Thanks again Donna for reminding me of bath cubes in the QVC christmas presents thread. It brought back a whole host of thoughts and memories. How people use to actually save money to buy their presents. Gifts weren't anywhere near as lavish as they are today and apart from a few bits and bobs (and I mean bits and bobs) in a Christmas stocking for an adult the main gift got no more exciting than a Goblin Teasmade or a Pifco hairdryer. Toiletries were usually just a trade up from what you'd usually buy, eg a box of M&S peach soaps, your tin of Cusson's talc would be replaced by a pretty circular box full of scented talc with a fancy puff. Chocs were Black Magic or Dairybox, there was none of your £40+ boxes of Hotel Chocolat. Perfumes came from Yardley or Lentheric if you got something a bit more upmarket. There was not such a thing as Xmas Eve boxes, tree presents and table presents which nowadays can consist of expensive bottles of Fragrance and the like. Of course credit wasn't handed around to anyone regardless of whether they can pay it back, in fact credit was rare, people used Christmas clubs and catalogues. As a child of the 70's I was happy with a Sindy Doll, a Blue Peter annual and a board game. I know it's all about Barbie these days but could you imagine a kid being happy with that lot these days? Barbie would need to come with a car, and a massive pink castle and that's just to start with! I wanted Sindy's horse as well but I was told I'd have to save up for it - I didn't btw! But hey, happy days!
A 1970's Christmas!
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Vienna
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My youngest son is 37 and since he was about 5 he`s had a Beano annual every year and I still buy him one to this day. Funnily enough my other 2 sons aged 49 and 47 still talk about their Star Wars toys and He Man toys from their childhood and it took me all year round paying into a local toy shop`s Christmas club to buy them. Every saturday I`d pop into the toy shop and pay my money and then about 3 weeks before Christmas I`d go and choose toys to the value I`d saved. Some years were better than others but they usually got one main toy such as a Star Wars space ship or a He Man castle and then bulked up with selection box, jigsaw, colouring book , felt pens etc. No spending hundreds of £`s like parents do these days.
Peppermint Patti
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One year I got a new dolls pram fir Christmas. My nan knitted an outfit for my doll and a blanket to cover her. I know I got presents from my other nan and my aunties and uncles but can't remember anything.
We had a stocking at the end of the bed with something for the doll's house,chocolate money,sweet cigarettes etc.
We had a stocking at the end of the bed with something for the doll's house,chocolate money,sweet cigarettes etc.
It was the little things that I remember as well as the stuff I begged my parents to buy me but they wouldn't. I wasn't allowed anything "faddy" so I did feel left out at school quite a lot. I would've "died" for an etch a sketch but my parents thought it was rubbish and that I'd be much better off with paper and pens which were nowhere near as exciting, I wanted a slinky but yep we lived in a bungalow so fair do's for my parents telling me it wasn't worth getting. On the good side one of the gifts I treasured was a little purse on a string containing a fruit flavoured lip balm I got from my aunt, a transistor radio that couldn't hold a station for more than 2 minutes, it was bright blue and plastic and I loved it! We spend far too much money nowadays and of course that's fine if you can afford it, but unfortunately many people would rather bankrupt themselves than disappoint their loved ones at Christmas - this just wouldn't have happened in the 1970's!
There is a photo of me standing in front of a Christmas tree with a doll and a toy grand piano and a dolls cot. That cot had a "clock" with moveable hands and my late brother (ten years my senior) spent the better part of the following summer holidays endeavouring to teach me to tell the time, I have Dyspraxia and think I had time blindness, well I have always been known for being late for everything! My mother had a regifting drawer and we took notes each present opening time to ensure no one got back the present we had received from them! Bath salts featured heavily! I remember probably aged about 5 or 6 opening my Christmas pillowcase (and stocking, yes, I was thoroughly spoilt materially) on my parents' bed one of the gifts was an acetate walking stick filled with tiny little acid drops, of course I couldn't open it with my hands so teeth were engaged and it opened with an explosion of 10s of these sticky little lumps all over their bed and sheets, I was NOT popular!
Vienna
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My hairdresser has 2 daughters aged 15 and 13 and when I went for a haircut a couple of weeks ago I asked her was she organised for Christmas ? To cut a long story short, it seems her youngest girl (age 13) is getting a £600 phone she wants and her oldest girl wants tickets and merchandise to see a particular band she likes, costing roughly the same plus as their Mum put it "some bits and bobs". I looked my hairdresser straight in the eyes via the mirror and told her she must be mad ......... that`s an awful lot of haircuts she needed to do to pay for them !
Wanderer
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Seems they are not alone
That’s shocking! According to that report a family in the uk will spend on average £420 per child. I spend less than that on the entirety of the presents I buy each year for everyone on my list. I get it that some years you will splurge more if you’re buying a child something more substantial like a bike or a games console but you really don’t need to spend such crazy amounts as a matter of course. A toddler does not need a replica Mercedes Benz or designer clothes, likewise neither does a 13 year old need the latest I phone. I get that gaming has moved on from Ker plunk and Mousetrap but it comes at a price . I’m happy to have been a kid in the 70’s.
Wanderer
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People think they need to buy these things to keep the kids happy and to keep up with what the kids friends are getting or have already.
A friend of friend has purchased their kids a laptop each including Microsoft Office at £520.
UK consumers plan Christmas spending increase, research shows
New research conducted by global data and insights company, Pureprofile Limited, reveals that half of UK households (47%) do not expect cost of living
www.talkingretail.com
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Again going back to the 70s in my recollection kids didn’t all get the same “must have thing”. It was far more random. One year my best friend got an “old school “ typewriter and I can tell you we had hours of fun producing our own magazine and dictating stuff to one another to hone our skills! She recently told me that she’s still got it! A typical main present back then was a Timex watch or an instamatic camera and the kids were only interested in posing for silly photos and waiting for them to come back from being developed-nobody cared about the spec or the tech!People think they need to buy these things to keep the kids happy and to keep up with what the kids friends are getting or have already.
A friend of friend has purchased their kids a laptop each including Microsoft Office at £520.
UK consumers plan Christmas spending increase, research shows
New research conducted by global data and insights company, Pureprofile Limited, reveals that half of UK households (47%) do not expect cost of living
None of the kids had replica football shirts or trainers that cost the price of a house, if you wanted to declare your support for a team then you’d write it on your bag or pencil case with a ballpoint pen! Same with your pop idols, you’d receive their latest album or a couple of posters but you weren’t gonna get tickets for one of their concerts any time soon.
Obviously we didn’t have the ever evolving tech as far as gaming went “pong” was as good as it got - no add ons or extras to buy. Buy your kids a £500 console which is pretty useless without the games to go with it and we all know they don’t come cheap.
It’s absolute madness and I can’t envisage the warm fuzzy nostalgia for the 2020’s Christmas ever being a thing!
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Hey, bath cubes were a treat for me. Or a bottle of Avon perfume, well under a £10 and I loved it. My mum used to buy me a box of Ling's Turkish Delight at Xmas. I still buy myself Turkish Delight.
I was talking to a neighbour the other day, and we said you never hear children out playing on bikes or with prams on Xmas morning now. All inside with the latest mobile or game machines.
I was talking to a neighbour the other day, and we said you never hear children out playing on bikes or with prams on Xmas morning now. All inside with the latest mobile or game machines.
Christmas Eve was down to the church for Midnight Service with my lovely and eccentric Greek Grandmother and Mum would be at home, IF she didn't come with us, finishing the prep for the big lunch and making trays of sausage rolls with Dad (he wasn't a fan of the Arch Deacon, who viewed my Dad as a dangerous subversive and far too left field!). So, we might meet up with friends who all walked with us back to Mum and Dad's if we were lucky someone might have brought their car to see in Christmas Day with Snowballs, or Port and Lemons, or Shandies, or a sneaky Cointreau and plates of Greek stuffing (basically a ragu of pork and beef mince very slow cooked with garlic, onions tomato paste and the turkey giblets with the addition of a net full of chestnuts that my Mum and Grandmother had sliced their hands on trying to get them open, sausage rolls and freshly baked Kourambiedes (a sort of almond shortcake, we called them snow cakes due to the pound of icing sugar they were doused in). I am not half the baker my mum was meaning my attempt to make these was a little too on the crisp side, so I am really grateful for the bakery in London that sells them by the boxful and I buy a box each year since I discovered them... That was the best of Christmas for me, presents were nice, I barely remember any of them, but the seeing old friends and all differences put to one side for a couple of hours that was my favourite part of the event.
I do wonder whether the kids get the same excitement as us oldies used to get - I'm sure they probably do, but in my day Christmas didn't start until you opened the first window on your advent calendar. I have a birthday in late November and I don't remember seeing Christmas ads, or shops festooned with Christmas decorations and the shelves heaving with Christmas fare until December. If I'm honest I don't think it makes December any less of a nightmare to do your shopping. I kinda wish it was like it was back then, but I couldn't live without online shopping!
