70s-style Christmas

[ChristmasMad1]

Hi all,
I live with my grandparents and want to do a 1970s-themed Christmas for them this year. I wasn’t alive then, but I love everything about the 70s — the music, colours, fashion — and I’d love to make it nostalgic and fun for them.
Only thing is, I don’t really know what a 70s Christmas was actually like! And all the food needs to be gluten-free, so I’ll have to adapt recipes.
Would love ideas for:

• Typical 70s Christmas food/decorations/traditions
• Gluten-free versions of 70s treats or desserts
• Budget-friendly decorations or music to set the scene

I really want to make it special for them, so any tips or memories would be amazing.

Paper chains for the hallway.
Wr always had Vienetta at Christmas, Schloer, Snowballs and Babycham And trifle made from a Birds box kit

Oh yes it might have been brandy actually, not sherry!

They do sound quite nice. But the cookbook just presented it in a kind of "isn't this NAUGHTY! Wine in the dinner!!"" kind of way.

Tunis cake! You have to have Tunis cake.

Oh this is making me so nostalgic. The amount of work our mums ( usually!) did just for us children😯

Don't forget the Babycham in the special Babycham glasses, served with a cocktail cherry!

I’d have all your Christmas cards hanging from a red and whote string with teenie tiny pegs on.

Yes they always talk about doing a 70s Christmas. I only want to replicate the decoration as the rest (e.g. food) will most likely be mainly normally with some 70s inspired. I want to do the decorations as the 70s.

I do plan to make a lot of Christmas food as we are Gluten free household. So will be mixing pre-made current Christmas food which are happily welcomed with some maybe older - inspired homemade foods

Stick your Christmas cards all the way up the stairs.

You’ll also need a (dying) poinsettia with tinsel chucked over the top of it and a half eaten mince pie on a paper plate next to it.

Wasn't it in the 70's that the strange blue "police car lights" colour for tinsel and Christmas lights crept in?

One year my mother couldn’t find the cello tape on Christmas Eve which is when the sainted woman did all the work. In the 70’s we never bothered with parcel labels so one present sat forelorn under the tree for days.

My Dsis had wrapped the cello tape.

No the 70’s were when you had multi coloured lights. You bought the bulbs separately. It was Very Important to have spares because the first thing you did when they came out the loft was have to work your way down the string to replace the dodgy ones.

The Mincemeat Omelette is legendary.

Coloured fairy lights, the ones with a little skirt thing that makes them look like a flower. Lametta (but not if you have pets), matchboxes covered in old wrapping paper and ribbon so they look like presents. Cut-out paper snowflakes. Thin, wispy tinsel, not the fat modern stuffl. And the baubles weren't the whoppers like you get today, they were small and came in a box from Woolworths. Fairy on the top of the tree. Cut up old Christmas cards to use as present labels. Paper chains.

Tescos are doing these this year in retro packaging. Not sure how gluten free they are though.

The Good Life Christmas special can be found on Daily Motion. It's silly but it's fun....
Bowl of nuts, eat me dates, meltis newberry fruits, proper tin of quality street and not a box.

Nailed it right there. Apart from the general disappointment with the gifts received plus the fact you had to wait until everyone had arrived to open them 😂In those days Mums liked ‘close enough’ when buying. So you were coveting something you’d seen (like Olivia newton john shiny trousers) and your mum got you something ‘a bit like’ the thing you wanted. Mind you, did me no harm and meant I tried my best as a parent to try and get my kids the actual thing they wanted so Santa seemed like a bloke who’d actually read your letter 😉

Cheese footballs (probably not GF), Turkish Delight, chocolate matchsticks. twiglets. Thank you, Op, for your thread.

What are the chances that Mumsnet would already have a thread on something so random? :)

3rd time lucky. We made these at home
https://www.fredaldous.co.uk/products/rico-crepe-garlands-rainbow-classic-mix-fsc-mix?variant=48582683230492&sfdr_ptcid=32296_100_703403581&sfdr_hash=fb428df6c3a311684277d75e293715e3&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22765147888&gbraid=0AAAAAD773D6uMjAcUdwejPaoG1WOOW2Wg&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInoTDppTFkAMVg4BQBh1m9AT_EAQYDiABEgLPMPD_BwE

Some crackers of TV shows on this link - if you can find some on YouTube tube that would be nostalgic!! Although Christmas for us started on Christmas Eve when Val Doonican crooned to the nation from his rocking chair wearing his best cardigan!! Flash Gordon is another Christmas giant that sticks in my mind!

think the decorations have been covered!

food wise we made our own marzipan fruits on Christmas Eve and I have such happy memories of sitting doing that with my mum. We always had melon or prawn cocktail to start followed by a hearty soup before the turkey main (we had to be able to smell the turkey cooking when we woke up or Christmas was ruined 😂). Pudding was a sherry trifle or Christmas pudding.
we had fabulous selection boxes shaped like stockings with netting and proper Quality st/Roses - only time of the year we got them! Granny loved her Elizabeth Shaw mint crisps and if we were good we might get one! Cracked our own nuts!
radio and tv times as a special treat with all the shows highlighted!

https://ukchristmastv.weebly.com/bbc-1977.html

They actually make gluten free cheese balls!

Paper chains, tinsel and tin foil. Nothing matchy matchy. Lethal looking Christmas lights.

Far less money around so stocking would be PE bags which were homemade squares of fabric with a bit of string through, which had a satsuma, a chocolate bar, a pen (or socks or other stuff you actually needed for school), bar of soap (or something that was needed anyway). We would get a main present that was shared between the kids and one or two smaller ones. Other kids in the street got a space hopper or a chopper bike. There weren't anything like as many ads then and it wasn't as materialistic we all just shared.

Cards displayed on string across the walls and there were loads kids exchanged cards, friends and family did too.

The tin foil was behind radiators but I still think of it as Christmassy. There was TV and I remember playing board games and cards. A walk was a requirement as was visiting various friends on Christmas day.

Why were satsumas such a thing? We always had one in our stockings, too.

The free chocolate moulds that came from the Bero (I think) recipe book!

Don’t forget to twat about with the Christmas lights for four days before the kids are allowed to throw tat at the tree!