The simple things you remember most about Christmas

[crochetmonkey74]

I'm not one to judge - each to their own - but the juggernaut of Christmas 'extras' now seems mad and got me to thinking about my memories of Christmas- none of which were present based.
Things I remember most are : starting to see tangerines in the grocer, all stacked up next to the shelled nuts and with those boxes of dates. The grocers looked all lit up on the walk home from school- and it would make me feel really Christmassy.
My other big one is the feeling of a heavy stocking on the bottom of the bed- it was always filled with tiny things that I can't remember- but always a chocolate Father Christmas sticking out of the top!
We had a set of Christmas tapes from Readers Digest (just found a set on Amazon for way too much but bought it anyway)
also, we used to listen to the St Winifreds School Choir 'Christmas For Everyone' record and light our very cheap cinnamon smelling candle - even now any cheap christmas candle (the ones that smell of burnt plastic cinnamon) makes me feel all Christmassy

What are your simple festive memories?

I love this thread and I’ve thought of more.

Dsis always slept in my bed on Christmas Eve - she would jump in like a bottle of pop, jabber at me about how she was to excited and she was never ever get to sleep - then be out like a light 5 minutes later. I loved that.

Bit of a sad one - my mum used to buy extra ‘Santa presents’ for a few of my cousins because they had less money than us (one had gambler husband and one was a single mum of 3). She used to act like it was a Christmas mission she had received from Santa so we could help pick & wrap. She kept doing this (including the mission spiel) until cousins (and I) were in our late teens!

Having a new pair of Pjs on Christmas Eve. My dm was a fan of sensible boring pjs so Christmas ones were always bright / Disney.

Every Christmas Eve Dad would look out of the window and shout that he could see Santa. We would rush over and he would always be so upset for us that we had just missed him. He did it every year as there was always a child the right age in the family to love this (currently 7yo nephew).

We weren’t allowed foil decorations - our was all colour coordinated baubles, white lights and China ornaments. Loved going o my nanny’s house - her tree was real, baubles were brightly coloured (so were the lights) and she had foil decs everywhere. It always felt like you could smell the decorations / Christmas-Ness in her house.

Spending the last day of term mixed with other classes in the Hall, playing games or watching the tv on the huge stand. I loved this as it meant I could actually see dsis in school (she’s a few years younger than me).

Great thread!

I remember the year my mum and nan got rather tipsy, forgot to defrost the turkey and my other nan wondering why she couldn't get tipsy the following day (because my mum had topped up the gin with water after drinking most of it the night before).

The smell of my presents. My mum used to hide them in her wardrobe and they always smelled of her!

The year we had a soda stream.

I'll always remember the excitement of one year when I woke early hours, got out of bed and went and felt my sack full of pressies before getting back into bed.

Always getting dressed up to the nines on christmas day.

Peanut brittle and monkey nuts were always bought at christmas time.

My mum would always allow me a small amount of bucks fizz with my christmas dinner. I still have bucks fizz with dinner now even though I'm not fussed on it, it just wouldn't be the same otherwise!

Parties on NYE where we would go out the street at midnight and bang saucepans then sing auld lang syne. I've carried on this tradition too. Our neighbours think we're nuts.

The year we came home from my nan's on christmas eve to find the dog had pulled over the Christmas tree, eaten a load of baubles and chewed through the telephone wire.

@DontCallMeCharlotte
I have bay window envy

Christmas seemed so magical as a child, now it’s just so stressful (sorry to be a Scrooge) things I loved were:

Coming home from school to a house filled with those cheap foil decorations that fall down every hour or so.

Feeling the stocking at the end of the bed.

Having family visit that I haven’t seen all year and probably won’t see till the following Christmas.

Hearing Christmas music on the radio.

The general feeling that Christmas is coming

Oh yes and definitely the tangerines! It was only Christmas if we had a load of tangerines!

I love this thread! It's brought back so many nice memories. I agree with the Radio Times, foil decorations (although I'm not a fan of them as an adult), Christmas music on the radio, and satsumas.

We also used to always have pickled onions. No idea where that one came from. But it just wasn't the same unless we had pickled onions on the edge of the plate with the turkey and everything else. And cheap crackers that had those little plastic frogs in, the ones you pressed down on at the back and they 'hopped' across the table.

And comedy specials! There always seemed to be Christmas comedy specials on a lot more when I was younger, but maybe it's just I remember them more. We always had to watch three of them: Only Fools and Horses, French and Saunders, and Blackadder's Christmas Carol.

The lovely feeling of anticipation when you got into bed on Christmas Eve. Like a PP said, it wasn't the fact you might get presents, it was the possibility of a world where Santa and magic was real.

Making Christmas decorations at school that got hung up at the windows. We made stars one year out of strips of black paper, and filled in the gaps with coloured cellophane. I remember the colours when the light shone through were gorgeous.

Going out walking late at night when all the lights in the neighbourhood were on, wrapped up in full hat, scarf and gloves. And listening to the quiet if it actually snowed.

Sleeping on a camp bed in my parents room as my room was taken up by my great aunt. Plus assorted other relatives in spare rooms. It didn't feel like Christmas if I was in my own room!

The house being full of food. We got together with neighbours and did a huge bulk buy of stuff. All delivered to and sorted in our house, huge sacks of spuds, parsnips, carrots and sprouts and massive boxes of tangerines all over, some wrapped in tissue. Huge boxes of nuts. Deliveries of wine, beer and babycham with bottles everywhere. Turkeys in the kitchen and the huge pork pies being made for breakfast on Christmas Day. My mum made everything from scratch, jars of homemade mincemeat for pies, pickles and jams all made earlier and lined up ready, Christmas seemed to be one massive cooking session with family coming in to help, lots of laugher and fun and the house and kitchen full of people

Oh God, Aqua, that's brought back vivid memories of every time my family spent Xmas crammed into my sister's house and I would be on a lilo on the spare room floor.

Always makes me laugh/roll my eyes when I read on here people being precious about their poor dear children having to share a room when relatives come to stay. they don't know they're born

Rhiannon, I loved it! Getting up and sitting with my parents opening my stocking on their bed, just us three together before the rest of the family got up for breakfast. And stuffing my face with the chocolate and tangerines!

Xmas was the only time of year when chocolate was a treat. My mum would buy a massive tin of quality street, that lasted a whole month between 6 of us.

Also Xmas colors: red, green, gold. Seeing things in those colors put me in a festive spirit.

Presents also felt special because we didn't get what we wanted whenever we wanted. We had to wait for Christmas or our birthday so getting a laptop or a new pair of boots made us grateful for what we had. Not like today in our disposable consumerist society.

Drinking a Snowball at Grandma’s - Advocaat and lemonade served in a cocktail glass with a maraschino cherry on a stick to stir it with.

Glass bowls of sugared almonds, chocolate-covered nuts and Quality Street on the sideboard, along with a massive bowl of mixed nuts in their shells. Looking for the nutcrackers which were only ever used at Christmas. A tray of dates with a long plastic fork.

Buttered Brazil nuts and Mowbray fruits. After Eights and liqueur-filled chocolates served with coffee after our Christmas lunch.

Smell of the Xmas tree
Smell of satsumas
Being allowed chocolate any time after breakfast
Pickled eggs
New clothes

This is a lovely thread,,

I remember seeing the loaves of bread being sold with the Christmas wrapper on them,, Tangerines with silver paper on them.
It being really really cold.
Getting pen and pencil sets for Christmas.
Woolworths selling loads of glass balls all loose in sections on the counter,
When selection boxes were BIG
When I got ,my first 'grown up' box of chocs with roses on the lid..I must have been about 8.
The neighbour next door bringing me and my sister a gift on Christmas Eve when we were in our pj's
Eating Christmas dinner and then trying to wade through a huge Christmas tea

Just remembered.....the dusty smell of the decorations box as it came down from the loft, The lovely bumpy nobbley rustle of the stocking at the end of the bed,
And yes,,,pickled onions..pickled red cabbage,,nut in shells...And shelling monkey nuts into a little black bowl on Christmas eve,,one of my jobs,

Sweetpea55 I think it's lovely how the small one-off things people do (like your neighbour bringing the presents on Christmas Eve, and the poster who remembers making the cellophane stars at school) stay with you. I bet the neighbour would never have thought at the time that you would remember that years later! I'm the same, we used to have a lovely neighbour, an older lady who lived by herself - and I clearly remember her giving me and my sister Pyramints one Christmas! (Pyramints - that's another blast from the past!)

Two words... Argos cataologue

On Christmas Eve I was always allowed to help myself to Christmas sweets (after eight, quiality street, matchmakers and a tin of shortbread) WITHOUT ASKING!!!

Sublime.

Advent calendar with just pictures behind the doors.santa was in number 25,finding a full stocking in the pitch black on Xmas morning

@AmySueGina
I remember being very small and thinking the numbers next to the pictures were the prices. I couldn’t understand why my mum wouldn’t buy me a diamond ring

Whatkay I thought that too.

Hunting through the wooden bowl of nuts for Brazil's and then nearly pinging it across the room when you cracked it.

Tins of Quality Street.

The light up Alpine Village my mum had glued to a mirror with cotton wool snow.

The best china being used

What a lovely thread. Haven't been able to catch up with it all yet but what I've read has brought so many tears to my eyes.
What I remember really clearly is that feeling of magic in the air. Afternoon trips to the shops as it grew dark and the fairy lights were on in the shop windows.

Loved the coloured lights that were such lovely soft colours - the red was really a lovely deep pink.

As many PPs have mentioned, picture advent calendars. The excitement! Such simple, innocent times. Mine was a 3D nativity scene and came out year after year.

I have a Christmas birthday and one afternoon the year I turned three I remember my DM saying I had to stay away from the garage because 'Father Christmas is in there helping Daddy make you a doll's house'! Of course she later had to drag me away from the garage window where I was trying to catch sight of him!

Another year I came home from school and found the most exiting thing. We had a Father Christmas tree decoration and a gold deer ornament that used to stand on the mantelpiece. DF had built a sleigh out of a polystyrene tile, covered it in glitter and filled it with quality street and a bag of chocolate coins with the Father Christmas sitting in it and the reindeer up front. I was amazed and felt so lucky.

DM taking me to visit Father Christmas in Selfridges and almost crying with laughter listening to me very politely refusing everything he offered me. 'No thank you' to the stuffed toy, nurse's outfit, rubber snake etc etc I was there for ages and apparently the poor man was starting to sound quite desperate! he finally asked would a like a beaded purse with a long gold chain! Yes please!

So much more - I could go on all night!

No brothers or sisters so it was usually just me and DPs. They made Christmas so special. Both gone now - this will be the fourth Christmas without DM and the second without DF. No children of my own and even though I still love Christmas it's a sad love. So many precious memories.

@SingingBabooshkaBadly
Your post was very moving to read, you have some wonderful memories, they sounded like lovely parents that loved you very much.

I’ve added many memories but another one happens every year without fail. Putting a plate of dinner in front of my nan and her saying ‘I can’t eat all that’ EVERY DAMN CHRISTMAS. So now for a laugh she gets given the biggest plate of food first, we all laugh, then she gets her plate which is what a toddler would eat and guess what she says? ‘I still can’t eat all that !’