Post-War Christmas memories

We made strings of silver bells for the tree by folding washed milk bottle tops over our fingers. Then we threaded them on cotton. You had to wash the tops well as they would give off a sour smell if you didn't

Oh I remember the milk bottle top silver bells too BBbevan! And little bits of cotton wool scattered over the tree as snow .
Have to say my memories of Christmas dinner are that we always had turkey, for as far back as I can remember. But then again my memories only go back as far as the early 50s, so it may have been different in the late 40s. Chicken was a rare treat in those days, though - long before they dreamed up the horror that is factory farming

Our milk bottle tops were cardboard!, we had chicken and other goodies brought from a farm by a relative, decorations were paper chains we cut, painted and glued into rings. Definitely no alcohol. Presents opened but playing with them was delayed until after morning Chapel.

I don’t remember very well but chicken for us too and always a box or two of dates. I have clear memory of going to the off-licence with my Dad on Christmas Eve he would a buy a bottle of Sherry, Advocaat,cream soda,lemonade and some tizer he wasn’t a drinker.

We had tree baubles but they were fragile and had to be handled with extreme care.
After Christmas, my mother wrapped each one in cotton wool and tissue paper and put them in a strong cardboard box for the next year.
Chicken for the Dinner, only had turkey from mid fifties onwards.

I was born in 1951. I remember 50's Christmases with fondness. We had duck for Christmas dinner. The grocer my mother bought from had a duck pond and bred his ducks specially for Christmas.
We made milk bottle top bells too, plus paper chains which my Dad strung across the ceiling from the picture rail to the light fitting in the centre. I loved the fairy lights on our tree, bought for my first Christmas with roots so that it could be used from year to year. We didn't need another until it grew too tall for the sitting room.

The tree had roots of course, not the fairy lights???

We made Christmas tree decorations out of egg boxes covered with shiny sweet wrappers, and, yes, cotton wool snow. Also coloured pom poms that my mother and I would make out of wool. I remember as a child chicken being a luxury reserved for Christmas - it was cheaper to buy a large piece of beef at any other time. We mostly had turkey though, and it would appear in our house fully feathered with innards intact and my mother would do the necessary plucking and drawing. Sometimes we had a goose and my mother would save the ‘goose grease’ to rub on our chests in the winter! ?

In the 1950s our Christmas tree had real candles? I loved the oriental paper lanterns.

In the 1960s I would go into the cold dark sitting room and stand looking at the twinkling lights on the tree it was magical. It was transformed with a warm fire the next day.

We would have a Melton Mowbray pork pie sent to us which we had at breakfast on Christmas Day, which I always thought was strange.

Then a capon for dinner, very tasty. You don't come across them these days, though I think you can still get them somewhere.

The table centrepiece would be some random twigs, cones, leaves [preferably holly] and berries from the local park/other peoples gardens which had been sprayed or painted silver or gold and stuck into plasticine on a board.

The highlight would be lighting with matches, the small candles in little holders at the end of each branch of our artificial Christmas tree. When the candles were burning away...it meant we could have a newberry fruit, fig, date, crystalised ginger, Turkish delight or some nuts after our tea.

Of course the Christmas tree was never unattended and it would never be allowed today! It was pretty though.

Advocaat and lemonade appeared suddenly one Christmas as we became more well off and the adults sipped snowballs whilst I was ok with my Rupert Bear annuals.

Chicken for our dinner, and a pillowcase full of presents. No visitors for the chicken dinner, but we all went to my grandpa’s for Ne’erday steak pie, then a sing song round the Famous Grouse ( sherry for ladies, ginger wine for children).
I don’t recall a Christmas tree, just yon paper chains on the ceiling.

My abiding memory is the box of 'Eat me' dates sitting on the coffee table. Never saw anyone eat them though!

Oh gosh I remember most of this------the silver bells made from the tops of the milk bottles. Post-war I remember having turkey-1950. Mum made the puds and Dundee cake or Christmas cake or both. Veg from the garden. A few years later I always remember that the turkey needed plucking etc and mum used the giblets for making the gravy.
The fire used to be roaring up the chimney and we had to open the back door to let the heat out at times.
Sherry trifle. There was always a piece of beef to use cold with pickle and I looked forward to the beef dripping thick on toast with salt and pepper.
The quality of food back then was superb and full of taste.

It was more magical in those days as I was 11 before I found out it was dad who used to carry our pillow-cases full of toys/gifts upstairs. Any " overflow " was under the tree. That part of the magic had gone

Mum used to listen to A Christmas Carol on the radio and be wiping her eyes on her pinny at Tiny Tim----no tele.Boxed games tiddlywinks with dad and him cheating at snakes and ladders. A read of an annual and no chocolates until after dinner.

Happy days I just wish I could bring back that stress-free life back to everyone today. We seem to have fared very well considering the simplicity of life then.

The same very small Christmas tree dug up every year. The poor thing mever really recovered in between, but eventually it was pensiomed off and allowed to stay put.
No lights on it for quite a while - it was very exciting when we got the first set.

Making paper chains.
I certainly remember chicken being a very rare treat - our Sunday roast was nearly always beef. But we always had a turkey as far as I remember - with extended family plus 6 of us I don't suppose a chicken would have been enough. And every scrap of the turkey would be used.

Tangerines! As far as I recall, we only ever had them at Christmas, so the smell of satsuma etc. still has echoes of Christmas for me.

Nuts to crack, and those long boxes of Eat Me! dates.

Oh yes I remember the dates and nobody ever ate them but they appeared every year without fail.

A box of dates was de rigeur, and they were considered very exotic back then! I love them to this day and they were, and are, always eaten in our house. In the ordinary course of the year, we didn’t have much in the way of fresh fruit. My mother would buy bananas, and I was sent to the greengrocer to buy myself an apple now and then, but at Christmas, my father would buy dates, nuts and Cox’s apples, which he would choose very carefully, rattling each one because if the pips didn’t rattle, the apple was not ripe! He must have been the greengrocer’s worst nightmare, bless him!

I was born in 1948 and remember chicken for Christmas dinner. As has already been said it was a real treat.
Our decorations were narrow rolls of crepe paper that were twisted as they were strung across the room.
Our presents were at the end of the bed in a pillow case - this was so exciting - and I used to call out to my parents that he had been, could I come into their bed to open the presents? Usually my mum would reply that it was too early and I had to go to sleep again. Some hopes!!
I have such happy memories of childhood Christmas times.

I remember the real candles on the tree! Chinese lanterns that you had to open so carefully every year, and the fragile baubles with a new one added each year. Bit different to the modern ideas.

A real tree, with lots of tinsel and angel hair. Egg carton and glitter bells. I remember my dad buying a set of coloured, frosted galss 'sputnik' tree lights. I thought they looked like sugar. A pillowcase at the end of the bed and my brothers football sock as a stocking. Apple, tangerine, crayons and a hankie. The adults always got to open their presents on Christmas Eve, usually because it was something new to wear out. Us kids were allowed to open one small present. A large roast dinner - always Turkey, and my dad would disappear to the pub while mum cooked, come back pretty tipsy after one pint or so, and he would fall asleep after dinner. We had twisted crepe paper garlands when I was small, which progressed to large shiny foil ones when I was about 11. The neighbours always popped in for a sherry. Wrapping paper was very thin and usually bought at the Market.

My recollections of Christmas are very similar to many of you. Mum used to make Christmas puddings every year as well as a Christmas cake. We only had an indoor tree when I was very small. After we moved to Sussex, my mother planted a tree in the garden and we had outside lights on it. The same paper chains and paper bell were brought out every year and we made those home made ones with strips of paper. My grandparents lived just up the road and we may have had Christmas dinner there on occasion. My father didn’t like chicken but he did cook a turkey in the 60s. In the 50s, it was an aitch bone of beef with Yorkshire pudding, sprouts etc. The pudding was always topped with a holly sprig and flamed in brandy.
W did have some glass baubles but as was said before they were very delicate and I wasn’t allowed to touch. There were also candle holders that could be attached to the tree. The same candles were used every year until they could no longer be used. Sometimes Mum bought Turkish delight in those wooden boxes and she always had Eat me dates. Dad used to have Stilton and Red Leicester cheese with port after dinner.
Dad rarely went to church on Christmas morning but I always went with Mum and the Grandparents. When we did have turkey, my father would use an upholstery needle to thread strips of bacon fat through the breast to prevent it drying out. He was always in charge of the cooking whilst Mum did the veg and the gravy out of giblet stock.
Those early Christmases were full of happiness for me.

We only ever had chicken at Christmas - never had turkey until I was married. Christmas pudding always had silver sixpences hidden in it. The tree was a real one dad used to bring home and had the same glass ornaments wrapped in tissue paper each year. The same lights too which never lit first time - one set were little Santas. There was also a sugar fairy in cellophane which I was never allowed to open and pink sugar mice. We had different coloured foil streamers hanging from the ceiling with drawing pins which twisted and turned. As an only child my presents were never on the bed but on a chair by the fire. I remember going and getting into my parents bed until it was time to get up but Dad always went down first to light the fire and I would shout down 'has he been' We always had dates too and a bowl of nuts with the nutcracker on top. We went to visit relatives after dinner but always had to walk - I don't know where my dad parked the car back then but it wasn't in the street.

I too think back to those days with nostalgia - it was freezing cold and the build up only started in December when we would make decorations at school. We always had a school party with jelly and the milk bottles contained orange juice. One year my darling aunt gave me The Night Before Christmas poem in a card which I never forgot. Happy times.

We always had turkey for Christmas dinner never chicken that was for Sunday. we also always had dates several boxes of them which we all ate. I still buy dates not for Christmas especially but because I like them. We also had loads of nuts that needed cracking and an abundance of fruit. We also had Christmas pudding with silver sixpences in. We always had a real tree that had a bit chopped off the top as it was too tall. Decorated with very fragile glass baubles.

All of the above bring back memories. I always had an Annual for Christmas especially remember Girls Crystal.
We made the paper chains with sticky paper, bottle tops and cut out Christmas trees. Nuts and dates were a big treat and a selection box. I always enjoyed the Carol service at our chapel and still know all the words to the carols. We were good Methodists so no alcohol in our house.

I can't remember anything about Xmas itself, except waking up one Xmas morning and crying 'I've got mumps!'