General Chat

When I was a child, each xmas was hosted by one member of mums family. They took it in turns to have the whole family for xmas day lunch or boxing day.
There were 11 grandchildren and 11 adults.

No one had a large house so the lunch was done in 3 sittings with the youngest kids first.
We always had 2 of nana's chickens. Uncle did what he had to do the day before and we were none the wiser! Home grown spuds, and veg, stuffing etc. Loved pulling the crackers and getting a wee toy and a joke.

Desert was always xmas pudding and cream or fruit salad and ice cream.

Later on there would be a cheese board, crackers, pickled onions and xmas cake.
We didn't get our presents til the lunch and dishes had all been done. Then each Aunt would hand out their gifts one by one. This always took ages. But I loved the tins of toffees and a selection box if you were lucky.
We only ever got sweets as a treat either at holidays or occasionally on a sat eve...pic n mix.

At my other grandparents, little gifts would be hidden and on boxing day we spent ages up and down stairs looking for them.it kept us busy whilst the adults had a cuppa in peace. At their house we always had a stocking with a tangerine, some nuts and a few sweeties.


We didn't have much in the 60s and 70s but we never grumbled and never went without.


Thesedays its so hard to buy gifts, because all year round people seem to be able to buy anything they want so xmas isn't that special anymore. Also the amount that some are spending on their children is far too much.I know of some that get at least £500 spent on them. mine never got more than £100, some years only £50 but they never complained once.


I think years ago, xmas was more simple and less complicated, less greedy too. if everyone only bought the food they actually needed, there would be less wastage and plenty to go round for all.


Florence in the hebrides

All our parcels were wrapped in brown paper and string which grandad carefully recycled the following year if it didn't get ripped!
:-)

I use to love Christmas my mum would be baking I would help with mince pies & Christmas cake she would be up most Christmas eve cooking the capon wrapping presents for my brother & Myself .it just felt special we got one main present I got pram & a doll my brother got a bike one year & I rode it round the houses I would be about 10.he was 7 . I Married we had a tin of chicken breast in jelly 1st year until mum & dad invited us to a surprise family meal .oh memories eh seems such a long time ago .when my sons were small we had main meal lunch time & then Mum & Dad MIL & FIL would be there later in the day my Dad.did delivery work so he knew a butcher handy that & bakery & he delivered market produce we didn't go short of much .life is what you make . Now two of us for Christmas Day how life changes but I keep good memories close especially this time of year Have A great Christmas Whatever you do & whomever you spend it with <3 <3 Barbara

My Mums family where very poor When her Dad was killed in the war
My Mum never owned a dolly
All they got for Christmas was a few nuts an Orange and a few pennies
Where as I was totally ruined as a child
Her little Princess had to have everything :-( :-(

Christmas was very different for my mum. Raised only by her father in the 60s and early 70s christmas dinner might have consisted of fish fingers. She was lucky enough to get two annuals every year though along with a few other things. They also had nuts in the house at Christmas. As a result of what she feels as lack at Christmas she is determined that her children and their respective other halves never feel a lack of anything.

Christmas in the late 80s and early 90s trying to stay up for Santa and failing miserably. Waking up on Christmas morning to a stocking to open and enjoy until your parents got up. My dad going downstairs first to see if Santa had been. Lunch with turkey and all the trimmings followed by a VHS that one of us had received whilst our parents rested. Followed by family board games. Despite being in my 30s now the only things that have changed are the VHS and the stockings. Too old for stockings now and the VHS has been replaced by DVDs but other than that and Mr Owl coming nothing much has changed.

make that 4 months Joy as some are also closed boxing day,,,,,,,how very dare they,,,,,, ;-) :-D.


some will at their wits end moaning about that.



:-D.

Kay oh yes the school party, the excitement. Primary school for me was just post war so those parties with party food were special. It didn’t take much to please us then.

The shops will be shut for a whole day
Dont forget to stock up with

3 months of extra food
That may very well end up in the bin :-D :-D

and nobody remembers the -----------

"""""school party"""""where everyone took something, and the school cooks did all the prep..making jellies,etc,and you could wear a party frock...…..if you had one.


,,,,,,,,,,bring dish and spoon and put a ribbon or wool round the spoon handle so you got your own to take home,,

It never bothered me, AnnG, as I only ever knew where the books were kept so everything else was always a surprise.

I remember being Mary in one school Christmas play so I must have done something right in class that year! Those plays never varied so did not tax teachers' imagination - unlike my children's and grandchildren's Christmas plays which, while managing to get the same message across, usually had specially written songs and topical and up-to-date themes, some fantastically written. Also, our local school performances now run for two evenings as well as two afternoons which, while great for parents and families, means more work for teachers. The Christmas spirit is alive and well.

And I still love Christmas. <3 :-D

Only once did I go looking for my presents and found a shoulder bag (so must have been about 13 I think). On Christmas morning I was really sorry that I knew what my present was, no surprise at all. I didn't do it again. In those days besides the stocking with small gifts in we only ever had one special present, plus an annual (Loved my Rupert annual). not the loads they get given today.

I remember my Gran had a meat safe in the yard. We had a huge pantry with a very cold slab as the bottom shelf.

I remember that chicken was the Christmas dinner and it was a real treat that we all enjoyed. I also liked sprouts, as did Mum who loved squashed, heated leftover sprouts on hot, thickly-buttered toast. We got the usual tangerine, nuts and sweets in our stockings. Again, a treat because we only ever had sweets, ice cream and lemonade (remember spiders) on Sunday afternoons.

The snow seemed to lay for ages when it came and on school mornings Mum used to manoevre the kitchen table (eventually a Formica table ) from the unheated kitchen into the lounge/diner in front of the huge roaring fire ready for breakfast. (It would have been easier for her to lay the dining table but it was for Sundays and best - remember that?) Porridge followed by hot buttered toast, sometimes with jam - breakfast never tasted as good as then. <3 :-D

As I got older I knew where my Christmas books (usually two or three) would be hidden and, unbeknown to Mum, sat in the bottom of her wardrobe with the door open and read most of them. If I heard her coming I would pull the door closed and sit quietly. I never told her what I got up to. I don't know if she ever knew because it was never mentioned. :-0

Very happy times for us. It leaves you with an abiding love of Christmas.

I feel sorry for those who didn't experience that particular magic - and two of my pals did not have it so good. <3

Gwyn I am pleased somebody else remembers the removal lorries delivering the parcels, although maybe that was only in Hampshire!!

So many good memories for me reading these posts.

I used to love smoothing out the printed tissue paper covering the tangerines and looking at the lovely pictures.
We always had a bowl of nuts on the sideboard for Christmas. My sister and I waited for the adults to carefully crack into the walnuts. We would put cotton wool in the half shells as little beds for minute rubber dolls that we had.

We lived in Hampshire and every year my grandmother in Wales prepared and dressed one of her home-reared chickens and posted it to us.
My sister and I would wait at the roadside entrance to our house, looking out for the removal lorry, which delivered Christmas parcels. The bird's arrival was planned for Christmas Eve and always arrived, but Mum always bought a small joint of meat as a back-up, just in case.
Our parcel was well wrapped, but many years later, when I was a Christmas postie, I remember tipping out a sack in the back of the lorry and out fell 2 furry rabbits...........no wrapping at all, each with just a luggage label tied to their back legs.
Health and Safety would take a dim view of that nowadays.

Laying in a big cosy bed on Christmas Eve with my younger brother, toastie hot water bottles too scared to make a move incase we frightened HIM away. Chatting quietly under the blankets about all the things we hoped he would bring. Checking to see if the mince pie and sherry was still intact at the side of the bed.

Then sleepy eyes got too heavy....and bam Dad was waking us up saying he had a roaring fire going and dressing gowns warming...I think he was just as excited as us.

I can see the four of us now eating our thick toast dripping with butter done on the fire and poor mum looking shattered after all the preparations


:-D :-D :-D

Christmas eve was always a hive of excited activity,,,the house was full of the smell of baking.,mince pies ,sausage rolls, cakes etc,,,,,and the chocolate log made smothered in melted chocolate and the little tree stuck on it then sifted with iicing sugar.



finishing off the paperchains and delving in the box for the tree decorations,,,and the fairy was treated with special care. the tree was always done on Christmas eve ..and shes still in operation,although shes been re-dressed ,she has hair and closing eyes,,,,,,,,


the next morning christmas day l. creeping in the dark,it was magical when the room door was opened ....the lights was left on and the whole room was festooned with decorations.and the smell of tangerines and pine and a warm fire and the cards had all been hung up.
...mum&dad must have stayed up all night to do it.then Christmas day the smell of lovely cooking while we marvled at our presents,,,,,and the new box of pretty emboridered hankies from aunty,,,,,, (same every year)

,I remember the first set of lights we ever had it was wonderful.and in a few days later the lovely RAF party in the Sgt Mess to look forward to. with another present and good food.


Shopping must have been a nightmare with no shops opens for at least 2 days for bread and any forgotten extras..


I remember one year the stuffing wasn't remembered and my brother was so upset he refused to eat any lunch......
:-D :-D :.


ps,and we always had a sugar mouse and a bag of chocolate money,a box of smarties,which couldn't be open till after tea.then only a nibble of the mouse or a few smarties,they had to last us through the holidays.

Main meal was always at lunch time

'The human imagination breaks free at Christmas, urged on by the desire to see our post-Brexit country as it isn't'.

Every year we'd go to my Grandparents for Christmas, main meal at lunchtime. Every year she'd serve the food then remember she'd forgotten to do the gravy so opened a can of cream of chicken soup. Every year for tea there would be a salad and of course it was all greenhouse raised so not at it's prime.

Senses of Christmas past

Do you remember
How Christmas smelled when you were a child?
Aromatic pine of the tree
Bath salts wrapped for a favourite aunt.
And the food,
Mince pies, roast meat, Christmas pud,
Fruit cake, tangerines, appetizingly good.
The coal fire banked up for Christmas morning,
Chestnuts roasting, burst without warning.

Do you remember
The sounds of Christmas when you were a child?
Rattle of the letter box, cards arriving,
Parcels in removal vans, post workers shouting,
Parents’ whispers outside the door,
Crackle of paper
Creak of the bedroom floor,
Excited shouts of sister or brother
Laughter of father and mother.

Do you remember
How Christmas felt when you were a child?
Needles of the tree caught in stockinged feet,
Satin smooth baubles, prickly holly
Metallic tinsel. Scrunchy paper chain,
Bulky stockings, orange in toe.
Hard parcel knobbly parcels fastened with a bow.
New pages of a book written by a favourite name.

Do you remember
How Christmas tasted when you were a child?
Spicy pudding followed succulent meat
Creamy brazil nuts, chestnuts bitter sweet.
Melting rich chocolates
Fizzy drinks a special treat.
Cold ice cream
Tangy apples and tangerines sweet.

Do you remember
How Christmas looked when you were a child?
Sparkling lights on the Christmas tree,
Tinsels baubles fairy too,special ornaments so much to see.
Welcoming fire burning bright
Carol singers cheeks aglow,
Parents’ love, eyes alight
As they saw your excitement grow.


Where did it all go.