As a child, what did you love (and not like) about Christmas?

[letsgomaths]

I loved many things about Christmas, including:

• Our real Christmas tree, especially with our coloured lights. We had a running joke that when it was carried through the front door, it was a "walking" tree, like in the story of Mog's Christmas.
• I even enjoyed my post-Xmas task of hoovering the tree needles, and when I was older, sawing the tree up for disposal.
• The presents (of course); especially if they were Lego.
• Seeing the grandparents on Boxing Day.
• A French relative had a really lovely crib, which when I was older, I would help to set up.
• Advent calendars, even the ones that just had pictures.
• Films such as the Snowman, and the Wizard of Oz. These had to be watched on the day itself, because we didn't have a video recorder until I was ten.
• Decorations in the street, and on lamp posts, which I think were far better in the 1980s than they are now.

I was less fond of sitting round the table for dinner, especially when "best behaviour" was demanded; I didn't like Christmas pudding; Nativity plays (taking part in them, or watching them); was scared of crackers and balloons; and didn't like Santa at all. My parents didn't do Santa, and whenever I "met" him I was always creeped out, especially if he didn't speak English (we went to France a lot). I liked going to church, but really freaked out once at having to dress up for the Christmas Eve children's mass; I felt that I was too old for that sort of thing (I was ten at the time).

I remember a slow realisation that lots of people didn't like Christmas much, including my dad, although he did a good job of hiding it in my early years. It was a shock when I first heard of Scrooge, and that anyone could hate Christmas that much. But as a teenager I became Scrooge-like about the extravagance of the whole thing. I enjoyed a school debate "this house agrees with Scrooge that Christmas is humbug". I loved the Raymond Briggs cartoon of the grumpy Father Christmas, and would watch it again and again.

I think I liked most of if, loved visiting family, sitting around the table (Christmas Eve we would have a family feast at my grandparents around a big table), loved Christmas Day as we always spent it at home with family visiting ,usually my other grandparents.

I wasn’t keen on going to church or taking part in the school play, I was a very shy child so the Christmas play caused a lot of stress. Oh..and watching the queens speech, no child wants to watch that when they have new toys to play with.

I didn’t like having to go to church.

I liked visiting all the relatives and lots of family friends apart from a few much older friends of my mum. I was made to go along and sit nicely and was always bored to tears.

Always hated how stressed my mum got about Christmas dinner.

I liked everything about it- the excitement of being woken up by my brothers at silly o clock Xmas morning, eating choccy from my stocking for brekkie, playing with all the new toys, everyone sitting down together to dinner (we rarely did this outside of Xmas day) and finishing up the evening watching Christmas TV.

We never had to go to church or visit/have visitors so it was fairly laid back, though my mum would be flapping about doing dinner.

I loved everything about it, especially the stocking, which was truly magical, and Christmas dinner. Loved seeing cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles, loved giving and receiving presents, loved the tree that came in from the garden every year, loved the decorations that came out every year, the school plays, the post boxes in every classroom, the Christmas TV, every single thing. There was just one year when I was 11 or 12 when I remember crying on Christmas Eve because there wasn’t any magic any more and my mum had started a new full time highly pressured job and I had missed having her around and I wasn’t old enough for the fun going out with friends bit, but that didn’t last long (I think mum cooked some mince pies and made the house smell Christmassy and then my great aunt “popped round” which was probably really annoying for mum but I liked it!)

I was allowed to have one Egg Nog with a cherry on a stick- thought I was the bees knees posing with my glass of Egg Nog.

I used to get a set of lovely stationery, but hated having to spend Boxing Day writing my thank you letters and sending it all off.

Hated:

• travelling from one side of the country to the other to visit grandparents (travel sickness)
• all the tension between parent and their siblings around who should do what and how they should be done
• meaningless and generic presents (eg PJs, almost always in the wrong size) from relatives that didn’t really know us
• being forced to lie about Santa for younger siblings/cousins after finding out the truth aged 6
• grandmother not understanding that I was veggie and being given turkey leftover soup every year
• cold and overcooked dinner

Loved:

• A walk on the beach on Xmas day afternoon whilst everyone else slept off dinner

Have avoided as much of the shit as possible ever since I became an adult, and now with DD(9). Our walk on the beach this year will be in bikinis as we’ve fucked off abroad.

I loved the build up to Christmas but hated the fact we weren't allowed to watch tv on Christmas Day. Bearing in mind this was the 80s so all the best films would be on. I appreciate my DM was trying to encourage quality family time but I was just bored. I think if we'd spent the day with extended family or friends it would have been fine, but it was only ever the 4 of us - so dull!

I loved Christmas Eve and all the preparations: there seemed to be endless parsley to chop (stuffing?) and sooo many breadcrumbs to grate. I loved the smells, like the cloves and the wrapping paper (I know that sounds bonkers, but it was the 70s and wrapping paper did have a smell).

I hated the arguments that always seemed so much worse at Christmas. Some of my absolute worst memories are my mum and dad fighting at Christmas (both before and after they separated). Still makes me sad and it was 40 years ago.

I hated
Church
Enforced sitting at the table for hours expecting to be sat in silence but happy.
Being made to write letter after letter of thanks for all of us with my mother checking them at the end and, if not to her standard watching those go in the bin and being told to do them again.

I don’t remember many happy memories. I did get a doll that poo’d though. I remember her.

My mum would put our stockings in my room and me or my brother would wake the other and we would open our stuff together. I was genuinely hurt one year when he opened his alone.

I generally hated Christmas though as our dad hated the whole thing and did his best to ruin it for us every year. I did hate being dragged to nans every year though. Her house was too hot and far too full and I was expected to play with all of the cousins which was code for babysitting them. I was the oldest by four years. Everyone was annoyed when I got to 16 and started meeting friends instead as they had to look after their own kids.

Loved when the weather was awful and the power cut out and the fire would be lit with water boiling in a pan over the fire to make a cup of tea for us all!

Didnt happen every christmas but loved when it did! Always getting to open a parcel on christmas eve night!

I loved that my Grandma came to stay and I'd share a room with her and we'd sit in bed eating buttered toast. I loved the hamper arriving and knowing we'd have full cupboards.
I hated having to sit through my 'posh' cousins moaning about how badly done to they were regarding their endless stacks of presents. Was I jealous? Of course.... I was just a kid.

I loved making decorations at school! An absolute highlight. I was an ace paper chain maker .

I loved the tree. Fond memories of lying underneath it looking up at the branches and lights and it feeling completely and utterly magical.

I loved the Christmas treats that would appear. My mum would lay a special table in the front room about a week before Christmas and it would slowly full with bottles of wine, Baileys, fizzy drinks, dates, nuts, boxes of chocolates. So exciting!

I loved the anticipation of Christmas Eve - sitting with my granny while she had a sherry and prepared the chestnuts/potatoes/sprouts etc - and the excitement of Christmas morning. Coming down to a quiet, dark living room, my mum switching on the tree lights and seeing the presents...aaaah!

I hated the uncertainty of whether my (estranged, abusive) dad would turn up and cause a scene.

I hated Christmas night as I would get really sad that it was nearly over.

I found the days running up to New Year a bit bleak.

I loved everything about Christmas . We always stayed at home Christmas Day .

I hated visits from family who we didn't see the rest of the year (all lived no more than 5 miles away. I always felt like they didn't want to see us really)

I liked the exciting smell when the tree decorations bag was opened

I loved our tree.
I hated my mothers martyrdom, it always ruined any lovely bits of Christmas.

+ve
Real Christmas tree - I insist we have one at home and have instilled that love into teen dd too now.
The excitement of coming downstairs in a morning 'to see if he'd been' even when we were way too old for FC really. We had a much younger sibling so we got to keep the magic going longer.
Visiting grandparents on Christmas Eve
Carol singers - you rarely get them these days
Chocolate for breakfast!

-ve
Having to leave our toys and new gifts to visit family on Christmas Day afternoon. I always said we wouldn't do that and we haven't. Its one as dd has got older we leave the house on Christmas Day and see anyone. We do always FaceTime and talk to family though.

A big meal mid day - which children really want to have to leave their toys to seat and eat a roast dinner when they could be playing instead!

I loved how different and exciting Christmas was from the humdrum.

Most children’s lives are so full of entertainment and treats now, 24/7 on demand tv, video games, weekly take aways and trips to restaurants and frequent days out that it’s hard to explain how dull life could be in my childhood. Simply having something to watch on TV during the day which wasn’t sport, news or a very old black and white film was a treat!

Add to that the school fair, a trip to see Father Christmas, all the different food, lights, carols, cards and the unalloyed excitement of getting presents on the big day made it the best time of year.

The worst thing about Christmas was when it was over and everything went back to normal, January was so flat and dull.

Waking up to the Christmas stocking at the end of my bed- My brother was 4 years older than me and I used to run into his room to open our presents- magic of that was ruined when I was 6, ran into his room with my stocking and he kicked me out shouting 'he's not real, get out!'....

He's still an arse!

Anyway, planning on keeping the magic alive for as long as poss for my DC- !

I loved French and Saunders Xmas specials, the music, Xmas eve Carol services, feeling my stocking at the end of the bed

Didn't like travelling to visit family during the day or the formal atmosphere at my grandparents

I loved:

• decorating the tree after we finished school at lunch time on the last day
• turning on the lights on the tree when I came downstairs in the morning
• making name tags for the table for christmas lunch (so I could make sure I was sat between my favourite aunt and my gran)
• the incredible anticipation of feeling like you would never be able to get to sleep on christmas eve because you were so excited
• reading until I couldn't keep my eyes awake on christmas eve
• waking up to a full stocking and (once we were a little older) clockwatching until we were allowed to wake up our parents and open them

I disliked my aunt insisting I eat some sprouts (my mum didn't care) and writing thank you letters

Good
Presents (of course)
Treat food- money was in short supply even a vienetta was a big deal
Church- crib service and christingles- which was a big part of Christmas when I was a kid but I only liked church at Christmas and never go now
Watching the snowman on Christmas Eve and all the Christmas specials

One set of grandparents on Christmas Eve with loads of cousins and other rellies which added to the excitement and a quieter day with other set of grandparents on Boxing Day
Going through the Argos catalogue looking at all the toys we wanted

Bad:
The horrible atmosphere at times from my mother who fell out with everyone, often simultaneously, which put everyone in a mood and then having to pretend it was ok I was excited about Christmas anyway and the adults hadn’t ruined it so that they all felt better 🙄

Hated
writing thank you letters
Visiting grandparents where you couldn't watch tv and everyone had to open presents one at a time while everyone watched!

Loved
Didn't mind church
carols and decorations
Staying up late and sleeping in other peoples houses!
Writing lists and leaving stuff out for Santa
Waking up and running through to see if he's been!
Eating my chocolate Santa

Loved the build up, the Christmas tree and squashing presents to try and guess what they were. Enjoyed spending time with the cousins I was close with that lived locally ( I am an only child).

Disliked having to drive an hour to my Grandparents for Christmas dinner. Always served a large bowl of nit very nice stodgy vegetable soup before dinner that most relatives slurped noisily. Turkey dry as a bone as was cooked overnight. No games or anything fun to do, GPs seemed not to enjoy Christmas very much or anything really.
Then had to visit other cousins who escaped having to go to GPs for Christmas dinner by dint of living nearby and running a farm. Best memory there was getting cherry brandy once when about 15.

Loved- all of it! Decorating the tree and the house, eating choc for breakfast, opening my stocking with my sister, dinner, presents, playing games.

Only thing I didn’t like was my mum making us all dress smart and pose for pictures in front of the tree- and now I do the same to my DD!