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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
shellyleppard · 14/12/2023 15:59

My Christmas stocking was my mum's old tights 😂😂 always had an orange, banana and a box of lego in it. Remember the selection boxes, paper bells decorations. Going up town with my grandparents to see the Christmas lights. Not sleeping on Christmas Eve cos I was too excited......🥳🤩❤️

ShoesoftheWorld · 14/12/2023 16:00

I bought one of those angel chimes last year, for nostalgia's sake. I don't remember those candles burning down so quickly back in the day Confused

furtivetussling · 14/12/2023 16:02

ShoesoftheWorld · 14/12/2023 16:00

I bought one of those angel chimes last year, for nostalgia's sake. I don't remember those candles burning down so quickly back in the day Confused

No, they lasted for ages.

Interested in this thread?

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Christmas Events & celebrations
stepintochristmas1 · 14/12/2023 16:03

I'm a child of the 70's and don't know what op is taking about . I think she might live in London .

dressedforcomfort · 14/12/2023 16:06

The Wombles on TOTP

Tins of Quality Street the size of dustbins

John Noakes lighting candles on the Blue Peter Advent Crown

Advent calendars with pictures, rather than chocolates

stepintochristmas1 · 14/12/2023 16:09

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 😂

Sounds like fun 😁

Cotswoldbee · 14/12/2023 16:11

MrsNandortheRelentless · 14/12/2023 15:16

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

Plus you could wear your Brownie/Guide/Cub/Scout/Boys Brigade/St Johns uniform.

Real paper chains, spent the whole evening licking & linking them together.

FinallyFinalGirl · 14/12/2023 16:12

Cheesymonster · 14/12/2023 15:22

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

We had Marshall Ward. I must have circled Mr Frosty every year through the late seventies and early eighties. Never did get it.

BlazingWorld · 14/12/2023 16:13

We didn't live in London, but my Dad used to drive us 40 miles from Essex to See the Lights. We'd park in Soho Square so we saw quite a few other things as well.

FinallyFinalGirl · 14/12/2023 16:13

I remember my dad bringing home the turkey every year and once he got the head off he would chase us round the house with it, laughing his own head off.😂

furtivetussling · 14/12/2023 16:14

Writing to Father Christmas every year and asking for a pony, knowing that it hadn't worked before but trying again anyway, just in case...

dodobookends · 14/12/2023 16:19

BlazingWorld · 14/12/2023 16:13

We didn't live in London, but my Dad used to drive us 40 miles from Essex to See the Lights. We'd park in Soho Square so we saw quite a few other things as well.

We lived in Essex too, we used to get the train in to Liverpool Street.

barbarahunter · 14/12/2023 16:22

Having to sleep on a blow up bed in your parents room because Granny and Grandpa were staying. Exciting stuff!

ChicoryDip · 14/12/2023 16:25

Spending Boxing Day writing thank you letters to all the grannies, aunties etc who had sent money, "notelets" or smellies in the post.

Yes to notelets @Hbh17 - and the irony of using up half of the notelets writing to thank the person that sent them to you. 😊

And yes to paper chains, crepe paper streamers, taking a game into school on the last day and the proper big tins of Quality Street (and see through coloured wrappers) that couldn't be opened until Christmas Eve and were rationed to last through to New Year.

CharlotteBog · 14/12/2023 16:26

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.

York Fruits I think they're called. One of my son's teachers got a box of them after a smash and grab at the village shop on the last day of term!

Lakeyloo · 14/12/2023 16:26

Making paperchains and sticking them to the ceiling with drawing pins, along with big foil lantern type decorations. The tree never went up until the week before (sometimes Christmas Eve). Newberry fruits, Powdery Turkish delight, dates in a plastic tub with a little plastic tooth pick thing, trying to crack brazil nuts with rubbish nut crackers. Being allowed a snowball or a cinzano and lemonade. Carol singing from the back of a tractor through the village. Morecambe and Wise. Really steamy kitchen windows. "Just TRY the sprouts" (love them now) Moving all of the furniture around in the living room so that the leaves of the table could be pulled out to fit everyone around. Bringing every mismatched chair and stool down so everyone had a seat. We had pillowcases instead of Christmas stockings.... always a satsuma, a couple of brazil nuts and a net of chocolate pennies in the bottom. Advent calendars with no chocolate in them, just pictures of kings, stars and Mary and Joseph on a donkey. LOADS of Christmas cards, on every mantle, shelf and window sill. My Dad cracking open a bottle of Blue Nun. Wondering who was going to break a tooth on the sixpence hidden in the Christmas pudding !
We didn't open "main" presents until after lunch so everyone mucking in to get cleaned up and make a cup of tea before we sat down and took turns opening them. My parents weren't well off and we never got expensive presents. They would save through the year and we would get a "family" present at Christmas... a colour TV one year. Lovely memories of my 70's Christmases !

Neversaygoodbye · 14/12/2023 16:27

Pillow cases for stockings. Kerplunk. My Dad buying my mum something useful for the kitchen as a present. Granny drinking snowballs.

Lakeyloo · 14/12/2023 16:28

furtivetussling · 14/12/2023 16:14

Writing to Father Christmas every year and asking for a pony, knowing that it hadn't worked before but trying again anyway, just in case...

Ha ha.. yes !

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 14/12/2023 16:28

Pifco lights!

Toy day in last day of school.

Carol Sheets. Like an A3 printed leaflet folded in half with carols and Christmas pictures on. We had to buy one for 2p

Lakeyloo · 14/12/2023 16:31

ChicoryDip · 14/12/2023 16:25

Spending Boxing Day writing thank you letters to all the grannies, aunties etc who had sent money, "notelets" or smellies in the post.

Yes to notelets @Hbh17 - and the irony of using up half of the notelets writing to thank the person that sent them to you. 😊

And yes to paper chains, crepe paper streamers, taking a game into school on the last day and the proper big tins of Quality Street (and see through coloured wrappers) that couldn't be opened until Christmas Eve and were rationed to last through to New Year.

I remember my Mum gathering up all the gift labels before we ripped them, and writing what the gift was on them so that we thanked the right Aunties and Uncles for the right gift.

countrygirl99 · 14/12/2023 16:35

We always had a big bowl of sweets from Woollies pick and mix - raspberry ruffles, dairy maid chocolate caramels, peanut brittle, coconut ice and ones with fudge on one side and coconut on the other. Far too expensive to have any other time of year.

Puravida23 · 14/12/2023 16:36

The excitement of when the Winter Argos catalogue came out so we could spend all of December ringing the things we wanted (and not getting!)

Milknosugarta · 14/12/2023 16:40

I grew up in Liverpool and there were about 6 big department stores. All with father Christmas and a grotto. Lewis's was best, it was magical. My mum would take us to a cafe afterwards for a sausage roll and a milkshake.

MrsJellybee · 14/12/2023 16:40

Queuing for hours in Lewis’s department store in a new dress in order to sit on ‘Santa’s’ knee and have your picture taken.

MrsJellybee · 14/12/2023 16:41

Milknosugarta · 14/12/2023 16:40

I grew up in Liverpool and there were about 6 big department stores. All with father Christmas and a grotto. Lewis's was best, it was magical. My mum would take us to a cafe afterwards for a sausage roll and a milkshake.

I saw your post after I’d posted! Lewis’s was great.

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