The Types of Trees we Prefer now have Changed and we use more Baubles
as Decorations
I love Christmas. I always have. I have memories of listening for the Rotary Club float that used to drive around the streets of my hometown playing carols and collecting money for their charities; standing at the window of my bedroom, ear pressed to the single paned glass, if it was anywhere nearby, I would just about hear it, from my vantage point on the hill overlooking the town. This was the first sign of Christmas coming for me. It was probably about the end of November when the first hint of carols wafted my way but not before the end of the first week of December until the float was in view and could be enjoyed in all its splendour. We'd go out into the street just to watch. Occasionally a boiled sweet would be thrown my way but really it was all about the wave from Father Christmas wedged uncomfortably up a chimney on the back of low loader. Oh! how expectations have changed...
Next in the chain of events leading up to my childhood Christmas would have probably been the Christmas card writing ritual. My parent dedicated a whole Sunday afternoon to this activity every year. Mum would have picked up several variety packs of cards, I'm not sure where from and out would come the card list. Recipients were duly added or removed (only in the event of their untimely death or if a card could not remember being received for a few years and so life status was either questionable or sin of all sins, they had failed to update their postal address with my parents). There was no generic card for all with the same picture and message, oh no, each card was selected initially by picture, then by message suitability, size and finally closeness to the family. It was a fascinating if ruthless process. Christmas cards were received from about the end of the first week in December. They were hung from vertical strings with tiny little red or green pegs. The was a highly skilled technique to pegging the card so that it didn't spin around every time someone walked past. By the end of the postal period, there was barely a space left on the walls downstairs, and I even think up the staircase such was the volume of post. How times have changed. My daughters, in the early twenties don't send Christmas cards at all and apart from when I used to make them write them for their school friends, they never really have. Many families send out letters via email and it is only close family, the cousins, a few close friends that we send our cards to now as well. I can see this tradition dying out with my generation. Of course, the postman excitement has been replaced, at least for now and in part, by the long-suffering delivery driver.
I still use the Traditional Cake Ornaments from my Childhood
Following close behind in my run up to Christmas would have been the baking starting. In part this was due to the family party tradition which was a party for my Dad's side of the family held each year around my Grandpa's birthday, the weekend of the twelfth December. Initially, these were held at my Grandparents house a unrenovated three storey Victorian terrace. When I say unrenovated, it was just that - no central heating, limited electrics and so much more. Another blog to write about my memories of that house. When my Grandpa died, I think in 1978, the party continued to be held at my Uncle's house. It was a thoroughly modern affair with all the cousins, Aunts, Uncles, nieces, nephews in attendance. There are many stories not for here. However, my Mum would contribute three flans (which were essentially three quiches), Rice Krispie cakes (a recipe I recently found and must resurrect) and mince pies. My Mum was not big on cooking, but she could occasion cook and in a big way. Around the same time the Christmas cake would be made, of which there would always be two - one for the marzipan lovers and a separate slightly smaller one for Dad with no marzipan. She didn't do Christmas puddings; I think she was the only real fan, more of an endured tradition for everyone else. Our Christmas pudding (and what a relief all round when the microwave was invented) was served with white sauce - this seemed to be my Mum's own recipe. It's questionable to be honest as it seems to be a sweetened roux sauce with sherry added. In fact, thinking back, there was always an abundance of Croft sherry at Christmas.
Presents for the extended family were an area I was allowed to be fully involved in. My Mum would order sufficient talcum powders from Avon so there was enough for each of the cousins (male and female aromas were available). My role was to select the smell of the talc that would suit each cousin. A name would be suggested, I would pick a metal container of talc and select by the medium of scent something I thought would be popular with that cousin. Every year the same present, until they were eighteen. then off the list they went. I've no idea if anyone actually used the talc, it would have been the 70s and 80s who knows? No feedback was invited.
I use more Natural Decorations than we did in my Childhood
Around this time, in the run up to Christmas, Blue Peter would start to light the first candle in their advent crown. There were two Blue Peter programmes a week and four candles on the advent crown. One for each of the programmes in the run up to Christmas. By the fourth candle lighting, excitement had reached fever pitch. I did have my own advent calendar, a carboard affair with little doors, one for each of the days of Advent with a little Christmas related picture behind. The 24th of December was always much anticipated with its double doors and the picture of the manger behind. The doors were always carefully closed at the end of the season and the calendar brought out each year. It was familiar and comforting, part of the routine of Christmas. I loved it. Some twenty years later my girls had advent calendars that hung up with a little pocket for each date. The pockets were just big enough for a jelly baby or two. Although there was a keen build up to them, the novelty often wore off and the pockets were rarely all emptied by Christmas. Most recently, advent calendars seem to be super charged with small presents or whole chocolate bars as the bounty. I wonder if the simplicity, joy and ritual of opening a door each day each year could ever be found now.
Our Tree lights are Plentiful and Warm White
Let's talk decorations. The lights on the tree would have been a series circuit of multi-coloured lights. This meant that as they were taken from their box each year and eagerly awaited to be put on the tree, the long delay - often very long, would ensue as each bulb had to be checked that it was screwed in properly and not blown. If one light bulb was broken, the whole string didn't light. It could take and age to find the one that had blown. Oh! and let's just hope the bulbs didn't blow when they were up on the tree. I do remember a pretty set of Victorian carriages as lights, but they didn't last long the bulbs were too difficult to change. Strings of lights were shorter, not surprisingly and fewer lights were used in general on each tree. And on the tree was where you would find them. Nowhere else. It took the arrival of parallel circuit Christmas lights and several years of Nigella's Christmas on television for the lights to venture off the tree to other parts of the house. As for outside lighting, I don't remember any at all. I can't be sure we even saw it in American films at that point. Lights were firmly for the tree.
I should perhaps mention the tree itself. Each year we had a real Christmas tree and oddly this might have been unfashionable. My Mum loved the smell and it's something that I associate strongly with Christmas too. But the trees we had then were not quite the same. Not Nordmann Fir. The pine needles were much shorter and less thick on the trees back then; the smell was much more noticeable too. But, come the end of Christmas though, that tree would be completely bare, A pile of needles on the carpet centimetres thick. I remember scraping up the needles and keeping them in a tobacco tin, presumably trying to save the scent of Christmas. The tree could be brought in no earlier than about a week before Christmas as the needles would drop too much if it was done before. This meant it was a hugely significant step towards the long-awaited day.
Glass Bells and Natural Table Displays with a few Baubles
After the lights, came the tinsel. We had great swathes of it in differing lengths and colours. Gold, silver, red and green. I even remember some strands of pink and turquoise, but I would squirrel those away for dressing up. There was always plenty of silver tinsel to be used as my head dress for the school nativity play each year. I was usually Angel Gabriel because I could sing, read (by no means a given for children in the 70s) and generally remember the tricky 'Hark!' speech. I was also tall enough to be seen from the back which again I didn't mind as it meant I had a view of everything going on from my rear perch. I'm skipping ahead but we also had another type of tinsel or foil decoration for the tree that only went on at the end of decoration. Lameta. This was long strands of foil in cold and silver that we used to hand on the ends of the tree's branches. I am not sure why, possibly to resemble frost? After a few years, the lameta disappeared, I can't imagine it was easy to remove and keep neatly year on year, but I seem to remember it being declared dangerous. Anyway, it is certainly not widely used these days.
Baubles were next on the tree and on the tree they stayed. These days we use baubles for all sorts of decorations around the house. Back then they were for the tree. We had lovely old glass ones, small and probably hand painted. Described by Mum as the 'breakables' they would be placed at the top of the tree where they wouldn't be knocked. Lower down were the bright plastic affairs. Some I remember designed to resemble disco balls. All the baubles were a mix of colours gold, silver, red, green, pink and blue. There was no colour theme other than multi-coloured. There was certainly no design. The tree was topped by a foil star and was not really a huge feature. I've never been concerned with what tops our tree, although it was never going to be an Angel, I'm just not sure why. As Christmas really got near, Mum would add chocolate baubles to the tree. This was hugely anticipated. Those moulded into the shape of a Father Christmas were much coveted. There had to be a few as even my grown-up siblings expected their treat.
Homemade Plum Vodka in Candlelight a New Tradition
I would often come down one morning on the run up to Christmas to find the aerial decorations had been put up. Back then, the whole of the downstairs, except the kitchen, was hung with decorations from the ceiling. They probably started as paper chains; I do remember licking endless sticky paper at least once but it the main these were fancy, long pieces of tinsel or hanging foil chains. The design of the aerial decorations would be different each year, even if the decorations themselves didn't change much. It was very much Dad's domain. Mum and I did the tree (although not the lights) Dad did the hanging decorations. I do remember one year that Dad was considered too busy to do them and Mum and I took it on ourselves. It was a tricky task. The lengths of the decorations and tinsel varied, it had to be planned so that there were no joins in the ceiling. This was a faux pas. Any point of decoration change was marked with another hanging item, usually made of foil. I do remember some large hanging paper balls, multi-coloured of course. These were rather like the honeycomb like paper decorations that are back in fashion today. I have always been fascinated by how they fold up. Unfortunately, the hanging paper balls were short lived as my brothers would use them as header practice each time they passed by. There was no traditional garland or natural foliage used. We did have some holly to adorn the top of pictures, but it was plastic. There has most certainly been a move towards using more natural decorations (beyond the tree itself) in our homes, it is not something that was ever in my experience growing up.
There is no doubt that the build up to Christmas has changed since the 1907s and 80s, but I am not sure that for the most of us, it has changed as much as we think. Certainly, I still buy and write my Christmas cards, just not as many. I buy and wrap my presents but perhaps for fewer people. The baking still happens, although I try to keep it to a minimum - my choice. The tree goes up just a little bit earlier and the decorations and advent calendars are a little more sophisticated, natural and planned. But Christmas has always been about family for me and that, I am pleased to say, is still the case today.
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