Hello!
It’s time once again for the monthly Tell us About….collaboration between my lovely blogger friends from around the world. This month’s theme is Celebration.
I guess this theme has been chosen as we’re in the Christmas season and today is very near Christmas Day and although I could talk about the many different forms of celebration I’m going to stick with Christmas!
Traditionally, in the United Kingdom, we all came together to celebrate a religious festival, but many of the rituals of a British Christmas comes not from centuries ago but from the Victorian age and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s desire to depict themselves as the ideal family enjoying family life on this day.
Nowadays though, isn’t it rather an over-commercialised and over-sentimental day when we are expected to get together with our respective families. And what’s more spend humungous amounts of money on too much food, spending time with relatives that you might not truly like. I know that sounds harsh, but we don’t all live in a bubble of loveliness, which is often how it is portrayed on social media.
There’s also the spending far, far too much on presents that not everyone wants and/or needs. Personally, I think the whole experience of Christmas pushes people into ‘enjoying’ this celebration whether they like it or not. What I’m saying is that this particular celebration is somewhat stressful, for all sorts of reasons, and it really isn’t a day that everyone can celebrate.
Nevertheless, I have some great memories of Christmas’s past. When we were younger my mother did a great Christmas and I remember her lovely tree and the decorations on it and around the house. The latter were primarily those pull-out paper decorations that were pinned up at the corners of the sitting-room and entrance hall, up to the central light so that they criss-crossed both ceilings. In the sitting room there were also many of those ubiquitous fold-out paper bells that were hung up every year.
The tree always had a sweet little fairy doll, which I kept for several years after my mother’s death, replacing it with a Clothkits (remember that company?) rag doll. And in turn replaced with a smaller fairy as we have a small artificial tree now. But back then it was always a real tree (oh that smell of pine in the morning when you came down for breakfast). On all the branches we hung strips of tinsel (sometimes called lametta) which isn’t much used these days but was very popular from the 1940s right through to the 60s, which made the tree look as though it was dripping with thin icicles.
Then there was tinsel that if I remember rightly wasn’t coloured as it is now. I still have two strands of my mother’s tinsel which I get out every year. That must make them well over 50 years old.
We also had small candles in their holders, but we never lit them. And finally, there were many lovely baubles on the tree all made from glass, of which I have one left.
This bauble was bought soon after they came back from India and made their home in Edgeware, Middlesex which makes the bauble 75 years old. How it has survived our many moves I don’t know! (I do wrap them up carefully though) I have other lovely decorations that are my mother’s which she used over the years as long as I can remember, and as she died in 1996, they really are old! Do tell me have you got some heirloom Christmas baubles? I also have this lovely decoration made by my son when he was tiny!
I feel really happy and at the same time, ever so slightly sad when I get all the decs out as it does bring back loads of memories. And of course, there are the Christmases with the kids when they were young. We always had two Christmases as my parents didn’t travel much so we either had our Christmas with Mr F’s dad and his partner coming to us, and then a few days later we travelled from Brighton to Felixstowe in Suffolk to be with my parents. And the next year we’d do it the other way round. Two celebrations! My kids loved it.
And tell me what are your traditions about when the presents are opened? My parents liked to open the main presents before breakfast, so it was all done and dusted, which rather contrasted with us as we liked to open ours after breakfast, but before lunch. So, there was always a slight tension in the air when we kept back some presents, why were we doing this? But, my mother had a surprise up her sleeve and presents were not quite over in their household, as after the Christmas lunch with turkey and all the trimmings, they would fall asleep for about an hour and then soon enough it was time for tea! Tea included not only my mother’s wonderful home-made Christmas mince-pies (her pastry was melt in the mouth!) and Christmas cake with lashings of marzipan and icing, again all home-made, but there were little Christmas tree presents hanging on the tree (hankies and soap and other small things). This was delightful and I never quite managed to recreate this lovely tradition. And now my grown-up kids have a completely different traditions and they like to open presents after lunch – so there you go, things happen, and you think everything is fixed and then things change.
This Christmas it is the in-laws turn and we are having Christmas on our own. That’s fine, we all did that a lot during the pandemic didn’t we, but I have decided that the next time that happens I’m going to organise a trip away. This will be my new tradition, to go away, maybe on a cruise – woo hoo, I’d like that!
But now I’m going to swerve away from Christmas and just give a shout out to all those unsung heroes who keep voluntary societies and community activities going for nothing. I also acknowledge, honour and celebrate those wonderful people who work in low-paid but essential jobs, many of whom should get far more recognition and pay as they are totally necessary for society.
Let’s start with the low-paid, and those lovely (usually youngsters) who work in nurseries. Well done them, as for very little pay, they look after a large number of the nation’s children (or in my case grandchildren) while their parents go out to work. Likewise at the other end of our lives, let’s think of the humble social carer who goes into the homes of our older more vulnerable citizens doing various tasks for them, some quite personal – I see them every day going to some of the people who live in my complex (over55 housing). Bless them as where would those people be without their carers?
Both these sets of workers should be lauded and paid far more. Indeed, what they need is recognition that their work is not only essential, their work should be recognised as a profession on a par with nurses, teachers and doctors. Why not, what would people do without them?
There are so many more low-paid workers I could name who do essential work for very little – thinking of office cleaners, the posties who deliver our parcels and post, and let’s not forget the drivers of Amazon vans, refuse collectors, farm workers and those who work in the food industry. There are so many. Hats off, to them I celebrate and honour their commitment to their jobs.
And what about the voluntary workers that are so essential to so many lives, who work for nothing? There are so many, too numerous to name, but I’m just going to pick out a few. Like, all the wonderful people who work in our charity shops – I mean I see these people often! It’s not just that they’re sorting clothes, they are also supporting charities. A big shout-out to everyone manning food banks – thank you. Another big thank you to everyone who helps to make refugees welcome in our country. There are so many volunteers, doing good things, let’s celebrate these people for their kindness, their dedication to causes and to simply – helping people.
You know I think we can begin to believe that life, particularly this year, is suffused with war, pain, grief, loss and tragedy. But there are a lot of good and kind people out there. Let’s, this Christmas, not only celebrate meeting up with family and friends, let’s celebrate kindness and people who are kind.
And now it’s the turn of all the lovely women who take part in this challenge. First up is Debbie who blogs at Debs.world. Click here to see that she says she doesn’t have grand parties or drink to excess, so it’s not the party lifestyle she’s seeking, it’s the joy of celebrating with friends and family, and being in the moment that count. Debbie looks back at some big celebrations and shares the moments of joy with her readers.
Read all about Gail from Is This Mutton here as she goes back to the 60s to recount a typical birthday and Christmas in her childhood. Expect lucky bags and a hedgehog made from a potato!
Then why not read about Suzy sharing a glimpse of her world, where celebrations are all about finding joy in everyday moments, from cozy holidays with family to milestone adventures, highlighting the beauty found in life’s simplicity. See the full post here.
Take a look at Mary Katherine’s contribution as if there’s one thing about Mary K and her crew is that they know how to celebrate! Read about some epic celebrations here on her blog https://mksadventure.com
Marsha recounts the years leading up to and including her daughter’s wedding….a week before Christmas. Click here to read this on her blog Marsha in the middle
Then there is Sue from Women Over 50 Living Well. She loves a celebration especially during the Festive Season spending time with family and friends. However, for the Celebration prompt she is taking a different angle and looks at areas in our life that we should celebrate more. Click here to read her blog.
And finally, here is another very old Christmas decoration that came from my mother’s collection.
Here’s wishing you all a very Happy Christmas wherever you are and whoever you are with, and big hugs for those of you working on Christmas Day or are celebrating the day on their own. I shall be back for one more post (which is my review of the year) before I go away to Dungeness on a writing retreat.
That really is all for now, but do tell me if you have some very old decorations!
With love, Penny, the Frugalfashionshopper
Hi,
I loved reading about your Christmas celebrations of past years. I still have a couple of my Mum and Dad’s glass baubles from many years ago which are similar to your gold ones. I remember decorating the tree with them when I was young so they could be over 50 years old.
My Christmas tree looks like an explosion in a decoration factory as it’s very uncoordinated! There are decorations we’ve picked up on our travels, some which remind me of days out with friends, homemade ones and lots and lots of lametta. I love lametta!
On Christmas Day we’ll be watching the swim in Felixstowe in aid of the local hospice as we only live about 20 minutes from there. How lovely that you were able to visit there regularly.
Wishing you a lovely Christmas.
Amanda
Oh wow you use lametta! I haven’t for some time but when the children were young we used to have it on the tree. I love the idea of your Christmas tree looking like an explosion in a decoration factory! Mine is pretty full too!
Ah Felixstowe, even though my parents died a long time ago (1993 and 1996) we still go there every now and then.
Wishing you a lovely Christmas too 🎄
Those 60s and 70s celebrations were so much better! More simple but less stressful and expensive (though I expect my mum would disagree, she did everything for Christmas without much help). Sadly I have no heirloom decorations. My mum chucked everything out when my brother died at Christmas in 2014.
I remember those paper decorations across the room, and the paper bells! Re present opening, when I was a kid we opened everything after breakfast. Now we do it in stages as John and I usually go to one of his children first, where we open theirs, and come home to open the rest before lunch. I always buy tree presents for Boxing Day, which we open after lunch.
And I forgot to mention, I still have lots of lametta!
I remember paper chains and bells too and I still like making those chains you have to stick together yourself.
My husband thinks lametta is the worst but you can’t have enough of it in my opinion!
Oh wow, I somehow thought lametta was a thing of the past. Not so it seems!
OMG I am so sorry about your brother – how awful – I can understand why your mother did that.
Yes, paper decorations criss-crossing the ceiling and paper bells and sometimes paper balls! And how lovely that you do tree presents. It always worked at my mum’s house, we loved it, but I just wasn’t able to replicate it as she did – so the tradition lapsed.
Merry Christmas to you 🎄
I’m so sorry to hear that about your brother, Gail.
We used to open our presents after breakfast and took it in turns to open one at a time. With two brothers that used to take a while!
When my Mum worked in a care home she used to work on Christmas Day sometimes so presents would be left until after she came home at lunchtime. It was hard to wait that long!
Yes, it was really good fun taking it in turn to open presents. We used to spend the whole morning doing that. Leaving ‘the walk’ to Boxing Day.
I worked over Christmas a couple of times when I was training as a nurse and just once when I was living with my boyfriend now MrF! I remember a great atmosphere – it was fun to do! But not such fun for you waiting at home for those presents!
I wished I had those old three decorations, such lovely memories. I can remember one Christmas where me and my sister got a doll house that my parents made. It was the best present ever! I do love Christmas and all the festivities and spending time with family! Have a good one!
A doll’s house! They were a lovely thing to have.
Thank you Nancy – you have a good one too 🎄
What lovely memories of Christmas past. I have several home made paper decorations from my children when they were tiny ,now they are in their fifties, but these still come out each year! A bit frayed and crinkled but treasured. I remember one Christmas I tastefully decorated our big real tree with gold and red but when my teenage twins came home from school they were shocked!! Off came the red and gold to be replaced with clashing turquoise, purple ,gold tinsel and every other old oddment they could find ! It was a happy riot of colour and everyone loved it. So much for good taste ! Lots of good wishes to you and your family and many thanks for your lovely blog! Judy from Brighton
Hi Judy! Glad to hear you keep some old paper decorations made by your children. Doesn’t it bring back memories when you see them again!
Personally I don’t think Christmas is about good taste I love the gaudy glitter of silver and gold baubles and red ones too. The description of your twins changing the tree decs is so funny but lovely at the same time.
Thanks Judy and here’s wishing you well too 🎄
Merry Christmas Penny!
I have in my collection of ornaments ones that my son made as a child, ones that my parents gave me as a young homemaker. and many collected on various travels, especially Chincoteague island. there are a lot of horse themed ornaments too. This year I bought a small tree at the supermarket so had to select only some of them. Also, this year the family is all going to my daughter to celebrate. We will have a delicious meal and open presents. My contribution will be my special cranberry sauce with ginger and port.
Some of the traditions I recall from childhood are my grandmother’s Christmas Eve dinner. Being Italian it was all fish and seafood, with things like squid and eel on the menu as well as the more common shrimp and flounder. It always began with pasta with a sauce of garlic, olive oil and anchovies. when I got a bit older we went to midnight mass. we always had a real tree and my mom, who did not really like to cook would spend a day making and decorating sugar cookies with me and my brother. I still have the cookie cutters. My favorite gift was always a book except perhaps for the year my grandmother made me an ice skating skirt in black velvet with a red lining. I still send out Christmas cards, although about half of what I did years ago.
Last night I turned on the Christmas tree lights, put on my old CD if traditional carols and wrapped the gifts I had for my loved ones. I felt grateful that even though the way we now celebrate has changed I am still around to experience it.
Have a lovely holiday! Darby
Hello Darby and what a great description of Christmases past. It is so interesting to read of different traditions including foods eaten by people from different countries.
Do have a lovely time with your daughter. Unfortunately our get-together is postponed as everyone is ill!! There’s a ‘cough going round the adults (and the country) and poor little Oscar has a sickness bug. Never mind we will get together at a later date.
Enjoy your Christmas celebrations and here’s wishing you all the best in 2024 🎄
Hello Penny! I loved reading your post of your memories of Christmas growing up. We had similar traditions here in Australia which of course is tied to the UK. This meant that everyone had a roast dinner with all the trimmings despite being in the middle of Summer! It certainly wasn’t pleasant for Mum stuck in a hot kitchen but it wasn’t until later as we grew up that we really appreciated all she did for us. We opened our gifts as soon as we woke up because we were always excited to see if Santa had visited.
These days I have a blended family so we gather the week before Christmas to avoid everyone having to visit several places on Christmas Day. We had our celebration last Sunday and it was so lovely having all the family together. Chaotic and hectic but I love spending time with my family.
Best wishes for the Festive Season and have a wonderful 2024. x
I am always amazed at the idea of a full roast dinner cooked and eaten in the heat of an Australian summer! And indeed, how we took our mothers for granted until, that is, we had to cook for everyone!
Your blended family get-together sounds lovely especially as a ‘cough’ is sweeping the country and we are postponing our Christmas for a week or so to let everyone recover.
Very best wishes to you and your family at Christmas and here’s to a wonderful 2024 🎄
I loved reading about this, Penny! I’m struck with how much more eco-friendly those paper decorations would have been, and compostable too!
Yes, the ones that were made of paper loops must have been composted or burnt on the coal fire in the living room after the Christmas week. But the majority of the paper chains that criss-crossed the ceiling in 1950s-60s homes folded flat so you could get them out every year.
Thanks Mary K and here’s wishing you a very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2024 🎄
Hi Penny, As an only child, it was fun to help my parents (mom) hang all the Christmas cards around the archways of each room. It was lovely. It was not unusual to send and receive hundreds of cards back then. Writing them took many days and was divided among the 3 of us! Nowadays we don’t send or receive many cards. At present, we put up a 3 foot tree made of grape vines and trimmed with sparkly miniature lites, bought from one of our big department stores going out of business. Gorgeous! Our blended family is spread all over the states, so our holidays are quiet, but lots of FaceTime phone calls. We also visit friends to share in their joy. One friend has an orphan Christmas dinner for those alone on Christmas day. So nice. Thanks Penny for doing this, it is inspiring! Happy holidays to you and your family.
Hi Claire and it is always so interesting to hear about Christmases past. As for Christmas cards, for years we used to send out so many, well over a 100, I’d say, but slowly over the years the numbers came down, and this year the 2nd class stamp has gone up so much we’ve posted very few. I try to hand deliver as many as possible and we also send ecards. Ecards can be really nice, but there’s nothing like receiving cards through the post. Actually I rather wonder whether Christmas cards are on the way out.
With the States being so much bigger it must be hard for everyone’s family to get together – thank goodness for Zoom and FaceTime. .
Thank you Claire, I found your comment really interesting. Here’s wishing you all the very best for 2024 🎄
Penny, I had completely forgotten those paper bells! We had them and hung them in the kitchen from the ceiling lights. I wish I had some of my mom’s decorations. I’m not sure what happened to them. A few years ago, my daughter bought me six glass icicles to hang on my tree. They remind me of the ones my mom had that glowed in the dark (probably dangerous to everyone). And, tinsel (or lametta)! I loved that…it was my very favorite part of decorating the tree. We had a real tree for almost all of my childhood. Mike and I have only had one or two before getting artificial ones.
You write so passionately about the underpaid but oh so necessary workers. Yes, they should definitely receive not only the recognition but the pay for the labor they do. Thank you for this reminder. I shall, indeed, remember them as we celebrate and send my thanks. We have a tradition, here in the states, of putting boxes of treats, water, and gift cards for delivery people. The problem, however, is porch pirates. They usually come at night, but I’ve heard of some in the day time, too.
Have a wonderful holiday season, Penny!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
Yes, there were paper bells, and often paper balls, that got hung all over, in doorways and so on. And as for lametta, there was always a lot of that. For years, I had some of my mother’s and hung it on the tree and then took it down and put it way with the other tree, decs, but slowly the number decreased and now I haven’t got any. We’ve had an artificial tree for some time now but while the kids were young it was always a real tree and sometimes the real tree lost a lot of needles before Christmas Day!!
And interesting you have a tradition of putting out boxes of treats. Here the day after Christmas is actually called Boxing Day and that’s when you are meant to give a gift (usually money) to the tradesman who used to call on houses and their client/customers to get their Christmas ‘Box’. But that is a tradition that is fast disappearing and yet the day is still called Boxing Day!
Have a lovely Christmas and here’s wishing you all the best for 2024 🎄
It’s so thoughtful that you mentioned all the people that deserve to be remembered, specially at this time of year, Penny!
Your Christmas decorations are wonderful, amazing that some have lasted so long. We buy a new tree decoration every year, and this year we had a couple of Swarovski vouchers to use up so we decided to get two beautiful tree star ornaments that twinkle so beautifully when they catch the light! And yet we also have some funny ones from Primark lol! It’s an interesting tree, to say the least!
Merry Christmas, Penny!
Hugs
Suzy xx
Like you we used to buy new ornaments every year and that’s what brings back the memories of life with the kids, and funnily enough I also think of the shops we bought those baubles from that are now gone. Your Swarovski stars sound so lovely.
Merry Christmas and big hugs to you Suzy 🎄
I still have some of those fold-out paper bells, they’re well over 80 years old! As for the tinsel, I remember ours being made from rolls of narrow aluminium strip properly used as aircraft deflectors during the war when dropped from our planes. How my mother got them was a bit of a mystery, although she was a civil servant! Maybe they were gifted from one of the military men billeted with my grandmother. As a little girl allowed to help I soon learned to keep my fingers away from their sharp edges, those cuts didn’t half sting! Two strips twisted (only grown ups allowed to do this) and then allowed to unfurl just so far made such pretty streamers that twinkled alongside the fairy lights. And yes, we also had the paper streamers radiating out from the central ceiling light! And the mistletoe over the living room door! And Christmas stockings! My husband and I still do them!
Sure, Christmas can be a bit bah, humbug!, but it can also be a time of small pleasures greatly appreciated. And great memories for which I am eternally thankful.
Blessings, Penny and everyone and may 2024 be good to you.
Zepherine x
I had my mother’s paper bells and balls for many years but somehow I don’t seem to have them now – well done you for keeping them so long! As for lametta, although some people here are still using lametta it used to be a universal ornament but not so much now, I think. I forgot about mistletoe that was also in every home along with the paper streamers across the ceiling.
You are so right Christmas is full of small pleasures – that’s a great way to describe it!
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2024 🎄
This was a lovely and generous read Penny, the low paid workers are very much due our gratitude but often miss out. I have similar memories of Christmas over the years, we used to go between two sets of grandparents on the day and didn’t mind at all. As to opening presents we now have a tradition where one of the grandchildren helps Grandpa hand out each present and everyone has to wait until they’ve opened it before the next one is given out. It takes time but is well worth it as everyone gets to ooh and aah at the presents instead of just ripping into them. We like to collect decorations when travelling and then tell the stories about them as we put them on the tree. Thanks for sharing your memories and thoughts for this prompt. I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s posts.
Hi Debbie
We also used to collect tree decorations from all over as well as the local shops which are long gone now. I still cram them on our much smaller tree!
I too agree with handing out a present one at a time and taking time to appreciate what everyone has got – it is fr more fun than everyone tearing them open at the same time.
Loved reading all the contributions for this – thanks Debbie and here’s wishing a you a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2024 🎄