A Past Christmas Memory

We’d wake up to a cold house, no central heating just two-coal fires, both long gone out.

The smell of a turkey slow cooking through the night fills the air. There is a sock on my bed full of little treats chocolate, sweets and fruit, Farther Christmas has been, surprisingly I must have been good this year.

With no idea of the time, it must be excessively early for Mum and Dad with shouts of ‘back to bed’ coming from their bedroom. I wondered if they sat up all night just waiting to catch us. We would try repeatedly to sneak downstairs only to be thwarted repeatedly in our task.

Then it was time, my parent’s door would open and with a smile mum would say ‘go on then’. Crash, bang, wallop and we push the door to the middle room and for a few minutes our own personal toy shop. Sister was too young to join in she had no idea about Christmas and the pleasure it brings to a young child.

Time to make the fire, the old ash from the previous night is clean away the wrapping paper from our present comes in handy straight into the fire grate with some wood and some old coals with some new coal. Dad would light the fire if it looked like it was not catching alight he would then help it along by drawing the fire with a sheet of newspaper across the front of the fireplace. It would increase the draught, which helped the fire to 'draw' and light. Sometime the paper would start to turn brown and if you failed to take it away, it would catch fire.

The room would soon warm up and we would be stuck into our presents.

The selection box emptied full of my favourite, but for the fudge finger, I would soon swapped or discarded it. No breakfast has we have filled up on chocolate and other treats. Television time with the TV Times showing ITV open their Christmas schedule before the BBC with Sing a Song Christmas at 8:15 but there was no time to hang about we had to dress for church.

We would always have a new outfit for church it was really the only time I would really dress up.

Christmas memory 1970 Part 2 next Christmas