Various Memories of Christmas as a Child
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Various Memories of Christmas as a Child
Barwicker No.112
December 2013
Harrod's Toy Show
Born in London in 1920 one of the few events which I can still
remember very well were visits to the annual toy show at Harrods in
Knightsbridge. It was made clear to me that I could not expect to
receive any of the toys because they were far too expensive for us to
buy them. I went simply to look and admire. I think I accepted that,
enjoyed the expedition, and received quite happily the more modest
presents which we could afford. (J Roach)
We moved from London to Bedford in 1929 and the earliest memory I
have from that date was in the eyes of a child a catastrophe. An aunt
had ordered a turkey in London and had arranged for it to be sent by
train and collected from Bedford Station. The bird never arrived in
time; it finally turned up several days after the Christmas holiday.
There were no telephones to make enquiries in those days which meant
going down personally to the station on several occasions without
result. Naturally we didn't go hungry but I missed our Christmas
turkey! (J Roach)
Meeting Father Christmas
When I was a child my father was Display Manager at Lewis's in
Leeds and worked long hours on the run-up to Christmas organising
the Christmas grotto, store and window decorations. My father always
took me to his office on the morning Father Christmas arrived so I
could see him coming down The Headrow. We would then visit
Father Christmas in his grotto and I was always utterly amazed that he
knew my name. To me he had come from Lapland not Woodhouse
Moor, as I later learnt. On Christmas Eve, somehow by magic to a
child, there always appeared the larger than life model which had been
used in the store. So one year it could be Puss in Boots, Humpty
Dumpty or Dick Whittington and his cat which would then take pride
of position in our central hall. (P Robson)
No presents to open on Christmas morning.
I can remember as a very young child going to bed on Christmas Eve
hardly daring to go to sleep as I desperately wanted to see Santa. The
empty pillowcase for all my presents was duly laid at the bottom of the
bed. I must have fallen asleep at some point because when I woke it
was still dark but Father Christmas had been and I had missed him yet
again! Now fully awake I set to and opened all my presents. Then I
realised what I had done and burst into tears which brought my parents
from the next room to see what the matter was. "I've opened all my
presents and won't have anything to open in the morning" I wailed.
Somehow they must have pacified me and I went back to sleep and
thoroughly enjoyed looking at all my presents again once it was
daylight. (P Burlingham)
Christmas on the Farm
When I was a child our household consisted of my Grandparents, my
parents, my sister and I. We also had two older teenagers (farm
servants) who worked on the farm, one usually working at Christmas
and the other would work over the New Year. We regularly had goose
for Christmas dinner and although this had always been killed by my
father, mother did the plucking and dressing of all the poultry. In fact
poultry was her individual domain and she reared chicken, ducks and
goose, the income from which was solely hers as she never got any
money from father. Mother cooked on a black lead range with a boiler
at one end and at the other was an oven heated by the fire. She used to
go out to collect small sticks to push under the oven to make it hotter.
Until piped water was installed in 1947 we got the water from the
pump outside. Prior to 1954 when electricity was installed we used
Calor gas lamps in three rooms, and paraffin Aladdin lamps with
mantles in the other rooms.
Christmas morning was no different to any other morning as the cows
needed milking. It was all done by hand in those days. The milking
was started a couple of hours earlier than usual as the man who
collected it wanted a Christmas as well, so he in turn came earlier. The
cows were kept in the fold yard and only brought in the byre to feed
and be milked. We had about twenty cows and if a cow was difficult it
would need two people to milk it.
One to do the job and the other one to hold it to ensure it didn't kick
and spill any milk from the bucket. When milking was finished the
cows were turned out in the fold yard and the byre was cleaned out
ready for a second milking later in the day.
I remember my sister and I having a small stocking which always
contained an apple and an orange. Later we would have a small
pillowcase but I never remember getting large presents like children do
today. During the evening we would set up the large table and play
table tennis or darts. My Grandparents would retire to their sitting
room and Grandfather would sit and read whilst Grandmother played
the piano. (M Holmes)
Christmas in Wales
Born in Wales some thirty plus years ago our Christmas was not very
different from that celebrated in other parts of the UK. Mother used to
cut the top off tights and stuff them with apples, oranges, sweets and
pennies but we also had our presents in a pillowcase at the bottom of
the bed. We always had turkey on Christmas Day, Father making his
own stuffing (no supermarket brands) just from bread, sage, onion and
other seasonings which he mixed together with his hands. It must have
been a huge turkey as it fed my parents, four brothers and myself on
Christmas Day and we seemed to eat various concoctions of turkey for
the next week ending with home made turkey soup. Mother always
made mince pies and an aunt used to bake us a Christmas cake. When
we were older we used to go to the midnight service in the local
church. That was very exciting to a child to be able to stay up so late.
On Boxing Day the aunts, uncles and cousins used to arrive for a
buffet and everyone brought a contribution of food. (K Jones).
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