Nostalgic Christmas Buys

[rainbowunicorn22]

Now that my parents and my in-laws have passed on, I very often spot items that used to be on my must-buy list for Christmas gifts. Not something we like or buy, but it does give me a nostalgic rush. Is there anything that does the same for you?
For instance, Dad loved the chocolate Brazil nuts, the only time he would buy them, but he did enjoy them.
Mum always insisted on buying the orange and lemon slices in a box, but though it was tradition, none of us liked them! even the dog who would steal and eat most things would not touch them!

I've bought my Mum chocolate brazils - no idea why I don't at other times but they are so Christmassy. I think I'll try and find sugared almonds too.

My grandparents always had boxes of figs and dates.

Not so much buying things- although cherryade, matchsticks and devilled eggs do bring back happy memories. More songs for me. My dad used to put classical Christmas songs on as we decorated the tree and they definitely take me back to being a kid! Bring back the memories of him always getting the lights in a mad tangle and getting so cross!

Brandysnaps! My mum was obsessed with brandysnaps filled with cream, they were a staple of celebration teas through the years. I was out with my adult DD the other day and saw a pack in a supermarket; I went into raptures and she just said 'what are they?'

I even used to make them sometimes and have happy memories of the oiled toy plastic rolling pin I would wrap them around.

Sugared almonds. My mum used to buy them. Put out in a slightly wonky bowl I made at primary school!

Marzipan fruits - have so many lovely memories of making these with my mum, using the grater to add texture and putting in the food colouring with tiny brushes.
Also the lemon and orange fruit slices, dates and figs which no one liked or even tried! My mum was the same, obsessed over brandy snaps, brandy cream and bread sauce every Christmas even though nobody ate them!
my lovely wee granny always loves a box of Elizabeth Shaw mint crisp chocolates every Christmas. Always think of her when I see them in the shops.

I saw bottles of Snowballs and CherryB's in B&M a couple of weeks ago and it took me back to being in my great grans bungalow at Christmas time.
My Dad always bought a net of nuts and a bag of Bombay mix at Christmas.

what some lovely memories! My daughter loves sugared almonds, she even had them for favours at her wedding!
Marzipan fruits were bought for a neighbour as well.
mum used to make her own snowballs, with Advocaat, lemonade and lime juice. started off well, but as the evening went on, the Advocaat got more and more the other ingredients got much less!
Sponge fingers we often had at Mum's too and my girls still call them Granny fingers!

Two things really make me nostalgic:

My Dad used to make a traditional ham by pickling a leg of pork for 3 weeks in the fridge, before baking and breadcrumbing. The pickle included Mackeson stout, pickling spices and salt petre, which he used to have to sign the explosives register when buying! The fridge and whole house smelt of the pickle liquor throughout Advent.

Also my parents used to have avocaat as their (cold) custard on the Christmas pudding!!

I wouldn’t buy any of theee but seeing them in the shops makes me nostalgic:
bags of nuts in shells, which for the most part only my Dad could crack.
Oblong boxes of not very tasty dates with a long plastic fork down the middle (although we do like medjool dates)
Schloer.
Birds Trifle (although I love a good trifle any time of year)

This will be my second Christmas without either of my birth parents and there are two things which they only ever bought at this time of year - a pot of stilton and a bag of mixed nuts, which always went in the massive crystal salad bowl with an empty ice-cream box next to it for the shells.

Alas, a dairy- and nut-free house means those experiences died with them but I did have a slight tear in my eye when I saw a bag of nuts in the supermarket earlier this week.

After eight mints for me. My nan used to have a gold carriage that the box sat in.

I always think that anyone who doesn’t like marzipan has never eaten home made marzipan. It’s so different

Dates, packed in a balsa wood box with palm trees on the front, with a long plastic fork thing that looked like a twig and was always sticky. I used to love peeling back the cellophane on the first layer.

Nothing like all the lovely medjool and posh stuffed ones you get now, these were quite hard and with a shiny, papery skin, but they seemed unbelievably special and exotic, and were the essence of Christmas when I was little!

Those Danish biscuits in the blue tin. when they were finished the tin would be recycled into a sewing tin much to everyone's disappointment when they fancied a biscuit.

Oh, and shell-on nuts. The dates always sat in a bowl next to a pile of Brazil nuts & walnuts, with a pair of completely useless metal nutcrackers that just used to spin whole nuts across the room like missiles, or explode shards of nutshell everywhere.

Oh yes, I see things that I would have at one point picked out as gifts for my grandparents, or my late husband... Or for very close friends, something that I know for sure that they would have really loved, or that I always bought for them, and you see it in the store and you almost half reach for it don't you? And then the corners of your eyes prickle with tears that aren't quite there and you smile a little half smile and you think of that person and you think of the joy and happiness and good memories of better days and you walk away from the item in the store, and it's a little bit sad isn't it.

Dm still makes her own marzipan a df won't eat it as he hates marzipan. All the more for us!!

What a lovely thread!

I was reminiscing with friends in my local about snowballs at the weekend, and we are determined to persuade the landlord to buy in the Advocaat for Christmas!

My father loved Newbery Fruits and I always bought him a box at Christmas - luckily Dh loves them too so I get him a box, but they are not the same now! Also loved Clarnico Peppermints and those pink and white iced caramels which we always had at home. Sigh!!

I always bought my Nan a box of 6 walnut whips and they still make me really nostalgic even though she died 18 years ago. When I was a kid my uncle who were only met at Xmas would buy us a box of Danish biscuits, in a tin with 2-3 biscuits in each little paper cake case. They are very average but somehow feel magically festive. Same with the marzipan fruits that look ridiculously festive.

Another one for a mixed bag of nuts, put in a special bowl that is only used once a year at Christmas with a pair of useless nutcrackers. I still do it every year even though my Grandfather, the only one that ever ate them, has been dead for 25 years!

There was always a bowl of nuts with a nutcracker, mint creams from Woolworths, figs & a box of Thorntons toffee with a toffee hammer. My Grandad made cheese straws, mince pies & sausage rolls.

My Nan always had chocolate brazils & rose & lemon Turkish delight. These are now my faves.

I’ve bought the lemon and orange slices this year and they’re waiting for Xmas. Pretty sure they’ll be horrible but I have such affection for my childhood Christmases when they always featured.

My mums favourite was chocolate gingers and I'd love them too

Still miss the Chinese figs my Nan used to buy! They were a tear shaped fig jelly sweet with a sugar coating and came in an hexagonal box! Only ever had them at my nans but they were lush!