General Chat

Just a quick Hello, I am enjoying reading all of your comments. They are bringing back so many memories

Thank you all so much. Feeling nostalgic. X




Keep smiling

I remember making the stiffer garlands at school - intertwined loops of different colours, each with the ends glued together.

Also, crepe paper cut into strips and folded together as in squares to make a long ceiling or wall decoration.

CHRISTMAS lanterns .... Polly, I think you will have made these at school too.

Yes, we always had a stocking with chocolate coins, nuts and a tangerine at the bottom. There was always a pink sugar mouse and things like packets of chalks or crayons, a magic painting book rolled up and a packet of sweet cigarettes too!! Our stockings were hung on the bedpost at the bottom of the bed and our presents were put on our beds at the bottom to open when we woke up Christmas morning. A Christmas Annual was a must. I think I still have a Rupert Bear one in the loft. In later years the stockings disappeared and presents were put around the tree after we'd gone to bed. In our family we never put anything out for Santa like sherry and mince pies. We always wrote to Santa to say what we wanted though. I wonder how many children still send thank you letters?

A new custom seems to be the Christmas Tree festivals in churches. I went to see a few last Christmas and was very impressed. Sitting on Santa's knee doesn't happen anymore for obvious reasons and I never liked that as a child as I was very shy. A few years ago lots of houses had lit up displays on their outside walls, but not many still do it around here. Mostly it is a few twinkly lights or a tree similarly lit up.

We haven't put up the ceiling garlands that we used to do for years now. I can remember mum saving some of the christmas wrapping paper off our presents to cut down and reuse the next year. I doubt many still do that. I can't remember seeing the pretty christmas carrier bags to put presents in years ago, so they must be more recent.

One thing I miss is the christmas bottletops with sprigs of holly on that were on bottles of milk!! I expect you still get them but most of us buy our milk from supermarkets these days.

A lovely memory, Dermot, thank you for sharing it. <3 :-D

'The Trimmings' in Ireland were the prayers added on to the evening Rosary ritual in many Irish households.

Right before bedtime, mum would beckon us all to bring our rosary beads & gather around the hearth where the open fire flames flickered their final limbering duty of providing warmth. The dog always had pride of place in front of the fire - he loved his warmth. And as all cats do, ours came & went at its own convenience.

On December 1st every year, there would be another 'trimming' added to the rosary. We waited, my three brothers & I, to see if mother would forget, but no: as we knelt on the cement kitchen floor; (that was before we had it covered over with Linolium - the advanced farmer's kitchen floor covering of the age), when all the other trimmings were prayerfully recited, she would begin: "Hail & blessed be the hour & the moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary at midnight in the stable in Bethlehem in piercing cold. At that same hour, O my God, listen to my prayers & grant my petitions. Amen."

We loved that little prayer, which became known as the "Hail & Blessed" novena. If any one of us had occasion to stay away from home overnight in the 24 days preceding Christmas, we were immediately asked on our return if we had remembered to say our "Hail & Blesseds".

We lived on a farm in the west of Ireland, the nicer part of the rural countryside & had a house exactly like that of the local schoolmaster, who lived just down the road, with one exception, though. His house had crimson holland blinds in his front windows, while ours had the ordinary (to us) cream-coloured ones.

Every Christmas Eve, my chore as the youngest of the family was to put a lighted candle in every window to greet the Holy Family or any other traveller passing the way. Mother, acting as 'Temporary Health & Safety Mistress', would come to inspect the lighted candles from time to time & pull down the blinds.

My brothers & I would don warm coats plus scarves to go to the front gate in the dusk of the early evening & admire our windows; then head down the road a piece to see the Master's house with its lights shining through the crimson blinds.

We were always a little bit envious on seeing those glowing lights, and on our return voiced our opinion that the Holy Family would surely choose the Master's house in which to rest on their long journey.

We did not always have midnight Mass, but we sat up until midnight to see if our 'petitions' had been granted, in the form of the small but useful gifts our parents had given us. We were glad to get a good book, a pair of tap-dancing shoes, (this is how Michael Flatley of Riverdance fame started out on his dancing career) a jigsaw puzzle or even a mouth organ - otherwise known as a Harmonica.

We were united; we were happy; we drank cocoa; we ate treacle & raisin home-made bread. Then to bed in the unspoken assurance that ours was a warm & contented world.

Every year we asked mother (dear dad was not interested in these youthful frivolities) what her petitions had been, and the answer was always the same: 'good health, a contented home, the gift of laughter, and the grace to accept with fortitude any troubles that may came our way'.

My mother died quietly in her sleep in 2004 at the age of 89 years & seven months; the last of her 6 siblings.

As for the little 'Hail & Blessed' novena, sometimes over the years I remember to say it; sometimes I have started it and forget to finish it; many times I have just forgotten. But the memory lingers, thanks to our mum.

Perhaps this Christmas, so far removed from the rain; the wind & the familiar gentle green fields of the land of my birth, I'll put a candle in the window & explain its significance to the young of the area, if they are interested. I wouldn't delay them too much because I know how anxious they all are to reboot their ubiquitous IPods, SmartPhones & the like.

Mum would surely like that.

I know a couple of Yorkshire people no longer living in Yorkshire but still adhering to their traditional Yorkshire way of eating Christmas cake with a slab of cheese. Why, I even do it myself sometimes. :-D

Polly, one of the newer traditions now adopted in England seems to be the Kristingle Service for children. It has become a regular occurrence.

In our house,,,,,,,,christmas eve the house was filled with the smell of baking,,,,,,the crepe paper was fringed to put round the cake.silver balls to decorate the cake and home made iced biscuits.

rolling all the saved silver paper and threading on cotton for the tree.making paper chains.

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we always had a sugar pig or mouse in our stocking.wiht nuts etc,,,,,aunt had a grocery shop so we had a good supply of chritsmas tuck.

christmas day afternoon we played board games and cards with mum and dad,,,then the table was laid for late tea.with the traditional tin of Ye Old Oak Ham just incase anyone called. :-D :-D.
no one I know seems to have this quality family time nowdays.

Ah yes - stockings had to have a fresh orange or equivalent, nuts and, in our case, chocolate coins.

The parents of those born shortly after WW2 would've thought oranges a luxury. Certainly in our family the orange and nuts are now omitted. A couple of them have substituted a chocolate orange.

We also had a coin in the pud. It was small and silver, possibly a 6d? Puddings were home made, not bought. Rather than boiling even bought ones for hours, many people will microwave instead. Metal coins & microwaves are not a good mix. No more hidden coins.

Our stockings were always similar, starting with a shiny penny in the toe, with a small bag of nuts and an orange (quite a feat in wartime) followed by some small gifts and topped off with a balloon. We always felt them at about 4 am, just to make sure that Santa had been!, and then opened them properly later.

Main presents were later, after we had eaten breakfast, and Boxing Day was for thank you letters. Later, as an adult, I used to be quite cross about parents who told their children that all their gifts were from Santa. This meant that the children never thanked the donor for anything until after they had discovered that Santa was a myth.

Thank you all for your comments. I am.making notes. Please keep them coming if you have time.


Keep smiling!



Paula

In Spain, Naples and Portugal, they have the 'El Caganer' ie the crapper, in the corner of nativity scenes. :-D
This is, traditionally, a man in peasant clothing, relieving himself in the corner.

Germans celebrate Christmas eve. French go to midnight mass then tuck into a full on Christmas feast when they get home - sleeping can wait.

In the UK 'Christmas eve boxes' for children are creeping in :-0 Whether they still get stockings to open in the morning I have no idea.

I remember when visiting our grandparents in the 50s we were allowed to open one present in the morning and the rest of them before tea Christmas dinner alway had to finish dead on 3 and we all had to had a drink in our hands to toast the Queen us children had orange, there was always a 3d in the Christmas pudding but you were lucky to get one because there was never enough to go around all grandchildren but nan would save the 3d till the next year and then it would start all over again. I also remember the Christmas day post and the Sunday before Christmas, as

Money in the Christmas pudding. Christmas crackers.

Not sure this a a tradition lost, but when I was little I used to watch out for removal vans which would be delivering parcels from the post to houses. I don't think many of us receive parcels for christmas by post any more. (Well unless it is stuff bought on the internet). Maybe the demise of toyshops is a tradition lost, we would be taken to the toy shop to see Father Christmas and it was always elaborate. Like a moving (we thought) sleigh.

Christmas cake with Wensleydale cheese is a must in Yorkshire - and further north.

I also remember that in quite a few neighbouring houses we would be offered two pieces of Christmas cake at New Year - one piece from the year before and one from the new cake. I don't really know why, it was just something that happened.

Kath. x

I remember my father getting our boarding school bill in the Christmas Day post!

My neighbour, a Yorkshire man, always has cheese with his Christmas cake.

Not sure if this is because he comes from that area or not :-S :-D :-D

One thing that has changed over the years is that post is no longer delivered on Christmas day. I can remember watching the postman coming down the road and hoping he would stop at our house ;-)

Thats a tricky one then Polly.

Unless we've experienced a family Christmas in another part of the country from where we were raised, we don't know if or how they differ.

Thank you Det I am thinking of family traditions within different cultures.