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

However, you have two weeks off for Christmas and 13 other days to have a pyjama day...

How completely bizarre. So we literally aren't supposed to spend Christmas in the way we choose and want to spend it because some random on the internet thinks it's not how Christmas Day should be spent? Er...OK, then!

However, you have two weeks off for Christmas and 13 other days to have a pyjama day...

Or you have 13 other days to not have a PJ day on.

I think it's to do with greater consumption the rest of the year too. Things such as chocolate and toys are not special treats any more. I remember in my teens (early 90's) something like a book or tape was a main present and then you got a few sweets in a stocking and a jumper or practical item from grandparents. Friends got each other lip glosses or novelty erasers. My kids peers get all that routinely, mine too to some extent. It's generational because my grandparents used to be shocked at the excess and talk about how an orange and a sugar mouse was what they got and these items were considered an annual treat. Same as ice cream and a fairground ride in the summer, a rare and exciting thing in the old days. We go to the seaside for the day just because if the weather is ok.

"You will get dressed and have a bunch of people in your house you don't really like because that is how I say Christmas should be done!"

OP I still do a lot of the things on your list!

I never buy a gift tag, they’re all cut out with pinning shears from last year’s cards.

I go carol singing with the locals.

We don’t have Netflix or whatever so we just watch what’s on. We buy a radio times and circle what we want to watch.

Our DD (admittedly still only 2.5 so we are early days yet for Christmases! This will be the first one she properly understands) is getting one big present from us and a few in her stocking from Father Christmas. She will adore it because she doesn’t get things bought year round just because. It’s a conscious decision to try not to spoil her!

Also I can say her advent calendar is not better than mine was when I was a child because it’s the same one! My mum made it, it’s a sewn one with pockets and it would have a sweet or a chocolate in each pocket.

Anyone who thinks christmases have declined - reclaim the 80s style Christmas!

Love this thread - I remember well the 70's/80's Christmases. Foil decorations everywhere, spray snow and stencils, tree up a few days before Christmas.
Is it only me or did Selection boxes seem MASSIVE back then?
Still remember getting my SONY walkman one christmas, also remember asking for blank tapes to record albums from my friends.
Soaps and the Christmas film were a big part of the day and I remember being allowed a sip of Babycham as it was Christmas.
Really miss my parents remembering those Christmases - but lovely memories!

I get what your saying about the advent calender people today want so much more. The ones without chocs were the best.

Agree about the Quality Street too dont remember eating them at any time.

We had the same advent calendar every year.

I can't stand it when I read about people on here wanting to spend Xmas day not getting dressed and only seeing "our little family" it sounds so depressing

People should have Christmas the way they want. Not everyone likes to have a house full. I love being with the extended family for Christmas though. We had Christmas Day with just the four of us last year and tbh it was really flat. Never again!

My kids get paper advent calendars. Love them!
We have carol singers at the local street fayre. We are a small but friendly community.
Every year we make paper chains and snowflakes to hang up. One real tree with tinsel and lots of favourite decorations which the kids are so fond of. Traditional toy type ones.
My kids don't ask for masses and we always watch a favourite movie e.g Home Alone
I refuse to stress doing hundreds of shows, extras.

You summed up my childhood Christmas exactly. I won't have any quality street until Christmas Eve! I will probably go to church on my own just to sing carols.

I tell you what is missing from Christmas now.
Proper good Christmas songs.
Just think about how many of the Christmas songs you hear are from the 70s and 80s. Hardly any are from the last 20 years.

Those of you who found old fashioned fairy lights where did you get them from?

I remember tins of quality street being really expensive. I think they were about 10/ £15 for the big tin. We didn't have the money for that but my mum used to get a small bag of pick and mix type ones from one of those weigh and save type shops and put them in our stockings. I remember lying under the Christmas tree on Christmas night with the coloured plastic over my eyes from the wrappers looking at how the fairy lights would change colour, the gas fire would be on full as it was Christmas and feeling all warm. And slightly sick !

I don't think my DC have the same snapshot memories of Christmas. And that makes me feel sad if I'm honest.

I was born in 92 so I’ve never experienced an 80s Christmas

However I can vaguely remember Christmas in the late 90s and I remember Christmas 1999 being the best Christmas ever! Me and my sister got barbie chocolate advent calendars, I ate all mine in one go, my sister was more restrained, so I proceeded to take bites out of her chocolates then put them back and close the door 😂 We had a naff artificial Christmas tree which we decorated with tinsel, and proper filament bulb multicolour fairy lights. I vividly remember my school Christmas disco, everyone wore those sequin shift dresses in different colours and had spice girl’esque hair do’s, we all got hyped up on panda pops and danced to the Macarena and cotton eyed joe. My mum took us to the local shopping centre to see Santa and receiving a troll doll as my present from him, none of those ‘Santa experience days’ you get now. The toys r us advert getting us really giddy. My mum frantically calling us all into the room when the Coca Cola advert came on for the first time as it meant Christmas had officially began! Going to church on Christmas Eve and seeing all my mates there from school and the priest handing all the children out a selection box on the way out of church. Having one early present on Christmas Eve which was always pyjamas, rather than a full Christmas Eve box. Having party food on Christmas Eve, sausage rolls, primula cheese in a tube (which I still love) Iceland prawn ring (the height of sophistication 😂) and Christmas being the only time we bought squirty cream, lurpak butter and Coca Cola. My mum giving me a coke float on Christmas Eve and it being the biggest treat ever! The excitement over the millennium meant everyone having big parties on New Year’s Eve. East 17 on the radio. Being absolutely over the moon to receive the barbie aeroplane for Christmas. Such good times

I’ve been thinking about this thread, being an 80s Christmas child and had to add - the thrill of watching a new episode of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe every Sunday on bbc1 in the runup to Christmas. And equally thrilling, seeing “behind the scenes” how they made Aslan on blue peter. It has not aged well, sadly, but at the time it was just magical.
I also recommend Shirley Hughes’ book “Lucy and Tom’s Christmas” - I think it might even depict a 70s Christmas but it evokes so many memories for me. Lovely thread :-)

OP this was my childhood Christmases during the 80s to a T! Pillow cases as our 'stocking' also remember the nuts in shells. I do hope my children, when they are older, look back on their Christmases as fondly.

Your original post made me smile so much and a bit sad too wishing it was like that again. You've articulated exactly how I've been thinking recently and I'm so glad I'm not the only one wishing for those days again

Let's be honest, Christmas just isn't the same without Woolworths is it?

Has anyone found any of the coloured old style Christmas lights with the pink colour crystal flower on as well as the red and green and blue? Or anything similar? To me they made Christmas!

I'm 44 and there is nothing I miss about the 1980s at all.

I don't think my DC have the same snapshot memories of Christmas. And that makes me feel sad if I'm honest
Don’t be daft, why wouldn’t they?

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@flopsytheflatcat

I agree @wellthatwasthat!

@HeartshapedFox I have bought The Box of Delights on dvd to watch this year because of Sunday BBC Christmas memories. The LTWATW was also fantastic - I am sad to hear it hasn’t aged well

The last episode must have been on Christmas Eve as I was already at my Gran’s by then.