*~*Xmas Memories of Yester year!*~*

[MommaMystique]

Xmas Memories
Of
Yester Year.

Every year as I get out the Xmas decorations I have a nostalgic visit to the memories of Xmas's Past.
This is helped by two very special boxes which contain recent 'memories'.
When I was preparing for my eldests first Xmas I read a story in a magazine re collecting Xmas memories for the children.
So I started the Xmas memory chests off.......
Every Xmas decoration that the children have ever made at school/nursery/home are in their own special box of memories.
Every year they go with me to choose and buy one new Tree decoration each.
These boxes will be part of their 18th birthday gifts.
When they come to decorate their own homes for the first Xmas, they will have a box of memories to decorate their tree with.

[Smee_1972]

Christmas

Momma you always post the loveliest memories!


Christmas as a kid, for me, meant the following.........gagging for Mum & Dad to put the tree and decorations up...Lurpak Butter and Alpen for Christmas when we wouldn't normally have had such luxuries (normally it was Tesco's margerine and cornflakes!)...Val Doonican on the telly on Christmas Eve...The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise Christmas specials...not being able to get to sleep on Christmas Eve then waking at 5.30am on Christmas morning and debating whether it was late enough to jump on Mum and Dad to wake them up (which, of course, it always was)...scoffing chocs for breakfast...The Great Escape, The Wizard of Oz and James Bond...reading the Christmas Radio Times and TV Times (you had to buy both back then!) and fighting with my sis to be the first to read cover to cover and circle all the stuff we simply had to watch (no video recorders back then unless you were REALLY posh)...Mum sitting on the sofa putting crosses into the bottom of hundreds of sprouts...Nan & Grandad coming to stay...


I have since lost my Mum and both Nans and Grandads. How I wish I could, for one Christmas Day only, turn back the clock.


~ Smee_1972

[Wil]

Me too, (and my Dad) so now I need to be those memories for my little boy

Would be nice to pop back, though. How about 1972?

Edit - I've just found my boxed Flight Deck which I got around 73-74 (5?) so I'll go for that year. Dragging a chair out from the kitchen to attach the spool to, getting tangled in fishing thread and lining the carrier deck with tiny soldiers so they got splattered as the plane came down. Add to that Noel Edmonds going around a hospital or xmas TOTPs on TV and things'll be just right

[Smee_1972]

Christmas!

Well I am 34 (practically 35 - huh) so I think I would go back to about 1978 - 1979, I think. We still lived in our old house at that time and that's where all my best memories are situated.

To think I moaned about being sent to bed - I now wish I was little again and would love to go back; being 'grown-up' isn't all it's cracked up to be!


~Smee_1972

[MommaMystique]

We are probably this year going to face the death of the magic of Xmas with our eldest child. Lucky for us we still got two little ones to keep it going for and by time the youngest is about to give up on Santa... it will be grand children time!

Wishes this next week away so she can bring out the tree and deccies!

[MommaMystique]

Thank you Smee..... sometimes we need to sit and recall the beauty we have seen/felt/heard and know we will experience it again.

[Aidan]

Sorry to hear about your Mam & Grandparents Anna, God rest.

My most bizarre Xmas memory ( or indeed that of any of my siblings who still slag me about it ) :
We were making our way out of the church after midnight Mass. There was an elderly lady in front of me, none too quick or too slim. In my hurry to get out to see had Santy come I muttered "Go on, you great oaf !". She didn't hear me but my brother did and of course he ratted me out to my father, who told me I'd have been for it if it hadn't been Xmas.

Momma - if your eldest knows about Santy ( I assume you won't have to sit her down & break the news !) she'll appreciate being ' in on' the job of keeping the magic going for the younger ones. It'll make her feel very special.

[armchair_scouse]

Ah, Xmas memories.

Me and my twin rifling through the house, trying to find out where the Xmas presents were hidden. This included some very precarious standing on the backs of chairs at full stretch just to reach high enough to see into the top cupboards.

Xmas Radio Times/TV Times (yes, you did have to buy them both). Reading them cover to cover and marvelling at all the films and good shows to watch, planning to watch them all but never being able to do so (yep, video recorders were probably only found at TV stations back then, you may remember presenters saying 'run the VT'!!).

TV - Seeing films on TV for the first time (before the days of satellite TV), BBC and ITV rolling out their big guns and putting their best films on at the same time. Xmas specials of other shows - longer than the normal shows and consisting of celebrity guests and or special treats compiled for the Xmas show (outtakes, funny moments, that kind of thing). Morecambe and Wise show - required watching; happy memories of Glenda Jackson, Angela Rippon (the newsdesk that split in two), André Preview(!!), and M&W doing the 'There Is Nothing Like A Dame' sketch with all those celebs. Ah, and also Elton John, being toyed with by Eric Morecambe.

Uncles/Aunties visiting - we were lucky (spoiled even!) in that we had very kind uncles/aunties who gave us Xmas presents too. So, for a week or two leading up to Xmas Day, we would get visits from people bringing us more presents. It was doubly good - great to see them (and our cousins too), plus gifts on top - what a bonus.

TV ads - do you remember Woolworths used to do extra long ads for the Xmas period that involved lots of celebrities? I am trying to think of other Xmas special ads, but the Woolworth ones certainly stuck in the mind.

Xmas quizzes and games in the newspapers - The Daily Mirror (and other papers) always seemd to do a 3 or 4 page special with crosswords, quizzes and other games, just before Xmas. It was like an added fun reminder that Xmas was about to arrive.

Quality Street was our main sweet purchase, and it was only bought at Xmas. Back then there was still enough novelty about the sweets that people didn't know automatically which one was which from the wrapping, hence people would pick a few randomly. These days, the green triangles and the purple 'nut in caramels' are practically harvested first!!

Nuts (same to you!!) We would always have a bowl of nuts for Xmas. Walnuts, brazil nuts, cobnuts, that sort of thing. I remember when we first got one of those 'ratchet' nutcrackers (where you pump the handle and it crushes the nut). So much easier to use than the traditional one, which hurt my young hands.

Putting up the decorations - making paper chains with strips of coloured paper, trying to blow up balloons and hurting your cheeks because you were too young to blow them up, helping Dad determine if the decco's were evenly spread across the room.

Radio - when I was about 18-19, Capital Radio played it's Hall Of Fame Top 500 records over the Xmas period. My brother and I took turns to 'man' the tape recorder and tried to tape as many songs as we could. I still have those tapes today, with the DJs who have long since moved on from Capital.

Excitement - there was a tangible excitement about Xmas, a quality that has long since passed me by. Whether it was the not being able to go to sleep on Xmas Eve, or the anticipation of devouring a pile of freshly wrapped presents, there was excitement there. I don't know when it went, but I really miss it. That said, I am lucky in that I still have the joy of having a good meal in good company, be it family and/or friends, and if we're lucky, some good entertainment either on the telly, or playing games after the meal.

[Smee_1972]

It's Christmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!

Thanks for your kind words, Aidan. I guess it's thanks to my Mum that I have this love of Christmas - she'd always start her prepartions in October - that's when she'd make the puddings and sometimes would even buy Christmas presents in summer! Bless.

And armchair - wow, what memories, they almost exactly match mine!!! Are you an early 70s baby, perchance? It was the Andre Preview reference that made me think you're of my age group!


Smee_1972

[SpiralCoolStuff]

My main christmas childhood memory was that every christmas eve, my mum & dad would let me take a small present or a full christmas stocking to bed with me so i could open it when i woke up in the morning. Gave me something to do till it was time to get up heh heh

And we always had christmas crackers, and still do. And chocolate tree decorations! Every year we we get em for the tree heh

[dondons69]

I'm with you on the lurpak smee - we only ever had it at christmas too! Also the only time we had a full english breakfast with the works and a glass of bucks fizz for breakfast mmmmm, playing out with our toys riding new bikes, not like these days where kids don't know how to play out they are stuck in on game consoles.
Momma - love the idea about the decs, I've started on a memory box for my little girl already and I'm going to get her to make a dec each year, as we always said she'll be having her box when she's either 18 or 21

[Smee_1972]

Christmas!

Yeah Lurpak - will always remind me of Christmas!


~Smee_1972

[SpiralCoolStuff]

Lurpak.....the best butter around