Anyone got tales to tell about childhood chrismas.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I don't know where mine went either Sue...maybe they are together somewhere...playing happily.

We were poor and had some very frugal Christmas times.
One year Ma bought us all selection boxes......not with chocolate in, but with liquorice novelties.....a pinwheel with one of those sweets in the middle with hundreds and thousands on......a pipe with red hundreds and thousands on...a sort of pan pipe thing with comfit in...shoe laces...that kind of thing.
She put them in the attic out of our way......it was damp up there(I think it rained in) and on Christams morning we all got a box of black goo - we still tried to eat it.


Then one year my dad was making presents for us. He woud diappear into the attic and we would hear him hammering and banging.
During the half term holdays we managed to get the key and get into the attic to see what he was making.
I was supposed to be keeping 'cavey' but failed in this duty because I was just as curious as the lads.......Ma(who had been out for a few minutes) came back and copped us all looking at the wooden fort, the garage and the shop.......she went wild and told us that we would not be getting any presents, but instead would get a bag of cinders.
Well, we forgot all about this until christmas morning......we all got up and found four brown paper bags in the hearth......all containing cinders! We all skriked our eyes out
That year we did not get our presents until New Years Day.

That was called 'tough love'.

[susie123]

Something else I used to get at Christmas was pieces of Royal Doulton Bunnykins china - an "auntie" friend of my parents worked at Bridge's china shop. That's something else that's disappeared without a trace. They still make it today but in China I think and it's not quite the same.

Flutterby Patch: The tale of Bunnykins china

[MargaretR]

I had a widowed aunt who had no children.
Sweet rationing was in force until early 50s.
She saved all her sweet coupons for the year and presented both my brother and I with a biscuit tin full of all the sweet goodies that were on sale.

We gorged until nausea set in.

[susie123]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

I had a widowed aunt who had no children.
Sweet rationing was in force until early 50s.
She saved all her sweet coupons for the year and presented both my brother and I with a biscuit tin full of all the sweet goodies that were on sale.

We gorged until nausea set in.

So no change there then with folks buying the big tins of Quality Street etc. Only difference is they can do it more than once a year - they don't know how lucky they are.

[Mog]

We were like most people in Accy in the fifties. We had no money and we didnt know what it was like to have special presents, but one Christmas my mam got me and our kid one of those hoop things that you hold over a curly wire or something and you had to move it all the way accross without it buzzing. It was great but she couldnt afford the batteries so we spent all day tryng to get it to the other end taking it in turns of shouting out BUZZZZZZZZ. when the wire was touched.

[janloot]

great mog i thought that was really inventive,

[Mog]

Worse than that though was when we could afford some batteries, we never used them because it was more fun our way. Told all my kids and grandkids. They never understand how we could be so grateful for such a simple item.

[katex]

Originally Posted by churchfcrules

So any significance being a pig?

Found this very deep and questionable explanation... lol :

Investigating The Implications Of Sugar Pigs

Agree with LindaShanks ... they were really sickly.

I just think it was because their shape was the easiest to produce ...

[Margaret Pilkington]

You are right on the counts of it being deep and questionable Kate.

I quite liked them, but never ate one all at one go......I would nibble it over a couple of days......break pieces off and suck the lovely rose flavoured sweetness.
I only ever got one at Christmas and preferred the sugar pig to the sugar mice......I could eat a sugar mouse in one go!

[DaveinGermany]

Leaving a mince pie & a glass of Sherry outside on Christmas eve, along with some lumps of carrot & swede for father Christmas & his reindeer.

[katex]

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

Leaving a mince pie & a glass of Sherry outside on Christmas eve,

No wonder he is so obese. Gonna' have the do gooders after us soon ...

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by katex

No wonder he is so obese. Gonna' have the do gooders after us soon ...

Plus Plod trying to do him on a DUTI charge & probably the temperance lobby for encouraging alcoholism ! "Merry Christmas" indeed. (let's see who that upsets too ! )

[cashman]

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

Leaving a mince pie & a glass of Sherry outside on Christmas eve, along with some lumps of carrot & swede for father Christmas & his reindeer.

That probably encouraged me to be a drunkard!!

[Margaret Pilkington]

The only time we had alcohol in the house was at Christmas - usually port or sherry.
My father would give us what he called 'a damp glass'...this was a liquer glas with maybe a teaspoon of port or sherry in the bottom...topped up with about a tablespoon of water.
I didn't like it much and tipped mine into the piano.(my mother couldn't figure out why the keys were sticking).

[Eric]

Originally Posted by maxthecollie

We used to have sugar mice and an apple and an orange in our Stockings , but our big presents were in pillowcases

The pillowcase, yes! I remember that. I remember waking up on Xmas morning .... and you could feel the weight of the toy-filled pillowcase. Presents not wrapped; but who gave a fiddlers. Of course, that was after I moved down to live with my grandad on Rishton Rd. He had money. When we lived up on Queen St., and money was tight, (my dad found it difficult to pass by a pub when he had his pay packet) it was a sugar pig, and apple and an orange, and a new penny (which invariably ended up in the gas meter) And sending notes to Santa up the chimney.