Menopause Matters Forum
General Discussion => This 'n' That => Topic started by: Annie0710 on December 14, 2016, 10:20:13 PM
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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
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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. :thankyou:
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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)
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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. ;D I do remember that you only got to ask for one thing though, so you had to be sure you were good! ;D
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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 !
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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.
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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. ;D I do remember that you only got to ask for one thing though, so you had to be sure you were good! ;D
The runaway train!! Massive nostalgia tingles...we named our kittens Pinky and Perky ;D
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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....! :)
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Scampi, the love that went into your pram!
I got a similar pram one Christmas. Mine was baby blue in colour with a pink rose painted on the side. Think I was maybe 3. Another relative bought me a rosebud doll which was in the pram.
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I can remember the scratchy pale blue plastic pants that used to go on top of my nappy!!! The elastic that went round the leg was not comfortable...mind you I was a 10.5lb newborn and continued in the chunky style all through my childhood...and adult life :o
Not a favourite memory, but a weird thing to remember...
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I remember we put a sock on the end of our bed and it was filled with an apple, a satsuma and a few little sweets! When my children got older and didn't believe in Father Christmas anymore, I told them that's what we used to get and they said 'an apple?, a satsuma?, how boring!'. I have always wrapped little presents to put in my kids stockings and add tubes of xmas chocolate etc. My kids also laughed when I told them back in my day, an advent calendar didn't have chocolate or toys in, just a picture behind the number.
Even though I have children, I have always thought Christmas is not the same anymore as when we were children. It's too commercialised and the shops having cards etc in from August is just ridiculous.
My best childhood memory of Christmas is my older sister (who by then obviously knew it wasn't true) telling me she saw Father Christmas come into our room and fill our socks up and she described him in such detail, I really did believe her and thought she was so lucky she had seen him!
We had larger stockings because all the presents from Father Christmas were actually the presents from parents and there were lots of stocking fillers. The presents round the tree downstairs were from grandparents, aunts/uncles and to each other. They were never opened until after Christmas lunch and the BBC Queen's speech.
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The best C.mas memory is those that Himself and I spent here, alone, doing our own thing when my Mum had a man living with her. After he died we had to return to visiting her for a few days.
I have no childhood memories but do have flashbacks ………..
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I had very limited pocket money to buy presents with. Our parents gave us an extra £2.00 (on top of the usual 10p per week plus 2p for sweets) and I tried to make £2 cover everything! In about 1971 or 1972 (just post decimal currency) I bought 10 tubes of refreshers at 4p each for my brother. They were his favourite sweets. I wrapped each one separately in a different sized container for a joke.
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This is actually somebody else's Christmas memory, from pre-Soviet Russia. In "And Quiet Flows The Don", by Russian/Scottish writer Eugenie Fraser, she paints a very vivid picture of her first Christmas in Russia, after leaving Scotland as a child. She describes how there were secretive goings-on behind the door to the main room, in the opulent family house that she and her parents were staying in over Christmas. No child was allowed to see inside this room before Christmas Eve, until the door was opened to reveal an absolutely huge Christmas tree that was decorated as only a Russian would know how to decorate and shimmering with real, lit candles. She describes how she stood at the door, gazing in wonderment and makes it all sound quite magical..... :)
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This is actually somebody else's Christmas memory, from pre-Soviet Russia. In "And Quiet Flows The Don", by Russian/Scottish writer Eugenie Fraser, she paints a very vivid picture of her first Christmas in Russia, after leaving Scotland as a child. She describes how there were secretive goings-on behind the door to the main room, in the opulent family house that she and her parents were staying in over Christmas. No child was allowed to see inside this room before Christmas Eve, until the door was opened to reveal an absolutely huge Christmas tree that was decorated as only a Russian would know how to decorate and shimmering with real, lit candles. She describes how she stood at the door, gazing in wonderment and makes it all sound quite magical..... :)
Oh that's so lovely, we have to make the most of children believing in magic before they grow up
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Some lovely sweet memories of Christmases past here. A lovely thread 😊
I have a couple of things that spring to mind.
Every year a couple of months before Xmas, the CoOp would open up an upstairs floor of their shop for a Toy Fair. We would be taken there by Mum and Dad to see what toys made our eyes widen and Mum and Dad would pay weekly until Xmas so they could buy one or two for us. It was such a thrill to clmb the stone steps up to those toys and an even bigger thrill on Xmas day to find we had the toy we had wanted.
One year just before Xmas Mum took me to our corner shop and after buying whatever groceries she wanted, whispered somwthing to the shopkeeper who fetched out a big box from under the counter. Mum said it was for Xmas but she couldn't wait to see my face and I could open it there and then! It was a really tall, hard bodied walking doll, almost life size and i didn't like it but knew I had to pretend I did. Poor Mum-I hope my acting was good enough. I really wanted a soft cuddly baby doll.
Mum also asked the shopkeeper if she could have another look at my little brother's present which was a big red fire engine with working bells. I was sworn to secrecy.
Mum later overheard me say to my brother "I've got a big doll for Xmas and I mustn't tell you you've got a big fire engine"
Ariadne xx
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So many memories. Difficult to pick a favourite. My dad was a church minister till I was about 6, so a lot of church-related ones. I knew Christmas was close when we started Carol singing round the streets - we would visit houses of people we knew who were house-bound. I remember one young student playing the flute - it was the first time I had every heard one, and I still remember staring up at the stars and hearing the notes of 'Silent Night' and 'O Come All Ye Faithful' floating up into the night sky. So beautiful.
Sitting under the tree (a real one) and smelling the pine scent and looking out for my favourite decorations, two carved swallows, which my Mum still has and which are older than I am!
Waking up on Christmas morning to 'Joy to the World' (same tape every year - when it fell apart, I found the identical recording on CD, so it still starts off my Christmas day!) and to a stocking bulging with presents. Christmas morning service with loads of carols and then loads of people for Christmas dinner - my parents invited anyone in the area who they knew would be on their own for Christmas Day.
When we spent Christmas with my grandparents, I remember my grandmother had a Christmas snow scene that came out every year - my aunt had made a 'fairytale' castle out of old cardboard tubes covered in crepe paper, and this was set on a bed of cotton wool 'snow' with a mirror 'lake' complete with a horse and sleigh, skaters and a plastic church that lit up and played 'silent night'. Looking back, it seems incredibly tacky, but as a child, I thought it was magical (the lovely thing is that this year, my aunt made an identical castle with her grand daughters, so the fairytale scene now spans 4 generations!) My grandparents also had a friend living nearby who would dress up as Father Christmas on Christmas Eve and visit all the houses in the road that had children and give us all a selection box. We knew the Father Christmas we met in the grotto in town was fake, but we were totally convinced this one was real because we saw him walking along the street!
The Christmas I was 6, my parents were so poor they couldn't afford to buy me any toys, so they made me ones - little wooden toys and Mum made me some felt puppets and she and my grandmother knitted some clothes for my dolls and teddies. They were so worried about me 'missing out', but that was the best Christmas of my childhood and I kept those toys until they fell apart.
So many happy memories. Thank you for starting this thread...I'm off to wallow in nostalgia now!
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I'm LOVING reading your memories ladies !
Thank you all so much for sharing and looking forward to reading more.
I wonder if our grandchildren will have similar memories? My children say they have lovely memories ......
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Mum also asked the shopkeeper if she could have another look at my little brother's present which was a big red fire engine with working bells. I was sworn to secrecy. Mum later overheard me say to my brother "I've got a big doll for Xmas and I mustn't tell you you've got a big fire engine" Ariadne xx
Lovely! ;D
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Dorothy your carol singing brought back memories from my teen years. My friend & I had joined youth group at local church. One year we went out carol singing. I've never felt so cold in my entire life, frozen toes, frozen hands but we had a brilliant time. Following year it was decided we should sing at watch night service instead. We sang Merry Christmas (War is over).
Need to wait about another 20 years or so before my early memories return. ;D
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This is actually somebody else's Christmas memory, from pre-Soviet Russia. In "And Quiet Flows The Don", by Russian/Scottish writer Eugenie Fraser, she paints a very vivid picture of her first Christmas in Russia, after leaving Scotland as a child.......
Sorry, wrong book! I meant to say, "The House By The Dvina", by the same author. Dulciana
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This is actually somebody else's Christmas memory, from pre-Soviet Russia. In "And Quiet Flows The Don", by Russian/Scottish writer Eugenie Fraser, she paints a very vivid picture of her first Christmas in Russia, after leaving Scotland as a child. She describes how there were secretive goings-on behind the door to the main room, in the opulent family house that she and her parents were staying in over Christmas. No child was allowed to see inside this room before Christmas Eve, until the door was opened to reveal an absolutely huge Christmas tree that was decorated as only a Russian would know how to decorate and shimmering with real, lit candles. She describes how she stood at the door, gazing in wonderment and makes it all sound quite magical..... :)
I read at least 1 autobiography by Eugenie Fraser a very long time ago (approx 80's) when my mum gave me the book. I don't remember this bit. Is the title "And Quiet Flows The Don" a chapter title or a whole book? I don't have my book any longer so can't easily check.
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This is actually somebody else's Christmas memory, from pre-Soviet Russia. In "And Quiet Flows The Don", by Russian/Scottish writer Eugenie Fraser, she paints a very vivid picture of her first Christmas in Russia, after leaving Scotland as a child.......
Sorry, wrong book! I meant to say, "The House By The Dvina", by the same author. Dulciana
Just seen your correction. That is the title I knew. :)
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the thick woollen stocking all out of shape with tantilising little presents. Disappointing when I got to the tangerine in the toe ;D
And the real silver charms in the christmas pudding ;D
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I never got a stocking 😢
And my dad would only let us open a couple of presents, the rest had to wait til after dinner
I changed that tradition when I became a mum and loved filling their stockings
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I never got a stocking 😢
And my dad would only let us open a couple of presents, the rest had to wait til after dinner
I changed that tradition when I became a mum and loved filling their stockings
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Our parents sent us to bed with empty old stockings. I'd wake up in the night and put a hand out to feel whether the full stocking was there. My hand felt something inside and a shiver of excitement went through me. :D Can still feel that when i think about it...
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I never got a stocking 😢
And my dad would only let us open a couple of presents, the rest had to wait til after dinner
I changed that tradition when I became a mum and loved filling their stockings
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Our parents sent us to bed with empty old stockings. I'd wake up in the night and put a hand out to feel whether the full stocking was there. My hand felt something inside and a shiver of excitement went through me. :D Can still feel that when i think about it...
That's lovely ! X
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I remember one christmas I had hung my woolly stocking (one of mum's old ones) on the door knob at the end of my bed. I woke in the night and it had gone!!!!!! I called out, crying and I remember my mum coming in followed by my dad to see what all the noise was about. "My stocking's gone" I bawled. My mum sat on the end of the bed and told me that it had a little hole in it so she had taken it away to mend it. "After all, we don't want all the toys falling out do we?" she told me. I was quite happy with this and went back to sleep trusting that she would bring it back when it was mended and santa wouldn't come before she had. It was full in the morning so I guess she mended it nice and quick ;D ;)
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I remember the Christmas when I was seven. At whatever o'clock, I woke up to see my Dad tip-toeing into our room with two bulging pillow cases, one for me and one for my twin sister. Although I lay there secretly watching him with one eye shut, the scales dropped from my eyes that night....... :-X
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I remember the Christmas when I was seven. At whatever o'clock, I woke up to see my Dad tip-toeing into our room with two bulging pillow cases, one for me and one for my twin sister. Although I lay there secretly watching him with one eye shut, the scales dropped from my eyes that night....... :-X
I got caught out like that filling my sons stocking. His eyes opened and he stared right at me and said 'it's you isn't it'?
I used to wonder how mum filled the stockings without us waking up. Then it clicked! She filled 4 separate stockings in her bedroom and then swapped them for the empty ones which we had taken to bed. I don't remember actually ever really believing in Santa.
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I remember the Christmas when I was seven. At whatever o'clock, I woke up to see my Dad tip-toeing into our room with two bulging pillow cases, one for me and one for my twin sister. Although I lay there secretly watching him with one eye shut, the scales dropped from my eyes that night....... :-X
I got caught out like that filling my sons stocking. His eyes opened and he stared right at me and said 'it's you isn't it'?
That's how my daughter found out !
They used to leave their stocking on the outside of their bedroom door as they were scared to see Santa. My ex husband had no input in presents or wrapping them but this particular year he helped fill the stockings and my eldest heard him asking me who's got what in which stocking !
She kept the secret going for her younger brothers
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When Dad used to leave icing sugar footprints by the chimney, and tell us it was Santa.......happy memories.
When my brother spiked Nanna's Advocaat with vodka, and she fell into the Christmas tree and bent in half........Nanna had no memory of this ever having happened. ;D
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Oh my days Tempest ! Was Nanna ok ?
I remember I bought my dad a toothbrush one Christmas then my mum told me he had false teeth
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Nanna was fine. Never had Advocaat again strangely, but fine. ;D
Oh, how your childhood illusions were shattered that Christmas! Wee soul! Finding out Dad's teeth weren't in fact real must have been almost, but not quite, as bad as finding out Santa wasn't real. Which I still personally don't believe....... ;)
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It was a shock but since being an adult I do recall vaguely him going to the dentist and being in pain
Trouble is being the youngest of 4 I never quite know if it's my memory or the older ones reminiscing and I picture the scenario lol
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