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!

My uncle loved meltis fruit jellies - you don't see them very often any more but if I ever do I have to stop myself picking a box up for him (he died nearly 20 years ago.)

My mum used to love these - one Christmas I remember her getting about 5 boxes of them - but her false teeth can't handle them now!

I've never made marzipan but my aunty taught me to make fruit as a child and I loved it, the cheese grater for dimples, brushing on food colouring, cloves for stems.

Pickled walnuts for my grandma, liqueur chocolates for my dad (there were some long thin cigar shaped ones). I've finally given up buying the bags of nuts, even though we've got a really good nutcracker no one bothers, I've got a big tub of mixed ones on the go for putting on cereal etc.

Cheese footballs.

We still make snowballs at Christmas, and it's the only time of year we get a bottle of Warninks!

This thread is so nostalgic! Yes, to the orange and lemon slices, and also fruit jellies that had a sort of liquid in the middle - people used to buy them for my gran as she had poorly fitting false teeth and couldn't really chew. Liquor chocolates, nuts with shells, dates in a box (although I don't remember anyone actually eating them) and those chocolate peppermint stick things, as well as a big tin of quality street. Satsumas were also very much a Christmas-only treat.

Edit - just looked up the fruit jellies - they were Newberry Fruits!

My mum absolutely loved Newberry Fruits. I saw a big round tin of them the other day and said to DH,Mum would have loved those, would have kept her going until Spring. That and a bottle of Drambuie.
DH did the advocaat/snowball thing, but dc thought they were disgusting.
I guess the one I'll pass to the dc is Bendicks Bitter Mints. I usually stash at least two boxes.

Advocaat for me. My mum loved it and her dad used to buy it for her - he wasn’t a great dad a lot of the time but always bought her advocaat at Christmas and then my dad bought it for her too. Now I get a bottle every year.

The Danish biscuits too. And a box of Tayto crisps (I’m Irish). And a box of chocolate mallow biscuits.

This is reminding me of the fantastic egg corn that was on MN ages ago - a poster was playing ‘the Devil’s Advocaat’!

That’s one hell of a drink..😂

You really don't want to give her a box for her to suck the chocolate off the nuts .......some things are best left in the past 😀

Eat Me dates. Advocaat. Cinzano Bianco. Stones ginger wine. Bendicks mints. I always bought my dad a box.
The other year I bought some shelled nuts and rested a nutcracker on the top like my parents did in the 70s. Magical Christmases.

That sounds lovely, the sort of thing that would enchant a child

variuos types of nuts in shells that we would have fun cracking open with a nut cracker or a little hammer with shells flying everywhere lol. They would get cleaned up but after chirsmtas there were a pile of escaped shells behind the Christmas tree.

Every year I get a lump in my throat over the charlie red perfume gift sets
My very dear friend loved charlie red and every year,Id save up a few quid and buy it for her with a bottle of wine

My grandad loved the dates and I still go to pick them up when I see them (he died when I was 14)

My fil loved craft beer
I burst into years last christmas as ill never buy him a bottle (or 4) again

One day ill get the lump in my throat for vodka
My mil loves a vodka and lime at christmas and every year I buy her a bottle (I know shes too polite to tell me she doesn't need a huge bottle as she spends the next year trying to drink it but every year i see it and my brain seems to freeze and i pick up a bottle for her as 'its christmas!')

For me it's baileys
I dont drink at all through the year and every Christmas I buy a bottle (along with the vodka) and share it with dp
It's not Christmas without a baileys in my hand

Oh goodness, cheese footballs!!!

They aren't really nostalgic in my house as I love them and buy them by the crateload whenever I can find them - only me and DD1 actually like them but we eat them all year round!

i would too if I let myself! Very pricy though, I can only find them on Amazon?

I can usually find them in The Range or B&M, you have to be snappy and buy them as soon as you see them though. They sell out so fast that it makes me wonder why more shops don't stock them or why the stocks aren't larger. I suspect that the ingredients might be radioactive or something.

Pink sugar mice - there was always one in our stockings, along with the chocolate coins. I dare say they’re still available, but I haven’t seen any for ages.

And of course, the old fashioned, softly glowing coloured Christmas tree lights - so different from the harsh LED abominations that have almost entirely eclipsed them now.

No lights compare to the old fashioned ones from our childhood, i can't understand how with todays technology they can't make them.

Famous Names liquors
Advocat
Homemade peppermint creams
Brandy Snaps
Maraschino cherry's for drinks

My DM loved a box of Cadbury’s Contrast chocolates, but I don’t think they’re made anymore.
Late DF liked a jar of picked walnuts.
If we particularly like something, we should eat it all year round, not just once a year. Life’s too short.