I'm dreaming of a 1970s Xmas

[brizzledrizzle]

A single hazelnut in the bottom of my stocking, chocolate coins,
lovely paisley/flowery ankle length dress to wear on the day,
putting up the tree with glass (!) decorations.

No Whamageddon!

How did you have xmas in the 1970s?

Taytocrisps

Really great memories. I was brought up near Belfast, Tayto crisps were a great part of our childhood. Especially the cheese and onion ones.

I am wondering if anyone else went to Anderson Macauleys in Belfast to see Santa? It was a magical experience where you went in a sleigh and then got a pressie.

My dad was a bus driver and a highlight of the year was the buses Christmas party for the kids. To us, it was as big a thing as Christmas Day itself. There would be lots of kids together in a hall where we had some party food. And games and entertainment. I remember an amazing magician and cartoons and pass the parcel. Then each child would meet santa, be given their present and have our photograph taken. The presents would be really good. For example I can remember getting kerplunk, a game, plus we would get an enormous bag of sweets that we would eat over the next week. It was all organised by the bus drivers themselves but paid for by the company.
I don't anywhere these days that does things like this for the kids of employees, although I guess kids these days would be less easy to please than we were.

Oh yes, we always had a 20lb turkey, that lasted well over a week afterwards!

Also making paper chains for hours and then them always breaking when you hung them up. Lick and stick ones were revelatory! But still broke when you hung them up.

Paper fold-out bells, eventually replaced with foil fold-out bells. My nanna had the most beautiful coloured foil snakey strings (like slinkies!) that hung from the big light in the middle of the room to the corners. We only had paper ones, or simple flat twisted ones.

Mrs. Peek's Christmas puddings were always the best. Mum used to make bread sauce religiously until she realised that no one actually ate it! She would buy brandy butter too but no one ate that either.
And she would always do glacé cherries wrapped in streaky bacon in the oven, as a side dish for the turkey.

I found lametta in one of the pound shops in the UK a couple of years ago (when we were over for Christmas) and was so excited I bought some! I also have angel hair leftover from years ago, but every year it gets less and less. I use it on the small tree now, not the big one.

Christmas in Australia just still doesn't feel "right" to me - I'm getting used to it but I still miss a UK Christmas.

Loving reading all of these. We also went to my dad's firm for the children's Christmas party. My Mum would get up at the crack of dawn on Christmas Eve and drive to the next town to M&S for Canary tomatoes because they were the only ones that tastes of anything at that time of year.

Skimming through all the MN threads moaning about in-laws (who are, let's face it, grandparents) and how DARE they want to pop in and see their grandchildren for 4 minutes on Christmas morning is sad. Makes me burst almost with happiness that my Christmasses as a child were so different.

I have set my angel chimes up to light on Christmas Eve and bought a set for my Italian MIL.

@QueenDoria Glad to know you had "helicopter rides"! For your ones, were you blindfolded, and was the ironing board raised while you were standing on it?

Ohh the adverts that would start on TV as soon as Christmas dinner was over and in the back of the TV times for Pontins and Butlins - Book Early! .... I never did get such an exotic holiday but it heralded the end of winter. Thumbs up to those who remember

Reading this is good because I can't remember much.

Has anyone mentioned 'Weebles wobble but they don't fall down'? I had the Weeble kitchen set one Christmas. I also really wanted a Palitoy Tree House, but Santa never bought that.

And Foot Hoppers!! There was a huge craze for Foot Hoppers circa 1978 or so!! You could really give your ankle a bashing when you got caught up in it! One loop went around your ankle and the other end had a plastic bell on a cord which you had to swing around and hop over.

So many familiar memories on this thread... thank you!

Yes! @letsgo
Are you my cousin? Southport?

@QueenDoria No I'm afraid. But perhaps there was a book out at the time which explained how to give children imaginary helicopter rides.

@MawkishTwaddle Actually almost choked on my tea over your snowball

Yes. It must have been the talk of every office! 70s Water Cooler moment!

Yes, this thread has cheered me up: no worries about drones ruining your Christmas as no one went to Lapland and no one slagging off her MiL for expecting you to drive for an hour as everyone did just that...

Shockers
Also, a tiny plastic oven with a light in it. I thought it actually worked, but I’m pretty sure now that it wouldn’t have. My mum helped me make a cheesecake base in it- which now I know didn’t actually require baking
This brought a lump to my throat. What a lovely Mum.

I'm loving all your stories. Thank you everyone. When did we all get so materialistic? A large bottle of Badedas for the Mums was indeed a luxury. Gifts were much smaller and less of them, but more memorable for some reason.

Pony drinks as well as babycham.
A full turkey dinner on Boxing Day too with my other Nan - mom’s mom on Xmas day and dad’s mom on Boxing Day.
Santa leaving the presents in bolsters at the end of our beds. Occasionally a doll’s pram or something might be left in the bathroom in case we fell over it in the dark.
I had a walking, talking doll called Penny, who was probably a foot tall. You put small records in her back - one was nursery rhymes, one might have been her singing, one was her saying “I love you mammy” in an American accent. She walked very stiffly - goose stepping down the hall.
We always had a selection box, an annual and a game. There were lots of presents from family friends and neighbours, but yep, not the excess there is today.

Might try and find a Broenie Annual on eBay.

Brownie

Ah, the '70s Christmas! I remember it well.
The silver tinsel Christmas tree
Making paper chains from strips of gummed paper
The Blue Peter advent crown
Billy Smart's Circus on the BBC
A late night ghost story on BBC tv
Something by Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy on ITV
Black Magic chocolates
Babycham
Wearing my bright red 100% crimplene trouser suit
The fairy lights popping and trying to find which bulb it was needed replacing

My dad was a bus driver and a highlight of the year was the buses Christmas party for the kids. To us, it was as big a thing as Christmas Day itself. There would be lots of kids together in a hall where we had some party food. And games and entertainment. I remember an amazing magician and cartoons and pass the parcel. Then each child would meet santa, be given their present and have our photograph taken. The presents would be really good. For example I can remember getting kerplunk, a game, plus we would get an enormous bag of sweets that we would eat over the next week. It was all organised by the bus drivers themselves but paid for by the company.
I don't anywhere these days that does things like this for the kids of employees, although I guess kids these days would be less easy to please than we were.

My DH has just told me that he remembers going to the Aberdeen Journals kids Christmas party 🎉 at the local ballroom. He said he was about 8 and clearly remembers having to dress smartly in purple cords and a smart white shirt with purple dots. I'm still laughing at the image. Bless!

Individual foil wrapped chocolate cigarillos with a kind of praline filling which hung on the tree.

They were lush but probably went the same way as red tipped candy cigarettes.

Coming home from school in 1979 and my sister telling me Quincy's Quest was to be shown on TV. Searching all the newsagents in town looking for the Radio Times and TV Times double issues and finally finding the last Radio Times. Such great memories.

This needs to be in mumsnet classics.

Loving this thread, I watched Back In Time For Christmas last night which I think is a repeat from last year and the family taking part thought that the 70's Christmas was the best. In case anyone hasn't seen it, it's a BBC program looking at the same family living through different decades from the 1950's .
Papergirl your doll goose stepping down the hall made me laugh, my sister had a Penny puppy walker doll which did just that, am going to have to come back and read this thread again when I have more time.
My memories are Mandy/Bunty annuals, Girls World, Sindy dolls, my pale pink crimpolene trouser suit, Quality Street tin being a highlight, my brother's Evel Knieval doll knocking down the Christmas tree, TOTPs, being allowed to eat chocolate first thing in the morning to name but a few.

Great to read about stuff I had also forgotten about.

Babycham, Cherry B, long blue velvet party dress, checking the Christmas lights worked, the muppet album, brothers returning home for Xmas.

Mum was a cleaner at the 'big house' nearby. It was a shooting estate and all the staff would be treated to a coach trip to a pantomime, play or something on ice either just before or after Christmas. Everyone was given a present. One year mine was a Pippa doll and my sister and I collected them and also their clothes. We made clothes for them too and fashioned an Afghan Hound from wire and assorted stuff from DMums sewing basket. Dad built a 'Flat' and all the dolls shared. Pippa, Britt, Marie, Rosemary and Tammie. I actually still have them in a toffee tin somewhere. They are exquisitely beautiful dolls.
We had very little and were working class. My Dsis made the flat how we would have liked to live! Fitted kitchen and bathroom. Duvets not blankets. Fancy light fittings etc. Lovely memories.