Then and now - Christmas things you don't see any more

[housemum]

I was buying some Christmas cards in Sainsbury's and for some reason remembered how we bought cards in my childhood (1970s). I remember going into Woolworths, where you bought a selection box of 20/40 different cards. Mum would spend ages looking through the boxes, but whichever you chose there would always be a couple of really naff kitten-looking-at-a-bauble cards and that dismal brown-tinted sheep-in-the-snow painting. Everywhere now sells a couple of designs only in a pack. Also whatever happened to:

Paper chain garlands, like a honeycomb that stretched out and you pinned to the ceiling

foil garlands - the expensive version of the paper ones

matt wrapping paper by the sheet, usually with the print a little off-centre on each colour. Up until a few years ago I bought this from the local cheap market, and used it to differentiate Father Christmas presents.

Peanuts and cashews in ring pull cans (usually given as gifts - whoopee! )

Christmas tree lights shaped like Victorian lanterns

Christmas may have been tacky back then but it seemed cosier when everything was less "tasteful" :)

My parents had Christmas tree lights shaped like different coloured fruits. I loved them so much, wish I could find some more

Oh Bunty's back page with the cut outs.

I loved them so much

annoyingdevil you may have to buy some fruit lights by the 1000 from China!

My mum still has original 1970s paper garlands that are blue tacked to the ceiling every year.

Oh TOTP and the arguments because Dad never wanted to watch it! And the TV Times it was the only time of the year we bought it.
My Jackie annual and my brother got Roy of the Rovers which I also loved.
A chocolate foil covered santa which appeared to be about half the size of me at 7.
We always had home made soup as a starter ( which I miss with every beat of my heart), Roast chicken as we didn't like Turkey, and then a sherry trifle that we all got drunk on :-) ( it was a birds trifle so I am sure there was no alcohol whatsoever.
We had the net stocking selection boxes where you could see what sweets you were getting.
Always a box of black magic ( is that still aorund)
As for the large box of mixed cards, these were carefully divided in to Nice cards / ok cards and crappy cards and then the recipients in the same way. There was never individual cards for each other as we have now a days, or maybe there was but not in my house.
I am looking longingly at the fruit lights and wonder if they would make it here for xmas. What about the xmas tree ligh repairs with the foil from chocolate wrappers to make the bulb connection better.

We always had home made decorations hanging from our trees and my mum repaired quite a few of the baubles by fixing a big piece of bottle green wool to them. Very discreet! Oh how I miss her....

for Jen. You have lovely memories though...I hope my DS speaks as warmly about the Christmas memories I try and make for him each year. Our magic part was being at my nans in the run up to Christmas, while parents were at work. It was magic (uber tacky foil riddled, snow sprayed windows, flashy fairy lights the works) in her house during the holidays. How she put up with us and our excitement I don't know - we would literally be hopping from foot to foot for 3 days.....

www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ronco+buttoneer&view=detail&mid=66D52D0B9F5E1CECE34166D52D0B9F5E1CECE341&first=0&FORM=LKVR3

For the Ronco/K-tel fans of the 70's.

It was exciting waiting tos ee what the "Big Film" was going to be - no one ahd internet or much in the way of video players when i was a child, so you either went to the cinema or waited till it came on tv

Loving this thread!!! Does anyone remember the cheap rubber stamp and ink sets with animal shapes and things? I got one every year and loved it! We were only allowed coca cola at xmas it was SUCH a treat. I knew xmas was really beginning when on xmas eve my mum used to whip up a batch of mince pies,cook thousands of frozen shop bought sausage rolls and finish the xmas cake with a family of icing snow people one for each of us. We got up stupidly early on xmas morning, were allowed to peek at the stockings( to see if 'He' had been) which were hung on the door in the living room, then dad made a massive cooked breakfast(we only had it once a year like the coke!) after they had washed up we had to make a cup of tea then we all sat down to open the stockings. Had xmas dinner around 1pm then after cleaning up we all sat around the tree and opened the tree presents, one by one- god knows how we manged to be so patient!We ate an enormous tea of crackers, pickles etc and played games, did colouring in and looked at each others gifts together all evening. I do the same now and my dh though I was mad at first but he confessed how much more fun our xmas days are compared to his and the sheer anticipation! Funny thing is, we never had expensive presents, and it didn't matter at all. We never had a big house or anything like that and the decs were as garish as you could get! I kept some of them and hang on my tree every year. Long live the tacky xmas!!!!

Black Magic chocolates are still around (used to hate them!)

Asti Spumante with Christmas lunch (champagne would have been ridiculously expensive/posh). I was allowed a sip of Babycham.

I still have a Father Christmas ornament on our tree that I remember Mum buying in woolies in the '70s. He's about 3 inches tall, one hand waving, and his suit is silver glitter rather than red - he's nicknamed Elvis Santa We also still have a couple of those baubles with the indented bit in a different colour, I look at them each year but haven't put them on the tree for years as they are glass and there have always been little children around - youngest now 3, friend's youngest is 2, so not long now!

I'm a little envious of those whose parents made them wait till after lunch - my aunt did that but my mum was far too impatient - I always found that after the whole excitement of presents the afternoon was just soooo long, sitting watching The Great Escape or Dambusters and wishing there were more surprises! (My mum is still impatient - I have to make sure she comes round for Christmas and has her present here, I've given it to her on the weekend before Christmas in the past and had a phone call the same day to say thank you - could at least pretend she'd waited!!)

wildstrawberryplace, cakeymakey, ooh yes they were angel chimes - rather love the squirrels. I always thought they were quite magical as I couldn't understand the dynamics of candle/angel twirling. I think I may have to invest in many ...

Also loved the magic crystal Christmas trees - some kind of toxic liquid which grew into colourful crystals on a bit of green tree shaped cardboard.

tealight angel lantern

Never had a magic tree, but I used to have the "Japanese water garden" flowers someone else referred to earlier, where you put the little compressed paper discs in water and they unfurled. Simple pleasures :)

Avocaat - is that how you spell it? Do people still drink snowballs? Did they ever? I also remember brazil nuts. Rarely seem to get these in nut selections...seem to think there was an issue but can't remember what.....

Oh yes, Avocaat - there was always a bottle around at Christmas but I never recall anyone actually drinking it!

My granny used to drink advocat. Isn't is an ingredient of eggnog?

I have angel candle chimes. Ding ding ding. Christmas in a sound.

yy Japanese Water Garden and fortune teller fish - how about Magic Crystal Gardens and Trees? C.hinese paper lanterns with tassels at the bottom that you pull to stretch them out like concertinas? (Still got them)

aah Warninks Advocaat - granny's favourite!

I love this thread because now I realise that I am just continuing on my family childhood christmases in exactly the same style, multi colored garishness, room garelands, balloons everywhere etc. Mum used to put a red light in (the loo? or hall?) and that was thrilling. I do aspire to tasteful christmas decs, but everytime I try and put naice white fairy lights up...it seems wrong .

We had a real tree- one of those that look lovely but drop like a bastard. I can remember it would be nearly bald & and needles everywhere by the 28th... used to lay underneath & look at the coloured lights reflected in the baubles...

We only had fizzy at Christmas, I remember a crate of various fizzy drinks being bought out, we used to mix them (Dandelion & burdock, ginger beer etc). And I still do sausage rolls/mince pies on Christmas eve!

We had a pillowcase each, I can still feel the heavy weight of it by my feet and hear the crackling of paper at the end of the bed... ahh! One year my brother reset all the clocks and we all opened presents at about 3am thinking it was 7!

My sister and I used to write in little note books to each other and wrote pledges at Xmas that we would wait and open our stockings together ( at the end of our beds) We would take turns to present open in each others rooms and had a set meeting time of 6am. Although it always ended up about 5am!
:)

We used to have a Birds Custard Father Christmas Jug.

Whoever asked abput the toffee with the hammer, it was Bluebird toffee if I recall and came with a little cheap metal hammer.

My folks still have one of those toffee hammers!

We get a bottle of Advocaat every year (from Aldi now ) and everyone has a snowball - the DCs get a VERY weak one, with a cherry on a stick and a little umbrella, in a fancy glass, and think it very fine they are allowed one on Christmas Eve before bed, one with Christmas dinner, and one with Boxing Day dinner and then they have to wait until next year...
Do you remember (and now I realise I have no idea what they were called) little toys, stocking filler things, that had a tin circle, painted, usually with starry sky colours, with little red (cellophane maybe?) windows in it. It was on a handle with a plunger and when you pushed the plunger repeatedly, the wheel would turn and it made a high pitched noise, and sparks would fly out. The faster you pushed, the faster it would go, then when you stopped it would gradually slow to a stop. Anyone?

I remember always getting bath cubes and a flannel every year from elderley friends of my parents. We used sponges not flannels so I used to use it as a towel for my dolls.
The bath cubes used to take your skin off but I felt so grown up in the 3 inches of bath water I was allowed so as not to waste hot water.
Xmas lights which lasted my entire childhood instead of the new set I seem to buy each year now.

I'm going to be late for work now, had to read all of this though. I saw angel chimes in Waterstones on tuesday. I remember feeling very grown up having bath cubes too, very gritty in the bath though. We also had crazy foam which you can still get, basically shaving foam to play with in the bath. I had an old dolls house of my mums, and every couple of years my dad would do it up with new wallpaper, people, furniture and little battery lights and wrap it up fo a present, I thought it was great.
Otherwise my memories are sherry and pomagne, dusty paper chains, loo roll shepherds made at school (when you were still allowed to use loo roll insides), mum in the kitchen all day, singing in the school choir, dads cigar, pillowcases for stockings, flowery lights, wishing for snow.

My christmas memories are:

A selection box for breakfast, always got one of those jumbo colouring books with random pictures of little girls and a dog, a bear dressed as a clown etc in, and some felt tips.
Impulse or Charlie body spray sets when I got to my teens, watching The BFG was a Christmas must (I've bought it on DVD for DD!), Lambrini and some lemonade at Christmas dinner for our 'wine'.
Multi coloured christmas tree lights, and little foiled wrapped boxes tied with gold elastic were 'present' decorations for the tree.