Christmas When You Were Growing Up

[George 1978]

Most of the shops have put decorations or a tree up - Heart Xmas started around a month ago, and some of the movie channels on Sky around the 312-319 mark have had Christmas films on since September. And now it has been snowing outside!

It made me think: "should I, or shouldn't I get the Christmas tree out just yet, or shall I wait another week?"

[beccabear67]

Some people seem more Christmas mad than I ever remember, going overboard and early with decorations. Halloween seems to have become such a major event for some as well.

I think this year I could get into the spirit more than usual, but feeling a bit more worn out than other times my parents are the opposite and say they just want to go to a casino on the day (which they've never done before). Don't know what you've got until it's gone... I suspect we've had our last traditional turkey and spouts dins. Last year nobody even bothered with pressies.

[andrec]

We seem to be putting our tree and what passes for decorations up later each year. This year it will probably be around the 20th Dec when I bite the bullet, trudge into the loft and get them down. We have a big Santa that sings but haven't put it up for years as our dog eyes it with suspicion.

As for Christmas Dinner, we will go the traditional route, but only turkey breast as we can't justify a whole bird. In contrast with many, I do enjoy Christmas Pudding, and usually have to also eat half of my wife's portion. My mother would make our pudding every year, but now that she is no longer with us, we just get one from the shop. Actually, we get two, one for Christmas Day and one for Easter Sunday.

I also like mince pies. My grandmother would make literally scores of them each year. They were so good that her neighbours would bring the ingredients to her and ask her to make some for them. My mother also made them, but now that gran and mom are gone we just buy from the shop. My dad buys some and gives them to the people at our local surgery as a thank you every year.

[andrec]

From 1976 to, I think, 1982 my uncle and his two children would spend Christmas at our house with us. He had gone through a divorce earlier in 1976 and had custody of his kids. They would arrive Christmas Eve afternoon and leave around the 29th of December. As we only had a three-bedroomed house, my uncle and his son would occupy my bedroom, my uncle's daughter would occupy the third bedroom and I would stay at my gran's house. It was only a two-minute walk to my gran's house so not a problem. I was heavily into cine photography back then, starting off with a silent Super 8 camera and then on to a sound Super 8 after a couple of years. I took at least one reel every Christmas - 3 mins 20 secs per reel for 50 feet. Sadly, those reels are long gone, as is my old cine projector, though I still have the Sankyo sound camera. I wish so much that I still had those films of Christmases back when my aunties and uncles were still with us. I don't actually recall what became of those films. I am hoping they may still be in our loft somewhere, but several searches have turned up nothing, though as our loft is chock-a-block it's possible they are up there hidden among all the boxes.

[andrec]

Just watching random videos about Christmas on YT brought back memories of when my late mom would make a Christmas cake every year. We rarely had a shop-bought one, don't think I tasted one of those until I was well into my twenties. For me, they don't taste so good as a home-made one. I am not really a fan of the icing that shop-bought ones seem to use, where it seems to be cut out of a sheet, though I'm no chef, so just how it seems. Mom would put lemon juice in the icing mix to give it a bit of a tang, and put the icing on so that it wasn't too smooth and actually rather spiky, which was how we liked it. I miss the Christmases of the 70s and 80s so much, just little things like home-made cake and mince pies that made it that bit more special.

my gran had a miniature Christmas tree that was no more than 6 inches in height, complete with tiny baubles and tinsel. When she got too old to bother with a traditional tree it was ideal as she kept it in a cupboard and took it out at Christmas, so it took her only a few seconds to put on top of her telly.