Me aged 19 months

Christmas Past- childhood

My first reminiscence takes me back to my childhood. So I have dug out a picture of me taken at the tender age of 19 months, standing in front of the Christmas tree. I remember my childhood Christmases with fond memories. They were simple, sometime frugal affairs as money was tight and the commercialisation of christmas was a long way away, but they were exciting beyond measure.

I can still remember going to bed on Christmas Eve and writing a note to Father Christmas, and leaving mince pies and a glass of milk. I would try and stay awake but never succeeded. Suddenly it was morning and at the end of my bed, a pillow bulging with presents. The mince pies were gone and FC had left a message. He always finished his message with a swirl which was just like my Dad's but I never made the connection....Doh!

The presents were simple and often practical - jumpers, underpants, hankies etc but at the bottom there was always an orange, some orange and lemon slices and a soap on a rope. Until a few years ago my mum still bought the Orange and lemon slices. I have never seen them anywhere except at Christmas!

Dinner was with one or other of the grandparents or sometimes both. It was like a Sunday dinner with knobs on. We would wait for the Christmas pudding, not to eat it in my case, but so that my Dad could pour rum on it and as it hit the back of the throat, he would catch his breath. We waited for that every year, he never disappointed, even late in life, he did it, a family tradition!

After dinner we would play games and in particular we would play the family game 'brains'. I am sure you have played variations of it and in recent years there has been a board game produced. Categories are picked, a letter is randomly selected and everybody has to put down words corresponding to the letter and the category. Obviously it would not be a family game without arguments which were frequent as answers were questioned. My Grandpa Senior would resort to his prized copy of the Junior Pears Encyclopaedia to resolve disputes. We still play this game every christmas.

Thinking back I just found the day memorable and my parents made sure we had a great day. I have tried as a parent to give my kids this love of Christmas and the importance of family at christmas.