Christmasses past.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.