Was an ‘80s Christmas the ultimate Christmas in history?

[CoolShoeshine]

Ive been thinking about my childhood Christmases and I may be biased because of my age but they seemed pretty perfect. I make Christmas the best I can for my dc’s but there is something about modern Christmas that just isn’t as good. It’s like we’ve tried too hard to make it better and better and somehow ruined it a bit.
80s Christmas has the most amazing balance of being fun and decadent but not overdone. We had massive tins of quality street but they wouldn’t be cheap as chips so that everyone is eating them from October onwards- we’d just have them once Christmas had properly arrived. Likewise advent calendars didn’t have chocolates, they had the quaintest pictures each day to set the mood as the month went on. I can remember being so excited to open the double size door on Christmas Eve.
We had amazing Christmas songs in the charts but we still knew all the carols. Carol singers sang outside our house in the cold.
We had thin wrapping paper that wasn’t plastic coated and crepe paper crackers. We did send masses of cards though but cut the pictures with pinking shears to use as tags the following year.it was really exciting if we got over 100 cards in our household to stick in the walls with blue tak.
We had a massive spruce tree which was wonky and shed everywhere so mum would be hoovering on a daily basis, but it was the only tree in the house and touched the ceiling. Lights were always multi coloured but not garish and baubles were too. Tinsel was considered pretty not tacky.
School let us bring in board games to play on the last day of term and the teachers drank wine. We had the most amazing school discos where we did the birdie song and agadoo and we knew all the actions. Boys squirted is with silly string. Christmas didn’t properly start until that day when we finished school on a high and had the anticipation of Christmas within grasp.
We had few tv channels and even less other gadgets so it was a major treat to watch the big movie on Christmas Day afternoon. Likewise top of the pops and only fools and horses. Everyone was watching the same things and talking about them the next day.
I could go on and on. Am I just a nostalgic 40 something or was it really the best Christmas time? Please don’t say no and ruin my memories

I agree it is OTT these days, I hate that all the light displays in town centres, Santas Grotto etc open mid November so you are absolutely sick of it by now with another 12 days to go.

I'm sure the kids of today will be writing similar posts in 30 years time about how great their own Christmases were.

You can get lametta, I have it on my sweetie tree

Fairy lights are not as good now. The old flower ones had more colours, softer and more twinkly.

I remember the crafts at primary school around Christmas. The sugar paper and coloured foil, just cutting and sticking stars, just magical.

I think chocolate advent calendars say it all, really. We don't expect children to have the subtlety or the imagination to get excited about a little picture behind a door. I can still feel the tingle in my stomach at the thought of opening the double door on the 24th and seeing a little Nativity scene.

My childhood Christmases were in the 60s and 70s. We had a silver tinsel tree and incredibly delicate brightly coloured glass decorations which came packed in cardboard boxes and tissue paper. Lametta and angel hair finished the tree, along with multi coloured fairy lights. We made paper chains and twisted crepe paper to make streamers. Paper lanterns hung from the lights and we all wanted the Blue Peter advent candle crown decorated with tinsel. Presents came in a pillow case which was left, filled, on the bottom of your bed. The sensation of heavy rustling when you moved your feet will never leave me. It's making my feet tingle just thinking about it. There was always an annual, satsuma and walnuts along with the other presents received from Father Christmas.

My parents had a pub, and had to open at lunchtime on Christmas Day. They put snacks on the bar, and the first drink was free for everyone. They always had to make sure that advocaat was in stock to make the inevitable snowballs which no-one ever wanted the rest of the year. Once the pub shut, we had a very late Christmas lunch and then flicked through the Radio Times and TV Times to plan the evening's viewing. It always included Morecambe and Wise, and Stanley Baxter. It was the only night of the year the pub was closed, so the only evening spent together as a family, stuffing down Roses and the remnants selection boxes. We'd open the net of mixed nuts and laugh as the almond shells pinged round the room. Boxing Day was always the village fancy dress football match, organised by my dad, and supported by the whole village. Happy days.

I think it seemed more special compared to now because it was a novelty and we hadnt been through 30 of them like we have now.

I was little in the 1970s and remember the excitement of getting the christmas tree, stringing it with coloured lights, coloured baubles that had been passed down for years and real candles in little holders as well as tinsel. We also put crepe streamers around and across the ceiling and strung the cards on twine above the fireplace.

We had the school christmas party/disco and trudged through snow several feet deep to get home. It neatly always snowed at Christmas.

We had drinks like Warnicks Advocat and Egg Nog, plus a proper christmas pudding made in November which was set on fire at the table.

Then there were the stockings which magically appeared at the foot of the bed on Christmas morning with oranges, nuts socks and selection boxes. I used to love waking up to the smell of new dolls, shop keeper sets, books and bow up plastic toys. I got a rocking horse once which I loved.

My favourite memory though is doing huge jigsaws on the dining table with the fire crackling while listening to either radio 1 or radio 4 and waiting for christmas lunch to be served.

Then we’d eat and watch TV - Worzel Gummidge, Black Beauty, The Railway Children, Dave Allen, The Two Ronnies.

I think it was simpler then and we didnt have any distractions because there were no phones (for us and a lot of our family and friends) or internet, and the shops were closed too so it was a proper week’s break from everything. Bliss.

Now it’s Christmas overload so early that by the time Christmas actually comes around everyone’s a bit over it!
A bit? The kids are bored shitless way before Christmas by the "magic" of lapland breakfasts, Christmas eve boxes, Santa Express etc. Magical indeed.

You can still buy lametta! I have gold on my tree. There's a few choices on amazon but probably available elsewhere too.

I was a bit older in the 80's but lovely description op. 🎄

Making paper chains at school with bowls of crisps made by the dinner ladies.

Music concerts at school with tinsel on the musical instruments.

I was born in 85 so remember the ‘end’ of the 80s, and early 90s christmasses. I feel like since DD was born (she’s 2.5) I’ve essentially been trying to re enact these Christmasses! I always felt it was just pure magic. We never had much money growing up, so it certainly wasn’t about the presents. I don’t think it’s as cold now which doesn’t help - I can’t remember the last Christmas that was bitterly cold!

It's the 80's kids who have now grown up and making very Christmas memories for their kids. It's all very slick and manufactured and we are giving our kids an unrealistic expectation for the future. I've seen so many 30's/40's women stagger up the high street with bags of shopping. One woman was shrieking because the last elf on the shelf had run off. Just relax and enjoy the season without making the marketing companies rich.

Love this thread and YANBU.

Such a lovely thread. I remember the pasting table full to bursting with food, Val Doonican on Christmas Eve, Advocaat with a little twizzle thing to make snowballs, non LED coloured lights, so hard to get now, ceiling decorations, Tom Smith crepe crackers, Mr Fosty, Plaster of Paris figures you’d paint when dry, I loved these! Girls’ World, Mcvities Tunis Cake, cant get anywhere now, the excitement at the Christmas stocking appearing as if by magic by the bed, Morcambe and Wise, selection boxes. Ahh, fab memories.

My childhood Xmas were in the 60s and 70s
The metal tins of sweets were massive as were selection boxes
We sang in a church choir and used to go carol singing all over - hospitals, nursing homes, hospices etc we were then rewarded with sausage rolls and mince pies
TOTP was amazing
We did get lots of presents but very little through rest of year other than birthdays

I remember watching Top of the pops finding out who got the Christmas number 1 and definitely only fools and horses Christmas special

I agree, OP. You’ve pretty much described my 80s childhood Christmases!

It's not about it being the 80s, it's about it being your childhood Christmas. Mine were similar but in 70s so I would say the 70s were best :)

I imagine my children will think that the noughties were the best.

I remember my parents talking nostalgically about their own childhood christmases which were certainly more frugal than mine having been just after the war years.

In the 70s we had a card advent calendar with pictures. The SAME one every year!

It was still exciting to open, even though it was shared so I only opened it every 3 days 😄

This is such a lovely nostalgic thread.
I remember from November mum would buy pick and mix chocolates from Woolworths to stock up. I would beg her to put them out when we broke up from school so Christmas would begin for us.
Dad getting all the also hold out of the cupboard and putting in on a makeshift bar with the posh glasses.
The anticipation that the fairy lights would work and the disappointment when the bulbs had blown and we had to wait to the next day to go to Woolworths to get new lights.
Getting complication double LP's - my brother would get one LP and I'd get the other.
Pillowcases with presents in.

YADNBU!

83 birth here, so late 80s Xmases. Pure magic.

We start too early now. I'm guilty too, our tree goes up on the first weekend in December, but it was never before the 17th growing up. DD will meet santa 4 times before Christmas this year!

I think Christmas was epic in the 1990s, my kids will probably say 2010s, most of us will probably say the decade in which we were kids was the best Christmas. And that's how it should be I think.

I think your Christmas sounds a bit shit compared to mine/my kids. So I am voting that the 80s was definitely not the best.

I think it’s totally right that our own childhood Christmases will always feel the best. But although my kids love it all now, I still find the simpler bits the nicest. The carol services and candles and meals together. It does feel enormously pressuring as an adult to do so much (which my mother may have said was the same for her, but there was simply so much less back then. Our run up was December, and comprised the school Christmas concert/play and a trip to see Santa at Debenhams. No multiple Santas/experiences/wonderlands/Christmas markets etc. No Christmas Eve presents, no treat food until Christmas Eve (and I more or less keep to that still to be honest), same decorations every single year, and the same advent calendar! Some of the modern Christmas is an extension of what I dislike most about the world now - enormous disposable consumerism and endless pressure to live your best life by spending money and time you don’t have.

I don’t mean to sound Grinch-like as I adore Christmas.

I’m mid forties and OP described my Christmas’s to a tee. Good times.

Oh and you can get lametta at the Range.

I think the wonderful memories are partly down to as children, we didn’t have any of the preparation work and stress that goes with it. It just happened! Now as adults, we have to do the graft and it has lost its magic

Completely agree OP. We lived very frugally the rest of the year so I remember the Christmas table was so exciting. We had Stilton, pickles, a pork pie with an egg in it, crackers, lots of cheese and a tiny drop of port in lemonade which was delicious as we weren't allowed pop the rest of the year. Nowadays I have all of that food in the fridge regularly and it's no longer a huge treat.