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| Lighting the candles on the tree ( photo from Google) |
As we get older we love to reminisce: growing up in my home city Bristol UK Christmas was very different being
just after the War we were far from having the goodies the kids are privy to
now.
It wasn't quite Charles Dickens Scrooge we did make paper chains to
hang from the ceiling, lots of white glue made from flour and water kept us
busy for a few hours, usually made a week before Christmas
The Cockerel, unknown by us, was being fattened up for the Celebration dinner.
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| This year's cake. |
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| Janet Parker lighting the candles on a very ancient tree! |
Mum had us
sitting at the table as she made our Christmas pudding that was a treat, dried
fruit, cherries of course, suet, eggs etc. all went into the mix ready for us to
stir and make our wishes in silence, eyes tightly closed. That went into to
a big black saucepan for hours of cooking on the stove.
All this was the
start of excitement especially when Mum would take us to the local shops for
picking out the tree we bought it from the Vegetable Shop, to me it was
magical picking out the little fresh pine tree at the time I thought
was huge when we brought it home sitting on top of my sisters pram her
peaking from in between the branches. I felt very important.
We had an
aspidistra pot to put the tree in and water it, Mum had real candles that
were attached to the tree with clips not to be lit till Christmas Eve. The
tree was decorated with paper lanterns we had made and they were arranged
carefully away from the candles, then we would place it on
the Sideboard in all it's glory waiting for THE moment for lighting up. By
then the excitement was really building ,the Christmas cake was made and we
had a hand in decorating it with cochineal pink icing finishing it up with
silver balls you could eat, just set the whole thing off. The coal fire
lit and the shutters at the window closed we would sit by the fire with Mum
telling us stories of her Christmases years gone by while we ate a Jaffa
orange (our fathers stash) which was our secret!
I can remember Jo my
sister and I would get out of our beds on Christmas eve and were quiet as
little mice,sitting on the stairs listening to paper being wrapped and
thinking Father Christmas was with Mum having a glass of milk and a chat! of
course it was Mum and my Grandmother doing the wrapping and no doubt
having a glass of good cheer doing it.
I have no idea of the time but
eventually we would settle in our beds waiting for THE moment to come.We
never did see Father Christmas (he was busy) but waking up very early and
tweaking our toes at the end of our beds he managed to leave a stocking each
full of special treats an orange and nuts with sweets at the bottom of the
stocking and gifts usually crayons paper jigsaw puzzles plasticine in
coloured strips to make
pretend cakes, usually ended up stuck to the bed
sheets and the dainty box of handkerchiefs with embroidered flowers on
them. best of all for me were the comics Beano and Dandy just the start to
the best day of the year With the aroma of a beautiful chicken cooking, we
never did find out where the Cockerell went, we were told he was on a
holiday ! We were happy just listening to the radio by the fire with our
gifts around us looking forward to Aunt Olga's visit for tea and a little sherry with Christmas cake.
Simple good
times.
Merry Christmas to you and your family
Babs
