When I was a child, Christmas was a thing to behold.
My Mum loved Christmas and so it was a massive thing for us. We'd be woken up by this bright white light shining in our faces.
It would be Mum with her cine camera, telling us that He'd been and that it was time to get up.
It was always in the middle of the night when she got us up, she couldn't wait!
We'd go into the living room and there were always so many presents. All of our Uncles and Aunts bought us presents (that would start us off with around 10) and then presents from Mum and Dad, my brother and sisters as well as presents from family friends.
My memories of this time were of being in a loving home, surrounded by family, eating more selection boxes than enough, watching telly as a family, drinking cherryade and generally having a good time.
We were very lucky to have had all that as kids.
As I got older and my sister had here kids, I discovered that Mum was worse than I thought.
I didn't know at the time, but watched many years later, as my Mum, on Christmas Eve, couldn't wait until the next day when her Grandchildren came around, would unwrap all the toys she'd wrapped for them, play with them, and then wrap them back up! She couldn't wait.
So you would think I'd love Christmas as well with all those wonderful memories.
But I would be a liar if I said I look forward to Christmas each year. Or December as a month if I'm totally honest.
I do have mitigating reasons and one which I've alluded to before.
The years 1991 - 1996 were bad ones for me and my family. We'd lost our business and everything went downhill.
As I've said at other times, there was a period of 18 months when my wife and I lived on beans on toast pretty much every day in order to be able to feed our kids well.
And the pain I feel about their birthdays and Christmases during this period still eats away at me today, as those years should have been the best in regards to having young children.
I've never forgotten the despair I felt, looking around car boot sales to find second-hand toys and games we could afford in order for them to have presents. It was especially worse when you consider that their birthdays and Christmas were in the same month.
And even all these years later, I still feel guilty about having them in that position at the time. I completely recall seeing what other kids were getting and feeling a total let down as a parent.
In time things got better but over the years the regret over what we had to do still lingers.
I know they didn't understand the situation at the time and were always happy with their presents (and for that I'm grateful) but I always felt awful.
I was flicking through some photos recently as I was looking for photos for the boy's birthdays and came across photos from this period, and even now over 20 years later, I still feel sick when I look at them.
I really do try to enjoy this time of year, but for me, it's never easy, particularly when I see kids getting a load of money spent on them. It just reminds me of how rubbish I was as a provider for far too many years.
PS: Since I wrote this the other day, all our plans for the next week or so have been turned upside down.
I've decided that I'm not going to get wound up about it as It'll only make me feel worse. I'm going to settle in front of the telly, hunt out all my favourite DVDs, eat the good stuff and make the best of it.
I hope you can do that too.
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It was coming toward the Christmas of 1973, and Mum asked me
if there was anything I wanted for Christmas that year.
My old record player was on its last legs as I’d had it for
5 or 6 years by then, and you have to remember that I was only 13 in 1973, so
my old record player wasn’t in the best of condition as I’d had it since I was
8 or 9.
Mum told me there was no chance of getting one as I already
had one and as well as that I also had a cassette recorder and a reel to reel
tape recorder! She said it was about time I started looking at other things. But
the truth was, apart from records and tapes, there wasn’t too much else I
wanted.
My other great love at the time was football. I didn’t have
a favourite team as such, I just loved playing. Me and my next-door neighbour,
Jon Ashton, only lived five minutes away from the beach at Burnham on Sea, and
we’d go down there in the winter and play football behind the lighthouse.
Although I didn’t have a favourite team, I had plenty of
favourite players. Jimmy Greaves had been a favourite but he'd retired by that time. George Best, Alan
Ball, Rodney Marsh Stan Bowles, Tony Currie and more were favourites.
So I didn’t want a particular football shirt, I used to
collect plenty. I had a red one, so I could be Manchester United, Liverpool or
any team that wore red. I had a blue one, so I could be Chelsea or Everton. You
get where I’m coming from. It wasn’t like it is today where shirts are specific
to clubs.
I did have an Arsenal shirt as they were different, And a
West Ham One too.In fact, I think I had
around 10 shirts. So I’d wear them and go out and I had a shirt so that I
could be the player of choice.
But I was also getting to the age where I was not really
wanting to continue getting football shirts. In fact, I’m not sure that I had
too many more once I reached 13. And I’ve never wanted on since (with the
exception of a Weymouth shirt I had many years later...but that’s a different
story.)
So I was pretty much stumped as to what I wanted for
Christmas – my heart was set on a new record player, a Dansette one in red or
blue, I didn’t mind which colour.
And as much and kept on about it, Mum and Dad told me it was
off the table. I wasn’t getting a record player. I had too much music stuff.
They were adamant that I had too many records and I needed
to start thinking about my schoolwork and that I would probably do better with
a desk for my room!
And so as you can probably tell, I wasn’t really looking
forward to my Christmas presents this year.
The more I begged, the more they said no.
And so on the morning, I wasn’t too excited about getting
up. There wasn’t going to be too much I was looking forward to. Only a bleeding
desk!
So when I came into the living room and saw the big box
wrapped, my heart sank. It was a desk!
I unwrapped the presents but left the big one, I couldn’t
face it.
Mum kept saying that I should tidy up my bedroom and make
some room for the big present. But I didn’t. I opened my selection boxes and
settled in to watch Christmas morning telly.
Mum was on my case telling me to open my big present because
she wanted to get all the wrapping paper bagged up and put in the bin.
Eventually, I decided to open it. It was a desk. I knew it.
I may as well get it opened.
But as I started unwrapping it, it felt strange. It wasn’t
has heavy as I expected. I got the paper off, opened the box, and a smaller one
was inside it.
I was confused. I opened the next box and inside it, another
one.
Now I knew it wasn’t a desk, I was just confused.
It took two more boxes until my present was revealed. As I
opened the last box, I lookd in and my eyes lit up!
There, in front of me, was a blue Dansette record player.
The exact one I wanted. And on the record deck was this year’s Christmas Number
One, Slade’s, ‘Merry Christmas Everybody.’
I was over the moon! Exactly what I’d wanted. And what’s
more, Mum and Dad had really enjoyed playing their game with me.
It made the Christmas of 1973 so memorable for me.
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I've got to be honest, Christmas Songs aren't my favourite genre of music. That's mostly because by the time the big day arrives, I've been hearing them for nearly two months.
But fortunately, this year, because our social distancing and lockdowns, I've not been out and about so much, and therefore, don't feel as though I've had them shoved down my throat so much.
And in sitting down to work out my Top 10, I've noticed that I like a lot more than I think I did.
And so, after consideration, I've compiled my Top 10 favourites. They quite likely won't be yours. Som may, but some won't.
What's surprised me is that there are none later than 1964. No Slade, No Mud, No Wizzard....
So here is my Top 10 Christmas Songs.
10 Perry Como & he Fontaine Sisters - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
I hope you enjoyed my choices. Let me know below what are your favourites.
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Back on my nostalgic trip - I know you couldn't do anything like the Black & White Minstrel show in this day and age, but I find myself wishing we still had variety shows like these back in the 60s and 70s.
It seems to me that shows like this from a bygone age were full of talented performers. I'm listening to my Dad's LP and remembering the work that went into producing those shows.
Different sets for each song. Each section a different theme. I know the songs were old even then, but I still find myself singing along.
Perhaps I just like them because they remind me of being sat on the floor in front of the telly, eating sweets, drinking cherryade and feeling the warmth of my family around me.
I recall shows like this being on the telly over Christmas - a circus on the telly in the afternoon.
Today's telly just doesn't match up for me.
Things have moved on over the years but the innocence of a bygone time still resonates with me.
I know I wear rose-tinted glasses when I look back but I suppose that was because I had no cares and woes then.
Mind you, I'm glad I'm not my Dad's remote control anymore!
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