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?

We had "Cinderella" fairy lights on our tree. My mum & dad saved up for them - they were something like £10 from Woolies, in the 70s! So it was a lot of money then. Mum and Dad still have them now - well, it's not the original lights, but the outer cases (?Not sure that's the right word) are still the same. They're so fragile and delicate, but they've been looked after!
Also, until I read thread, it never occurred to me to reuse picture advent calendars I so wish I had! The Medici Gallery in London has an amazing collection but I won't be able to get there this year .

Both my parents were from large families and both were the youngest sibling.
There were lots of aunts/uncles/cousins loudly milling about I my life - which was great as I was an only child for 7 years.

My childhood memories are of noisy, laughing crowds of relatives getting together at various houses and having impromptu parties. Food wasn't fancy, plenty for the adults to drink and music .. oh my how my family loved to sing !
To a small child, it was magical

A tradition that has been part of our Christmas for 30 years.
It looks it we dress the tree, the first decoration that is taken from the storage box is a tatty green bell that has lost its glitter, it is from austerity Britain, probably the 40s. It looks it's age.
We treat it reverently and putting it on the tree for yet another Christmas is very poignant.
The bell ( which still rattles) was part of DH's childhood. His parents and siblings have all long passed and although he isn't a sentimental man, he is emotional when the bell emerges from all the tissue and bubblewrap each year.

Im a child of the 60s.
Had great Christmases in a big family.
But my warmest memory is of the annuals..Bunty Judy..we got one each and l got to read them all again and again.
Nevrr so excited since about a present.
And staying up for midnight mass at midnight felt magical.
Love seeing all others memories and sad for those with such painful memories. Hope this Christmas is a good one for ye.

North East Scotland.

Snow blocking the downstairs windows and icicles hanging over the upstairs. Track to our cottage completely blocked, as was the main road. Digging out the front path to get to the electric generator.

But Santa still came!

True magic...

@PrivateParkin - we had those lights too!!!

They were treated like the Crown Jewels.

I thought they were magical!

We had special drinking glasses for Christmas with hunting scenes on them too. I was fascinated by them.

They stopped the Santa ride at our local Co-op years ago, but it looks like they kept a few on until just a few years back.

This really takes me back, all the black lights...still looks super cool.

Mick yay, I wondered if anyone else might have had them! Love the sound of the drinking glasses. That was one of the great things about those Christmases - seeing the same things brought out every year.

Those cinderella lights fetching hundreds on eBay

November it'd better not be my folks selling theirs!! What about my precious Christmas memories?!

This thread is lovely to read.

I remember the excitement of opening the advent calendar door to see the picture. I wonder if I could find one in town today for my girls - does anyone know where I'd maybe find one?

I adored Christmas in school. The fair was amazing. The big pictures that went up on the windows of the hall.

I remembered the other day my y6 Christmas play. I was a carol singer (never ever had a proper part), stood next to my very best friend ever, in my favourite jumper. There's a photo somewhere upstairs I think; might have a look for it later on.

I don't remember much of Christmas at home though.

We're off to town today, it's light switch on day with things going on all day according to fb. I hope I'm making lovely memories for my two :)

This thread is lovely, it's really put me in the mood for Christmas 🎄!

I used to love the foil ceiling decorations. My mum used to get these plastic wall decorations as well, usually Santa in his sleigh or a snowman.

Being allowed a Babycham or Snowball on Christmas Eve.

Mass with school on the last day, Father would give everyone a little bar of chocolate. And the usually miserable school caretaker dressing up as Father Christmas and giving everyone a present (always a drawing book and crayons).

Going to do the "Big Food Shop" with mum a few days before Christmas. All usual supermarket rules went out the window and we could get whatever junk we wanted. When we were little we all had to go but by the time I was about 10 it was mostly just me and my mum that went and it felt like our special thing.

Being allowed to eat our selection boxes for breakfast- we had the boot shaped netted ones too.

Diving on our pile of presents as soon as we got up, there was none of this waiting until after lunch. I remember my mum sat watching us and looking really happy. She was a single parent and really struggled financially but Christmas was always awesome, and I really appreciate the effort now I'm grown.

You can definitely get ordinary vintage style advent calendars. I get one for DH every year. We all gather round it each morning and have a guess at what it will be-a bell, a candycane, holly, a wrapped gift...oo the suspense!
It's great fun! I've seen them at NT properties and Easons. Usually order mine online at Amazon.
My main memory of Christmas is the tree. I always loved the tree. Always real. And my mum would never allow it to go up until 20th or later. Everyone else had theirs up for ages so I would be dying to get ours done. Always retro coloured lights, and I used to spend at least an hour each day just gazing at it.
I do my folks tree for them now. Still real, but with soft white lights, and beautiful glass decorations with a few retro ones thrown in.
I do coloured lights the same kind that we had for my DC, I think kids love the coloured lights.

Oh yes to the fizzy drinks from the milk man! We used to have a crate of them, glass bottles, didn't really have fizzy at other times of year.

I am 7 yrs older than my little brother, I have some v happy memories of taking him to see Father Christmas in our local town centre. He was an amazing volunteer in the corner of (I think) the tourist info place. There was no fancy grotto, just a little chair where my brother sat and chatted to FC, and I think he had some sweets.

Woolworths tv ads that went on for an eternity
The smell of pine needles
Always getting the poxy tape measure in the cracker set!
Going to football or rugby on Boxing Day if the mighty Leyton Orient we’re at home
The Phil Spector Xmas album on vinyl

I haven't got past page 2 of this thread yet, but I feel so emotional with it. The dominant feature of the thread is that it's the little things we all appreciated, more of the special atmosphere that Christmas created, not the amount of presents.

We didn't have a lot when we were little but I still have overwhelming lovely memories of Christmas: the Christmas treats and Babychams on the sideboard and the grocers' shop with the nuts, tangerines and dates piled up like a PP. Christmas pop, collecting the turkey and the big pork pie. Putting the ceiling decorations up, complete with balloons, which slowly deflated over Christmas, and most of all, polishing the rosy apples with a tea towel.

It was the only day of the year we wanted to go to bed early.
The only presents I can truly remember were matching tick-a tick-a timex watches for me and my brother; his had a bigger face than mine, a Tressy doll one year and always a compendium of games along with a selection box.

School was magic. The carol singing, taking named cups and plates for the party, making table decorations and hats for the party, the days after Christmas when all the left over party food came round the classes. When did a chocolate finger biscuit ever taste so good?!

Thanks for the memories everyone.

Ooh! Ooh! Did anyone else's primary school put up a postbox (lovingly made out of cardboard and painted red, with cotton wool snow on top) every day in December for everyone to post Christmas cards to their friends in? The bigger children would take it in turns to sort the cards into baskets of each class and they'd be handed out after afternoon register every day. We LOVED this. I think it was fairly standard in the 80s but my DS's school don't do it

Interesting to think what our DC will remember.

We always get our tree at the forest where they are already cut and laid out in sizes. DH and the DC spend bloody ages comparing 99% identical trees and then taking the winner to be wrapped and strapped to our car.

Last night DC1(9) very sternly told me I was not to get an advent candle this year ... but erm we do still have the wooden advent calendar don't we? He has also checked that we'll definitely be having our dinner in the pub on Christmas Eve.

Hairq...my school still do it!

@Hairq my dd's school do the postbox with cotton wool snow! It lives outside the Head Teacher's office through December.

I used to love posting my cards into it on my way in on a morning

This is such a beautiful thread, needed it today!
My she bought me a traditional, picture advent calendar last year, my two sons went mad for it! Their own chocolate ones say forgotten, they both wanted to see what the days picture would be. And a shriek of delight when they saw it was a double door for Christmas eve! They were 9 and 5! Have a new one for this year.

My Christmas memories are very similar to everyone here. My grandmother making the Christmas cake and letting me pick the icing shapes to put on, and letting me out the silver sugar balls around the edge cos my hands were little and steady. She probably just wanted me occupied while she got on with other jobs, but I took it so seriously!

My brother and i fighting over the pink roses we still do that and for any Irish posters, the follens Christmas annuals. My own children get them now and it's always huge excitement!

@StayAChild :

* School was magic. The carol singing, taking named cups and plates for the party, making table decorations and hats for the party*

Wow huge rush of memory...I had completely forgotten about that. We also got an ice cream wafer each and got to watch a movie in the projector in infants on the last afternoon.

Probably to give the teachers a break from the total madness of it all 😀

And then when we left school taking all our things...hats, pictures cards etc in a big staples piece of cardboard....and always a handmade picture made into a calendar with the tiny tear off calendar pages at the bottom...and usually a woven paper heart basket with some sweets in.

@PrivateParkin our glasses were like this...

Totally unpolitically correct nowadays I guess.

A day out in Blackpool (120 miles away), with egg and chips in a cafe waiting for it to go dark. We would then drive through all the illuminations which seemed magical before sleeping all the way home.

The excitement of opening the windows on the advent calendar, no chocolate just a lovely seasonal picture.

Going to school in party clothes for the Christmas party and the classrooms being filled with food which we'd all taken in.

The smell of our silver tinsel tree and it looked so pretty with multicoloured lights on it.

My Dad going downstairs on Christmas morning to light the fire, I'd be in my room waiting for him to shout "He's been". He'd make us all tea too and put whisky in them, including mine and even now I have a cup of tea with whisky in on Christmas morning.

Visiting my Dad's cousins on Christmas morning. We'd open presents, have breakfast and then me and Dad would walk to exchange presents with some of his cousins and their families at their houses. I went with him well into my teens.