Childhood Christmas

freshpopcorn

My earliest Christmas memory was getting sort of a farm play set when I was about 3.(well I think I can remember this)

When I was 4 I got a ride on tractor with a trailer.

When I went into school I was really into Christmas, Santa, decoctions and the general magic of Christmas. School really helped with the excitement of it.

I did love Christmas and going to see Santa. However when I was younger it more of just going to see him in a local shop/business. There was no Santa experiences.

I loved Christmas Eve, the buzz around, lighting the Christmas candle, etc

I suppose most started to question his existence in about 4th class and I would have being similar. I did pretend to believe in him for longer than I did.

What really cleared up my suspicious was one Christmas morning I got something and there was a little issue with it and my brother said something along the lines of we've got the receipt for it.

I think I basically asked about the whole thing the following January just to be sure.

Also, we kept of pestering a teacher and he said something along the lines of ''Do you believe in the Easter Bunny?'' and there's your answer.

After that I still liked Christmas I just found I had more of a say in my presents, etc but I still had excitement. I just didn't go to see Santa.

I could go into more detail.

What are your memories of a childhood Christmas and how did you find out?

gidget

I got sick two Christmas’s in a row when I was about 3/4. No interest in presents, had to come home from my Nana’s who was doing the dinner as I couldn’t eat & parents missed out on their dinner too as a result & put straight to bed. My mam feared I had scarlet fever as I had a high temperature & just slept. I remember the doctor coming to the house to examine me in my bed, the first year I was diagnosed with German measles (despite having been immunized) second was a heavy flu just without the runny nose.

I always loved the innocence of putting numerous letters to Santa up the chimney & the excitement when I discovered it was gone.

I also have a memory of about 5/6 and waking in the middle of the night convinced I saw Santa standing in the doorway looking at me & ducking my head under the covers in case he saw me awake 😆 Actually still believe it all these years later that I saw someone that resembled him in the doorway that night. Maybe it was St Nick himself paying a visit 😉 Certainly wasn’t my dad as he wasn’t the dress up type.

As for finding out, I was about 9/10 in school and was listening to this boy who had stayed back a year talking about no Santa. Completely didn’t believe what he was waffling about & laughingly said it to my mam that night “you wouldn’t believe what this guy was saying” she didn’t say anything and went off, came back an hour later to break the heartbreaking news about Santa making me swear not to tell my friends, of course I went and said it to my friend who then told her little sister causing a bit of bad vibes between her mam & mine 😞

L1011

I only found out that a lot of my family Christmas traditions were very German/protestant once I was an adult - that other kids didn't do them never caused much concern. We aren't German and only a bit protestant (I went to a catholic primary school for instance).

Family presents done on Christmas Eve, Santa presents only on Christmas Day.. Very strict adherence to the jesus figurine not being in the crib til the 25th and the wise men only arriving on the 6th (when it was then taken down the next day). Basically a second full Christmas dinner on the 26th for anyone who was elsewhere on the 25th. Fancy dinner again on the 6th.

With four older siblings, I found out about Santa quite early. We always went to one of the local shopping centres for the Santa trip - that the Arnotts Santa of the 80s was a neighbour of my parents at the time ensured that was never an option for my older siblings!

Whenever An Post started sending responses to paid posted Santa letters (the website says "over 30 years ago" now, but I think its 30/31 at most - or my parents never paid for a stamp before!) and I got the first item of post addressed to me personally was incredible - not something you experience when bills and insurance renewals arrive now. Definitely worth paying that €1.10 or whatever it is to get the reply for your kids now.

Due to his job, my Dad used to get piles of cards from suppliers and so on - back when companies sent loads of cards - and personal card sending was at its peak too. So we used to have card strings down the bannisters and above the fireplace as we could get well over 100 different cards. Companies now often do a charity donation which is better for the environment but not quite as magical for a kid.

Decoration never went beyond the living room, except for the cards in the hall - I've always tried to have the hall a bit special too maybe because of the cards; but its lights for me. Parents would never have been in to full house decoration at all; I'm a bit more open to that.

A cup of te

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058212358/childhood-christmas

Lovely thread. Enjoyed reading those memories from everyone. I think I relate a lot to what you're saying, freshpopcorn, about the buzz on Christmas Eve and the excitement ramping up in school... I dunno if other kids did this but in the 1990s in our school when we were very young we used to do a 'Christmas Copy' which was your little Aisling copy book and you just drew Christmas stuff on every page and my god the glue and glitter was out in force :-) I used to draw stuff like Christmas bells, trees, deer, Santa, presents, holly etc on the various pages. That was one of my favourite things and then, of course, we'd be singing carols and Christmas songs in school and be rehearsing for the Christmas play.

I have some other little flashes of memories of childhood Christmasses: the local little cornershop (still there) and they always had boxes of the Lemon's Seasons Greetings (still do) up on the top shelf behind the counter. Buying the Ireland's Own and singing the carols with my mam. I remember us on the couch singing,"give us some figgy pudding and bring it out here" and me thinking the word "figgy" was hilarious for some reason. The An Post ad with Walking in the Air.

Like you, I loved seeing Santa in a local shop. I don't think there was any big grottos or the like in the '90s. Maybe there was. My only big memory of going to see Santa was one in Dunnes Stores! Still have the photo with his cotton wool beard. He was a very skinny Santa. I got one of those etch sketch things which I absolutely cherished. I used to love walking around the nearest big town and they used to have the old style coloured bulbs everywhere and Christmas songs blasting out which really heightened the experience and excitement.

Lastly, we the other things I absolutely loved was The Snowman (the book and the film despite the heartbreaking end) and the stocking. I loved the stocking more than anything. Always got a bottle of Lucozade and an 8 square Dairy Milk in it. Now I know I sound like an ould one but we Lucozade and Dairy Milk were expensive back then. You couldn't get the multipacks that you get nowadays in supermarkets so that was a big treat.

Like others here, I also found out when I was 10 from a girl in school. I went snooping then and found the presents I'd asked for from Santa. It wasn't a big surprise and I wasn't upset. I still believe in the magic of Christmas. I still get that buzz and energy. I just love the decorations, the music, the food, the togetherness.

miamee

A lovely thread!

I have some lovely memories of Christmas when I was a kid. I don't really remember going to see Santa although I know that we did, I only have one memory of queueing outside Clery's one year but that's all.

We (my siblings and I) would get up and go downstairs together on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought. We weren't allowed up too early so maybe 7.30 or 8am, then my parents would come down and we'd show them what we'd get and we'd all get dressed and ready for Mass. We had the same visitors every year to the house in the same order, very groundhog day up to a few years ago but great all the same.

I have great memories of one or two Christmases being allowed to eat my Christmas dinner in the loving room as Mary Poppins was on at dinner time and I loved it so much. Eating in front of the tv was a big no-no the resdt of the year. I also remember back in the day of everyone only having a few channels that there would be a big film on Christmas Night at maybe 8.30 or 9pm and the whole family would gather around to watch it with pjs on and a box of sweets or some crisps or selection boxes being nibbled while we watched a film that would be having it's first tv premiere on Irish tv. It was always a brand new film that unless you'd been to the cinema you would not have seen. The excitement!

Loughc

I waited so long to repsond to this thread, I wanted to wait until I was on the laptop and had a bit of time to repsond.

My Childhood memories of Christmas are not to dis-similar to above. I remember meeting Santa, in a Heatons, a random hardware shop and what was cutting edge at the time I remember seeing him arrive via helicopter into a football pitch at the back of a Dunnes stores for his stint in Dunnes that day. Every last Santa had the cheap beard/suit with red tracksuit cotton bottoms, but it was no doubt it was defintely him haha.

The one thing I do remember was he would only appear in these shops for a day and be gone again with us all being told he's far to busy to be hanging around and that made total sense, even now as an adult I look at the Christmas grottos and think... pfft there's no way he has time to be in Blanch for 20 odd days and make all the toys. 😜

I vividily remember being starstruck when meeting him everytime, he was the ultimate celeb sure. Haha. Other childhood memories, I can still vividly remember and still smell to this day my Mam's homemade stuffing, she would be up so early Christmas Morning curtiousy of me and my sibilings and she would be working on food prep even though it was still dark outside. We're a big family so god knows how that woman did it year in year out but she did.

As for presents I think I mentioned it before, I still vividly remember the year I got a ring toss game and the Crystal Maze board game, they were part of my "surprise", I couldn't even tell you what the main present was that year but I remember those two games as the ring toss game provided great family fun/competition that day and the Crystal Maze board game blew my mind, I was OBSESSED with the Crystal Maze I would watch it religiously on Channel 4, they would show an episode a day each morning durning the UK Summer Holidays. So for Santa to nail this present blew my mind, it's almost like that man knew what I watched on tv!!

Similar to you FPC I began having doubts around 4th class, I had given up believing but never said anything to my parents, I remember not being able to sleep that Christmas Eve and I could hear my Dad turn to my Mam, oh we forgot to put a present in his sock and that confirmed my suspicions. I still remember squeezing my eyes really hard and hoping I was having a weird dream but alas I wasn't.

The following year on the run up to Christmas my Mam was badgering me about if I wanted to go see Santa and she worked out from my responses that I stopped believing. I remember thinking she seemed more upset about it than I was and only now looking back I realise it was because I was the youngest in the family so i was the last to believe. I remember that Christmas being a dull one in my eyes and it took me a while to realise Christmas wasn't about Santa it was about family and everyone being together.

I remember actually appreciating things like Midnight mass (at 9pm) with a choir movie days at home. I had a feeling this would be a long post so apologies for that but this thread brought back some lovely memories for me 😀

Loughc

Actually my post above just stirred up another memory and it might be a controversial one for everyone, we got presents in a Christmas sock (or a GAA sock :P) the socks would be left at the end of our beds and when we woke if presents were in the socks we knew Santa had been, the absolute excitement of seeing the sock with toys and chocolate in it and knowing Santa had been was a feeling like no other.

And how the hell did my parents do that all those years without every waking any of us haha! (Well until the last year of course) but then again they never checked if I was sleeping or not, amateurs haha.

Also the Den Christmas specials on Christmas Eve, PEAK Christmas haha.

DvB

Great posts loughc... enjoyed reading them.

Like yourself I'll wait until I'm back at my pc before contributing to this thread.

TRS30

Great replies.

Yep, need to set aside some time to write this one up.

Posy

Some lovely posts here, really enjoyed reading through this thread!

DvB

I wrote the below back a couple of years ago in an older similar thread (only took an age to find it thanks to the 'find my posts' function being done away with) so thought I'd simply copy & paste...

So many childhood Christmas memories... off the top of my head...

My dad bringing home the RTE Guide, Radio Times & TV times and me marking off all the stuff I planned to watch (& mostly never did)...

Getting a day off school in the run up to go in & see santa in switzers (showing my age there) & then arnotts after switzers was no more, we'd always get a gift from my mum & dad that day too & lunch in McDonalds, that was almost as big a day as christmas back then for us!!

Putting up the 'now retro' decorations & the same artificial tree for years, was convinced it was huge & remember being disappointed when clearing out my folks attic a couple of years ago & finding it & realising how small it looked.

Midnight mass on christmas eve (which was usually at 9pm bizarrely!!)

Being convinced I heard santa on the roof one year... & I mean convinced!!!

Staying awake every christmas eve night through pure excitement & raging because I wanted it to go quicker!!

Going down on christmas morning & dying to see what presents we'd all gotten. Still remember a bike, star wars stuff, star trek stuff, always getting the guinness book of records & annuals (Beano & Dandy and shoot or Match as I got older)

Remember how the holidays seemed to take an age to arrive & then every shop closed for what seemed like weeks and all the grown ups were off work.

Going visiting my relatives in Cabra who all lived in 3 houses in a row on the one street. We did that for at least 20 years, up to the stage I remember being the designated driver so my dad could have a beer or two. *update, the majority of these elderly relatives are now dead unfortunately so whenever I drive past their old houses it really brings back a huge wave of memories & emotions, many of them Christmas related... more often that not being a nostalgic old git it brings a tear to my eye too... great great memories & a reminder to make the most of the here & now as it all goes by so so fast.

I also remember due to my Dads work he'd have loads of gifts to give to clients, usually large boxes of milk tray or suchlike, which we'd get to keep a couple of each year too (all above board LOL) many memories of the boxes being opened as we all sat down to watch TV of an evening and had a few choccys!!

I genuinely cant remember when I stopped believing in Santa though, I'm sure like many it was around 10 or 11 but I just cant differentiate the years any more. Christmas memories are a blended mess of colour, light, smells & sounds... & most of all, love & laughter... here's to many many more!!

Jude13

"Being convinced I heard santa on the roof one year... & I mean convinced!!!" this was so much me, I was convinced I heard sleigh bells on the roof.

I used to get new boots or kit for Christmas and would be dying for the St Stephen's day game at my dads club where it was fancy dress and married vs singles. They would let kids play too, I took it all too serious.

I have a terrible memory but can feel the excitement that almost made me ill on Christmas eve.

tscul32

The first Christmas I can remember, I was just coming up on 3.5 years old. My uncle took me and my brother to see Santa - my dad had dropped us to our nana's cos my mam was in having my sister. She was born on the 23rd. That Christmas morning we went in to meet the baby. Santa had left a teddy for the baby. My brother (who was almost 6) was told to put it in with the baby and flung the bear down on top of her. Then these nurses came in singing Christmas carols, one of them had a guitar.

Christmas dinner was always at my aunties growing up, cooking is not a love of my mam's. There were 12 grandkids in the extended family and we had a table in one room and the adults in another (years later as we all got older, there was a table stretching through the dining room and sitting room with 20+ people). The biggest challenge was to try not to need the loo during dinner cos when you got back there was a good chance your drink was laced with salt. Or peas, or carrots ....

Those Christmas days were great fun.

CheerLouth

This is such a lovely thread...I'm going to have to take some time to do up my memories 😍

jellybear

Oh guys, I'm feeling very emotional reading all these memories!! They're absolutely lovely.

Our Christmases were fairly normal. 3 of us up early to see what Santa brought. We'd then wake mam and dad up to tell them what Santa had brought. We'd visit my Granny and Grandad and then my Nanny where my aunties, uncles and cousins would (eventually!) arrive. The dining room table was FULL of treats and we'd exchange presents in her front room. The house was sold this year so I hope the new owners create lovely Christmas memories there now.

After that it was home for dinner, play with toys etc.

I always loved the Christmas party in my mam's work. They used to have sugar mice with every child's name on it!

My favourite present was "The Big Red Fun Bus"...I'm sure it's still in my parents attic!

I'm in my 30s and still haven't had the "not believing" chat 🤣 Found out in 6th class but never said anything at home. We now do presents on Christmas eve and we all still get a bundle from Santa 😁

Strumms

First Christmas I remember is the excitement of putting the tree up with my parents marveling at all the colored lights, tinsel, Dad of one of my friends used to dress up as Santa and call to us about 7 on Christmas Eve with a small gift and some sweets... “i was just passing so i thought I’d say hi, I’m coming back in xx hours so be in bed early”...

the present haul was about four times what was written on my list to Santa...

airy fairy

My parents were country folk that had little money growing up in the 40s. So my Christmas was determined by their experiences.

Spraoi or Siamsa books given out the day of the holidays in school. We thought santy brought them. Have no idea how the parents paid for them without us noticing! Never had concerts in school, but sang all the songs.

Every year my dad would bring us to town on Christmas Eve to get my mother perfume! We'd arrive home and she would have the tree in the hall put up, and the crib. The front room was decorated with those silver and gold long strings from corner to corner on the ceiling. Never before Christmas Eve were decorations put up. (Until I had children and she put them up early for the 4 Christmas's she was alive after they were born).

Santy (not Santa when growing up) arrived Christmas Eve night for us. Odd one. Never got into asking or realising we were different than other kids. We'd go for a spin after tea time and arrive home to find santy had been. Next morning, after mass, we'd take the long journey to my nana in west Cork. There were loads of people there, cousins, relatives, neighbours. Dinner consisted of the men being fed first. Then the children, in any corner of the kitchen available. Then the women, while the men went to another room for the poitin.

I don't remember Christmas extending far beyond Christmas day. Only remember the crib and decorations being taken down on the 6th January.

Finding out about santy, was upsetting for me, but I think I was about 10. I wanted a particular toy. I remember coming into my parents bed one Sunday morning and for some reason, hung over the side and spotted the box. Said nothing and asked later. The parents told me it was only the box as santy asked them to take that home from the shop as he had no room for it! I believed it....but it dawned on me a few months later!

Because my parents grew up with nothing for Christmas, especially my mother who would have got an orange or some biscuits for Christmas day, Christmas was never big for me as a child, as in materialistic. I never wanted for anything, and whatever I asked for was got, within reason. It was still special for me. Still loved the trip to town and seeing the lights and the crib. Loved meeting the cousins on Christmas day that I hadn't seen for months, some from the UK who I'd have been writing to throughout the year.

I've no family now, all gone seoerate ways. Only ourselves and our children. No cousins, so a big change from what I grew up from. I make a huge deal out of Christmas now. I go big. Probably to make up for lack of family!

Littlehorny

^^^Really really lovely post Airy Fairy, I have a lump in my throat reading it. It would be no harm if we all got back to more simpler times a bit in my opinion, less worried about buying or getting stuff and just meeting up with family and enjoying the craic.

It seems to be real trend that we have lost touch with being close to our cousins in the last couple of generations.

DvB

You do get the feeling reading the posts in this thread that Christmas seemed to be far simpler back in our childhood years, that of course could be rose tinted glasses of youth but I also think that we as a society have increased the pace of life so to the extent we heap pressure on ourselves and never moreso than around christmas. There seems to be a narrative that Christmas has to be perfect or the best craic of the year or suchlike when it rarely can live up to that for us all as adults, and whilst we do our upmost to recapture the joys of our early years and everything that christmas meant we cant ever replicate christmas through the eyes of innocence now that the adult world has overtaken us. We reimagine Christmas as we get older and still enjoy it of course, most of the time anyway, but there is something so so special about this time of year for children that I get huge enjoyment reading other peoples memories here and that deep down our core values & experiences (whilst different in terms of locations, tradition & expenditure) are so similar. We have been so fortunate to have had such positive experiences and lifelong memories to share with others like this.

Thanks everyone who contributed to this thread, its been a superb read.

Loughc

Well said @DvB, And this certainly has been a fantastic thread to read, some of the posts are so well written I feel like I'm experiencing Christmas childhoods with ye all.

To follow up on the couple of points on what you said DVB, You are right it was definitely a simpler Christmas back in our day, 2 things driving that. 1. Factories and offices would close for 2 weeks so people had time to unwind and enjoy and slow down and take it all in. Nowadays my job would open the office Christmas Day if they could. I have to argue every single year to get my Christmas hols. 2. Social Media is to blame for the "Perfect Christmas Image" it's being blasted at our faces 24/7 from Nov 1st. People become too focused on what Christmas should look like rather than what Christmas should be.

On Monday Dermot & Dave had a great topic on how to beat Festive stress. One of the points was my sister-in-law has the place settings for dinner in pristine condition, takes her ages to do, if only she realised the meal is only about the people around the dinner table being there nothing else. For me Christmas is simple its a time to be with the ones you love. It's one of the rare times people all get holidays around the same time and gather together. Nothing will ever top that.