Silver bells and a sing-song

Yours

Marion as a young girl

e are lucky to be living W in a more affluent age, but there is no denying that Christmas was far more thrilling when times were harder. As many readers recall, our parents went to great lengths to make it a magical time...

Movita Durber will never forget the year that her father, a miner in South Wales, was on strike but didn’t want his family to go without: “We couldn’t afford a Christmas tree so he took a holly tree from a farmer’s field. I acted as look-out, which I thought was very exciting. Although prickly, it was one of the best trees ever because the lights reflected on its shiny leaves.”

I can’t help hoping that if the farmer had discovered them, he would have entered into the spirit of the season and turned a blind eye to the theft of his tree.

Money was also scarce when

Pat Gregory was growing up in a London tenement: “One year a local charity delivered a Christmas package that included a tree – something we’d never had before. Our excitement was short-lived when we realised we had no decorations to put on it.

“Nan said, ‘Never mind. I’ll show you what to do’. She made silver bells out of milk bottle tops which

writer Marion Clarke celebrates the spirit of Christmas past

we hung on the tree with some of our toys. Topped with a silver paper star, that tree made it one of the best Christmases ever.”

Aged ten, all Patricia Mason wanted was a doll’s house: “On Christmas morning my brother and I got into bed

‘Our family gatherings were always accompanied by music’

with Mum and Dad as we always did to open our presents. Young as I was, I knew I mustn’t make a scene because there was no doll’s house. But when Mum called us down to breakfast, there it was – a beautiful Tudor-style house.

“I found out long afterwards that Dad had made it following the instructions in a hobbies magazine, spending his evenings working down in the cellar so that I wouldn’t know.”

Even Hitler couldn’t put a damper on a good old London knees-up, as Jo Masters recounts: “During the war, we lived near Portobello Road and every Christmas the market stall holders held a street party for everyone. A piano was brought out and food and drink was laid on for free. It certainly lifted our spirits in those dark days.”

As you can see in the photo below, Julia Thorley’s family liked to make their own entertainment: “The sprig of holly above the picture frame identifies this as Christmas at my grandparents’ house, Sunny Home. Seated at the piano is my mum and my dad is standing behind her.

“Our family gatherings were always accompanied by music, often ending with a rousing four-handed rendition of Tiger Rag.”

It looks much more fun than sitting around watching old films on TV!

Julia Thorley’s family Christmas