An old fashioned Christmas. 🌲🎄

We enjoy the Christmas season, and this is a most enjoyable Thread.
When my youngsters grew up, I said, 'So you won't need stocking now?'
We still do stockings. Little tiny ones that Mum knitted for them. Easy to fill.
Will keep coming back to read about your versions. 🎄 🤶

Tuinoma, decades ago my sister and family happened to be living in Abu Dhabi at the same time as us. Through her dh’s job, her family was invited to the Dutch contingent’s Sinterklaas arrival at the port.

He arrived in a genuine Arab dhow. My sister’s son was only about 3 at the time, and apparently he’d been a little bugger all day, and someone had told him about Black Peter taking the naughty children away!
Sister told me that he was hiding behind her the whole time!

I'm a bit 'bah humbug' about Christmas, but I think it goes back to when I was 13, the eldest of three daughters.

My parents put a lot of effort into Christmas - chains hung from corners to centre, fat red candle on the table, tree loaded with decorations -we had it all. Plus a sheepskin rug which was only put on the floor in front of the fire on Christmas day, and we'd sit on it to open our Santa presents.

Then dinner (after Mass) - turkey, ham, the lot. Our Christmas cake was always made by Mam and decorated by Dad - it was a job he loved and he made a lovely job of it.

But then when I was 13 Dad spent Christmas in hospital, so we went to my aunt's house for dinner instead. What a difference - Mam of course was worried sick and there was no lovely Christmas atmosphere. My aunt and uncle weren't warm people and even though I was young I had the feeling they didn't really want us there. Couldn't wait till it was all over.

And then in January Dad died at the age of 49. I've a feeling maybe that's why I'm a bit of a 'bah humbug' ever since.

Or maybe I'm just a grump!

But I always feel that the magic of Christmas back then (with the visits to Santa in several department stores) is missing for children now, which is such a pity. We were innocent and accepting, so grateful for everything we got, no matter how small.

Lovely memories.

Supernana1. That is such a sad memory. No wonder Christmas was not the same for you after that. I agree the magic isn't there anymore. I have no grandchildren so I dont know how children view Chrisrmas. My childhood Christmases were simple and low key. And our children's were as magical as we could make them until one year something prerry awful happened..not a death...and after that it was never quite the same for me although we still tried our best.

Lovely reading all these Christmas memories. I remember as a child in the 50’s my Mum would anxiously await the arrival of a turkey from her parents small farm in the west of Ireland. Grandpa would wrap it up in brown paper, tie it with string and secure the string knots with melted candle wax then send it in the post.

I remember in the final week or so before Christmas there would be multiple deliveries per day. A van would appear in the street, several postmen would jump out and hurry round the doors with parcels. My Mum’s heart would sink if the van left and still no turkey. But there was never a year it didn’t arrive by Christmas Eve at the latest.

We didn’t have a fridge and amazingly after the fresh turkey travelled by train and boat we never once had food poisoning . If it arrived a few days early the local butcher used to store it in his fridge for us. I remember one year it arrived with the brown paper damp and torn and the turkey’s large claws were poking through!

My dad used to chop the claws off it and pull on the tendons and make the claws move. We were easily entertained back then 😆

Sorry to read of your very sad Christmas memory Supernana1. That must have been a tough time for you.

Remember Christmas in the sixties as a child. It was very ordinary similar to many of the posts on this thread.

Was begining to become overly commercialised even then according to my father.

But nowhere near the Monster it has now become. Awful Spend, Eat and Drink Fest.

However at our house the big thing at Yule Tide was New Year. Cue BBC Television.

And now from BBC Scotland. To celebrate Hogmanay.

We visit the White Heather Club

Kenneth McKellar, Moira Anderson,
Jimmy Shandy. Auld Lang Syne and the unforgettable Andy Stewart. As in Donald Where's Your Trewsers! We loved it.

Mum made tons of meat and potato stews with crusts on them with red cabbage. All her relatives piled round and drank bottled beer from crates. Shandy for the ladies, lemonade for the kids

Us kids would then do the first foot in with the neighbours. Go around a few minutes after Midnight. Knock on their front doors and give them some slices of bread and a large piece of coal.

So, hopefully they would always be fed and warm in the. New Year.

New Year celebrations are barely acknowledged nowadays.

Loving and great Christmas memories for me.

😻🎇🎉
Xxx

Oh Esmay,there has to be an alternative,even if you spend it alone.Get food you like ,buy yourself a present( using the money you would have spent on the ungratefuls next door),watched your favourite programmes,pretend it’s an ordinary day.If you are near the Peak District ,come to me.

I have just watched Episode 6, watched over 3 days.
It was as wonderful and nostalgic as ever.

Sorry!! Box of Delights.

Supernana1
My Father also died in January aged 49 .
This was in 1949 and I was 11 and an only child.
It affected Christmas after that really until I married when I could create my own version of Christmas in my own home.
I hope very much you have not let it affect you too much.

moggiek

Every December 1st I settle down for the afternoon with the DVD of BoD and a box of Maltesers. Watch all of the episodes and finish the chocolates. Bliss!

Sounds like the best afternoon ever 👍🏻

I can’t ever remember having a real Christmas tree. Mum bought a tiny artificial tree which in those days looked pretty sparse. It was only about 2 ft high and was on a red block of wood but we used it on a table for years. We put decorations and chocolates on it and it looked nice enough.

We always had a good Christmas mainly because Mum was a great budgeter (she had to be as we were not well off) and a great cook. We had lovely homemade food over the festive period.

We had a real fire in the front room and we all used to try and get as close as we could as the winters were very cold indeed.

I used to be sent out to gather holly with berries and for some reason we poked it into the top of pictures on the wall. Mum always put loads of scraps out for the birds.

Like a lot of kids we didn’t get many presents but we really appreciated them. Selection box, books, crayons, pencil cases, new handknitted jumper or gloves or hat. In those days you didn’t ask for things like kids do today.

I know what you mean, even though my childhood memories of Christmas consisted of my parents always arguing ( no alcohol involved)
My wonderful memories of Christmas are the ones where my children were always so excited and I was as excited as them, they are grandparents themselves now but I think part of the lost excitement is partly due to all the electronic gadgets the children are on and the day of board games and dolls and prams have all but gone.

Two books that describe really well Christmases we enjoyed when youngsters I would recommend are The Belle Fields why Lora Adams and Say Kangeroo by Five Sisters. Will take you back I'm sure - they certainly did for me!

The book I always read at Christmas, or at least the relevant chapter, is The Country Child by Alison Uttley. Chrismas on a hill top farm in the late 1800s. I have read it so many t8mes and can picture it so clearly.
I read this week of a Val McDurmid 'Winter. A Story of a Season'. Never read any of hers, but will order it from the library for my christmas read.

We had a lovely Christmas like many here, at Grandma’s and Grandad’s house. The festivities would start Christmas Eve when we announced our arrival by carol singing outside their door. We knew so many carols by heart from school and Church, we probably went on a bit. Then we helped decorate the tiny Christmas tree while Grandad hung up the paper chains. Bread and jam for breakfast, plain and tasty Christmas dinner of capon - she was an excellent cook even though she cooked on a range by the fire. The big excitement was teatime when all our cousins joined us and we played games. We don’t get any door-to-door carol singers these days, such a shame. We didn’t get spending money then so we supplemented our income quite a bit the week before Christmas by going around the neighbours’ houses carol singing.

Oh, and thank you for the post Nankate, I’m definitely going to find Box of Delights for a quiet afternoon.

Like @teabaglady many Christmases involved tension, but if we went to my grandmother’s in Scotland they were lovely - safe, no fear of rows & violence, largely because my father managed to control his temper up there. However I do still have happy memories of London Christmases, too. Then came marriage to a man who loved all of it, and for the majority of our 40+ years together it was a wonderful time. Unfortunately he changed totally and we ended up divorcing. Now our children keep up the traditions, still come to me if only for the day itself, & I’m still surrounded by love. (XDH rings us all on the day, btw, but has chosen to live in a country which doesn’t “do” Xmas). All in all I don’t make comparisons because I do realise how fortunate I am and have been. Wish I could share that.

valdavi

keepingquiet

I remember watching it but soon went off it as I thought it was a bit posh for posh people.

I agree about the magic of Chrsitmas though- for me it still lies in the music which can transport me back to childhood in just a few notes...

This - especially when children are singing

Little kids singing Away In A Manger will invariably have me groping for the tissues!

But the other day little Gdd2 (5) almost reduced me to the same state by singing for me the carol she’d been learning at school. It was Little Donkey, with actions. Apparently her class will be singing it at the Nativity play. It’s a C of E primary that still does such things, thank goodness.

When my S was at Primary school , nearly 50 years ago now, one of hid classmates a small boy named Malcolm had the most wonderful voice.He did go on to a Cathedral Choir school.
One year he may have been 7/8 he sang the 5th verse of In the Bleak Midwinter as a solo.
When he sang” what can I give him? I give my heart” the whole room had tears streaming, I can feel them coming now.
It has stayed in my mind all these years, totally mesmerising and unforgettable.
Children’s Nativity’s must never be allowed to go.

In the Bleak Midwinter, my absolute favourite carol, aside from small children singing Away in a Manger, which always brings a tear to the eye.

I've had a sudden memory of being in the school choir and processing down the aisle at our local church as we sang, The Little Drummer Boy with the school band playing behind us. It just gave me goosebumps. It was how we closed the term. Sadly it's no longer done because the school now is much too large.

Most of my teaching career was spent in Infants/ Early Years. I have wonderful memories of so many Nativities and Christmas concerts, often preparations began directly after the October break. I remember, in the 80s, taking my Singer sewing machine into our Infants' activity room to run up simple costumes made from flannelette sheets and old curtains! We were spoiled when ready made costumes became available and as our wee school was big in music and drama, we always had some budget to cope. I remember the shepherds' headgear, freshly pressed checked T towel held in place by a snake belt or plaited curtain tieback!

I just loved Christmas time at school, seeing the excitement of the wee ones when they still 'believed', and hearing their beautiful voices singing 🎶 traditional himself like Away in a Manger and Liitle Donkey, but also newer ones such as Come and join the Celebration and When is He Coming?

I've just bought the Wee Boy a Nativity sticker book, nice way to revisit the Christmas Story. For myself, I'll begin Advent re reading Norah Lofts' How far to Bethlehem ? I came late to this lovely book, written in the 60s, found it recommended on GN I think on Terribull's fantastic book thread.

I'm definitely not ready for Christmas this year, another first without DH. I need to get a wiggle on. Last week DS1 and DDIL1 gave me a surprise gift, they'd had one of DH'S Christmas jumpers made into a big Christmas cushion for me. ❤️🎄

I'm loving this thread, thanks again NanKate.

Oops, traditional hymns, not himself...maybe 🎅 will bring me new specs 👓