Childhood Christmas Day Memories

[MarmaladeSandwich7]

I just saw a photo on FB of a typical 70s Christmas morning & it made me remember how lovely my Christmases were as a child ( I was born in 1965). DBro & I had pillowcases out on the landing & would take them downstairs to open the presents inside. We had to stay in bed til 7.30 which was pretty hard! Sometimes we’d have pork pie with a glass of milk for breakfast. Christmases at my maternal DGM’s house were the absolute best as there would be at least 10 of us round the table & she was a great cook. I remember my DGD ( sorry not sure of the abbreviations for Grandparents!) always being given loads of boxed chocolates which he shared with us. I acted as waitress, proudly serving drinks on a gold tray including what I viewed as a very sophisticated ginger ale for me! Also remember being allowed snowballs but we were in our early teens by then. Lots of games & my DGM played the piano so we all sang carols. I don’t remember watching tv at all at my Grandparents house & very little at home. Always a walk after lunch - my Grandparents lived in Yorkshire so there were some beautiful places to go right on the doorstep. We didn’t get piles & piles of presents but always had lovely things. I remember getting Galt wooden toys which were played with for years. DM would always buy me books as I was a real bookworm. What are your best memories of Christmas past?

Anyone out there?

We used to have stockings on our beds, we stayed at grandparents, opened everything downstairs with them and the fire lit. Breakfast then over to my aunty and uncle's house for a big Christmas dinner with their family, they had a big house with a pool table and darts board so lots of fun with cousins in the afternoon. We always had new clothes to wear on the day and Aunty was an amazing cook.

Similar age to you. The Christmas tree was a highlight. We always had a real tree and from a young age I helped to decorate it. My mum wanted an artificial tree but she continued with real trees because I liked them so much. My stocking was amazing. Small stocking so it overflowed into a plastic bag. My santa always knew exactly what to put in it. Then to the presents under tree. I had loads. None of them high value but all exciting. I remember being delighted with bubble bath in a toy soldier, and every year for a while I hoped for bubble bath. I got dolly mixtures inside a glass jar and still have the jar. A giant games compendium kept me occupied for yrs. An early memory, pre school, is of opening a large flat parcel to reveal a hugh box with an alpine snow scene, and as clearly as if it were yesterday I can hear my mum saying 'the biggest box of chocolates you ever did see.' So delighted with it I told the minister. And Xmas was never Xmas without Oor Wullie or The Broons. Lunch was always turkey sandwiches and christmas cake. Christmas dinner was around 5pm and we usually had prawn cocktail, turkey with all trimmings, and trifle, expertly made by my gran, until she passed the mantle to my sister. Truly a magical time.

Forgotten about a selection box every year. Somehow the chocolate bars tasted better!

I never had a stocking & didn’t do it for DD16

Our pillowcases were by the fire downstairs and we opened these Santa presents before breakfast. We took our favourite new toy to the church family carol service that morning and I was always so proud. We'd pop into a couple of people's houses for a Xmas drink then either back to ours for lunch with maternal grandparents or up to theirs. Gifts under the tree were opened through the day and savoured. After a sandwich and trifle type tea, my nana brought out a Xmas house with a little extra gift in it for us all. Boxing Day was equally fun at my paternal gran's house with all my aunts, uncles and cousins. Lots of food, games of cards and just enjoying being together. Happy days.

I have lovely memories of christmas morning (90s baby) and I think my kids will be very similar!
Waking up, stockings on mum and dads bed. Sneak downstairs for the main presents, lovely breakfast, play with toys. Long walk before lunch, xmas dinner mid afternoon. Games after and a film later on. Bliss

We always had a real tree and we’d walk to wherever we were going to buy it from, then carry it home between us, oldest (me) carrying the trunk and youngest carrying the top. I’m quite sure we looked like four of the seven dwarves but it always felt really exciting having bought the biggest tree we could find. My mum would decorate it after we’d gone to bed, so we’d come down to the fairy lights being on and everything looking festive. I’ve got some of her really old decorations and there’s a battered old robin that has to be 60 or 70 years old, but it’s one of my most treasured decorations.

When I was young, we each had a pillowcase that we’d set out in a different part of the sofa and our presents would be put in them. We’d be awake from about 3am, desperately wanting to go downstairs but we weren’t allowed to unless our mum came with us, so the pleading started then. And we had that really cheap wrapping paper that was only one step up from tissue paper, it was so thin, but it felt so lovely to tear it open.

Christmas Day we had whatever cereal we wanted from a Kellogg variety pack. I’d always choose Coco pops as we were never allowed them the rest of the year. And then the contents of a selection box or a Terry’s chocolate orange. We had this silver coloured fancy tray that nuts used to go in, which I have now. We don’t even like nuts unless they’re covered in salt, but it doesn’t feel like Christmas if it isn’t out with some sweets in it. I always remember laying on the sofa after dinner, having eaten too much, and then turkey sandwiches for tea.

We didn’t really have separate gifts from Father Christmas but I remember being about 5 and getting a book about Rudolph and it didn’t have a tag on it to say who it was from, so I was convinced it came from him; I was so excited that he’d been to our house. When I got to about 13 or so, I didn’t get presents anymore and got to help with making Christmas for the younger ones. I remember being up at midnight, pushing a very big rabbit cage in a very small push chair and trying not to upset two very cross Christmas present rabbits who’d been fast asleep in the warmth of my neighbour’s house until that point, while getting the giggles because I was trying to hang onto the cage and push at the same time, and failing dismally, while my mum was on the doorstep (she was ill so wasn’t able to help) was whisper shouting encouragement at me. Those rabbits were so, so cross, they hated me for years afterwards 🤦‍♀️😄

And Curly Wurlys were the length of your arm!

My Christmas stocking was a pair of my mum's old tights lol. Always had fruit in the bottom and a few little presents ( boxes of Lego, dolls clothes etc) . My dad and I always had a selection box each then we would open presents under the tree. My dad was working abroad a lot so having him home for Christmas was a real treat

As a child we used to have Xmas morning at home- not allowed up until 7 though. Presents and then Church (though once older we did midnight mass on Xmas eve) and then about an hours drive to my mums mum and the family for Xmas dinner around 2pm. Kids didn’t get to sit with the adults but we got to watch tv with food on our laps which was a real treat. Happy times. Simpler times too.

my favourite day was Boxing Day though when I got to get up early and actually play with my Xmas stuff and eat chocolate and read a new book. Still like a new book fro Xmas tbh lol and chocolate!!!

Born 1960...sticking was my dad's hand knitted woollen knee length socks. Presents in a stripey winceyette pillow case. Very simple gifts but always an annual, selection box net stocking , Pretty Peach soap on a rope and books.
Nana pissed on sherry by midday, mum seething in the kitchen while dad was at the pub at lunchtime.
A magnificent buffet at teatime.

There's a sadness in adulthood that I never get to feel that magic again. Christmas morning was the peak of the year, every year.
My mother was as bad as the children for not being able to stay in bed, we were up at 3/4AM. It was the 90s so the decorations were the very definition of tacky. Foil hanging from the ceiling, tinsel on the tree, plastic stantas all over the walls. The lights shined differently than they do now.
And it all just felt magical.
It was chaotic, there was wrapping paper flying in all directions. Mum with her coffee and cigarette watching on, proud of her work.
Dad looking confused but happy to be there, usually with a beer in hand because Christmas rules are similar to airport rules.
My sister and I are only 1.5 years apart in age so we had similar gifts and the most fun playing together.
Of course, now I get to bring the magic to life for my own kids. But I'll always doubt that I'm giving them the feeling I had.

I loved setting up for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve, with the plate of cookies, carrots for the reindeer and a glass of milk. Dd now takes it a step further and provides him a blanket and book for a rest on his journey! I also loved waking up to the heavy weight of the rustley stocking at my feet and then running in to my parent's room and opening it together on the bed. Also, squeezing lots of family around tables too small - we all seem to have enough space now and it isn't the same.

Mum used to sit with me in my bedroom for a little while before bed on Christmas Eve, both watching out the window for Santa (looking back, my little sister was probably already asleep and my dad was probably building a dolls house or getting bikes set up!). I just remember hearing the bells and getting excited.

I remember one year my grandmother got a bit too tipsy on Christmas Day night, not sure how this happened but her false teeth flew out of her mouth and skidded along the lino floor! I still laugh to myself now and again about that happening!

Santa Clause always left a present for me at my grandparents house ‘by mistake’. My grandmother always said she found gifts for me and my sister and cousins on the doorstep every Christmas morning! When I was a lot older, she told me that her dad used to always find one last present for her and her sister on the doorstep which Father Christmas had dropped on his way back to the sleigh. So she must have been re-living her memories through us.

My cousins and I all got pogo sticks one year and I remember us all doing them on my grandparents driveway in the dark one Christmas Day in the evening! That was quite exciting as a kid but I’m not sure if I’d let my own kids pogo stick in the dark 🤣

Sounds lovely. I have many happy memories of Christmas, most were pretty traditional we used to go to my Nana's and spend hours playing with the lovely christmas decorations, jump in mum and dad's bed and open all our presents, go for long walks in the frost, meet friends, spend hours in the very lovely local pub. One was rather different though, we lost power and spent the evening with flashing headbands bought on a previous trip to Blackpool.

I'm sad that our Christmas now feel sterile in comparison, only child, long term sickness, single mother.

I grew up in the country and on Christmas Eve we’d walk up on the common and gather holly, Ivy and mistletoe to decorate the house with. We’d walk back through the village and I remember the excitement of it being Christmas Eve, looking through the windows of other houses and seeing other children getting excited. I’d glance in the sky the whole time in case I spotted Father Christmas.

stockings were hung by the fireplace and we weren’t allowed down until 7.30. We always had Christmas drinks at ours on Christmas morning which sometimes meant we’d still be opening our stockings but not really allowed to play with our presents as people would be arriving. We had small stockings and not a lot of presents but it was magical.
after Christmas drinks the guests would finally leave and we could play with our presents. Then we’d have a big walk before Christmas dinner.

if we were at my grandparents for Christmas it was very similar to this but my Gm was the most amazing cook so the Christmas dinner was amazing but all the nibbles and bits before and after were equally amazing. Writing this now makes me so nostalgic for those times, like they were straight out of a Shirley Hughes book. Hope my children have the same memories

Ah yes I forgot about the tradition of going to choose our own Christmas tree, chopping it down then the 5 of us carrying it back in a sheet. Me and my brother always snuck down in the early hours to see what was under the tree.

Such a lovely thread.

I grew up in the late 60's/early 70's and the smells and sights of those Christmas' remain with me now. I'm one of four children and each of us woke up to a winceyett pink striped pillowcase with a selection box, orange, nuts that you have to crack open with a nutcracker, a colouring book and box of crayons. My brothers got a cap pistol and me and my sister, a small doll. We all opened our stockings together on top of the landing whilst Mum and Dad slept.

We had breakfast that Dad made; egg and bacon sandwiches. We all opened our main presents around the artificial tinsel Christmas tree with real chocolate decorations and random baubles from years gone by. We still have these now.

We had crepe paper decorations hung in a x on the ceiling with balloons at each corner.

Christmas lunch was always a turkey Dad was given at work (all employees were given one with a tin of quality street). John Smith crackers on the table which were pulled before lunch was served so we could all wear the paper hats whilst we ate.

After lunch, we got to eat chocolate and play with our new toys.

We didn't have much money and treats were rare so Christmas was an extra special time.

it's lovely to see my children keeping some of our traditions now they have children.

Opening our stockings and one present (picked by mum) in the morning after breakfast and eating the chocolates in the stocking to keep me going until lunch. After lunch it always seemed to take mum forever to do the dishes (in retrospect, us kids should have offered to do them - would have been the nice thing to do and we'd probably do it quicker) then at last we'd all sit down in the lounge and I'd help my mum hand out the presents. She wrote clues on the gift tags so we'd take turns opening a present, reading the clue out first then everyone would try to guess what it was (and someone would always shout "its a Brussel sprout!"). I absolutely loved that way of opening presents.

My presents were always brought into my bedroom by Santa so when I woke up they would be in my room, unwrapped so I could see them all , I can't remember if I went into my parents room to tell them Santa had been, I must have though.

I was born in 71. Christmas tree always went up the day we finished school for the end of term. Christmas Day was a massive roast with a bottle of Blue Nun. Highlight was TOTP. Then round to my Aunts house in the evening for a buffet. My parents didn’t have much spare cash but always gave us a fabulous Christmas which I’ll treasure forever, now I no longer have them

What a lovely thread, I adore Christmas because I have such lovely memories of my childhood christmases. Trying to recreate that for my own children now. Coloured lights, not going overboard with presents, games to play together, walk after lunch.

We didn’t do stockings. I remember as a small child getting one main present, like a doll, and a couple little ones (like an outfit for the doll). Slightly older we moved to another country and I remember my godmother would send us a big box of Cadbury chocolate! I always made decorations for the tree and eventually advent calendars and I peaked at age 12 making a crèche out of wooden clothes pins and paper mache then painted and stuck beads on the kings’ crowns. When a teen it somehow became a thing that me and my dad would go buy the tree and I would decorate it myself.

This is such a lovely thread, thank you❤️@MarmaladeSandwich7🎅🏻🎄