'WHEN THE LEG FELL OFF MY SISTERS DOLL'
The build-up to Christmas was always exciting when I was a child. It wasn’t completely about presents, although obviously they were a big part of it. We seemed to be quite pragmatic about what our parents could or could not afford and with no television to publicise the ‘must have’ toy of the moment, we were quite dependant on what we saw when we pressed our noses longingly against the window of Edith Seymour’s toy shop at Firth Park.It was usually the beginning of December before mother had collected all the ingredients together for the Christmas cake and pudding which she allowed us to stir, making a wish and putting a silver sixpence into the mixture so that the person who found it would have good luck, (providing that they didn’t break a tooth on it!) She certainly didn’t purchase a pudding from Sainsburys, liberally dowse it in brandy, having a crafty glass of course, and pass it off as her own as I have been known to do!There were tins on a high shelf in the kitchen which contained biscuits, sweets and nuts which could only be eaten when Christmas had actually arrived. I expect that hasn’t changed much today! The nuts were a food only eaten at Christmas, and, being cracked with a stainless-steel nutcracker, were a real nuisance as the shells scattered all over the floor!
Our presents were mostly books, sometimes an album. Colouring books with crayons, a game, and possibly a doll. I remember my excitement one year, when I got a dolls pram! Although my sister was once very disappointed when one of the legs of her new doll fell off on Boxing Day and had to be taken to the Dolls Hospital on London Road! One present which was always welcome was a liquorice ‘smokers set’ courtesy of Bassetts. The set included sweet cigarettes with red tips and a pipe with sweet sprinkles round the bulb!Later on Christmas morning, when we had returned from church we joined the scores of other boys and girls playing out on the road with hoops and spinning tops and, if they had been very lucky, with bicycles or go carts lovingly renovated by their fathers. The smell of the turkey cooking drifted through the open kitchen windows.Our childhood was one of simplicity and naivete. We were encouraged to make paper decorations and Christmas cards and sent our Christmas lists to Santa up the chimney. Things were never the same once the Yorkshire range had been taken out and a Gas Miser fitted, although mother was elated at the ease of it.As a special treat we were taken into town to visit Santa in his grotto, promising him that we had been good children all year, and receiving a small gift!Mother was busy through the Christmas period, shopping, preparing meals and cooking but with a bit of a rest on Boxing Day when there were no shops open, or so she hoped, although with buses running every day, we often welcomed relatives or friends who had contacted us by letter quite some time before, and mothers work continued until after supper when she could sit down with a glass of sherry.It was very important that, no matter how little money the family might have, mother tipped the coalman, milkman, postman and paperboy. There was a lot of pride in those days!