Christmas Morning Memories

I remember as a child Christmas Eve going to bed determined to catch Father Christmas dropping into my bedroom to fill my stocking with treats. Maybe I would have laid awake for about ten minutes before I fell asleep and in the morning the stocking would be lying next to me. All that would be in it was a couple of satsumas, and an assortment of sweets the real stuff was downstairs.

I can picture the scene! To begin with, my brother and I slept top and tail in a bunkbed as we shared the room with mum and dad until they moved to another room and we both had our own bed. We would be awake with excitement, on edge about what was awaiting us downstairs.

The toys were simple like colouring books and pens hours of fun and there was always the Christmas annuals. I would have the Topper, Beazer and my brother his we would share if you could not read just look at the pictures. Mum would have bought them in the corner shop playing them off a bit at a time/on the slate. A selection box, I was always looking to swap the fudge finger with my brother my sisters were twinkles in mum and dads eyes.

Games were the big thing in the sixties and early seventies with Frustration making its yearly appearance I loved it. So simple to play unlike Mousetrap, which I hated. Then there were the cars, robots and stuff tied in was TV shows like the Man from Uncle Spy kit the following Christmas it would be something else. Other things I can remember garages, Lego building blocks some Meccano but never what I really wanted a train set, a proper set.

Bikes were like a three-year present has you grow there would be an upgrade. My first bike was a three-wheeler with a large bin on the back it was blue. The next was a bike with stabilisers until they were surplus to requirement. My last Christmas bike was a red chopper, Christmas 1973.

Dad would normally keep us penned upstairs for as long as he could while we would try his patience by asking if we could go downstairs. When they were ready, we would be left off the leash and dart down the stairs. Mum would have spent some time wrapping the presents they would be demolish in minutes she may have been better off wrapping them in newspaper. 

The living room which we call the middle room was small and homely with a coal fire and decked out with a tree paper chains decoration, paper lanterns and lots of tinsel. When years later I asked Mum what her favourite Christmas Day memory was, she told me just watching and I am the same now.

Enjoy making your own memories this Christmas and New Year!