What was Christmas lilke when you were a child?

[Mercy]

Any similarities? Any differences?

We always had an ancient artificial tree with lights and glass baubles handed down to us from my greatgrandparents and grandparents (really attractive, delicate things). Sadly mostly now broken.

A small turkey (not every yesar though) followed by either a homemade or shop bought pudding (which would need steaming for about 3 hours and was generally overdone)

Leftovers plus new pots and salad was a treat on Boxing Day.

My parents only drank alcohol at Christmas or on birthdays so went a bit overboard at lunchtime and when we were in bed!

One thing I do miss is the Salvation Army walking down our road, standing under the street lights and playing carols, ditto the float organised by the Rotary club or somesuch. All very well done.

actually this is a better link

Christmas morning open presents at home, then spent the moring touring various maternal relatives. Then on to paternal gradnparents for lunch with aunts uncles and cousins, finally back to maternal grandparents for christmas tea of cold leftovers and trifle. Always wondered why my mum got so stressed, now see that she was trying to keep both sets of grandparents happy, sometimes through clenched teeth.

I remember sitting round a HUGE table with 12 of us for lunch. Funny I now have the same table in my kitchen and it doesn't feel nearly so big.

Other abiding memory is grandad peeling sprouts every chirstmas eve and sneeking in to the front room to take a peek at the chirsmas cake under a tea towel.

My Dads friend dressed up as santa every christmas eve and came down the street ringing a bell with a big bag of sweets and chocolate for all the children on the street.
Getting new pjs on christmas eve.
Our Christams stocking was always left at the foot of our bed (mum and dad hoping to keep us in bed a while longer) and we all had a chair we'd choose the night before in the sitting room for our santa presents.
Going to mass on christmas morning or xmas eve and taking one piece of straw from the manger to keep in our piggy bank or purse (meant to be for good luck with money).
The tv was never allowed to be on christmas day, we all played games together.
Opening presents under the tree after dinner was always great as it was special to look forward to at the end of the day.

I loved Christams as a child, we would argue (in a good humoured way) with my dad about when the decs could go up then generally do it when he was at work anyway.
The whole family would be over and all 12 of us would be round the kitchen table with a huge turkey and all the trimmings.

But.

When i got to my teens i hated it, my grandad and 'the men' would f off to the pub whilst 'us girls' would have to stay and cook it was very sexist but i didn't relaise this untill i was about 13+ and when i did realise i hated it and rebeled.

We were showered with pressies every xmas and its the one day of the year we didn't fight with each other (my sisters and me) but again when i was older i learnt that my mum would sell all her things to give us the christmas we had.

Our xmas now isn't like that, my grandad has passed on god rest his sole and none of our houses are big enough for a big family xmas so its just dp and the kids this year but we shall no doubt go visiting the rellies in the afternoon, i like it its cozy and fun.

we always had great christmas days (still do)

there is always around 18 of us but only a six seater table so will bring in my dads paste table and the patio set.

chairs are stuck anywhere and someone usually ends up sitting on the computer chair so is a good foot higher than everyone else around the dinner table

the meal is always excellent (thanks to my mum who is chief cook) but everyone chips in and brings a bit round. i.e my uncle will get the prawns while my gran makes the trifle.

i always get stuck with buying crackers though because they dont trust me with anything more important

eating starts in the morning at my aunties where we have bubbly and blt's before trailing round all the familys houses looking at gifts and getting slightly more pished before going back to my mums to start on dinner.

i really hope my girls grow up with as many good memories as i have

Decorations up the weekend before Christmas including paper chains and sort of fold out angels with crepe paper skirts - probably a bit tatty but we thought they were the most beautiful things we'd ever seen.

Pooling pocket money with DSis and buying Mum a tiny box of Black Magic and Dad a packet of liqorice allsorts.

Carols from Kings on Christmas Eve and being Soooooooooo excited leaving mince pies and sherry out for Father Christmas (he wasn't called Santa then).

Waking up way to early - we have a photo of DSis and I in M&D's bed and the bedside clock shows the time is 5.30am .

Always getting a book in my pillowcase, and usually a jigsaw or a game, and one year DSis and I got dolls that my Gran had knitted an entire layette for. And one unforgettable year I got a doll's house that my Dad made for me, with a bright red roof. God I loved that doll's house.

Lunch was always chicken or pork, never turkey, and sometimes my Dad wasn't there - he was a policeman, and they didn't get their day off if they had young families then. But sometimes he was there, wearing a paper hat along with his uniform, because he had to go back to work. And there was always a bottle of asti spumante, and an advocaat snowball (my family were not big drinkers and a bottle of advocaat used to last about 5 years!)

The Queen and james Bond on the telly, and a raid on a selection box, then chicken and stuffing sandwiches for tea, with trifle and mince pies (never the Christmas Cake, M&D are Northern Folk and the cake is never breached until New year's Eve.

Then Morecambe and Wise or the Two Ronnies, and bed.

I loved Christmas - it's not the same now we're all sophisticated like.

When I was a child we always consumed far more sweets, etc than I would let my dc's have today! We would start off by getting up early to see what Santa had brought and then return to bed with an annual and a selection box!

It was the one time of year when we would have lots of treats in the house so we used to go a bit mad. My grandfather would buy several crates of fizzy drinks (this was in the days when they came in glass bottles with the type of lids you needed a bottle opener to open...) and there were always several boxes of chocolates/biscuits/sweets and boxes of crisps.

We often couldn't eat our Christmas dinner because we had eaten so much rubbish