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Original poster

If you remember these at Christmas you were a child in the 70s

313 replies

BreakfastAtMilliways · 14/12/2023 15:13

Testing the lights on December 23rd, then having to try out every one on the string to find out which one had blown…

Frantically trying to find a shop that sold spare Christmas tree lightbulbs at 3.25pm on Christmas Eve…

Lugging the tree out to the garden on January 6th, and spending the next 2 weeks hoping it wouldn’t die…

Driving (or rather being driven) into London to see the lights on Oxford Street…

Walking home from school after the carol concert and peeking through the front windows of each house on your road to see if you could spot their Christmas tree…

Arranging all the cards from your schoolmates around your bedroom…

Any more?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
11
MrsNandortheRelentless · 14/12/2023 15:16

Tv adverts for Cindy dolls and wind up Evil kineavil bike & ramp.
Buckaroo and mousetrap.

MrsNandortheRelentless · 14/12/2023 15:16

Last day of school… toy day. Bring in a toy.

barbarahunter · 14/12/2023 15:17

The Osmonds singing 'we wish you a merry Christmas'.

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Christmas Events & celebrations
Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 14/12/2023 15:19

I don't remember any of the things in the OPs post. We had a teeny tiny (about twelve inch) artificial tree, no lights, just some chocolate decorations hung (carefully, or it would topple over). And we were too far from London to do the lights thing.

But we did have paperchains on the ceiling in a cross, and those fold-out poofy paper ball things!

Shodan · 14/12/2023 15:19

We used to get the Green Line into London for the Christmas lights.

Crepe paper streamers that were twisted then criss-crossed diagonally across the hall.

Paper chains.

The selection packs that were stocking shaped with net covers.

The Christmas Day film- Mary Poppins, or the Wizard of Oz. I think there were others, but those are the ones I remember.

And a bell shaped musical ornament, hung above the stairs, that you could yank the string of as you passed to make it play 'Jingle Bells'.

PastorCarrBonarra · 14/12/2023 15:20

Those “oranges and lemons” - heavily sugared confectionery in round, see-through packaging that every household bought. You can still get them but they’re not ubiquitous. Likewise, Black Magic.

MrsNandortheRelentless · 14/12/2023 15:21

The TV times with circled programs we were looking forward to watching.

Christmas specials and the Wizard of Oz.

Cheesymonster · 14/12/2023 15:22

Might be 80s… but going through the Argos catalogue turning down the corners of the toy pages.

MaidOfSteel · 14/12/2023 15:22

Making garland from those paper stripes that you licked to make stick together. And foil decorations that you had to open out and sticky tape the edges together before you could hang them up.

Wanttobeok · 14/12/2023 15:24

Apart from Oxford Street as I'm up North I remember all of those things but I was born in the 1980s

SuitYouSir · 14/12/2023 15:24

Our stockings were actual socks - very long and thick hiking socks big enough to fit a satsuma and a cassette tape in 😂 (80s)

Shodan · 14/12/2023 15:24

PastorCarrBonarra · 14/12/2023 15:20

Those “oranges and lemons” - heavily sugared confectionery in round, see-through packaging that every household bought. You can still get them but they’re not ubiquitous. Likewise, Black Magic.

I still buy those!

Wilko used to sell them, but I had to order them online this year. The ones I buy are Bonds, I think.

mathanxiety · 14/12/2023 15:27

Neighbours across the road and their big Christmas do - their uncle Steve belting out "Moon River" in a Cork accent on their front lawn at 1am. Sounds dreadful, but he had a glorious voice. All the guests doing the pip-pip salute with their horns as they left in dribs and drabs until about 3am. Happy days.

barbarahunter · 14/12/2023 15:28

The great escape on tv every.single. sodding.year.

EveryKneeShallBow · 14/12/2023 15:29

Cheesy footballs that were really, properly cheesy. The Blue Peter advent crown. Toffee that came with a hammer and dates with a plastic two-pronged fork.

Rickenbackergoodgrief · 14/12/2023 15:38

Seventies Christmas. It was almost a riot in my parents house.
My mum would get the tree, a 6ft white one out of the garage along with the decorations on the last Sunday before Christmas day.
She would set it up in the corner of the lounge and start decorating it with us ' helpful ' kids.
Meanwhile, my dad would be stood on a dining chair putting the trimmings up on the ceiling with drawing pins, punctuated with the odd ' ow, bloody hell ' as he jabbed his thumb on a pin.
Then an argument would start over the tree lights, with my dad convinced they would burn the house down while my mum shouted ' oh do shut up ' while buried under tinsel and whatnot as she tried to find the spare fuse bulb for the lights.
My dad would climb down from the chair in a huff and replace the fuse bulb while grumping away to himself about house fires before hopping back up on the chair and sticking more pins in his thumb.
Finally finished, we would sit and watch the cat pull the tree over, while the odd trimming detached itself from the ceiling.
Oh what jolly fun 😂

TeaGinandFags · 14/12/2023 15:43

barbarahunter · 14/12/2023 15:28

The great escape on tv every.single. sodding.year.

The same sodding films on at Chtistmas and Easter.

Basil Brush Christmas Special

JoanChitty · 14/12/2023 15:45

It’s on this year too!

furtivetussling · 14/12/2023 15:47

Woolworths was THE best place before Christmas, and where everyone got their spare fairy lights bulbs.

The smell of proper tinsel.

The Basil Brush Christmas Special on the telly on the Saturday afternoon before Christmas.

The Blue Peter Advent Crown. Did anybody ever make that thing?!

2pm - Top of the Pops
3pm - The Queen
followed by - Billy Smart's Circus

Hbh17 · 14/12/2023 15:52

Watching so-called celebrities on TV on Xmas morning as they visited children in hospital - as if the poor kids hadn't suffered enough!
Christmas Top of the Pops.
Hating the dry turkey for Xmas lunch (nothing changes).
Spending Boxing Day writing thank you letters to all the grannies, aunties etc who had sent money, "notelets" or smellies in the post.
Eating orange Matchmakers chocolates and dates from the Eat Me box with a picture of a palm tree and a camel on the front.
Mostly being bored because the library was shut, so running out of books.

Chewbecca · 14/12/2023 15:52

Advent calendars - same ones each year, pictures only. One was blue, one was red, my sibling and I alternated which one we had each year.

CentrifugalBumblePuppy · 14/12/2023 15:54

McVitie’s Tunis Cake as the centrepiece of the Boxing Day table at my Grandad’s house. Surrounded by plates of cold sausagemeat, turkey, gammon and a cheese & pineapple hedgehog.

And sticks of celery in a glass with a tiny pot of salt beside it.

Sitting beside his coal fire eating Bird’s Trifle, nestled next to the cake, both slathered in evaporated milk.

If you remember these at Christmas you were a child in the 70s
dodobookends · 14/12/2023 15:56

Yes to the Oxford Street lights, and looking at the window displays in Selfridges.

Lametta.

A metal whirligig chime thing with an angel on top that was turned by the heat of four tiny candles underneath.

Learning to play Jingle Bells on the recorder.

Glitter. Everywhere.

Paperchains that you had to lick to join the links together.

ShoesoftheWorld · 14/12/2023 15:59

My memory starts in the 80s.

The multicoloured Pifco London Lights. Loved them so much.
Those fold-out foil hanging things.
Tinsel, so much tinsel!
Enormous numbers of cards on strings along the walls.
Baubles with disco ball-type surfaces or covered with coloured thread.
Dates! Don't remember eating dates at any other time of the year.