Friday 7th December

In ‘Catherines Story’ I had Catherine comment thtat the trouble with Christmas is that it comes around every year without fail, and that if we had a year without it occasionally then we might appreciate it more.  Of course these are actually my sentiments and it is true that partly because of its frequency we do not really appreciate it.  But when I was a child that year stretch from one Christmas to another seemed to last forever.  This was mainly because we were so unspoiled that it was only at Christmas and Birthdays that we had anything special at all, toys, new clothes or food included.

Toys, let’s start with toys.  Firstly there were hardly any shop-bought toys, I had a handful of dinky toy cars and that was it.   My dad had a pedal driven fret saw with which he conjured out of plywood a garage, a farmyard and a fort on successive Christmases, painted and enlivened by a few plastic accessories these were treasured possessions, not least because no-one else had them, they were unique.  One year I got a small tent for scout-camps, and another year a bike – second hand and repainted by my father, and another year a second-hand reel to reel tape recorder (the height of technology).  Favourite presents were a box of six pencils with my name in gold lettering and a tin of toffees that must have contained 10 toffees if you were lucky, but you were allowed to eat these yourself – a real treat as usually we had to share any sweets.  New clothes such as pyjamas and slippers and scarves and gloves (handknitted) were always amongst your Christmas presents too, though most kids would throw them back at you today I suspect.  Food, ah now we are talking a real difference.  Chicken was a luxury which we usually had only at Easter and Christmas, a turkey was even rarer.  Exotic fruits such as tangerines were a special treat, as were nuts and dates and we did actually roast chestnuts on the fire-grate every year.  Christmas cake and pudding had been baked by mum months ago, and matured on the top shelf of the pantry.  Their richness was unbelievable for us, full of candied peel and cherries and sultanas which were unheard of all year round.

Now you lucky people can buy any foodstuff at any time of the year; there are toys galore in every child’s bedroom with more and more electronic wonders including computers for babies, and we all have so many clothes we cannot even wear them all.  So no wonder there is no ‘magic’ of Christmas anymore.