It's the Friday before Christmas (mad Friday) in 1994. What are you upto?!

[1980sDesign]

I have just picked my mail up for the week as I have been on Holiday and I been sent a medical appointment through for a mini op on 'mad Friday' which will lead me to spending the eve in my pjs it got me thinking.

In 1994 I'd have knocked off work at lunch time - I would have gone with my mates Angie and Fiona who I worked with to the bars near my work and we would be firmly on the 'lash'.

I'd probably have got changed in the toilets at work into something I might be able to fit one leg into now 😆 probably some sort of black Mini dress.

This would be the last Christmas of singledom before I met my husband the following summer and I probably won't spend much that night!

1994 mad Friday ... What are you upto?

Tears in my eyes reading this. I wish I could go back in time and give 13 year old you a hug. I hope that doesn't sound too weird and creepy!

This was so similar to me. My dad was diagnosed with a brain tumour just before Christmas. We ended up having an early fake Christmas as we expected him to still be in hospital recovering from surgery. It was a tough one that year.

I was 12, so it was school holidays. I can't remember for sure what I did but I suspect it was something to do with mooching around town with my best friend and doing our Christmas shopping. Probably stopping for a bite to eat at MacDonalds or Deep Pan Pizza. Or going to the library making sure I had enough books to get me through the Christmas hols. Daydreaming about the fifth form girl I had a crush on (not a sexual one, I just adored her and wanted to be around her always) and reading J17 magazine, hoping perhaps it would snow, and remembering to ask my mum to make sure the guinea pigs were safe inside and not in their outdoor hutch if it did get cold.

I still have guinea pigs,but they are indoor piggies!

Getting ready to go to my parents for Christmas, a bit nervous because it was also introducing my bloke to them.

it went well. We had 21 years. I miss them all three.

Mistakenly believing that I'd finally got my life back together and things were looking up after a very short, mentally and physically abusive marriage in 1992 that ended in 1993. I'd spent 1994 sorting out my divorce, lost weight, smartened myself up and thought I'd finally found love with the sympathetic Solicitor who dealt with it (we worked together). We got together just before Christmas 1994 and I was so excited buying new clothes in the November sales. 1994 ended so happily for me but I was absolutely heartbroken to find out in early 1995 that not only did he have a long term girlfriend but their wedding was booked for that summer. I did eventually meet my lovely dh and we've been married 26 years but I look back on 1994 with such mixed emotions.

I was 13. Probably in my room listening to Nirvana or Suede, or in Brighton with a friend trying on tasselled skirts and buying stuff from Athena or the Body Shop for my mums Christmas present.

I’ve just finished school for the term, and am tucked up on the sofa ready to watch Friends, Caroline in the City, Frasier, and then (after my mum and dad have gone to bed), I’ll probably nick a bit of my dad’s brandy and watch The Word and Eurotrash.

Tomorrow I’m going Christmas shopping in town with some mates. I’m already excited thinking about the cross choker and Celtic earrings I’m going to buy in Oasis, before heading to Warehouse for a long crinkly satin skirt, and Past Times and Wax Lyrical for some Christmas presents for my mum and Nan. My sisters are getting Body Shop cucumber toner and kiwi and morello cherry lip balms in a little basket. I’m seventeen, so me and my mates will hang out for a bit in Our Price and the Virgin Megastore listening to the chart on those little headphones, before going to a cafe to get one of those new cappuccino coffees with a little biscuit on the side because we’re dead grown up.

I was only 12 so the madness didn't start for another 3 years or so

I was prepping for my wedding. We had a small registry wedding on Christmas Eve. Celebrating 30 years this year.

I was 11 so probably would have been at the local village pub with my family and all the locals. Panda pops, walkers crisps, pub dinner. Scampi and chips. Fond memories.

I was 16. I had not long split up with my 21 year old boyfriend, so was probably moping around thinking it was the end of the world!

i dropt to 5 1/2 stone(from 7) ..glandular fever was bad,enough but tonsiltitus n then bronchitus plus two severe reactions to anti bionix/meds damn near killed me. id recently been disowned(by dad)which meant mum wrote me off n sisters banned talk to me(id left for big city\nobosy cared)after i moved in with (one of)the love(s)of my life.i were 21 he was 30. dad said "hes bin round the block-dont put yourself through this"(wow-i miss my da so much..) however we had a lovely flat,nobody will deny he "nursed"me..throo hell .so i was prob spoonfed n cosy on sofa. i had some sorta fit the week before christmas, resulted in me smashing the tv,cos i fell into it. (despite being in liv room,was toomfy portable) he had to run at call box three streets awy to get ambulnce phone

16, in lower sixth. Dreading Christmas as my dad had died from aggressive cancer in the spring and I was dealing with my Mum’s mental health break down, looking after my siblings as the oldest child, and trying to find some sense of normality in school.
That was the year I learnt what heartbreak truly was. There were times when I felt my heart was literally aching in two pieces. I’d not sleep, go to school with puffy eyes from crying and insomnia. There was no counselling or support.

💐 to everyone else who was having a shit time.

I had a toddler and was hugely pregnant with my second baby, so looking after my little boy and trying to rest!

I was a late teen, out of sorta for a few reason. First grandparent had passed away recently.

But I would definitely have been out in the pub with friends getting drunk (as I so often was!)

Looking back my life was a mess but my friends were everything to me.

I'm in my mother's womb 😂

I was working full time, split shifts, in a pub. I would have gone to work in the morning, picked my children up from the child minder and school on the way back from work, cooked and eaten our evening meal together before going out to work again, getting home shortly before midnight.

it was a difficult time.

My ds was 10 months so enjoying planning for christmas with a first baby and popping out with friends and dh for the odd night out xx

It’s the day after my 33rd birthday and I have two young daughters 5 and nearly 3 who are very excited about Father Christmas!

I had a 14 month old, had just been made redundant and had my car stolen. A month later DH got made redundant and I had a contraception failure..... that was quite a Christmas !

This was me back then (aged 12) right down to the Body Shop morello cherry lip balm and Celtic costume jewellery. Happy memories!

Im 19. Living with my 33 year old boyfriend in a shitty bedsit.
We can't believe our luck as we have just sold over £200 worth of our quite shit handmade presents door to door to desperate men who realise they hadn't bought their wives or daughters anything yet.
This will be enough money to help us move to Spain for about five months and live in a caravan in the mountains with other friends.
We will have gone to the pub to celebrate with friends, and probably ended up back at someone's house for an impromptu party.
I would have been wearing almost exactly what 14 year old DD is now!

I love this - my teen years exactly! What happened to Past Times, it was brilliant.

I was 19. I was probably just home from Christmas shopping. And i dont mean for new clothes or presents but for the big Christmas shop in the supermarket. My mother had died from cancer earlier that year and in a typical Irish Catholic family it had fallen to me as the only girl left at home to shop, cook and clean for my father and two brothers. I had already made the home made Christmas pudding by following my mother's hand written recipe (which I still use every year) and I was going to collect the turkey I had ordered from the butcher the following day. I was determined that nobody would notice any difference between Christmas dinner this year and previous years. To be fair , I think I succeeded as Christmas dinner was a success and just as tasty as anything my mother had ever made. The only difference was that this year my father was overcome with emotion during the meal and had to leave the table and my brothers and I were left eating, in silence, trying not to catch each other's eyes while we listened to our father sobbing softly in the upstairs bathroom.