Before the hype, Christmas seems to be less commercialized and a lot more innocent before the early eighties and I know where to lay the blame, Maggie Thatcher, the yuppies and the women version the Sloane Ranger set. It was the arrival of my children that really opened my eyes to changes with the must have toy which always sold out and toyshops such as Toys r us coming the Cardiff.
Has a child myself Christmas started in November while today in September in stores and supermarkets are plugging Christmas. Harrods in London opened their Christmas World department a full 151 days before the big day, in July.
No more trips into town to watch a Christmas parade and see Father Christmas arrived at one of the big town centre department stores, for instants the C&A. The streets would be packed with people all along the route, today you stand around the bandstand while some celebrity Z lister switches on the lights.
Then there is the Winter Wonderland with an Open Air Ice Rink. Has a child there was an abundance of traditional Department Stores in the town centre with a Santa’s grotto the C&A and David Morgan where our favourite. We never questioned why they was a Father Christmas in all the stores, it was all done be some kind of magic The shops would have window displays real ones full of toys not like today some tinsel scattered around. David Morgan’s was very popular but today is no more.
I remember one year at the old C&A were we climbed into a rocket ship to visit Father Christmas at the North Pole. We were little innocents, believing in Father Christmas and were going to see him at the North Pole. However, today you know someone was outside shaking the rocket and the stars passing the window were on some kind of a paper roll. Cutting edge of technology back in the day but today department stores have Father Christmas in the corner of the store behind a curtain.
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