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" :)

YY to the agonising card selections

You are still allowed to use loo roll inners Mash, the H&S thing is a myth. But I bet they don't know how to make entire nativity scenes from cotton wool and loo rolls like we did .

We had those piss-poor colouring books, the ones that felt-tips soaked right through. There were always pictures of crinoline ladies, pigs in shorts, vaguely racist Native American pictures and a kitten.

Or the velvet colouring board pictures and, for the really artistic, paint by numbers or the one where you scraped off a layer of black to reveal copper or gold underneath. Classy, them.

We made our own advent calendar one year. Just cut out pics from old Christmas cards and stuck them behind the little windows. I usually get choc free advent calendars from Oxfam and send them to all my children - they love them. The chocolate in the choc ones is usually horrible, anyway. Happy Christmas

Gift tags made from cutting up last year's Christmas cards with pinking shears (zigzag scissors). I know an older relative who still does that

Loo roll inners are back on the OK list, but not a total myth - when DD1 was at toddler group (about 16 years ago) we had to put all the loo roll inners into a bag and every month seal it up and date it - we were allowed to use them after 6 months!!

DD1's granny still has the loo roll nativity set that they made together one year - DD1 is now 18

Love the fact that DD3 now goes to a preschool where she makes loads from loo roll inners, is allowed to play outside and get mucky (that's what soap is for) and they play with things like the little shapes and tacks that you hammer into cork :)

Forgotten about bath cubes - they were pretty foul! And cheap nasty perfumes by long forgotten companies like Coty and Yardley. I had "Lace" by Yardley when I was about 15 (mid 80s) - felt very grown up!

Christmas crackers were never classy in my house, and I refuse to buy quality ones...it wouldn't be Christmas without the really pinchy black plastic moustache up your nose, a spinning top, and a red plastic fish that told fortunes from the heat on your hand.

Selection box for breakfast yes, that morphed into a whole chocolate orange in the teens, finally into an entire box of Walkers Shorbread rounds washed down with a pint or two of Baileys....

Going back to Christmas TV:

Does anyone remember the Christmas Lectures on tv after Christmas? Just for kids in the mornings usually with a science topic for the week.

And then the darts would commence until NY or Britain's Strongest Man every day (Jeff Capes would always win a big silver plate and a leg of lamb)

Christmas crackers were not all posh and shiny (well, not the ones we bought), they were wrapped in crepe paper with a paper robin/snowman/Father Christmas stuck on. My mum would slightly open one end and look into them if she could, if she saw a pirate eyepatch it would instantly be thrown in the bin. No idea why, I can only presume she thought you could permanently blind yourself by wearing an eyepatch for 5 minutes. (Did I mention she is occasionally barking mad?!)

Anyone else think the Magic Fish have grown smaller and cheaper? I'm sure the ones I had had an actual fish design printed on them, now they are plain red very thin cellophane.

They still have the Royal Institution Lectures don't they?

Christmas Variety shows - an evening for the whole family to sit in front of the telly to watch some questionable acts and guzzle chocolates. (Anyone for an evening of racist/sexist comedy, ventriloquists, "cute" singing child and people doing contortionism or making their pecs move in time to music?)

My mum STILL puts the birds, made from a cereal box covered in foil with paper bow for a tail, on the tree that both my sister and I made when we were in baby infants (as in, aged 4). I, being precocious and always knowing what to do, put the wings in the middle of the bird's back, when really they were meant more as a tail. Teacher watched out for my sis the following year (same teacher). They are now officially deemed ancient (over 30 years old) - but it's nice to see the cornflakes picture sticking through the foil on my sis's one every year.

I am currently saving loo rolls for DD to make snowmen, pengions and santas to decorate her room and the kitchen!! I am thinking chabby chic and distracting her on afternoons in December all rolled into one!! :)

wow housemum
what idea to do with BGT contestants
make a christmas specail with the best acts like in the old days
think you you should email simon and itv with that one

oh Binfull thank you for reminding me of those fox hunting scene glasses!

We had lovely deep red chunky glasses with clear stems, and I had a Mr Noisy glass for 'special' Christmas drinks! And barrel shaped ones with gold rings round them. I love it when 'quality' 70s glasswear crops up in charity shops! So pretty!

We used to have the Radio Times at Christmas but we didn't have a TV and only really listened to the news and weather on the radio, what was that all about?

Jdub I'm tempted....I'm soooo bloody tempted...

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-X-SETS-12-VINTAGE-HUNTING-SCENES-SHOT-TOT-GLASSES-FOXES-HORSES-ETC-/370558417961?pt=UK_Collectables_Breweriana_SM&hash=item564700bc29

I had hunting and I think my brother had a pirate one.

I seem to remember a lamp with a hunting scene on it too....

Our decanteur was actually a little bit "posher" than this but it gives you the general idea:

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=170618490688

poppycock -i think it was pecans with something yummy caramalised on it --i think it came in the yearly hamper, which was paid up weekly

I loved those patterns to colour in that someone mentioned - would spend hours colouring them in & putting my felt pens back into colour order!

What happened to grapes with seeds in?? Mum always bought in a load of fruit for Christmas (did we not eat any the rest of the year) - grapes with seeds, a whole box of satsumas, some of which were wrapped in tissue paper (I always had to have one of the wrapped ones), a whole box of oranges too! All grapes seem to be seedless these days thank god!

There seems to be soooo much choice in decorations, Christmas food, drink etc whereas back in 70s/80s it sounds like we were all having pretty much the same Christmas

The seeds with grapes in are all in France! On holiday this year the DDs were not impressed with this nature lark (so how do you plant a seedless grape vine?) as there was no such thing as a seedless grape in any of the supermarkets!

yy to Watney 7, Snowballs, those cherry chocolates, chocolate liqueurs shaped like bottles, grapefruit for breakfast (grilled, with a glace cherry), careful research of the Radio Times with everybody negotiating their selections days in advance,

How about: Arctic roll instead of Christmas pudding, that strange fibreglass stuff we used to stretch over the christmas tree (that used to slice your fingers), Matchmakers, Babycham, decorations that resolutely refused to be colour-schemed, the excitement of watching the BBC globe turn into a festive-themed icon. And presents: handkerchief sets, lavender bathsalts, those guest soaps shaped like lemons (they were well sophisticated in South London!), Wombles annuals...

I still cut last year's Christmas cards into tags with pinking shears. It's traditional!

So do I!

Not read the whole thread but remember the stocking shaped selection packs and the gaudy mismatched xmas decs. I also remember getting a brand new coat (instead of a hand me down) one year as my "main" gift and being over the moon. Can't imagine that going down well with my kids!

My Nan ALWAYS used to bring nuts in shells and they would sit in a wooden bowl gathering dust with a pair of nut crackers also gathering dust beside them.

As a kid I was allowed to stay up late at xmas playing cards with the grown ups for MONEY which I could keep if I won (which was rarely) and I remember a total TV ban on xmas day and playing zany games such as carrying a 2p between your knnes across the room and dropping it into a milk bottle.......

Those wer the days!!! LOL

Liking the idea of the game, might have to pinch that one! Always wondered if families really did play games like that, as they always did on telly but we didn't (only me, mum, nan so not exactly a large gathering)

I still have to buy the Radio Times at Christmas & go through it with a highlighter pen marking what I want to watch much to DH's annoyance who moans that the weekend papers give the Christmas viewing guide away free these days and there's no need to pay for the radio timed!

I miss the Christmas Day "big film", as these days everything is on Sky movies or DVD. We used to get so excited waiting to see what the Christmas Day afternoon premier was going to be!

Bringing back so many happy memories here! I loved those Altair Designs books too, and we always had a selection bag in the shape of a boot with netting over it. Also the xmas cards hung on a string pinned to the wall, and the crepe long twisted decorations that went from each corner of the room to the centre lampshade.
We always had to watch the Queens speech and then TOTP, which my dad moaned the whole way through, and then all fall asleep in front of the BIG afternoon film, which we had found through buying the Radio and TV Times, yes another 70's girl here!

Not buy the tv times or radio times! I'll come round with a rolled up copy and smack some sense into him!

It didn't matter if you did look at them, their place was on the veneer coffee table, next to the crystal bowl of shelled nuts on a crochet doily and the "Eat me" dates. My nan would order them from the newsagent along with her "Peoples Friend" Christmas edition.

I love this thread...let's do annuals too? Look In, Just 17, Patches, Blue jeans as a teen, Twinkle, Beano, Whizzer & Chips, Dandy, Bunty, Mandy and Debbie annuals as young ones. Boxing day evening, me n bruv in our pj's, having used our Christmas stocking bubble bath, pearls, cubes etc, reading our annuals on the sofa together, enjoying a giant tube of smarties or fruit gums. There would always be a scary kind of story in the Buntyish ones - ghost of a ballerina in the dance school and the spoilt rude girl in the class would get trapped behind the mirror with the ghosts for ever etc etc...mwah hah hah...

I loved my brother so so much during Christmas, we always got on like angels together compared to the rest of the year!

I still cut last year's Christmas cards into tags with pinking shears. It's traditional!

Me too .

And I go through the Christmas Radio Times marking all the things I want to watch and record.

I've just been explaining paper garlands to ds1 (prompted by this thread, not completely random) and he wants to make some this this year .

We made paper chains last year and hung them from the lounge light fittings, they were ace!

Binful I remember all the annuals too - it was traditional for my brothers and I to get an annual or two each, as well as the Guiness Book of Records to share between us. We'd spend Christmas Day afternoon and Boxing Day regaling the family with such delights as the world's heaviest baby and the biggest bacteria or something.

I remember:

Bunty
Twinkle
Jackie
Just 17
Smash Hits
Whizzer and Chips
Beano
The Dandy