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 don't think anyone has mentioned the obligatory soap on a rope and Avons "peaches" kids collection. The lids of the bubble bath and other products all being in the shape of a peach stalk with leaf. These featured in quite a few of my pillowcases.

I remember getting a Timex watch. And Rolf Harris's stylophone...

Soap on a rope!!! I’d completely forgotten about that! My brother always got that, plus lots Blue Denim or Hai Karate deodorant sets.
There was a programme on channel 5 last week about Christmas adverts and it showed some old Woolworths ads which were very interesting. Prices were surprisingly expensive, hi fi’s and keyboards were all about £150+ and tins of quality street about £6.99 iirc. Lots of cheesey 80s tv celebrities on their adverts. Made my heart ache a little to see it

It wasn't better it was just that you were younger and it was a formative time for you. I'm sure every kid thinks the decade they had Xmas was the best. Apart from if you lived with an alcoholic father and a depressed mother and now any Xmas is an improvement!

I’ve bought the Box of Delights on DVD. Is it ok for a 5 year old - anything too scary in it?

Depends on the five yo I think! I'm going to try it with mine but she's quite sensitive so expecting to be told to turn it off.

I might vet it first. Mine does get a bit worried about scary bits. Loved a bit of slapstick violence a la Home Alone though.

Obviously the sweet companies are concerned about our health 😉

I loved getting to look in the freeman’s catalogue at all the toys 🧸

My grandparents had a silver fake tree & always drive to a farm to get the turkey.

Happy memories of a bygone age

I get what you're saying op but however much i agree with your points, 80s christmasses had one major disadvantage for me: my parents always invited my abusive uncle round on christmas day or boxing day, so however much i was enjoying myself i was secretly dreading his arrival.

Now i'm a grownup and estranged from my parents i never have to see the arsehole and i can even put his card in the bin with zero guilt. Also, in a similar vein, Jimmy Savile is now dead rather than on our screens. So there are always positives if you look for them.

Katewhinesalot the scent of the Avon peaches was the scent of my childhood!.. Aunty Vera bought me some every year.

In the late 1970s we used to have crepe paper twisty garlands hung around the walls. Don't think they are made any more.

The thing that that picture doesn’t mention @ivykaty44 is that the price of the tin hasn’t changed.
The big 80s tin was about £8.
The small tub in that picture now is about £5.
I bought a big tin this year for £7.50.
If you work it out £8 in the 80s is the equivalent of about £20 today.
If they had kept the price of the big tin in line with inflation then no one would pay it. So they had to cut corners somewhere to keep the price down.

@wizzler we make crepe garlands in school as we have huge quantities of crepe paper! We also do paper snowflakes and chains 👍🏻

Our christmases are still very traditional. My ancestry is German and my step family are Austrian so we have a very wholesome sort of day. I wouldn't change it for the world.

@minesagin37
amen to that! Are you my sister?

I think it's the balance between enough to celebrate but not over the top. Generally people lived simpler lives in the 70's - 80's and there wasn't such a big difference between haves and have-nots.

Christmas began the weekend the schools broke up (my parents were teachers) and carried on throughout the school holidays so there wouldn't be all the extra stuff in December (or even November!) apart from the simple advent calendar and whatever we did in school.

I still can't get my head round people putting their decorations up so early, then taking stuff down on Boxing Day. Ours went up on Friday and will come down for twelfth night.

I wonder with concerns now around the environment if people will start going back to some of the simpler things we did, such as the non- glitter wrapping paper, cutting tags out of the previous year's cards, paper decorations. And so many light displays outside people's houses now.

It's also true that we generally have more treat food throughout the year now so it's not so much of a treat at Christmas. Posters mentioning the picture advent calendars instead of chocolate ones, even the chocolate calendars are being surpassed now with mini gifts each day.

Op, what was the name of the Xmas ad programme? I'd like to try and see it.

images.app.goo.gl/4HaFmZLKAJGbCWM58

wizzler The visuals to go with the scent of "Pretty peach"

@katewhinesalot I think it was just called ‘Greatest TV Christmas Ads’ and was presented by Julian Clary.

I watched that, it’s on channel 5. Made me feel very nostalgic. I miss Woolies so much!

Two episodes into The Box of Delights with DD. So far so good! Though annoyingly rational as she is, she coolly informed me that she "just saw the rat's teeth, and it's just a man in a costume".

I'm 45 and can relate to every word of this beautiful post, something's I'd forgotten like cutting last years cards with pinking shears or wavy scissors to make tags and not forgetting the snowy Christmas's. Loved the 80's x