Web Page No 2644

17th December 2019

1st Picture. Making Christmas decorations

 2nd Picture. Blue Peter Advent Crown

 

3rd Picture. Visiting Santa

4th Picture. Christmas Crackers

Christmas Sixty years ago

Christmas in the 1959 was in many respects similar to Christmas celebrations now: family gatherings, laughter and fun. But whereas today the celebrations are often centred around the presents and multimedia, in the 1959 Christmas was much more homespun.

The days of post war rationing and austerity were still recent memories so, especially in the early years of the decade, Christmas still had a feeling of frugality when compared to those of today.

Take the decorations, for example. Today, we are used to homes decorated both indoors and out with lights, animated figures and all manner of festive adornments. In the 1959, things were much simpler. Brightly coloured paper chains were made by the family and looped across the walls of the living room. These chains would be finished off with honeycomb-like paper or foil decorations shaped like bells and stars. There would also be holly sprigs pushed behind the pictures on the wall. The tree would be covered in tinsel and glass baubles and often topped with a Christmas fairy. Quite often there would also be a nativity scene, either bought or homemade. Indeed, most years the children’s TV programme Blue Peter gave instructions on how to make your own. Blue Peter, always inventive and often defying health and safety, even taught small children how to make an advent crown from wire coat hangers, with a lit candle at each corner!

Food preparations began with the making of the Christmas cake and Christmas puddings. This was usually three or four weeks before the day itself: a sixpence might be stirred into the pudding for luck.

Christmas began for many families on Christmas Eve. Most shops and businesses worked until at least lunchtime on Christmas Eve: this was also the day when the festive food and drink was bought. There were few home freezers so all the produce for Christmas lunch had to be bought as close as possible to the day itself. Orders were taken by the butcher, greengrocer and baker as supermarkets were only just beginning to open in the high street. The whole family, except those working, would be needed to collect the food, as there was a great deal to be carried home.

All over the country, pots and bottles of loose change, collected over the year, would be emptied in order to pay for the Christmas drinks. Alcohol was purchased from the off licence – often a section of the local pub. All shops would be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, so if something was forgotten, it was too late – which could be a catastrophe, if batteries for the longed-for Christmas toy had been forgotten!

On Christmas Eve at bedtime, parents would ceremoniously lay out a plate with a mince pie and a glass of sherry (Harvey’s Bristol Cream, of course) for Father Christmas, by the Christmas tree. Sometimes a carrot would also be left for Rudolph.

Stockings or pillow cases were left by the beds upstairs, ready to be filled with gifts – if the child had been good, of course!

Every year the stocking would contain a satsuma or mandarin and a coin. Often there were also chocolate coins, a chocolate selection box, puzzle books, small toys, crayons and an annual, often Beano or Dandy: the main present would have been wrapped and placed under the tree downstairs.

Main presents were opened after breakfast: for children these might be a watch (perhaps a Tic-a-Tic-a-Timex), Scalextric or a Sindy doll. Other favourite gifts included Etch-a-Sketch, Meccano, 3D View Master and the Amazing Magic Robot that answered questions. Relatives might also bring homemade gifts, such as hand knitted jumpers and scarves.

The main event at Christmas lunch was not always turkey: the meat of choice might be chicken, capon or goose. Chicken in the early 1960s was an expensive meat, as this was before factory farming. The Christmas table was not decorated with special Christmas-themed items as it might be today: this was the occasion for the ‘best’ tablecloth, china, glass and silver, brought out just for special occasions and packed away safely through the rest of the year. Christmas crackers would be laid out by the place settings at the table: it was obligatory to wear the paper hats throughout the meal!

The turkey came with all the trimmings: chipolatas or pigs in blankets, bread sauce and stuffing. The stuffing was sometimes sausage meat and sometimes chestnut, a little more luxurious than the usual sage and onion. Roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, carrots, parsnips and of course, sprouts accompanied the meat.

The Christmas pudding then made a very special, theatrical entrance, wreathed in flame from the brandy that had been poured over it and lit.

After the washing up, the family would gather around the one TV in the house or if there was no TV, around the wireless. All would stop at 3pm for the Queen’s Christmas broadcast.

There were just two TV channels BBC and ITV. For some inexplicable reason, quite often the main two TV companies would both schedule a circus on Christmas afternoon: Billy Smart’s Circus on the BBC and another on ITV!

The evening meal on Christmas Day was always the same every year: cold cuts of meat, usually ham and leftover turkey from lunch, pork pie, bread rolls, tomatoes, pickles and crisps, trifle, mince pies and chocolate log. Pride of place on the table would be the Christmas cake, covered in white icing and decorated with a Father Christmas figure, some reindeer perhaps, a robin or two and maybe a sprig of plastic holly. These wonderful if mismatched cake decorations were added to over the years, so quite often the robin might end up towering over both Father Christmas and the reindeer!

Boxing Day was the day for visiting family. Car ownership was becoming more common, making family get-togethers easier. Lunch might be roast beef or lamb, or leftover roast turkey.

And then the Christmas festivities were over for another year!

Stay in touch

You Write:

Maureen Writes:-

Whilst living at the bottom of South Road we had access to three dens.  The first was built on the marsh land on the corner of Grove Road and the Eastern Road – now blocks of flats. It was built into the clay soil to a depth of 3 to 4 foot and totally lined with corrugated iron sheets. Corrugated iron roof with sods of earth laid on top.  This could only be used in the summer months as it was always flooded in the winter.

The second was at Flint house but someone had to keep an eye out for the Police as we were not supposed to be there.

The third was at the bottom of Norman Boxer’s garden, I only went there once as it was for the older boys only.

My favourite was not a den as it was being deconstructed every few weeks, but it was at the Box Company in the road which led to Twilfits Undergarment factory directly opposite the end of South Road.  All the off cuts from the manufacture of the boxes were compressed into cubes of about 2 foot cubed and stacked along the long wall beside the factory so we would go and re-arrange the cubes to make a home with gaps for windows and doorways. Many happy hours spent there especially at the weekends when the factory was closed.  It all came to a close when I was playing there along with a boy called John Cutting from Station Road, I was pretending to swim, laying over one of the cubes when it rolled and my face hit the cinder path beneath me.  I screamed all the way home, Mother was in the village shopping so I went next door to Mr Melbourne and he took me in his car (I think a Triumph Mayflower) to the hospital where they removed the cinders from my face with tweezers.

Bless him he also bought me an Ice-cream for not screaming the hospital down.

Good old memories are always close to the surface, you just need to scratch the skin a little.

Steve Writes: 

Hi Peter, your article on dens and tree houses got my memory banks working.

We had a ready-made tree house in a tree in Denville Close off Old Farm way, just through the foot path from St Andrews Road, it would have overlooked the East Lodge Recreation ground and Playing field there. Once we had clambered up the thick trunk, there was a circular load of brush above which hid you away and on top of that a natural flat top, so no need for planks of wood.

Our den was off Crookhorn Lane in a fairly large wooded area and some way behind Dead Mans wood. We found a ready scooped out semi-circle in some sand in a dense part of the wood, so with a few branches found lying about we soon had a roof and a frontage with an open door way. We also had a sort of hearth outside the door for a fire, ideal for cooking those potatoes we had found beside the Portsdown road. It was a lovely peaceful wood and rarely heard anyone around. I occasionally see today a making of a den in the woods near to where I live, so it does still go on. Trouble is now it usually comes with many empty cans and bottles of Lager. Something that was never done in our day, we just enjoyed our time, friendships and fresh air naturally, a great time in our younger school day lives.

News and Views:

ON THIS DAY 17^th DECEMBER 1960-1965:

On 17/12/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £not very interesting and 13.68 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 17/12/1961 the number one single was Tower of Strength - Frankie Vaughan and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/12/1962 the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/12/1963 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/12/1964 the number one single was I Feel Fine - The Beatles and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/12/1965 the number one single was Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.