Christmas Dinners when you were young.

Nobody visited us on Christmas Day, apart from anything else, there was usually snow,and no relatives had a car.We went to church in the morning and then came back and cooked our Christmas dinner, usually a chicken, one memorable year it was a goose, and we all hated it.

Yes Church and capon.

We always shared Christmas with other family, alternating homes which were some miles apart and so Christmas included some hairy journeys in old cars held together by wire (literally!). Dinner was always turkey, very traditional. anyone else then get offered bread with turkey dripping for supper?

Most years we spent on our own although I remember one year going to my grandmother and staying a couple of days. None of our relatives had a car and I think there was not so much public transport on Christmas Day. We usually had a chicken as my dad killed one of ours.

We had no visitors at Christmas as relatives lived a long way away. But they used to send down a large Melton Mowbray pork pie each year and we would have a slice for breakfast! I have no idea why and always thought it very odd.
We would always have a capon, never turkey. On the sideboard were satsumas, crystallised stem ginger, Turkish delight, Newberry Fruits, sugared almonds figs, dates, and many different nuts.

We always had relatives over for Christmas. Both Grandmothers and others like spinster aunts, sometimes other families with children. Sometimes Dad would have to be at work so the time of the meal was dependant on the shift worked. Sometimes we went to the Panto.
I think I had much better Christmases then than all this competitive stuff about who has bought the most presents, who got the most, who is invited where. Now it just seems to be a cause of argument
SPF

Most often a piece of pork, a very rare treat was chicken which came in a tall tin. I never saw fresh chicken in the late forties/ early fifties. If neighbour had been out shooting we would be given a rabbit.

We never had any relatives and there was always a chicken. I remember that our neighbours had a turkey and it was considered to be very upper class. Only rich people had turkey! I can't remember having Christmas pudding. Probably we did but it hasn't stuck in my memory.

No rellies, chicken for dinner, chocolates, nuts, satsumas, dates - what great treats - don't think our grandchildren could ever understand how exciting it was to enjoy food that you would never have at any other time of the year....

We used to go to my nan and grandads in Birmingham, they kept chickens so that's what we had and vegetables from the garden, they didn't have much themselves, but they shared it with us, a family of eight. I also remember the air raid shelter, the outside toilet and the China po under the bed, but that's another story!

I really don't have a memory of Christmas dinners but remember finding sixpence in my Christmas pudding which was always with my Mums white sauce. The thing that stands out for me was going to the off licence with my Dad and buying bottles of R.Whites lemonade and a bottle of Tizer for us kids,a bottle each of Port and Sherry, Babycham for my grown up sisters my Dad only drank a glass of Shandy and this was the only time we had any drinks in the house.

Yes the fruit bowl and nuts at Christmas and no other time. Were they rationed? I guess so.

A large chicken, bred in Brecon, was our dinner. We shared with my mother's family, who lived next door but one. Prior to dinner, the neighbours would get together for a drink and a few cigars. With everyone a couple of sheets to the wind, I've no idea how the meal made it to the table at all.

On one occasion, my grandfather had to be helped to bed, and my uncle threw up in the grate.

We always went to my grandparents for Christmas dinner (sometimes we stayed overnight on Christmas Eve and Santa always found us!) Dinner was always Turkey and as a special treat we has frozen peas instead of tinned. Granddad used to buy really good crackers, and there was always a box of Newberry Fruits and Granddad would smoke a cigar.

We didn't have relatives visiting at Christmas as they lived a couple of hundred miles away, except one year when my aunt, uncle and cousin visited from Scotland.
We had chicken which was a luxury in the 50s (beef was cheaper) and turkey when I was older. We had nuts, satsumas, dates, chocolates and Mum always made Xmas cake and pudding (which I later did for years, but stopped now). My parents had Harveys Bristol cream sherry to drink and we were allowed a sip when older.
With a Scottish father, we always celebrated New Year and had friends round.

Always a capon. We alternated Christmas Day tea with friends. We all sat around the table so there was the selection of chairs brought from home and borrowed from neighbours. I remember my dad and uncle crossing the road carrying 2 chairs under each arm and a roll up smoldering between each of their lips. They never dropped a chair and more importantly they never dropped their fags.

Always a chicken at Christmas, a special once a year treat, as very expensive. Beef was cheaper in the 50's. One satsuma and a couple of nuts in a stocking and one small present. Lucky baby boomers, living it up....forgive me but getting a bit fed up with constant griping about our supposed gilded lives.

chicken for everyone but me,I didn't and still dont eat anything that had feathers,I usually had ham ,although there was christmas pudding the trife was the star of the day and the christmas pudding was often sliced and fried with bacon for breakfast on boxing day .I remember my Dad working on Christmas day too.New Year was the important one in Glasgow ,with family and anyone who showed up at the door all sitting down to three course meal at midnight...traditional steak pie every year ,fruit wine for the kids and sherry for mum,dad liked a dram and granny liked a nice claret

Chicken for us and being Scottish, steak pie at New year. I cannot remember having Christmas pudding- it would be more likely to have been trifle I would think.

We had a capon, later on a turkey and I remember happy Christmases with aunties, uncles and cousins who lived nearby but they must habe come for supper not dinner (lunch-time).

There was always Christmas pudding with sixpences wrapped in greaseproof paper in it; I still use my mother's recipe nowadays.

Supper was bridge rolls with ham and cold chicken or turkey, pickles, home-made sausage rolls, mince pies, cake and trifle!

How did we manage it all.

However, my uncle played the piano professionally so he would play and we would push the furniture to the sides of the room and dance, so we must have danced off the calories!

Turkey for lunch followed by Christmas pud for mum n dad and trifle for my brother and I.
We never had visitors as far as I can remember and we certainly didn't go to other relatives.I don't know why maternal grand parents didn't spend the day with us as they lived near by. They might have come for tea on Boxing day.

We had Capon too, with the usual veggies, never had a Turkey, we did have a bought Christmas Pud though which my Mum put sixpences in, although thinking back she probably just put the sixpence in my bit:-).

I don't remember visitors, but I think they came on boxing day for tea when we had a " Posh" salad. Anyone remember those salads, how they were done?

ham or whatever, a hardboiled egg cut in two, whole spring onions
halved tomatoes, radishes, and some HUGE lettuce leaves with salad cream( Not mayo) squirted in a strip on the leaf. I hated them so much.

We had chicken. Dad made the Christmas puddings. No one came for lunch but my grandparents came to tea which included that rare treat jelly and blancmange!

I love this thread. It's brought back so many memories. We always had the fruit bowl at Christmas and a bowl of nuts, also a bottle of orange squash - all these things were only seen at Christmas. Christmas dinner was chicken with all the usual vegetables, but no broccoli because this wasn't popular at the time. I can't remember tea time at all but I expect it involved chicken sandwiches and Christmas cake. Mum always made two cakes, one for my birthday which is just before Christmas and one for Christmas Day. She used to say it was a good way of checking to see if the cake was properly cooked. When I was seven I didn't have a Christmas Cake but an ice cream cake - total luxury and without a fridge I have no idea how mum managed to keep it from melting. My bachelor uncle used to bring a huge box of chocolates at Christmas which dad and I munched out way through into the New Year.