![]() All the tables would be pushed into rows, with table cloths, they’d play Christmas music and we’d all get cheap Christmas Crackers with really useless toys inside, but it was tradition! Christmas Eve Prep I always used to take a packed lunch to school but the one day a year I’d have hot school lunch was Christmas Dinner day. Santa would wave at all the kids and volunteers would go door to door and collect money for a local charity. Sometimes we’d sing more modern Christmas songs like ‘When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney’ and other times the more traditional carols…’We 3 Kings’ was always one of my favourites.Ī Santa float would drive around various estates in the town. It was the story of Mary and Joseph so there’d be a Mary, a Joseph, a plastic baby that was often held by its ankles and 3 million sheep, stars and shepherds because no kid could be left out!! Now I didn’t go to a religious school, it was just something that was always done either in the school hall or at the church in town. When we were in Junior (Elementary) school, we’d put on a school Nativity play for the parents. We’d then have ‘tree chocolates’ hanging on the branches (again, I have them on my American tree) and Christmas crackers would be stuffed between the branches (a paper tube with a banger, joke, hat and gift inside). My Mum calls our tree a ‘memory tree’, there’s no rhyme, reason or special design, it’s just jam packed full of ornaments collected or made over the years (including a whole bunch of travel themed decorations!). The tree would often go up a week or so after the outside lights. (Samuel L Jackson was there too for my American readers □ ) Christmas Trees Because my birthday is on Dec 3rd, I used to get the special job of ‘grand switch on’ on the first night! One year we even went up to London to see my favourite band switch on the Regent Street Christmas Lights in London. ![]() There’d be some houses that were done up really well around the town and we’d go and see them. When I was younger, my Dad used to COVER the front of our house in Christmas Lights. There was then a 3rd that just me and my sister would take turns with, it was a tiny tree and each day you’d open a drawer that held a miniature tree decoration.Īs far as I’m aware, we never had St Nick that would bring early Christmas Presents? If it did exist, it was something we didn’t do in our house and I never heard any of my friends talk about it? Christmas Decorations We also had a wall calendar with little pockets with a sweet in each one, we’d share this one as a family, taking it in turns to have the treat in the pocket. (I carried this tradition on when I moved to the USA…you can buy the chocolate advent calendars in Aldi). Most commonly, they’d have little doors with either a chocolate or just a picture behind the door. Instead of magical moving elves, leading up to Christmas we’d have an advent calendar, starting on the 1st December and going right up until Christmas Eve. However, I was always concerned that how could Father Christmas come if we didn’t have a chimney for him to come down…he did in fact have a magic key □ Advent Calendars Again something I had never done because a lot of houses don’t even have real fireplaces anymore. The video also mentioned that Brits sent our letters to Santa by burning them in a fireplace. ![]() There’s no ‘Happy Holidays’…It’s Happy/Merry Christmas. Father Christmas has always been red in my nearly 30 years of life!Ĭhristmas is Christmas. Coca cola brought in the colour change and we adopted it too. Traditionally yes he did, if you’ve ever watched A Christmas Carol, one of the spirits is dressed in green for this reason. Father Christmas does not dress in green in the UK. (90s Christmas UK) Leading up to Christmas Father Christmasįirst things first, correcting the video I saw. Today I’m reminiscing about the Christmas traditions I had growing up (*hint* there was no Elf On The Shelf or computers and smart phones!) Childhood Christmas Memories I saw a comparison on Facebook the other day about the differences between Christmas in the UK and Christmas in the USA and I had to disagree with most of what they were saying was true to an English Christmas! It may have been true a long time ago but growing up in the 90s and 00’s, it didn’t ring true to me. ![]()
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