Happy Christmas traditions that would baffle the children of today.

nvella we still got our stockings in our 40s until my mum died. She still put lose change in the toe that came to about 50p which as working women we thought was so sweet. My sister and I still carry the tradition on, filling a stocking for each other, everything that mum put in them, even down to the orange and lose change.

Second attempt!

Nvella

Did other people have children who insisted on carrying on with stockings way into their late teens. It was when I found myself staying up till the early hours waiting for them to come back from a club so I could put their stockings on their beds that I realised it really was getting ridiculous!!

My 3 DD were still getting stockings in to their 20’s! When I announced that I was going to stop they were all indignant but it didnt save me any money as i was soon expected tp provide second stockings from FC for the DGC 🤶🙄

It’s been lovely and a trip down memory lane reading about Christmases past. What a
We expected DD2 to be kept in Hospital for Christmas after she suffered a stroke many years ago. At the last minute we were told she could come home for 48 hours, so we quickly headed out for a Christmas tree, to find the only one available was about 10 feet tall!! My DH, God bless him, was about as useful at DIY as a chocolate teapot - so here is the picture of how he made the Christmas tree fit!!

Reading these posts brings tears to my eyes. Only last Saturday my sister and I were talking about our childhood Christmases. The Radio Times was mentioned too and how we felt when we came home from school to find it on the table..... Christmas was coming!!! I have bought this years edition to stick in amongst goodies i have bought for her as a little jokey memory. How i wish we were all able to turn the clock back once in our lives to a time when we were truly happy.

nanna8

A tall , hopefully handsome, man knocking at the door with a lump of coal for first footing( Yorkshire) Plunging a glowing red poker into a glass of beer at New Year ( London ). Do they still kiss under the mistletoe? Here Christmas Dinner is becoming more and more a Seafood dinner.

Was the beer still drinkable? I'm lost on that one! But we did first footing up in the N/E, and fetching coal. If a woman answered the door a man should enter first, and if a man answered a woman should!

Nvella

Did other people have children who insisted on carrying on with stockings way into their late teens. It was when I found myself staying up till the early hours waiting for them to come back from a club so I could put their stockings on their beds that I realised it really was getting ridiculous!!

If they were staying here, they still got stockings. No staying up late for me, though - I’d almost invariably be up first and would just leave stockings outside their bedroom doors.

Our ceiling was full of little holes from paper chains and hanging paper balls from previous Christmases.
On Christmas Eve the fire in the sitting room would be lit, we only used this room in the Summer or special occasions as it was a very cold and large room, the fire would be kept alight until Boxing Day night.
Days before Christmas we would circle the programmes we wanted to watch in the Radio Times and the TV Times. Leslie Crowther was always on in the morning giving out presents to sick children and wearing a coat hanger on his head with some Mistletoe on it kissing the nurses.
Fizzy drinks would be ordered from the Corona Man and meat and food ordered from the local shop.
Chicken for Christmas Dinner, usually supplied by one of my Uncles, everything else would be home cooked by Mum, no fridge or freezer, so all made and put into the cold larder, ready for the big day, when all my Aunts and Uncles would visit their Dad who lived with us ( my Grandad).
In the run up to Christmas, decorations would be made after watching how it was done on Blue Peter or made at school along with Christmas cards to our parents. Mum would be putting the finishing touches to whatever gifts she was knitting for us or relatives.
A pillowcase on the day, always with a Cadburys selection box in it, along with a tangerine (which we only had at Christmas time), even though I hated anything ‘orangey’, hopping into bed with Mum and Dad to show them what Father Christmas had left us.
A cooked breakfast, again a real treat, then a late Christmas Dinner, when Mum would have her one glass of sherry for the year!
We never had alcohol in the house apart from some Brandy for the Christmas pudding and Medical Emergencies! When she died I inherited the very old bottle of Brandy dating back to the 1960s, with enough left in it for a couple more Christmas cakes. Obviously we never had a Medical Emergency.
We never listened to the Queens speech, my parents couldn’t bring themselves to listen to someone who lived in luxury whilst we had to scrimp and save for every little extra.
We never wrote letters to Father Christmas and were never asked what we wanted to receive, we had to be grateful for whatever small gifts were there on the morning.
Although my brother always seemed to get exactly what he whispered to me that he wanted!
We didn’t have much but the excitement was real and I remember it all with affection, except the freezing cold rooms.

Georgesgran

We didn’t have those JackyB but my Aunt and DGMother who lived in the same street did. Luckily they had square rooms with a central light rose, so those streamers (that’s what we called them) could be pinned from each corner of the room to meet up in the middle and were symmetrical. Sometimes they were pinned to the ceiling mid way to form loops with balloons attached. They were like concertinas, weren’t they and folded flat for storage?

They were like concertinas, weren’t they and folded flat for storage?
Yes, they were.
I still have a Father Christmas who opens up like that to reveal his fat tummy. He must be nearly as old as me.

An invisible Christmas Tree. Mum and Dad were broke so my older, clever, arty sister made an invisible tree. Coat hangers wrapped in tinsel alla Blue Peter and nylon thread to dangle baubles and bitts at all lengths. It was a beautiful creation, and one of the rew happy seasonal memories I have xx Thanks Sis xx

I watched Billy Smarts Circus while laying the table with my Dad on Christmas Day.

JackyB I remember those crepey decorations - we used to have them pinned from corner to corner. Every year it would be a battle to get them twisted properly. I also remember the tinsely things someone else mentioned that turned as the hot air rose.

Mr A just unearthed a picture of our very first Christmas tree in our first little flat - quite small and hardly even a bauble. I don't think we could afford the decorations and the tree 😁 I suspect we only bought the tree because his parents were coming to spend Christmas with us. And in the background are some crepey garlands hanging across the wall 😁

Did other people have children who insisted on carrying on with stockings way into their late teens. It was when I found myself staying up till the early hours waiting for them to come back from a club so I could put their stockings on their beds that I realised it really was getting ridiculous!!

We didn’t have those JackyB but my Aunt and DGMother who lived in the same street did. Luckily they had square rooms with a central light rose, so those streamers (that’s what we called them) could be pinned from each corner of the room to meet up in the middle and were symmetrical. Sometimes they were pinned to the ceiling mid way to form loops with balloons attached. They were like concertinas, weren’t they and folded flat for storage?

Being knee deep in feathers from plucking the turkey.

I think I've read through the whole thread but have not yet seen any mention of the gaudy, multi-coloured garlands that Dad spent ages attaching to the ceiling. They were made of crepe paper. Two colours, twisted round so that, looked at from underneath, the colours alternated. They were hung diagonally across the room, so two colours in the one direction and two different colours in the other, and nothing matched. Just colourful and "jolly".

In addition there were paper chains that we kids had painstakingly stuck together and other flimsy tissue-paper garland's strung about. The tree was adorned with as many different coloured baubles as possible and, of course, the lights were all different colours. No Scandinavian minimalist chic in those days!

Our Christmas dinner was always a chicken .No-one had turkey . Chicken was a luxury meat . We always had a stocking with nuts in shells and tangerines. We got one main present each then a book , something to wear for school or a hat and scarf. All homemade. Our aunties and uncles would give us something like a selection box , or a Terry's Orange .stationery for school or a comic . We weren't well off and didn't have a TV so we listened to the radio.

My mum smoked one cigarette a year . That was on Christmas night with a Gin and Orange. One year I asked my dad if I could have a cigarette. He nodded to wait till mum was in the Kitchen. When he passed it to me I blew instead of inhaling.

I can still see him falling about laughing.

Wonderfilled memories on this thread reminded me of so many forgotten Christmas treats & yes the candles actually alight on the Christmas tree No flashing electric lights Real candles with tiny flames flickering in the dark & often snow outside the window on Christmas morning Magical times that todays children will never know x

gangstergranny

Homemade ginger wine in tiny glasses

My father always bought a bottle of Stones ginger wine and we were allowed a small glass when we were older.

Thank you for sharing these memories. Such a lovely post.

We had one of our mother’s tocking, which we hung up. Long and a little stretchy if not exactly pretty.

Dad putting candles on the tree and lighting them!!!!!!

The Christmas wrapping paper was bought from the Brownies who sold it to raise funds (Mum was brown owl). It came in sheets not rolls back then

Dad would always wrap his presents to mum last of all. . Often there wasnt much gift wrap left - if any- so her gifts being in newspaper became a thing!!

That our stocking actually was a sock. And actually I loved the tangerine and nuts in mine!

My son (he's 24) still loves the Xmas Radio Times.

Oh and often the films over Xmas were all about people killing other people- westerns and world war 2 films!! Not that we thought about that, they were just what films were!