12 replies to this topic

[warringtonsaint]

With it being "that time of year" it is natural I suppose to think about Christmases past, and fondly remember things as they used to be...........

I remember going to buy the turkey with my Nan, and then helping her to pluck it - we only used to have chicken and turkey at Christmas time back then (and I'm only 49!!) not like today. She lived in Chapel St (Naomi Wilson, no 65 if anyone remembers her!) and it was a great adventure for me to help choose one of these great huge birds, pluck the thing and help make the stuffing!

I also remember going to the Church Service on Christmas Eve - again a tradition that seems to have gone by the board now.

Remember my dad working shifts at Pilks and sometimes not being home on Christmas morning if he was on days, or having dinner early if he was on afternoons; how he managed to stay up all day when he was on nights is beyond me!

Christmas dinner all sat round the table - the whole family, uncles aunts etc........

When it was icy sliding down Atherton St where I lived - from Windle St down to Duke St, scooting across Cooper St on the way hoping there were no cars coming!

Snowmen in Viccy Park........

Mickey Myers Christmas plays at Parish Church School........

Listening for the reindeers on the roof - and hearing them!

Nostalgia is a great thing!

What are your favourite memories of Christmases gone by?

[Carr Millite]

Leaving mince pies and a glass of whisky (my Mum's favourite tipple) for Father Christmas was one.
Being too excited to sleep then waking up at 4 a.m. and going to wake my brother and we'd be sitting in my bedroom surrounded by wrapping paper and opened Christmas stockings and selection boxes which we'd be eating when my Dad found us and made us go back to bed. Two of my all time favourite presents were a tiny washing machine for my dolls clothes and a tennis racquet. I still remember rushing out to play tennis with it on Christmas morning. On my own.
I've never seen them for years but those small chocolate parasol things we hung on the Christmas tree in those days. I didn't know they were parasols at the time, I called them chocolate umbrellas and I've never stopped looking for them.

[suste]

The grass in the hallway off Rudolph's feet and the half eaten carrot..........................

[Le200]

The nice big box with the Action Man 'Deserter' not in it

Seriously, the smell of fruit is my only real memory

[gypsygeoff]

The smell of a real Christmas tree,it had a sort of magical aroma.Then the nightmare of ridding the lino of the needles.

[suste]

Those orange an lemon jelly slice thingies you always got in a hamper.

[Alan]

Mine go back to th'owlden days. Making Christmas decorations from crepe paper and those rolls of aluminium tape that wartime pilots used to foil radar

[Nemo]

The magic of Christmas was, for me, creeping down my bed and groping for my stocking: it had a lumpy, scrunchy feel and held such delights as tangerines, Brazil nuts, raisins, and - wonder of wonders - Quality Street chocolates.

That was about 1951.

And about that time, as I went down the extremely steep stairs, there was a clockwork toy waiting for me.

And there was a little Christmas tree.

[Griffin]

We always had a box of dates, usually with a camel on the front. Bloody awful things, in hindsight. The tangerines were individually wrapped in tissue paper, and had a gorgeous aroma. There was a chap who played a barrel organ in Bridge Street, just outside the covered market. In fact, I remember two. The Rev. Laird White, chaplain of the Deaf and Dumb Institute, and a soutane-wearing Italian priest whose name escapes me.

[sophia]

Nemo, on Dec 15 2007, 08:43 PM, said:

The magic of Christmas was, for me, creeping down my bed and groping for my stocking: it had a lumpy, scrunchy feel and held such delights as tangerines, Brazil nuts, raisins, and - wonder of wonders - Quality Street chocolates.

That was about 1951.

And about that time, as I went down the extremely steep stairs, there was a clockwork toy waiting for me.

And there was a little Christmas tree.

I was a bit latert than you, in the sixties, but I was still delighted with the fruit in my stocking with the half a crown in the apple. I wonder if parents then felt under pressure to buy as much as they could afford like they do now, or if they thought that was enough for us.

[Griffin]

In the sixties, I used to listen to various overseas shortwave radio stations. On a Sunday morning, a regular feature was the Happy Station programme from Radio Nederland in Hilversum. The station had the distinction of being the first one with regular broadcasts, even before 2LO in London, the forerunner of the BBC. The host of the Happy Station was the late Edward Startz. By the sixties, he had hosted the programme for many years, and had also worked with the Dutch Resistance during the war. The programme was a mixture of record requests and greetings in many languages. Startz said he spoke "half a dozen; and a dozen, half" and he moved seamlessly between them. The Christmas programme was fairly predictable. Every year, he played Christmas songs and carols from around the world, and I still recall most of them. When he died, the programme was taken over by Tom Meyer, but was never quite the same. Now, the obligatory Christmas radio programme is the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin on Christmas Eve.

[stonehenge-2006]

A crib outside of nearly every church, especially Lowe House, it was lovely. And the fact that churches used to be open at all times. sadly no more