Christmas was always a wonderful time for me as a child, even though we were quite poor. I was born on Christmas day, so for a long time I thought I shared my birthday with Jesus. Of course there is no absolute accuracy about historical dates and all that , but anyway, Christmas as a child always felt like it was a magical time to me.
Mam used to bake a lot of mince pies and cakes with ingredients that were not too expensive. She made everything early, around about a month in advance.
At Christmas, we often used to go to church on the Christmas eve and come home to have hot mulled wine with mince pies!
Christmas day was a traditional christmas dinner with Roast Turkey and we felt close together as a family. As we were both girls, we helped mam prep the vegetables and started getting things ready for the table.
Dad did his bit and put up all the lights, the tree and the decorations, also the Christmas Nativity scene which he had made himself. This was placed nearby the christmas table with the Holy family jesus and shpherds. Dad put the Christmas Carols on the record player to create a lovely christmassy atmosphere.
Later we played Christmas carols on piano, recorders and in song all together.
When we were young, us 2 girls woke up very early to open our christmas presents under the tree. We always wrote a letter to ask father Christmas what we would like for a gift and we promised to be well behaved and help mother.
One year we received a dolly, the next year I got all 'Arty' with a Spirograph Set and I made endless designs and patterns to give to all the family! another year we got a bicycle. These were the good years, when my mam would take a little job around christmas time, to help make an extra income. Grandparents helped out a bit.
Later mam couldn't do much anymore when she became ill and dad didn't earn a lot in the local shipyard. Things were not the same, it was much harder for us especially when dad was made redundant for quite a while.
However, we always felt surrounded by love as children by our lovely grandparents and parents. We helped our parents until we both got married, then we tried to bring a Happy Christmas to our own young families. ❤
Do you have happy memories of past Chrstmas times ? Funny or sad?
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Hi Gill
My memories of this time of year when I was younger included the excitement always felt in the run up to the day itself, helping mum prep the vegs for the munchies the night before.
Further memories included getting up the ladder in the living room to put the decorations up as I always preferred to be up at height instead of down on the floor in all the mess of mum along with my sister and brother untangling all the other decorations and trying to race to be the 1st to pass the next decoration up to me along with a drawing pin for the end being hung up at the time. Some of the paper decorations were not long enough to stretch from 1 corner to the opposite corner and had to be pinned up around the lights.
Most of the time dad used to do the veg prepping and rarely asked for help doing them, then it was dad and mum and after dad passed in 2017 I would be helping mum with the vegs. In 2020 I was helping mum peel the vegs ( potatoes and carrots I helped with ) but aswell as using a veg peeler which you drag through the skin I had a fork to hold the potatoes on while peeling afteran accident I had where I peeled the end of my little finger on my left hand, needless to say mum found it hilarious seeing me hold a potato with a fork while peeling it and at 1 point was filming me doing them before she sent it to my brother and sister who duly ended up laughing their heads off when they saw me.
Since mum passed in 2021 I haven't had any decorations up in my flat as the ceiling terrible for trying to put anything up.
For Christmas Day this year as I have for 2021 and 2022 I will be out with my other half and her mum and dad for dinner this year, a lot better than sitting at home with elephants stomping around.
Hope you and your family all have a great time during the festivities.
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Hi Mike, Thank you for sharing that memory.
Lol! That must have been a sight with that potato peeling lark!
It is all part of the fun and games that go on at Christmas time.
At least you will have some peace from all the Elephants this Christmas!
Hope you and your other half have a good Christmas.
Best wishes Gill