Christmas Nostalgia Then Vs Now

[VeronicaFranklin]

Christmas time always makes me feel nostalgic.

What is something you had or did at Christmas as a kid that you don't now and miss?

For me it's:

Family (Grandparents specifically)

Foil Christmas decorations that were hung with blue tack from the ceiling in every room...

We always left Sherry out for Santa...

Angel hair tree tinsel that you wistfully sprinkled all over the tree...cat...dog...carpet...

The selection boxes shaped as a Stocking with netting on...

Multi- coloured Christmas tree lights (the old style glass ones that used to get hot to touch and probably presented a massive fire hazard! not the LED coloured ones of today)

Toys R Us advert

Annual trip to see Santa at the Arndale which was usually some bloke who had a really cheap looking wig and beard and was probably not DBS checked!

Only having 5 TV channels so you had to sit and watch Christmas movies when they were scheduled to be on, which some how made it more exciting to watch Christmas films when they weren't available to watch all year round.

Christmas shopping with my grandma looking in the bustling high street department stores, no online shopping.

Searching the sky for Santa on Christmas Eve not tracking him on an app.

I just miss the tackiness of the decorations. Our house looked like someone had got a box of tinsel and wooden decorations and just hurled it into the air in every room. Nothing matched, it was all different styles mixed together (I was never allowed to touch the special glass ornaments) but it knocked spots off the naff themes we're badgered into buying into nowadays.

Special drinks left on the sideboard, the smell of my grandparents house, pipe smoke and over cooked veg. Jellied fruits which seemed so exotic and after eight mints as you never had them during the year. We always seemed to have lots of old people sat in chairs drinking very small glasses of wine. They would gift you soap or hankies.

@ApplePippa Whole nuts in their shells sold in nets, and put in a bowl with a pair of nutcrackers.
Sainsburys are selling both of those now! I saw them and bought them exactly because they reminded me of Christmas when I was a kid. (The Brazils are still a bugger to crack!)

Catalogues from every shop! The Argos catalogue, the Woolworths catalogue, Toys R Us….

My family. All my grandparents. I didn’t realise quite how lucky I was in that my grandparents were all really close. They became true friends (and family) when my parents met (both only children) and so we were always all together at Christmas. No Christmas at mums family then Boxing Day at dads family and then switching next year, none of that. Just everyone together. Gosh I miss them. I’m also down a parent and depending on which year it is depends on which family my sister, BIL and nieces join. I miss the people so much.

Being in the nativity as a kid and the church being packed. Charging round dressed as a sheep.

Wearing my best party dress on the big day!

Dad sitting at the table building the new doll house or whatever it was that year for hours.

The giant multi coloured fire hazard lights.

Seeing so many houses absolutely covered in lights, often to insane levels and often for charity.

Genuine Carol singers! The local WI and some other groups used to go round the houses and we would gather at the door and put money in their charity box.

So many things have changed. But I still love Christmas ❤️

Yes to New Berry Fruits. The ones they do now, called Jewels, don't have the liquid centre. And I still miss Chinese Figs (the crystallized ones).

Home bargains have them too. I bought an old fashioned nut bowl a few years back, I usually put chocolate in it but was thinking of doing proper nuts. Though we never had a nut cracker, just used to crack them between the door and the door frame 😆

Writing your note to Santa and sending it up the chimney
Getting in a load of bottles of fizzy drink from the drinks lorry that used to come round
Going to Church on Christmas Eve early
My Grandparents coming to our house for Christmas Day dinner
Drawing the menu for the Christmas Day table
Watching the sick children in hospital on Christmas Morning with Leslie Crowther
Getting to set the table
Gathering to watch the Bond film or whatever was on after the Queen's Speech
All the "oldies" falling asleep on the sofa and chairs
The evening turkey sandwiches and Morecambe and Wise
My Dad going to the garage ( away from the house) to take my Gran and Granddad home ( car had to be put away on Christmas Eve and Hogmanay in case of drunks😂)
A social media free zone
Lots of family to visit
This was the 1960s

Good idea though! My mum used to open bottles of pop by that method, between the door and door frame and twist.

Because I used to wake early Christmas morning like about 3 am, my dad cane up with the idea I could take one present to bed and when I woke at 3, could open that one which I think they assumed would mean some of my excitement would dissipate and I would happily go back to sleep until a more suitable time. Good plan in theory but unfortunately for them, my chosen present was from my aunt ( who bought the best presents) and it was a radio. So yes I didn’t actually go into their room at 3 am but they didn’t find the tinny sound of carols and Christmas songs played at full blast all that restful 😂, strangely that was the last time dad suggested that.

@Ahwig My Mum used to look out the window every year and declare no one else was up at 3 am .Thankfully my kids never got up at this time but my parents allowed it anyway .

My sister and I were allowed to open our stockings whenever we woke up, but couldn't disturb Mum and Dad until 7 or 8am (can't remember which)

@InTheCludgie I thought tree lights in the shape of carriages were the absolute height of sophistication also babysham, advocat and dubonnet., The women in my family would all have a drink in the kitchen while the men went down the pub before lunch, they all looked so glamourous in sparkly dresses sipping drinks from tiny cut glass champange coupes.

I loved the selection box with the netting, I always got a post office set, some of paints in a tin, a pair of 'groucho marks' silly glasses with a fake nose and eyebrows and satuma, the year my brother got a mouth organ was never repeated my 60s childhood was a very simple affair and I look back with very fond memories.

Snow is the only thing I miss. It stopped being snowy for Christmas when I was teenager. Apart from it, I prefer Christmas much more since I moved out of my parents' house. No unnecessary stress, arguing and my mum being martyr. I think it's healthier for families to eat some ready-made food, than seeing mum sweaty and pissed off because of all the cooking, that she didn't want any help with. Food wasn't that great anyway, so not worth the effort.

Selection boxes were EPIC in the 80s. A few of those in your stocking would last weeks. Now they are so pathetically tiny.

Advent the four candles even Blue Peter did it on the tv, wonderful memory. The nativity play. Hearing Christmas pop songs you knew you were going home soon for Christmas (boarding school).

For a couple of years I have had a pang of nostalgia for the old plastic santa boot we used to have full of sweets. No idea why but it's just stuck so yesterday i purchased this. It's not plastic but I can still fill it with sweets 😂

Travelling over an hour to see the Fenwick window.

A bag of nuts (proper nuts in the shell with a nutcracker).

Wallnut whips (bought some again this year).

Hearing dad trying to get thing up and down from the deathtrap attic (a hole in the ceiling above the stairs with a sort of trapdoor and no ladders, had to stand on the banister jump, grab, pull and prey lol) then having to pretend like we didnt know that exactly what happened (from all the banging and swearing) and that it was our parents and where everything was kept lol.

Making paper snowflakes at school.

I need to get 3 boots like this for St. Nick because using the kids actual shoes is awful (2 are too small to fit anything and they all smell sweaty... urg).

Still usually snows up here in the Pennines... you can have it if you want, I hate the bloody cold lol.

For those missing the Argos catalogues - smyths now do them!! My DD spent a few hours circling what she wanted last week (ouch my bank account)

@mam0918 the boots are by village pottery. Same as on the below link but i got mine in a shop attached to our local garden centre (similar price)

Santa Boot

Getting the christmas decorations out of the attic and decorating the tree.

Cousins! So many cousins to play with. And we kids just roamed around like a gang, totally ignored by our parents. It was amazing.

So much lovely food. A total change from our utterly plain 90s regular meals, so it felt like a spectacular treat.

My kids have asked for whole nuts and a nutcracker this year, totally unpromted. I'm definitely getting them.

My childhood was the 1960s, this thread has brought back lovely memories. I still buy Advocaat, lemonade and maraschino cherries to make snowballs - my granddaughter is allowed one too (a very weak one!) as I was when a child 😊

I grew up in America. I of course miss my parents, but also now my sisters as they still live there. Before covid we went back every other year.
I miss my mother's cooking. Her Christmas cake was divine, and none of us have managed to recreate her stuffing!
I miss dragging my poor dad round several Christmas tree stalls to pick just the right tree. I too miss those multicoloured lights - they didn't get hot but had pink and other colours - not the awful red/blue/green you have now.
I miss making the advent calendar every year.
I miss the 'strays' my parents always invited - ex pats without family nearby. Always a variety of people who were not quite used to our kind of Christmas! I'm happy my sisters seem to have kept the idea up.
I just miss it being all about joy - as a kid you don't realise that your parents were struggling financially, we got one main present and a couple little ones and were happy with that. We didn't question the one year when me and one sister slept by the tree (I know now it was because we were in a borrowed one bedroom flat). As we got older (and the family more successful) we were still protected from the sheer amount of work it takes to entertain and prepare.
I miss the anticipation of the annual broadcasting of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Andy Williams Christmas Special.
A simpler time for the world and for a child.

Lots already mentioned, but I will add Christmas TOTP - sitting on the carpet in front of the telly hoping my favourites from the past year would appear, with my grandpa muttering in the background about what a load of rubbish it was!