It’s Christmas Eve in the last 80’s, tell me about your day..

[TheChristmasElf]

I wanted to do this on Christmas Eve but don’t think I’ll be doing much Mumsnetting so thought I’d bring it forward.

I, like a lot of other think about the Christmas’s of our childhood, the ones without the Elf and Christmas Eve boxes, where decorations weren’t carefully curated and while everything was so much simpler still felt like pure magic.

Tell me about your childhood Christmas Eve, your traditions, the food, & of course the memories, I’ll start.

Its 1989 I’m 10, I’m the eldest of 3 siblings and still a believer but on the cusp, I feel a little sad as know there is something about getting older that the magic of Santa fading.

i wake on Christmas Eve and decide to go on special road trip with my Dad we get the the bus to Waverley station to pick up the box of presents from the RM train, the box seems enormous and the wait back home long.

We are allowed to take the presents out of the box and put hems round the tree and of course one feel of each. Harry Secombe Christmas vinyl is playing, there is the smell of fresh coffee and orange and cinnamon potpourri that my mum makes every year.
There is a bowl of nuts on the table wire the silver nut cracker sitting on the top…I love the tradition of the bowl coming out but much prefer the quality street tin.

I am restless, and no the night won’t bring any sleep so Christmas morning seems years away, I watch the BBC film, the smell of Christmas prep coming from the kitchen.

Im excited for the evening my Aunty, Uncle and cousins come and we get a Chinese, we have one once a year and it’s part of of our Christmas…

My mum is out the bath a covering herself in opium talk, getting ready for our guests, the night is coming alive, candles are lit, beer opened, there are Carols on and the Chinese menu is getting passed around, an orange and black toastie machine is put on the table, it keeps ehe the dishes warm, like a big hot plate, everyone is merry.

We hang out stockings (my dads kilt socks) and pick a pillow case, mine is the Victoria Plum one, we write Santa a letter and lay out the usual whisky, carrot and mince meat pies and then it’s up to bed.

I can’t sleep but hide under the covers as not ready to question what the noises are, very happy being on the cusp and I read Alison Uttley’s Christmas short stories to the small hours.

Tell me yours

1989…

I was under 5
I remember lots of Mistletoe and Wine by Cliff Richard
Foil decorations strung between the ceiling lights
lots of tinsel round picture frames
dressing gown and slippers on always! House must have been chilly.
Always an orange in the bottom of my felt stocking, which had my name on it in cut out felt letters glued on the front.
After Eights for the grown ups
Paper party hats
Dolls for presents - I loved setting up tea parties. In fact I must have got my beloved ladybird tea set table around then. The best!

I was 27 and this was the last year DH and i had without children. By November the next year DD1 had been born. I have no idea where i had Christmas or what i got though!

We did have xmas eve boxes. My nan was german so I think its from there.
We would have home made battered fish, mash amd sauerkraut. Xmas top of the pops was on. House smelt of tinsel and those tinsel things from the ceiling. Dad would still be trying to get the lights on the tree to work because one bulb blew and we didn't know which one. I would be scoffing the enormous metal tin of quality street chocolates and I'd be flicking though the argos catalog looking at the toys I had circled hoping I would ve getting them.

Christmas in rural Ireland. 1988. Walk down town with my Dad and siblings to drop off presents to my nanny, uncles, aunts and cousins who owned and lived over their shop on the Main Street. Collected all of our presents from them and stopped off on the way back up the town to buy a big bag of picknmix using copper coins that my Dad had collected in a jar. Put the presents under the tree after smelling, shaking and looking for clues as to what they might be. My Dad who is normally very frugal would get a rush of goodwill and head back down the town to do a final splurge on Santa gifts. My mam would finish work for a half day and we would do a clean up. House would be warmer than usual and we would be allowed to choose 2 sweets each. Something light for evening meal and then maybe midnight mass and bed. All our presents from Santa were left on our bed to wake up in the early hours of the morning.

OP do you know the poem Christmas Eve by Liz Berry? I really think you would like it.

I’m 15 so I don’t believe but I’m still excited. The tree has only been up for a few days but the last bit has been added to the reusable paper advent calendar (which was extremely old then!).

We have bread and butter tea before going to church for the carol service. Then home, TV, sprouts peeled, before ham sandwiches (from the annual joint) and back to church for the midnight service. Always hoping that the excitement of the drunk bloke wandering in from the pub during the candlelit part is going to be repeateded. At midnight they turned all the lights on and he did look extremely bewildered!!

Then my mum waiting impatiently for me to go to bed so she could put our stockings out and go to bed herself!

I'll go slightly earlier to a time when I still believed in Father Christmas - 1982 was the last year, when I was eight.

I start the day by opening the last window on my advent calendar - of course, it's the nativity scene. Our tree is already up, with a fine old mixture of decorations, including my dad's childhood baubles from the 1940s in the shape of old fashioned lanterns; our on-trend silk covered balls, and all sorts of home-made ones cut out of old Christmas cards by my sister and me.

Oops, the pastel-coloured tree lights have gone out - time to call Dad - a fun 45 minutes for him unscrewing each tiny bulb in turn to work out which one is the culprit - but soon, they are twinkling again.

My grandparents are staying with us; we've already woken them up early pestering for stories. My grandpa is on his first pipe of the day - the ashtrays have to come out every year for their visit!

Here's the post - yet more cards! We've filled the entire walls of the front room with strings of cards, we have over a hundred of them!

We'll have to wait for tomorrow for the selection boxes, but the Turkish delight in Rose and Lemon is out and no one minds if we pick at it.

In the afternoon, Mum is icing the Christmas cake, and I hang around begging for a bit of marzipan - I've no interest in the cake but I could eat marzipan all day long! Carols from Kings fill the air.

We have 'high tea' - sausage rolls, cold meat, sandwiches, followed by mince pies.

My sister and I are so excited we can barely sit still, but we watch all the Christmas specials on television. Before we go to bed, we put out a mince pie and a glass of sherry for Father Christmas.

Then it's up to bed at half past eight, with our red stockings (made by my mum) to hang over the bed posts.

But sleep is a long, long way off ....

Christmas Eve 1988 - my student flat mates and I decided not to go home for Xmas. Instead we went to Trillians in Newcastle and then to a party in the tower block next to the city library. There was a shopping trolley full of beer and some illegal substances. We walked home to Heaton at 5am and went to bed. Later on we phoned home, ate loads of crap and watched Xmas TV. It was quite marvellous. I have no memory at all of Xmas 1989. I was back home and working so it is was probably dull in comparison.

I was living in London. I'd have worked on Christmas Eve (assuming it was a week day) tried to leave a bit early, and then gone straight to the tube station, and from there to Paddington to catch a train home to Somerset.

Then it was a 20 mile bus journey to my home town, which took an hour, and then a 15 minute walk. There was only one bus an hour, so if I didn't time it right, or if the train was delayed, there would have been lots of waiting around in the cold.

Normal day.
Went to bed, got up!

1987 and I'm mum of a 5 year old and living with my mum and dad. Christmas Eve , we would put the chocolates on the Xmas tree before breakfast. Go out early for any last minute shopping/bargains and come back to hot chocolate and mince pies.

Quick lunch and into the tiny kitchen for the icing of the Yule Log ( that I'd made earlier) and baking mushroom and chestnut rolls that my mum loved so much.

Children's tv ( Xmas He-Man Special maybe, still amuses me to this day!) Takeaway treat for tea from the local Chinese. Then we would open an Xmas Eve present each. Lots of playtime until it was time for my little one to go to bed with a special Christmas story that they would choose. Mustn't forget to leave Santa a little drop of something and a mince pie before bed.

Back downstairs to have a drink and finish wrapping presents to be put in a sack for morning.

Happy memories of all the excitement of Christmas.

MissAmbrosia

Christmas Eve 1988 - my student flat mates and I decided not to go home for Xmas. Instead we went to Trillians in Newcastle...

Blimey, there's a blast from the past! It used to Be Trillians at 12:00, Eldon Green outside the George & Dragon 2;30 to 5;30, with a bottle of Old English. Often a fight with the Mods. Up to the Percy, or the Farmers, if the match wasn't on, then down to the Dog and Parrot to closing time.

Got up late as it was school holidays.

Eat breakfast of cereal, probably weetabix.

Played with my toys.

Someone in the household would rush to the shops before they closed at 4pm to get stuff like milk.

In the meantime one of my other older siblings would have put the telly on early afternoon as there would be some major epic film on. I wouldn't have a choice what to watch on it.

Watched the film. Then carried on watching TV including the Christmas specials.

Only stopping to eat food. Since it was Christmas Eve it would be anything though I would be allowed to have crisps, fizzy drinks and savoury snack food like ritz biscuits in the evening.

Eventually go to bed around 9.30pm

Anyway...

Mostly moping about, wondering if I'd get a chance to watch something I wanted to see, on telly. Then off to bed, wondering how long I'd be able to lie in the next morning. Wondering how long it would be before Uncle Dick got pissed and started laying into someone. Resenting how we'd all have to pretend to be happy to see relatives we hated and all jolly.

The 1980s? I was a junior doctor, working 72 to 100 hours a week, on call at Christmas for ITU and anaesthesia. Desperately trying to keep a 17 year old girl with end stage cystic fibrosis alive on a ventilator until after Christmas, to avoid making it a terrible anniversary for her grieving family in future.
Despite our best efforts, she died on Boxing Day.
The previous Christmas I was on trauma call from home. Missed dinner while stuck in the operating theatre all day.
Before that, I used to cover New Year so I had Christmas off. One bitterly cold year the hospital water supply froze in theatre, and we had to get the surgeons scrubbed up using bags of sterile saline.
Christmas is much better now I’m retired…

My dad has gone out to start his Christmas shopping. Also pick up the turkey and all the (many) things that have been forgotten. At our house the tree is up and decorated but there are no other christmas decorations yet. We are panic baking mince pies.

In the afternoon we go and drop round presents to our relatives, but all home by 3 on the button to listen to Carols from King's on the radio.

In the evening we are packed off to bed and my dad reads us The Night Before Christmas. It's hard to get to sleep - partly from the excitement but also from the enormous amount of noise downstairs as my parents decorate the rest of the living room (cards everywhere! tinsel! lights! nativity scene!), have their traditional brief pre-Christmas shouting match (storm in a teacup due to too many kids/knackered) and in the case of my dad finish some bit of DIY that should have been done last month. My old school tights are hanging at the end of the bed. It's so exciting.

Blimey. I think if anyone else is having a moan like me, it's been well and truly trumped.

That was to babdoc.

Late 80s. I was 11/12, but it was still pretty magical.

My mum pulled out a table in our front room, put a Christmas tablecloth on it and laid out all the Christmas treats she’d been stockpiling.it was very modest by todays’s standards - Coke & lemonade (never usually allowed fizzy drinks!), matchsticks, after eights, dates, cheesy footballs, twiglets , a big tin of quality street.

Me and my sister got stuck in and watched Christmas telly and I just remember the warm, fizzy, magic feeling of it all.

My Gran would also start peeling the spuds, chestnuts and topping & tailing the sprouts. She’d do it over a big saucepan between her knees while watching the telly, with a fag in her mouth. Miss my Gran 🥰

My Gran would also start peeling the spuds, chestnuts and topping & tailing the sprouts. She’d do it over a big saucepan between her knees while watching the telly, with a fag in her mouth.

Sounds just like mine!

Age 6 ish, loads of tinsel, paper chains from all corners of ceiling. Bowl of nuts with nut cracker like pp had. We have one in our house now! The smell of the Christmas tree. Lots of needles on the floor not hoovered up. Watching the snowman. Sherry glasses. Cheese and crackers. Big stocking ready (my dc has it now).
Actually not that different to the way we do Christmas now! Both me and dh had very similar childhoods and carry on similar traditions. We haven't embraced Xmas Eve boxes or elves on shelves

How can people remember this stuff?

I have no idea

I was 17. Didn't believe but still so special. We'd have got in our pj's early and sat around watching Christmas Tv and snacking on nuts and chocolates and my mum prepping the turkey to cook on low overnight. I can still smell it in my mind remembering coming downstairs on Xmas morning.
We had a spaniel and tied a red ribbon around her neck Xmas eve until Boxing Day.
We had a big family and didn't see them often so Christmas was a big deal and I loved the noisy get together. They've all died or moved away now sadly.

I was 8 years old my sister was 5. We would wake up and open the number 24 on the calendar. The big door finally so we were very excited.
Probably play with toys on the morning while parents sorted presents and food.

My Mam would always bring lots of chocolate and nuts with the nut cracker down for infront of the television. So we were allowed to open one box of sweets.

In the afternoon we would go to my Nanna's where we would meet the extended family and exchange presents. Invariably one of the gifts would stray and my Dad would have to do a 6pm dash to swap it over. We played with out cousins , food aplenty and drinks for some adults.

Early evening we would go home and watch a Chritmas movie. My sis and I would hang our stockings and cram in one single bed. Playing silly games. Often waking every hour.

It was magical. I love 80s Christmas.

1985 I was 16. Google tells me that Christmas Eve was a Saturday, which means the decorations would have been up for exactly a week and the Carol Services were 6 days ago. Sis3 was home from university and Sis2 back from wherever she was at that point. Possibly with a foreign friend, either then or 1986; which felt quite significant as the first time we had non-family guests for Christmas.

Dragged myself out of bed to get to the newsagents before they felt the need to ring (I had activities on Saturday morning which meant that a Saturday Job like many of my friends wasn't feasible, so I was still delivering papers for a pittance throughout 6th form). Still, at least I got my pittance, plus no doubt a couple of tips were still coming in. Some people took them into the shop, others just left them stuck to the door in an envelope. One or two of the early risers left a note saying Please Ring: after three years of this I was just about able to express my thanks and exchange festive greetings

Spent part of the morning walking to the ends of the village to deliver cards. Dad would drive out into the wilds to pick up the turkey from a farm and exchange tins of biscuits or chocolates with friends who lived near there.

Lunch - actually don't know. Quite possibly normal Saturday lunch of sausages fried potatoes and beans.

Sis1 would be making marzipan fruits (with what was left over from doing the cake). Mum would be turning the giblets into stock for tomorrow's gravy. Possibly one or two of us would be peeling sprouts, parsnips or potatoes.

At 3 we all had to make no noise at all while Dad recorded Carols from Kings on the reel-to-reel tape recorder, even though we had a stereo system which could tape from the radio by that point. To be fair, half of us were probably off out by then to take part in the Christingle service (as choir and helpers). Home for tea - again not sure what. Festive food didn't really start till Christmas Day.

Then out to the next village for carol singing - dad wasn't their organist in 1985 but we were still joining them. Get out of car in the dark in a totally unfamiliar street while already late to deliver cards. Large wooden boxes to collect the money, While Shepherds Watched each time we moved along, and attempting to persuade younger brother that descants are only for inside. Finish in the pub (standing in a circle to hide the under-14s) where we left several of the adults and walked back to the vicarage to have hot chocolate and count the money.

Back home, put unconfirmed members to bed, with Dad's socks as stockings. Granny - who had recently come to live with us but hadn't yet reached the point of not being able to be responsible - in charge. Everyone else off out to Midnight (in two different places, cos choir...). Then walk home, repressing Sis2's desire to screech "it's CHRIIIIIIStmas!" on the way. Put selves to bed, with Dad's socks as stockings.