Christmas When You Were Growing Up

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

I don't think that Black Friday really works in Britain - in this country shoppers are (or should be in a stereotypical way) calm, friendly and are very good at queueing - well, around 50 years ago at least. Black Friday indicates the opposite - people getting hurt, security guards having their work cut out, police being called etc. In recent years I have tried to avoid shopping on those days. We just cannot adopt American traditions like that - it just doesn't work very well over here. And I would stay away from Oxford Street in Central London on those days as well.

Around 10 to 15 years ago, Black Friday (now Mad Friday) meant the Friday before Christmas (17th to 23rd December) where people get drunk and legless, and all that sort of thing. In Wales, Black Friday means something different like that:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wal...riday-in-wales

I prefer "Back to normal Monday" (4th to 10th January) which is the week before Blue Monday.

[Arran]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

I think that one of the biggest differences between Christmas in the 1990s and Christmas now is that people bought gifts in shops but increasingly buy gifts online now. Town centres used to be packed out with shoppers in the run up to Christmas but in more recent years crowds have noticeably dwindled. Thousands of kids would descend on Toys R Us every December to pick out toys they wanted. More often than not, parents bought the toys at times when their kids weren't with them and it was commonplace for popular toys to sell out. One year desperate parents were buying Thunderbirds Tracy Island off other parents in shopping centres and the Toys R Us car park at more than twice the price when shops had sold out. Toys R Us is no more.

[tex]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

So...black friday and cyber monday, does anybody wait to do xmas shopping on these days and are there substantial savings to be had? Some circles are saying that its all a con and that the prices being offered on many goods can be found at most times of the year. Its also being blamed for the death of the high street and one of the main reasons so many shops are shutting down. if so i am guilty as charged because i buy most things online at christmas.

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

Was it true that these post boxes came to an end because bullies posted razor blades to kids that they didn't like?

I have never heard of that one, but if one gets to the age where one starts to shave then it could be their way of trying to tell you something...

[Zincubus]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

Have they come to an end? If so, I didn't know. I've never heard about razor blades being posted. It sounds like an urban myth, like razor blades in apples at Halloween, but I don't know. When my son was at junior school in the early 2000s there were still postboxes at his school.

Yeah .. sounds a bit like the stories that you get your head shoved down the toilet when ya first go to high school


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[staffslad]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

Was it true that these post boxes came to an end because bullies posted razor blades to kids that they didn't like?

Have they come to an end? If so, I didn't know. I've never heard about razor blades being posted. It sounds like an urban myth, like razor blades in apples at Halloween, but I don't know. When my son was at junior school in the early 2000s there were still postboxes at his school.

[Arran]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

I know it has been mentioned before, but a lot of Primary Schools in the 1980s had a portable cardboard post box (painted red of course) which would usually be situated next to the secretary's office where one could send Christmas cards to people in other classes as soon as the start of December came around, as long as you wrote the recipient's name on the envelope, along with the class number or teacher's name at the top, and the monitors (aka amateur postmen) would sort it out and send them along to the relevant classes the next school day.

Was it true that these post boxes came to an end because bullies posted razor blades to kids that they didn't like?

[staffslad]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

I remember the school postbox at primary school and someone bringing cards round to each class. At secondary school it was just the usual card exchanges, no postbox. I, too, used to look forward to getting a card from the girls. I kept a card I got from a girl I really liked for years afterward.

I wonder if the generation growing up will keep up the tradition of sending paper cards or will just greet each other by texts, facebook posts and other electronic means?

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

I must add that I have not posted those Christmas cards just yet, mind you - I plan to do that in around a week's time, travelling around the different red post boxes in Nottingham (and probably beyond as well...)

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

£100 on postage stamps must be around 200 cards!..I applaud you

143 Christmas cards so far this year - I counted them by numbering the back of each envelope so that I could keep track of them!

Writing letters and cards is my preferred method of communication - I am a bit of a Henry Root or Robin Cooper at times (even with the "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wels" type of letters that I send!) I feel that it is better than communicating face to face because of my anxiety and social difficulties.

Also, as I said before, you can make a lot of friends (or at least try to) by posting them a Christmas card each year - who needs Facebook when you can do it the traditional way?

[tex]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

£100 on postage stamps must be around 200 cards!..I applaud you

[George 1978]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

Yes, growing up we would get many Christmas cards from neighbours all round our estate. Nowadays, we get hardly any. Most have either passed away or moved away, and the new ones just don't have anywhere near the sense of community that used to exist. Social isolation is a problem now and it is going to get worse in the future.

I know it has been mentioned before, but a lot of Primary Schools in the 1980s had a portable cardboard post box (painted red of course) which would usually be situated next to the secretary's office where one could send Christmas cards to people in other classes as soon as the start of December came around, as long as you wrote the recipient's name on the envelope, along with the class number or teacher's name at the top, and the monitors (aka amateur postmen) would sort it out and send them along to the relevant classes the next school day. I used to enjoy it when the girls sent me Christmas cards - I used to love their handwriting! But it is that community spirit within an institution such as a school that helps that sort of thing. If a national corporation like the Royal Mail can do it for 310 days a year, then surely a small school can.

And even now I still try and keep that spirit going - as I said before in early December I spend over £100 on stamps and send Christmas cards in the post to people I have known over the years who have been in the same groups and organisations that I have been a member of, and have kept in touch - one organisation I was a member of had a booklet a few years ago which listed over 120 members with addresses, and they are familiar with me because of that, and I do try and send them all one in December. As a result, I do get quite a few of them plastered all over my walls by the start of the fourth week of December. My late mother used to say that one should do as one would be done by, in other words, if you are nice to someone then they should be nice to you in return, although in present day 2018 style, that isn't always the case anymore compared to 30 or 40 years ago.

And birthdays (my own of course) I think of as being a similar thing - however, birthdays are worse than Christmas as they often fall on ordinary days of the year. I hardly get any birthday cards each year, but I got loads for my 40th this year as I wrote to people I knew using a fictitious alias as "my friend", referring to myself as the "third person" and telling them that it was his (my) birthday coming up - I was lucky to get two each year but I got around 45 of them in time for my birthday from friends, neighbours where I used to live and distant relations that I had not heard from in years. Admittedly, not all of them responded but a good proportion did - it did get a bit controversial in some ways but it was worth it at the end of the day. It was a milestone and I wanted it to be special - because of my social difficulties I had made that extra effort.

[tex]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

Yes, growing up we would get many Christmas cards from neighbours all round our estate. Nowadays, we get hardly any. Most have either passed away or moved away, and the new ones just don't have anywhere near the sense of community that used to exist. Social isolation is a problem now and it is going to get worse in the future.

I know it's been blamed for a lot but the advent of mobile phones has killed the art of conversation, many people will now send a greeting by text instead of selecting, writing and then posting a card. I believe a card can also be sent digitally now

[staffslad]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

A great sense of community rarely seen these days unfortunately

Yes, growing up we would get many Christmas cards from neighbours all round our estate. Nowadays, we get hardly any. Most have either passed away or moved away, and the new ones just don't have anywhere near the sense of community that used to exist. Social isolation is a problem now and it is going to get worse in the future.

[tex]

Re: Christmas When You Were Growing Up

From 1978 to 1994 my parents would organise an annual Christmas party for pensioners on our estate. They formed an informal committee together with 3 other local friends and neighbours to help them. To fund the party, they would hold jumble sales in our local Working Men's Club and also had bingo nights in our house--once per month during the spring and summer when it was warm and light at night. Around the middle of October, my mother and I would draw up an invitation, have it copied and deliver it to all the houses where pensioners lived. There would be a slip to fill in and return to our house so they would know how many were coming to the party. The party would be held at the Working Men's Club, only a few hundred yards away. They would provide a traditional Christmas 3-course meal for the pensioners, all cooked and served by my parents and their 3 friends. Anyone who had trouble walking was taken by car--often I did that job. After the party meal there would be songs and bingo. The pensioners also got an envelope each with a couple of pounds in it. Around 70 pensioners would come to the party, which was held on the first or second Saturday in December. Only once was the weather so bad that the party had to be postponed until the following week.

A great sense of community rarely seen these days unfortunately