What do you miss about Christmas Past

Harris27 yes I tried to recreate that magic with my children, it seems to have worked with the memories the hold, it can be such a magical time🎄

I miss the magic of my boys being little. The anticipation if the bug night when Santa was coming. Fairytale stuff that I still love to recreate with my little ones in pre school.

Mum didnt work, so a provident cheque was ordered each year and paud for our presents, my brother and I.

Dad always gutted and trussed a large capon each year, we woke up to the smell of it slow cooking.

Dad would go downstairs light the fire, have his cuppa/ visit outside toilet for what seemed ages, whilst my brother(5 years younget) and I sat on the stairs with so much impatience, after opening the present on the end of the bed.

We would rip open our presents after dads loo break and the have bacin sandwiches for breakfast, befire our trip to the local newsagent/ tobaccinist for dads tobacco and a big juicy cigar; some sweets and as sad was a regular customer my brother and I got to choose a free annual.

We would then visit the off licence for pale ale, port , sherry, advocaat, babycham.

We always got a free arrowroot buscuit from the jar on the counter.

Little presents hung from the tree for after a cold tea of sandwiches, pickles and tinned fruit.

😢😢 omg memories flooding in now😢

Sweetpeasue

My Bunty Annual!

It was my main Christmas present for many years.

7/6 in old money (37.5p nowadays)

All my old Bunty annuals are in the loft.

Yellowing pages, broken spines, but oh my goodness, just leafing through the pages takes me back 65 or so years to those long ago Christmas days.

And I remember the stories so well!

Sweetpeasue

My Bunty Annual!

Oh yes the Bunty annual. Such a delight every Christmas 😀

I miss family no longer with us. Christmas Day was always a day spent with our grandparents and full of love and happiness.
I miss going Christmas shopping with my mum. She loved all the decorations in the shops the sparklier the better. I often think of her when I’m out and about and spot items she would love.
I miss spending Christmas Eve with my grandma. Everyone else would have been at work and I’d be with grandma helping her doing the baking - jam tarts,mince pies etc. Happy memories indeed.

I miss the big family gatherings . My family all lived in south london and would take turns to gather at someone’s house . It was lovely with grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins .
When my siblings and I left home we were also local and have big family dos.
My brothers moved away 20 years ago and wouldn’t travel at Christmas, as they like being at home with their families and in-laws . My family and I do get an invite for Boxing Day but it’s always us who have to travel to them .

My Bunty Annual!

Our grandparents, parents, and siblings. My grandparents arriving from the city with treats and different things to our normal.

My parents, my younger brother died too young and several close friends RIP

My Mum picking the sprouts from plants in the garden, often they’d be frozen! I do miss my parents and all the happy times.

I miss the simpler Christmas of my childhood when it wasn't all about rampant consumerism, and far more about the religious feast, cribs, carols and Midnight Mass, not that I appreciated that at the time and being thrilled in getting presents of a more insignificant nature, books, board games, selection boxes.

At a later stage when my own children were small and the magic was still there. Spending it at home and starting the day with Champagne Bucks Fizz, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, although often dog tired from them waking us up at stupid o'clock to see "if he'd been"

Allsorts

The people missing.

Oh yes , so true.

We learned that you don’t have to rip everything open first thing in the morning, and the anticipation of doing so at the end of the day made it all the more special.

We do that with our children and now grandchildren, Calendargirl They've been very good about it but it's been a tradition they've had since they were born.

I must admit that as a child I'd have everything opened before breakfast!

As for what I miss about previous Christmases, I miss my childhood friend who died two years ago. Only 62. We were very close and had a super time in December, wrapping all the umpteen gifts together with a bottle of Cava. Or two.

I miss the excitement of presents in the 50s and 60s when we didn't have as much stuff so it all seemed so thrilling. A box of embroidered hankies was appreciated but I suspect most 2024 kids would be less than thrilled. Food is the same, I buy fresh cream every week, when I was a child we had it at Christmas and Easter and it tasted sooooooo goooooooood.

Do I want to go back to having less? No not really but most of us have what we want/need now.

Having said all that I have 4 kids, they have 4 partners and between them 8 GC so I actually have more of a big family Christmas than I did growing up. Some come for the week and some for the day but it is a busy week.

My parents and Grandparents 💔

I continue all of their traditions as does my sister, we all get together (19-21 of us) on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. Laugher and a few tears of memories past.

Funny how our old dads smoked just the one cigar on xmas day, don't suppose they could afford it any other time, anyway the smell of cigar smoke and tangerines takes me right back.
Don't suppose they will ever produce a candle that smells of this but for me this is the most evocative smell of my childhood Christmases.

At present we have no small children in the family, everyone very grown up. I also miss the sell of cigar smoke I can see my dad now with cigar puffing away whilst he did the washing up.

I had wonderful Christmasses in my childhood. Parents had little money but there was always a fabulous feast and lots of friends and family gathered. Dad would put a scaffolding plank between two chairs, padded up with towels and cushions, to provide extra seating round the table and we had - the excitement - chicken! Not that boring old roast beef that Mum cooked every Sunday. Games afterwards, and my two grannies drinking milk stout while Dad smoked his one cigar of the year.

I think, though, what I miss most is the un-comercialisation of it all ...

Two particular memories, in addition to those already mentioned.
A parcel arriving marked “Open immediately. Do not wait until 25 December”. It was bananas, the first I had ever seen! This was either 1948 or 1949, so some years post war.

My daughter, not sure what age, in the middle of the night opened her stocking presents, all individually wrapped, including the satsuma and coin, then rewrapped them all and went back to sleep. The next morning she opened them again on our bed with her brother, pretending it to be for the first time, showing delight and surprise. Then she confessed. She’s a good actor!

Thanks Oreo.

Meant to add, the actual waiting to open the main presents, in the evening, was I think, good for us.

We learned that you don’t have to rip everything open first thing in the morning, and the anticipation of doing so at the end of the day made it all the more special.

The smell of the capon and later, the turkey that had been cooking on low overnight. The busyness of Christmas Day and the people visiting, who made it so special. We didn’t get loads of presents, but the excitement of a tub of new hair ribbons, a tin of Sharps toffees, another tub with rose shaped soaps and a new book for my favourite series is what I remember.

Many things, like others my parents, sitting around the coal fire, opening our gifts, remember a walkie talkie doll that mum had made clothes for. Then eating biscuits with a drink, our family tradition, my siblings, don't see them at Christmas anymore, . The peaceful times then in our little village. My mum.

Everything, in some ways, but especially my dearest parents.

I always had a stocking, and we always had an open fire in our living room, a big real tree, lots of friends and family came round and it was just jolly and lovely, with a traditional turkey feast and a pudding set on fire with a sprig of holly in the centre and brandy poured over it.

Calendargirl

Dad had a smallholding, with pigs and chickens to see to, even on Christmas Day.

My sister and I opened our pillowcases first thing, but no more presents were opened until after tea, when we were all in the front room (only had a fire there high days and holidays).

We didn’t have loads to open, just small things from aunties and others, but it was so special. Different things to nibble, tangerines, eat-me dates (ugh), the warm fire, but best of all, Dad sitting with us, relaxing after another busy day outside, opening his Wills Whiff cigars and just being together.

No loads of booze, no piles of expensive gifts, just simple, family gathering.

No wonder Christmas isn’t the same.

[sigh]

That sounds delightful and you paint the picture so well.😃
Happy family special gatherings are just the best thing.

As an infant school teacher Christmas always involved a lot of glue and glitter, altering costumes to fit differently sized shepherds, renovating the kings’ crowns and a lot of general hustle and bustle.
I miss the busy-ness of all that, but not the exhaustion that accompanied it!