Nostalgia for times past?

[Sherbert37]

Dragged DS2 off the Wii so we could watch 'The Good Life' last night. He loved it.

Felt a bit sad that family life has become so complicated and our free time is now so precious. DS1 slaying people on his XBox, DD on the computer by herself. Anyone else feel a bit nostalgic for the simple Christmases spent with grandparents, just talking and watching Morecambe and Wise?

Must be may age...

Yes, Morcambe and Wise, Only Fools and Horses, Bread etc.

dd (7) watched 'The Good Life' with is last night too!

She couldn't stop laughing at oooh aaah bird joke

o no have I missed the Christmas special?

Christmas doesnt come in a van Margo...

why not start a family Christmas tradition of banning computers and wiis etc for Christmas Day - and maybe Boxing Day? And to be honest, don't watch too much tv either. Perhaps spend the time playing games like charades, or old fashioned board games - and go the whole Good Life hog and make hats out of newspaper? It could be fun if you can get the dcs onside to have a 'Christmas like the olden days.

we didn't even have the TV Christmasses - charades all the way for us . Apart from the Snowman, no other TV for the whole two days.

Tanee - used to but now they are teenagers and most of their presents are for the Wii or XBox.

But couldn 't they leave playing with them until Boxing Day, and have different entertainments on the day itself? It is, supposedly, about sharing...

Personally, I'd ban the TV as well. Last year everything stopped because my nephew had to watch the Dr Who special - and videoing it wasn't good enough. We just lost momentum after that and half the family watched mindless TV whilst DP, BIL, my DD and me locked ourselves in the snug and played old records (BIL's idea of educating DD into 1970s rock culture )

I'm a sixties child and we had decorations made from milk bottle tops, paper chains and you put your cards on the Christmas tree.
You received one 'big' present eg a pram or doll and little things in the stocking.

Not many people had televisions so there was none of the pester power or materialism of today.

Yes, I get nostalgic for the simplicity of yesteryear and think the answer is to avoid anything with an electric plug on it, glossy magazines or shops....

Yes, like GentleOtter, I grew up in the sixties with paperchains and home made decs - plus lots of cheap tinsel from Woolies (sad nostalgic emoticon). My parents didn't have a huge amount of money then but my sister and I always had lots of presents, and my mum would do things like make extra clothes for a doll. (One awful Christmas when I was nearly 6, we had just moved abroad and they had NO spare money, so they wrapped up all my old toys which I hadn't seen for 3 months because they were in transit, and gave them to me. The only new thing I got was a plastic pencil sharpener shaped like an aeroplane. I honestly thought Santa had gone mad !

I really do worry that children expect (and get) far too much now and people get into terrible debt to indulge them. We've not got a lot of money, so I have to be quite inventive and I enjoy the challenge - and DD understands that she won't get everything on her list.