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

[BreakfastAtMilliways]

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?

We did the lights testing and trying to replace broken ones every year.
Never went to London, but did visit Blackpool one year for the lights.
My Gran used to eat the dates, no one else liked them.
We also had the reusable advent calendar with pictures only inside, no chocolate.
Chocolate ornaments were always a hit. You got to take one off the tree and eat it if you won at a game.

The Wonderful World of Disney, only way of seeing bits of the movies outside of the cinema.

Those folding chinese lantern type decorations on the tree, pretending they were concertinas.

A bowl of shell on nuts with the nutcracker. They lasted well after the tin of Roses and Quality Street were all gone.

Fighting over who got to be the one who put the 'best' ornaments on the tree.

The Christmas editions of the TV and Radio Times.

Top of the Pops, had to watch that on Christmas Day
Dates, as in the fruit, in a long box
Big bowl of nuts with a nutcracker
Turkey being put in oven in middle of night to cook for about 12 hours
Carol singers outside

Not just the 70s. The 80s and 90s too! I still can’t believe I don’t need to check all the bulbs now. In fact I’m sure I’ve bought lights in the last ten years that needed spare bulbs. Led are very freeing!

My memories are
Tinsel
Paper chains
Yes to light testing
Selection box
Sticking with tangerine nut coin sweet
Gonks

Yes to reading my annuals in bed on Boxing Day. I don't know why but it used to make me feel very grown up!

Yes to my mum making us save the wrapping paper!

Advocaat on the sideboard

For us, I can’t recall going to London apart from to Harrods (posh auntie) to see Santa Claus.

We did get taken to Arding and Hobbs and Allders (Croydon) for Santa Claus.

"Arding and Hobbs, Arding and Hobbs, Arding, Arding, Arding and Hobbs"

Snowballs! I was given one as a treat by an uncle then found out my best friend who was 8/9 was given loads of them over Christmas!

Settle down one and all while I tell you a story of Christmas past. I grew up in the 70/80s but in a rural village so it was like the 30s.

I promise this is all true.

On the weekend before Christmas the family at the big house in the village would host a party for the whole village. Everyone would be there. There was a huge buffet and much drink was taken. It was during the day so they would keep us children amused with traditional party games but the best game of all was hunt the Christmas card.
They would save the fronts of cards from previous years and cut them into quarters. 3 of the quarters were hidden around the house and one quarter kept by the adult running the game. The adult gave each child one of the quarters and the child then had to search the house for the other three. We had free rein to run about the huge house and into any of the rooms. When you finished a card you got a new quarter.

A few days later the village carol singers would come round. As our village had no street lighting they would carry lanterns on a stick. Our front door was a stable door and I clearly remember my parents opening the top half to listen and sitting me on the ledge when they came to our door. I always requested Away in a Manger.

Finally on Christmas Eve we would go to a big house in the next village where my mum and dad both worked sometimes. It had a huge entrance hall with a 3 story staircase. There would be a tree going right up the stairs; as everything was by candle light you couldn’t see the top.
This was the early evening so sometimes we would have a meal and sometimes a buffet. Then the father of the family would excuse himself because he was sure he heard a sound upstairs. And he had. It’s was Father Christmas who had just landed on the roof. All the children would come and sit on the stairs with Father Christmas and each get a present.

I realise how privileged I was to experience all this. They are very special memories.

I remember all those things but from the 50s and 60s!

Amazon paper chains

@stepintochristmas1 lucky!!!

I was oop north and living with my nan in the 70s.

OPs Christmas wasnt like mine.
I remember the coal fire. Trips to get the coal from the bunker in the yard. A red fluffy dressing gown. My pudding bowl hair

Top of the pops,kenny everett, generation game, tommy cooper, val doonican.

The Christmas tree was small and fake, and the baubles were all mid-century. Foil colours and hollowed out with figures in them. I still get the Christmas feels when I see sparkly red and green and gold foil.

Auntie Phil (Phyllis the next door neighbour) had a massive red crepe paper Cracker which wasnt for pulling - it had little gifts in it. It was re-used every year. The gifts were plastic shit but I loved them.

I remember only one or two presents (not the mountain that my kids get!) Sindy and Sarah Jane ( tiny version of Sindy) and Matilda doll and my Richard Scarry House. And girls world. (I didnt get these at once, I just cant pin down when I did)

I remember having the old style phone and my dad calling from wherever he was posted on Christmas day (RAF), and my nan having a secret ciggie when her friend came round in the evening (she wasnt normally a smoker)

I also remember her letting me 'do her face' one Christmas with my new makeup set (eyeshadow trio from he corner shop) It was terrible..she never let me do that again.

I dont remember any Christmas dinner. But we might have had one. No idea.

I do recall being allowed slightly more water in the bath on Christmas day. Four inches max normally.

Best ever Christmas present for someone born in the 70s

Would my LPs have remained unscratched if I'd had one of those record hoovers?

My mother used to dread the Christmas editions of the TV and Radio Times hitting the shops.

My father would pore over them for days,ranting and raving about how crap Christmas telly was and wishing a horrible death on those responsible.

Very festive.

They're not the same. They're called "Jewels", and although they say they have a liquid centre it's just a softer jelly. The original ones had a centre with a sugar crust and liquid inside; like liqueur chocolates do.

I still buy nuts in their shells and put them out in a bowl with the nutcracker, just at Christmas time. I hope all other children of the 70s still do too!

I have faint memories of going to a show/Christmas party run by the company one of my parents worked for, for the children of its employees. My partner's dad worked for an aircraft company. They flew Father Christmas in on a vintage aeroplane.

What lovely memories.

Driving up the West End (DM used to wrap cold toast in foil for the journey) to do the Selfridges windows, Hamleys and the lights. Hot chestnuts covered in charcoal from street sellers. DM always on the lookout for terrorists because obvs London at Christmas was terrible dangerous! Dinner in Garfunkel's in Leicester Square and we were allowed the dessert trolley.

Foil concertina ceiling decs, a few chocolate baubles we were never allowed to touch. A very plasticky tree and those baubles with the jewel coloured indent behind the lights.

Netted selection stockings

Cherry brandy on Christmas Eve for DDad

DM having a cuppa and a fag before we were allowed to open anything, and always heaving herself up and pronouncing 'well that's that for anovver year then' as we opened the last presents, despite it being 8 in the morning.

Tables set up all over the house for cousins and aunties and whoever showed up for dinner. Absolutely appalling cooking but delicious trifles.

Being taken on the tube to see the lights, window displays and a walk round Hamleys.

Eat me dates that no one ate.

The Wizard of Oz film

Billy Smarts Circus

my Granddad making the same joke every year about “The Parson’s Nose”

Chocolate ornaments were always a hit. You got to take one off the tree and eat it if you won at a game.

Chocolate ornaments taste of post-Christmas blues to me. They were the last taste of Christmas after the decorations came down.

Tinned ham in a pear shaped tin. Or even worse - tinned tongue