What was Christmas like when you were a child?

[ScrabbledLeggsAndToes]

I like hearing / reading about all the different ways people celebrate Christmas. I like hearing about all the seemingly insignificant things that happen, and end up becoming treasured memories, or special traditions

So, what was Christmas like when you were a child?....

Ah, that's good to know brightandshiney

It's so awful that some of you had a miserable time. When one has had a happy childhood it's easy to forget that not everyone has

My uncle bought the turkey every year. He delivered it on Christmas Eve, And it was exciting waiting for it.

We would wake up to the smell of turkey, and come downstairs to find all the presents under the tree. My parents always hosted, so it was a full house every year. Lots of games and a huge buffet in the evening.

The first year I spent it with dhs family I was a bit sad as they only sit together to eat, then carry on like its a usual Sunday roast for the rest of the day. The presents don't to under their tree either, they get brought out in batches throughout the day

I really don't remember Christmases in general but one year I wanted, & got, a doll very like this one.

We used to get small presents on our beds in a pillowcase, but I really remember creeping downstairs in the morning to a cold dark living room & fireplace full of ashes to find this doll & lots of clothes for her that my mother had knitted & sewed.

She turned her head from side to side when I made her walk, & said mama if I laid her across my lap. I called her Angela. I still have her nearly 60 years later

On Christmas morning Dad would get up, light the fire and check to see if Santa had been. I'd be lying in my bed waiting for him to shout "He's been!" Presents would be opened and then, and I don't know how this became a tradition and quite a strange one at that seeing as I was so very young, I'd be given a cup of tea with a drop of Whiskey in it. My sister would have one too but then she was 11 years older than me. After that, while Mom made dinner, Dad, myself and my sister would walk to visit Dad's cousins who lived in the same street as each other. My Dad is an only child and these two female cousins were like sisters to him. There'd be more presents there before going back home for dinner.

The afternoon would be spent playing with new toys. At night we'd have family around. My grandparents, Dad's parents, and my Nan, an Aunt, Uncle and various cousins from my Mom's side. The table would be filled with food...turkey rolls, tinned salmon sandwiches, sausage rolls, pickled onions, cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks, pork pie, mince pies, trifle, Christmas cake.

Christmas was an absolutely magical time, and definitely still my most favourite time of year!
The excitement started building on Dec 1st when we could open our advent calendars I still have one now at cough 30 something
Putting the tree up was a family affair, and we'd all hang the decorations on whilst listening to Christmas music.
Christmas Eve, we'd go to the church Christmas carol service and then home to put a mince pie and small sherry out for Santa and Rudolph before we went to bed.
Christmas morning would see us running into Mum and Dad's bedroom shouting "HE'S BEEEEEEN!" at top volume and bouncing up and down on the bed at silly o'clock.
With Dad hunkering further under the covers and saying "it's too bleedin' early" lol.
Opened all the presents on the bed together.
Went to the local pub at lunchtime for an hour whilst mum was cooking the dinner, all had to be back at a certain time. Wearing any Christmas jumpers, socks etc that we had received was also mandatory.
After Christmas lunch it was flop on the sofa full of food to watch the Christmas Top of The Pops and Only Fools and Horses specials.
Love, love. loved Christmas as a child and still do.

An Aussie here ... I have a question ... I have heard it mentioned many times ....SATSUMA = plum, right? What is the significance of it? Never heard of it. Many thanks, and enjoy your Satsumas.

A Satsuma is a small, juicy, easy to peel orange. It's tradition to put one in the children's stocking at Christmas along with their presents.
The tradition/ significance goes "naughty boys and girls get a lump of coal in their stocking, and good ones get a lovely juicy Satsuma."
Of course all the boys and girls end up with satsumas and not coal in there as that would just be mean lol. ..

OpheliaBalls I'm tearing up. Your mum sounds like she was an absolutely amazing one.
Love this thread.

I had lovely CHristmases growing up.

We had the same white and silver Christmas tree, on the coffee table, with the crib underneath. Any of the fake needles that fell from the tree would look like snow on top of the stable roof. It was a paper/cardboard one that Mum would carefully assemble every year, then return to flat pack.

I remember baking with Mum and shopping with Dad at the cash and carry. :)

My sisters and I would put out whiskey and Christmas cake or a mince pie for father Christmas and a carrot for the reindeer then go to bed early. In the morning, we'd wake each other and compare stocking contents.

Dad had to go down to the living room first. He'd switch on the tree lights and affirm that 'he'd been!'. Then we'd go down and there would be three sacks of gifts, one for each of us.

We would go and visit a family friend mid morning as it was her birthday, then back home. Then off to Mum's parents house for a big family dinner. Her 2 sisters and their kids and us 5 made for a big household and occasionally the kids had their own table in the living room (which I didn't like). Later on Dad started hosting the meal and I enjoyed having our family around. There would be another sack full of gifts from Nana and Grandpa.

Boxing day was at Dad's family's house. Another round of presents and another big roast dinner. I loved it all.

I remember trays of nuts and sweets around, playing with our toys and watching films together. Happy days.

We've kept up with the family dinner every year and my sisters and I take it in turns to put on a tea to spread the load. Dad was poorly last year and still proudly managed to cook a Christmas dinner and we had a lovely time. I had a sad suspicion that it could be his last Christmas and I was unfortunately right. He passed away last month and it will be a strange Christmas without him there.

Charley

Christmas was magical when I was a child.

We were living in poverty all year round but somehow come Christmas morning we would always come down to presents and food and it was glorious!

We'd all decorate together with Christmas music playing, mince pies and hot chocolate, we'd have a playful 'argument' with my dad who would always claim he wasn't getting the decorations out the loft until Christmas Eve and they were coming down and going back up there on Boxing Day.
I still have the artificial tree, it's well past it but I can't let go.

Alway a huge crowd for dinner, a minimum of 12 sat round the huge table, I cooked the Christmas dinner from when I was about 8 yrs old onwards, my mum wasn't well so I just took over from her gradually until it was my thing.

I have great Christmas memories and I think it's the whole Christmas period that was great not just the day.

Pre Christmas we always had a day out just the kids and dad which was rare. We would go to a museum in London, feed pigeons in trafalgar square, see Christmas lights and go to hamleys where they always had loads of people displaying toys and we got to spend our pocket money. Dad sometimes even allowed us to eat a McDonald's! Now I realise this was the day mum wrapped all the presents and got sorted but we loved it.

Also loved the carol service, the school Christmas fair, santa coming around in a big truck giving out sweets, decorating the tree, baking mince pies, doing one of those Christingle oranges with cloves in. Was such a busy time. We used to see lots of people who dropped in with gifts.

Christmas day we got stocking in our beds when we woke up (which was always ridiculously early ) but had to wait to go downstairs and see if father Christmas had been. Mum and dad didn't make us wait long though just wanted to be part of it. Quite often we would take our stocking in to their bed. Breakfast was always bacon sandwiches. We would do the big family meal with crackers and get a small present at the table too to keep the day going.

Loved all of it. Although mum says we would all be tired by mid afternoon and start squabbling over toys. Don't really remember that though!

In Australia satsumas are called mandarins! Just the small oranges. In the uk they seem to go by their particular varieties, eg, clementines.

I've always supposed they were such a treat during a uk winter, but as an Aussie living in the uk for 14 years, it did take a whole to get used too!

I'm in my 30s and my family Christmases were a mixed bag. There were lovely things we did, but some years went a bit EastEnders with huge arguments.

The good stuff:

• church for Midnight Mass from when I was 8 or 9; I loved singing the descants to all the carols.
• waking up to open my stocking; always taking it through to my parents' room to show them what we'd got (even though we weren't that close normally, and I never believed in Father Christmas and knew full well my parents already knew what I'd got!) My stocking always contained chocolate, a satsuma, a jointed plastic snake toy, little games, often a book, and always a single piece of coal to remind me that I hadn't been good ALL year...
• chocolate coins or a selection box for "breakfast".
• church again, then home where various relations and other guests would gather.

-

Cont'd...

• main presents from under tree, always distributed by whoever the youngest person was who could read the labels.
• lunch about 2pm over in time to watch the Queen at 3.
• flaming Christmas pud; always a chocolate alternative.
• after this I always wanted to play charades or board games but nobody else ever wanted to.
• falling asleep in front of Wallace and Gromit, the Two Ronnies or whatever the "big" film was on TV.
• reading new books, assembling new toys, occasionally a walk on the beach.
• turkey sandwiches.
• early to bed!

My parents were teachers and we weren't allowed to put the decorations up until term had finished, I hated this as a child but as an adult I realise how sick of tinsel and glitter they must have been

I remember the house being transformed on the first day of the holidays, my Dad putting the lights on the artificial tree and then my sister and I arguing over which decorations went where. There were tree chocolates that couldn't be opened until Christmas Day which felt like an eternity to wait. We also had a lovely little nativity scene that my sister and I would argue over (sensing a theme here?) and constantly rearrange.

We were allowed to open our stockings in bed and then into our parents room after 7am to show them what we had unwrapped. I still remember the thrill of waking up to a bulging stocking and then the excitement of going downstairs and seeing the presents under the tree.

My sister and I always had a tin of evaporated milk in our stockings which we were allowed to have on our cereal (no idea where this tradition came from but we loved it). Christmas Day was the one day you didn't have to eat your vegetables or anything you didn't like.

We never went anywhere on Christmas Day, we were either at home or staying with my grandparents or cousins, but we stayed put where we were and didn't do any visiting on Christmas Day which I still insist upon now.

occasionally the kids had their own table in the living room (which I didn't like)

CharleyDavidson Ah yes, the infamous 'Children's Table'.

We actually had a great deal of fun at ours. There was an age gap between the 5 youngest cousins and the 10 older, so the 5 of us younger cousins had a pretty rollicking time. Plenty of poo humour and bad table manners unnoticed by the grownups. We graduated to the 'big table' at around 14 & had to start minding our ps and qs.

The old wooden crib in the market square where my dad used to take us on Christmas Eve. As young children we used to peer in wonder at huge figures of the three kings, shepherds, Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus in the straw, all with carols piped through for effect.
That was over 30 years ago. My dear dad has now passed but the crib still returns, completely unchanged. I try to pass at least once each Christmas season, stop for a moment to say a prayer and remember.

so I got into bed in the middle of parents and lay with both arms over them 'just to be sure' lol....

YOU little bugger! If my dc did this I couldnt cope.

Horrible, the worst time of the year. Violent and abusive step-father on annual leave for a week - Christmas was hell.

So glad that I now have my own family and Christmas can be special.

Jemima, I'm so sorry that your childhood Christmases were so awful. But it's wonderful that you are able to make Christmas all you want it to be for your own family.

I loved the cosyness of Christmas Eve, watching films whilst having a cold buffet with the Christmas lights twinkling. Christmas morning was hugely exciting, as was Christmas Day night when we settled down with chocolates and new toys. But the day itself wasn't something I would choose to live through again although we made the best of it. We would walk to my grandparents, then to my aunts, then to church, bank to my aunts, quick nibble and a drink then walk back to my grandparents where we had to stay for an hour or two, then over to the old lady across the road for a 30 min visit as she was on her own, sit still and make polite conversation (have purposely excluded full stops so you get an idea of how long the day felt). This was followed by the really exciting prospect of bring allowed home, to change into something WARM (we had sleeveless party dresses most winters which grew up into cocktail dresses as teens) for Christmas dinner and to play with our presents.