak holes in the lid
And set it on the stove to warm for our morning cereal.

The grown-ups stir slowly
And shamble around in their dressing gowns,
Then, without warning, they are seized by a mystifying energy,
And drag us off on bitter walks along the snowy beach,
Proclaiming loudly how invigorating it is
Before decamping to their customary sloth before the fire.
We shed our boots on the icy step
And wonder what that was all about.

We watch as the grandmothers creak around the house
Flaunting their skills at gravy, or stuffing
Or Christmas pudding.
Sighing as my mother stabs at the bird.
No, not like that dear, says Grandma
As she deftly carves the breast.
We gorge on turkey - are you sure it is cooked properly dear?
And Christmas pudding - No thank you dear – I have to think of my bowels.

Strewn on sofas and armchairs,
Paper hats askew
They affect a glimmer of interest in
The grainy grey queen with her strangled vowels
Trapped in her tiny TV screen in her twin set and pearls,
Before they finally drift into oblivion,
Accompanied by soft rumblings, both nasal and intestinal,
Leaving us free to raid the Quality Street tin
And bag the purple ones with the nuts in.

They surface briefly to slice the Christmas cake
And chase the crumbs round their plates in desultory fashion
Before packing us off to bed.
Brazil nut chocolate shared round the dwindling fire,
Signals the end - a last treat and it is done.
My brother kicks me in our shared bed
As Grandma snores in mine.
That’s my bit of sheet,
No it’s mine.

Happy Christmas.

Was it AquaManda, Willow?
Christmas was the only time that our dining table was pressed into service. The rest of the time, we ate in the kitchen. There was always a turkey, which used to hang in the cellar until Christmas Eve, when my mother would draw, pluck and dress it ready for Christmas dinner. There was roast pork too. It seems we all had the smokers set, and I remember chocolate money, tangerines and nuts (which were never high on my list of edible priorities!) and pink and white sugar mice. My mother never bought a lot of fruit in the ordinary course of events, but at Christmas my father would go into fruit overdrive; always Cox’s apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and one year my adult brother came home with a pineapple, which was such a great treat that it was shared with the four other children in our little court of houses. I didn’t actually like it and still don’t! And my mother had chocolate liqueurs at Christmas - that was her treat. My father would treat himself to a bottle of Hoopers port which came in a basket weave covered bottle and had to be poured carefully because it “threw a crust” which I thought sounded pretty horrible but which conferred something special on it in dad’s eyes! That was his treat!

I was born before the 2nd war, so very quiet Christmas 's. Only child and no family came. No-one had transport so everyone stayed at home.
No present apart from mum and dad.
Father died from cancer in Jan 1949. After that dreadful time we walked 4 miles to my mother's sister. I was the only GC in the family and it was very sad and lonely.
My own Christmases after marrying were full of family and friends, when my C came I made it special for them as I remembered my own dire times.
We had lots of good times but now both have broken marriages and H and I spend Christmas on our own.
Full circle.

Luckygirl, that was lovely! Thank you.

Christmas Day wasn't a holiday in Scotland up until the mid century ,even after that my dad often worked on Christmas day until the late 60's ,but New Year was our time ,we all stayed up until midnight when we sat down for a three course meal,Soup ,steak pie and veg and potatoes and trifle ,there was often around 20 with chairs borrowed from neighbours and those neighbours would all first foot right along the terrace ,we lived in the first house and they collected the men as they went along right to number 29 .....some staggered home at 6am ...lol but music and parties at every house in the street .It was still the same when we married in 1975 sadly Hogmanay isn't what it was with a lot of folk closing curtains and ignoring the first foot

Agreed about Luckygirl’s contribution. Beautiful, atmospheric.