I’m dreaming of an early 90s Christmas

[jacqattacq]

I’m a child of the 80s (born in 77) so am usually nostalgic for those days at christmas time, but for some reason I’m suddenly craving the christmases of my teens:

Shopping with my mates in the newly opened shopping centre and going for a Burger King (FANCY compared to McDonalds back then because it was a novelty), deliberating over which Body Shop gift basket to buy my mum - white musk, dewberry or go rogue and get ananya?

Will my BFF buy me Tribe perfume for Christmas or a Purple Ronnie mug? When is the One Foot in the Grave Christmas special on? Will my dad let me have some Babycham? (Still a thing in the 90s) Can I convince my mum to put up the tacky foil garland decorations instead of all the new Victorian themed stuff that she bought last year when she decided it was all too dated?

Will the sound of christmas morning be a Now album or the Smash Hits compilation? There’s bound to be one of those in my stocking. And will my festive makeup look be created with Miners eyeshadow or the lurid M&S palette that everyone had back then? (Heather Shimmer lipsticks was non negotiable).

The bit about a 1990s Christmas that would be good would be no mobile phones and social media. Even if just for one day.

we apprciated the films that came on at xmas then because u didnt have them on demand-its not the same anymore people are too interested in their phones not sitting together to watch a film

@Howtodeal where do get exclamation from? I tried looking for it a couple of years ago but gave up.

Xmas 1993 I received a Naf Naf coat. That was something special even though it was probably a knock off from the market

WHY WHY WHY have ALL of you neglected to mention the utter Christmas highlight that was the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, truly the signal Christmas had begun!

1977 born here too. I have followed the "Hi" magazine countdown to Christmas 14 day preparation guide and am miffed that the steaming my face over a bowl of water, rinsing my hair with beer n cold water and applying different lotions to different parts of my body has not resulted in me looking like the featured model.

I have kickers for school but dm's for going out in. My best friend and I have been shopping every Saturday in the lead up to Xmas buying mood rings, Athena posters and cassettes from Our Price. We love Ananya perfume from Body Shop best and make up is either Constance Carroll or Rimmel.

Christmas day is all about Top of the Pops special. I am a rocker but secretly love East 17 Stay Another Day, though I would never admit to it. Selection boxes are huge and I have been given Denon separates which for me is THE best present ever. Later on in the evening I will have to ask to use the phone to call my best friend and then have to ask her mum if it is ok to speak to her. We are only allowed 5 minutes so have to fit in what we got and what we are wearing to the boy I fancy's party on the 27th. We know when we are there we will talk to people and laugh with each other as there are no phones or social media to distract everyone and if we make a twat of ourselves it will not be available later for the world to see. Simple times!

I got a bubble bath pack from boots called something like elements. There were four bottles air, fire, earth, water. The earth one smelled like cut grass. Loved it. Still miss it.

Oh my god that stuff was amazing, especially the Earth one, I could not get enough of the smell! They also made sunflower shampoo and shower gel combined which was amazing.

I had a stretchy cream bodysuit that looked like shot silk. It had a gold zip in between my boobs, with a gold starfish pull on it. Worn with tight black designer jeans, and with a see through shirt over the top- I thought I looked amazing .

I'm waking up and hoping my mum got the hints about the ditsy flower cami dress and white ribbed long sleeve t-shirt from New Look. I'm also hoping for a huge stack of CDs (though I may have snuck a look in my mums wardrobe and spotted The Spice Girls album. Yas!) and a stack of Friends and Buffy videos.

santababyclaus from Amazon, it's about 8 quid!!

And of course, obligatory bottle of Anaïs Anaïs. Every girl in my family's first "proper" perfume.

77 here too. Loved the 90's Christmases.
I had a crushed velvet burgundy body suit and my best friend had a navy one.
Went beautifully with my velvet jacket from Virginia Galleries - do any other 90's kids from Glasgow remember there?
I was a white musk girl, but moved on to Poison (headache inducing!), lulu and Isis by M&S.

Ooh, I've just come downstairs in 1990 wearing my tie-dyed hooded t-shirt to discover that my brothers have given me the Happy Mondays' Pills and Thrills and Bellyaches album and the cassette single of EMF's Unbelievable (had to dodge questions from my mum about what EMF stood for, though!). Also some Body Shop bath pearls that don't dissolve properly, leaving a greasy mess in the bath and the weird, rubbery capsule floating on top

A few years later, I've channelled Bjork and have done my hair in lots of tiny "knobs" all over my head (anyone else do this?) I'm wearing lots of irridescent eye shadow and stick-on bindis on my face. I'm in my crushed velvet mini dress from the Kookai sale and a mohair bolero (looking at photos from the second half of the 90s, I seemed to have a huge number of mohair boleros ). I may have teamed this with those skirt/trouser combo things (scousers?) and platform Buffalo trainers

Also a 77 born here!
I was wearing crushed velvet dresses that barely covered my bum, with knee high Lace up boots... I thought I looked cracking, I must have actually looked like a pantomime principal boy! I also wore ankle length flowery skirts with a velvet blazer, and the obligatory velvet floppy hat ala 'Blossom'...

I loved the garish multicoloured lights, they are more popular this year, do much more festive than cold white or blue lights.

I’m with you op, born 1975.

I think my fave, or at least most memorable Christmas was actually 1989. I remember that during the build up to it, in the absence of devices and mobile phones, watching a taped TOTP or Chart Show episode on repeat, which had Dear Jessie by Madonna, I’ll Sail this Ship Alone by The Beautiful South, and December by All About Eve. My parents bought me a bottle of YSL’s Paris... I thought it was the epitome of sophisticated. They also bought me a load of goth jewellery and a black tasselled skirt.

1990 I was bought a tie-dyed green and black pinafore to wear with my DMs and remember watching Saviours Day on repeat in the run up.

1991 I remember being given a ‘gorgeous’ pair of velvet bodies from Next in green and in red, and a bottle of Samsara. I was also given a CD of Simply Red’s ‘Stars’ . Music-wise it was all about KLF and Nirvana.

1992 I had a broken heart so remember crying along to the Montreux EP by Simply Red. I’m not even a fan of Simply Red so god knows why they keep coming up in my Christmas Memories 😂. I think I was given a bottle of Samsara and some chunky jumpers by Next. Incidentally, does anyone else remember poring over the Next Directory when it arrived? It was so aspirational back then 😂

1993 I think I was too banjoed on ecstasy to remember much.

1994... East 17

I've gone old school and bought lots of gifts from The Body Shop this year! I think they are having a revival since finally being sold by L'Oréal last year. They lost a lot of customers when they took over. My mum always used to get my satsuma bubble bath in my stocking and she's bought me a satsuma shower gel this year which I'm most excited about. I miss bath pearls and the children's novelty soaps.

weepingwillows12 I still occasionally have a good look around Boots to see if they've bought back that cut grass bubble bath! It was divine, I'd love to use it again. Lush did a bath bomb years ago called Grass with the same scent, but it's long gone now.

I still wear Anais Anais!

I remember my sister and I getting a Gameboy and a Super Nintendo in the early 90s! Playing MarioCart and Super Mario World was just amazing!

Tv was way better at Christmas! The Christmas specials such as Only Fools and Horses for instance and the main film on Christmas Day was always a real blockbuster one (which we always recorded on video complete with adverts 😉) and was a novelty because VHS videos were often expensive back then.

Ginger ale, Bitter lemon, a bit of Cinzano and lemonade with mum all remind me of back in the day.

Terrys chocolate orange being very expensive and luxury and tasted amazing at Christmas! Just not the same now

Oh yes. 90s was my era (turned 10 in early 92).
Waiting for Top of the Pops to come on when it was good and not just there for the sake of it (and I knew every act on it).
Would I get Charlie Red, an Impulse set or, best ever, a bottle of CK One.
Playing our new albums over the day (except the year I got East 17 and my Dad went mental at the lyrics which nowadays are so tame). Learning all the lyrics to the All Saints album and dancing to it during Boxing Day tea.
Literally sitting round waiting for my Dad to finish dinner whilst we watched old Two Ronnies on the BBC and Noel's Christmas Presents which always made you cry at how lovely it was.

It's just hassle now. Adulting sucks!

Oooh and the year I got a pair of lilac glittery flares from Tammy and a pair of khaki corduroy flares. Plus a shitload of body glitter and hair mascaras in my stocking.

I miss the 90s.

78 baby. Rimmel Black Cherry (RIP) and Body Shop Vanilla perfume (which I still wear).

90s Christmases were the absolute best; sharing sneaky chocolates off the tree with my Nan while my parents weren't looking and her always letting me have a few sips half of her snowball

I had one of those floppy velvet hats too, but my 'body' was a black and white gingham one.

I got a Global Hypercolour t-shirt one year and walked around with glowing norks for weeks!!

Going back to the 70s and early 80s, before video recorders were affordable to ordinary households, the Christmas afternoon blockbuster was a real event.

There might only have been 3/4 TV channels, but they had a higher concentration of decent programming that the hundreds of channels nowadays!

Oh, yes, Rimmell Black Cherry! Wish it still existed, though I expect it would look awful on my mid-40s face.

I wasn't born until 84 but remember so much of this stuff.

I miss Blackbushe market. :(