Remembering back to my childhood in Britain during the 1940s & 50s after the Second World War, life was hard for many.
Jobs were scarce, wages low and many goods were in short supply whilst rationing of foodstuffs were still happening. My parents, at Christmas time, would try to add a bit of a festive atmosphere to our home.
Paper chains were created and strung across the ceiling of the lounge room as were crepe paper ribbons which had been twisted. Pinecones would have had tips painted white and placed around the Christmas tree.
The trees were always real pine – artificial plastic or aluminium trees did not exists. Wild holly would have been cut and used as decorations and matchboxes covered with coloured paper to represent Christmas parcels hanging from the tree. Bows were made from coloured ribbon. Yes, many of the tree decorations were made from scraps of paper or material.
Such little things helped make Christmas a joyous time for kids in those times. Living as we did in the Northern hemisphere, it would be dark at 4pm and the shopping strips would be lit up by street lamps (there were no shopping centres such Westfields at the time). Between the lamps would be strings of coloured lights adding to the coloured and joyful atmosphere.
I remember the pedal cars for boys, the dolls houses for girls, the toy guns that had a cork in the end of the barrel and went “pop” when the trigger was pulled, toy trains that worked by clockwork, the toy prams and the china dolls which could be bought in various colours. There was not the political correctness that is imposed on society today. The dolls represented all races and nationalities. Board games were a popular gift for the youngsters of the day.
Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Draughts and such games made their way into the Christmas stocking hanging at the end of the bed or from the mantle over the fireplace. For those who liked to create working models, they may well have received a Meccano set which they could then use to try and build engineering masterpieces.
Handmade and home-made toys such as Teddy Bears, Rag dolls and glove puppets could often be amongst the gifts one received. My father once made me a model farm from pieces of timber which included a duck pond made from a mirror. On another occasion, as he was a welder, he made me a metal sled which I took to the top of a nearby hill and used to slide down in the snow,
During the 1940s and 50s, as I mentioned, many food items were in short supply and rationing was still in force. Poultry such as Chicken and Turkey was expensive so was rarely seen as part of the Christmas fare on the dinner table.
Amongst the favoured presents for parents and grandparents would be bath salts and perfumed soap. The soap may have been shaped as a woman such as “Cussons” soaps often were in the 1950s, I can also recall that at Christmas time my parents would also have bought triangles of creamy cheese possibly of Danish or French origin.
Another memory I have is that my sisters and I would receive a piece, or a couple of pieces, of fruit in our Christmas stocking – perhaps an apple or peach and a handful of nuts such as peanuts or hazelnuts.
And everything stopped for the Queen’s speech! In the fifties this was listened to on the radio. It was first televised in 1957.
