Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Annie0710]

What was your best Christmas childhood memory ?

For me it has to be that my dear Nan stayed over on Christmas Day night (she only lived 10 mins away) and I'd always get colouring books and felt tip pens and that lady would sit next to me for hours sharing my colouring book and filling it in with me. I don't think she ever told me off and I'd give up school dinners to spend lunchtime with her.  She'd listen whilst I shrieked a new tune on my recorder and sat playing cards and Ludo with me.  She was such a quiet, introvert lady and my mum always said she'd never been affectionate until I was born (I'm the youngest of 4) but I had so much love for family that I guess I must've dragged love out of her!

My way of paying back was as a young teenager spend my Christmas school break shopping for all the old folk at her sheltered accommodation and accompany her to her beloved bingo sessions and cook for her when I got married and she got even more elderly (I'd drive and pick her up and drop her off again) and the final one when she got sick, she preferred me to wash her and change her and put her to bed and I was there as she took her last breath.  I was 21, so 29 christmas's later I still remember that dear lady so often but especially  at Christmas time

X

[dulciana]

Goodness, Annie0710, not just special Christmas memories but also a very special person in your Nan.  Thank you for sharing your memories of her with us.   

[Annie0710]

Aw thankyou Dulciana! I did intend to only write the first bit but got carried away! Throughout writing it I was smiling but with a tear in my eye

I have been very fortunate with my childhood, I was surrounded by warm, loving people x

[flutterby]

What lovely memories of a special Nan, Annie0710.
One year I was desperate for a dolls bungalow that a neighbour of my Nan made. I was told I would have to probably wait until my birthday in June. When I opened my presents it wasn't there so I resigned myself to wait until June. My dad then went out to get the little present out of his coat pocket and came back with the bungalow- my best present ever. Even refurbished it for my goddaughter 20 years ago and hoping her daughter will be able to enjoy it soon Flutterbyx

[Pennyfarthing]

I remember the lovely cooking smells and having chicken or turkey for lunch which was a great treat.  I also remember going out collecting holly which my Mum would put on picture frames etc. I remember getting ridiculously excited about selection boxes and an annual and when I got a hairdryer I thought I'd won the pools!!

Sadly I can't remember a wonderful happy day as my Mum was always very, very homesick  for her large family in Ireland and would often be in tears imagining them all having a great time without her.

[Annie0710]

What lovely memories of a special Nan, Annie0710.
One year I was desperate for a dolls bungalow that a neighbour of my Nan made. I was told I would have to probably wait until my birthday in June. When I opened my presents it wasn't there so I resigned myself to wait until June. My dad then went out to get the little present out of his coat pocket and came back with the bungalow- my best present ever. Even refurbished it for my goddaughter 20 years ago and hoping her daughter will be able to enjoy it soon Flutterbyx

Aw how lovely !
And that it's still being used

X

[Annie0710]

I remember the lovely cooking smells and having chicken or turkey for lunch which was a great treat.  I also remember going out collecting holly which my Mum would put on picture frames etc. I remember getting ridiculously excited about selection boxes and an annual and when I got a hairdryer I thought I'd won the pools!!

Sadly I can't remember a wonderful happy day as my Mum was always very, very homesick  for her large family in Ireland and would often be in tears imagining them all having a great time without her.

Aw your poor mum

I can relate to the presents
I'd get a Pinky &a Perky annual and selection box

Being the youngest of 4 I'd see their presents as they were getting older and remember my sister got a record player.  When I reached a similar age I saw a shaped present for me which I assumed was a record player, it turned out to be a little overnight case! Another year I thought one was a hot brush but when I unwrapped it it was a tube where you save your coins lol

My brother was 4 years older than me and with his first weeks wages he bought me a brand new Raleigh Twenty! And when I was younger he bought me a camera from his weekend milk round money.  He was always so sweet to me (he still is actually)

X

[cubagirl]

Good topic, though to be honest don't have many childhood memories of Christmas time. I remember asking for a watch & sneaking through early on Christmas morning to make sure it was there. My brother bought me a Pinky  & Perky single. Drove everyone mad with the Runaway Train. I do remember that you only got to ask for one thing though, so you had to be sure you were good!

[Annie0710]

Yes that was the same for us Cubagirl.  I asked for a few years for a Sindy doll but never got one, I was fascinated by her yellowy-brown bathroom suite lol.  When I was 7 I had to go in hospital for a week and my mum and dad bought me a cheaper version of Sindy with a few accessories, which I loved

My nephew was born when I was 10 and I loved playing with his toys !

X

[cubagirl]

Oh Sindy. That was another year. Remember price on the box 29s6d! I used to save pocket money to buy outfits. One in particular a pink dress with a mini record player! Following year I got the wardrobe from a relative.

[kiltgirl]

Good topic, though to be honest don't have many childhood memories of Christmas time. I remember asking for a watch & sneaking through early on Christmas morning to make sure it was there. My brother bought me a Pinky  & Perky single. Drove everyone mad with the Runaway Train. I do remember that you only got to ask for one thing though, so you had to be sure you were good!

The runaway train!! Massive nostalgia tingles...we named our kittens Pinky and Perky 

[dulciana]

An abiding memory for me is the little packs of dolly mixtures that my Mum used to hang on the Christmas tree.  They came in little gappy cardboard boxes, so their smell got out.  I can still remember the combined smell of dolly mixture-and-Christmas-tree and I'm right back in my childhood home, aged about eight....!  

[Scampi]

I remember the year I got up and ran downstairs to see if Santa had been (I was about 6) - to find a beautiful Silver Cross dolls' pram (proper coach-built one - like a small version of what you'd expect to see a Norland nanny with!).  It was absolutely perfect, with a burgundy hood and apron, and perfectly fitted cot set inside.  I treasured it for years, and it was passed on to a younger friend who also loved it when we moved out of the area (when I was 13!) to live somewhere with no place to store it.

Many years later, it struck me how much that pram must have cost, and as my Mum didn't work at that time and my Dad was a car mechanic, I couldn't fathom how they had afforded it ... so I asked my Mum.  It turned out they had got it second-hand, in a very dilapidated state, and Dad had had it re-sprayed and the chromework re-plated at work.  They'd bought a brand new hood and apron from Silver Cross, and my Grandma (a tailor) had re-lined the inside and made the bedding set for it.  Finding out how much work they had put in to creating that perfect pram re-kindled the special memories I had of it, and I treasure them all the more now.

[Ju Ju]

Being allowed downstairs after our early bedtime to see all the paper decorations decorations and Christmas tree. Must have been late 50s, before shiny sophisticated decorations. I remember being excited and overawed.

[Katejo]

What was your best Christmas childhood memory ?

For me it has to be that my dear Nan stayed over on Christmas Day night (she only lived 10 mins away) and I'd always get colouring books and felt tip pens and that lady would sit next to me for hours sharing my colouring book and filling it in with me. I don't think she ever told me off and I'd give up school dinners to spend lunchtime with her.  She'd listen whilst I shrieked a new tune on my recorder and sat playing cards and Ludo with me.  She was such a quiet, introvert lady and my mum always said she'd never been affectionate until I was born (I'm the youngest of 4) but I had so much love for family that I guess I must've dragged love out of her!

My way of paying back was as a young teenager spend my Christmas school break shopping for all the old folk at her sheltered accommodation and accompany her to her beloved bingo sessions and cook for her when I got married and she got even more elderly (I'd drive and pick her up and drop her off again) and the final one when she got sick, she preferred me to wash her and change her and put her to bed and I was there as she took her last breath.  I was 21, so 29 christmas's later I still remember that dear lady so often but especially  at Christmas time

X

I have lots so hard to decide but I remember waking up in my top bunk bed when I was 3. I saw my new red Raleigh bike standing in the middle of the room. I also remember sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night to look at the presents round the tree. I was 4 and couldn't resist starting to open one. My Dad heard me and whisked me back upstairs but I had already seen what was in the parcel. It was a nurse's outfit.