Christmas is coming

[CatrionaL]

Last Sunday a friend and I went to the English Church in Paris for the Carol Service. Superb singing. This week I bought my first REAL Christmas tree. So exciting.

Took me back to Christmases back home, when we were all together as a family.

I remember.........Christmas carols sung by all the church choirs around the huge Tree in the town square. Sometimes there was the bonus of snow falling as we sang.......delivering the delicious home-made cakes that Mum had baked as a present for her friends.....Midnight service and rushing home to open ONE present..........Feeling sorry for the mill workers as they walked past our gate on the way to work even on Christmas day........Excitement when the postman delivered maill (the 25th Dec wasn't a holiday for him either)..........the special thrill of finding our one mandarine of the year in our stockings. Never have they tasted or smelt so good since.

I wonder what your memories are?

Enjoy preparing for what I hope will be a Joyeux Noël for each one of you.

Catriona

[DavidWW]

Catriona's post sparked off the memory of my elder brother going to work as normal on Christmas Day, - he was an apprentice joiner, - it must have been around 1958/59, - quite normal for the times.

Another associated memory comes from my part-time job in a licenced grocers a few years later. The Christmas business was very much liquor, post dinner type drinks, and wine.

The Ne'erday business was all that and more, plus beer stacked to the ceiling!!, and crowds 10 deep at the counter on Hogmanay itself, - the shop only closed on Hogmanay when there wasn't a queue, and I'm sure the owner would have kept it open all hours if his licence had permitted!

At that time good whisky was still in relatively short supply, and it was fascinating watching the owner in terms of how he kept the majority of the stock of certain brands literally under the counter .............

Davie

[AnnetteR]

Hi all

I think my fondest memories of Xmas were those of when I was a child. A nice big roaring fire in the grate (until the wind blew and you got splatted with soot). Fireside tartan oan yer legs fae sittin to near the fire, very attractive. No Xmas stocking for me, aw naw, ah goat a pilla case (ah wis the wean at the time ye see so ah wis spoilt rotten the next sibling up being 7 years older). In the pilla case wis the obligatory tangerine, a silver sixpence and a comic album, sweeties and all kinds of magical stuff but the big pressies were set out for ye in the kitchen (in those days the kitchen was massive and it was where the whole family gathered round the hearth) - the rest of the house wis freezin especially as it neared the day for the coal man to arrive cos we couldnae afford a fire in every room and the living room was only used when 'posh' visitors came. After opening the 'big' pressies (by big ah mean a tea set and usually a dolly) and playing wi them fur a wee while oot ye went tae see yer pals and whit goodies they had got. Ma Mammy wid wrap a big wooly scarf round ma neck and criss cross it across ma chest eventually tying it round my back. Next on wis the gloves wi the string attached that threaded through the sleeves of your coat jist so as ye widnae lose them and then, of course, the wooly hat that came down over yer ears and tied under yer chin. Welly boots were a must. In all honesty when I left the house there wasn't much to see of me, just a big wooly bundle wi rubber legs. And the snow fights - oh how I loved peltin folk wi snowballs and of course the excitement of building a snowman and the disappointment when the thaw came and washed yer wee pal away. Ah used tae get very attached tae ma wee snowmen and dress them up wi rags that ma mammy wid give me (she would later retrieve them and sell them on to the 'rag man' for a couple of coppers. No techno games wi flashing lights and fancy computers for us in those days, oh no, ye see although I got a pilla case filled wi stuff it wis aw whit we wid caw 'cheap tat' these days but in those days tae a wee lassie growing up in the tenements of Glasgow even the packaging was pure magic and on Xmas day we were all fairy princesses and the 'boys' were swashbucklers and cowboys.

Wishing you all good Xmas memories

Annette

[Guest]

My Dad was the only licenced Burner Mechanic in our area of the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland.(Until my big sister,so much for his dream of W.K.Haldane and Sons)He offered 24/7 service and was gone before I got up for school and still out when I went to bed.Christmas and Easter were the 2 days when he would do just about anything to stay with the family.He'd be first one up and head straight for his stocking.He wanted only 2 things.Thermal socks and a shot of Drambuie.(Nasty stuff,he gave me some once and my face was numb for most the day .Try saying Merry Christmas when your tongue has no feeling.)He would stick his little shot bottle in his shirt pocket.This was a very important part of the "stay home with the family plan".He'd wake the 6 of us kids and say things like "Ooh isn't that nice.When do we get to have a go with that?"(Unless it was one of them Rock albums that didn't even make a good frisbee.)Some one always got a game and we would each be challenged to play as the dinner cooked.But the ideal would come to an halt with every phone call we would wait to see if it was someone calling to say Merry Christmas or if it was a service call.Eventually the call would come (Without fail)Dad would be called to the phone(He hated the "flaming thing "as no one could understand his Glasgow accent.so why even pick it up?)That's when the bottle would come into play.Whenever they told him of some problem that could wait(a strange noise or something equally obscure)he would pull the bottle from his pocket and say "I 'm sorry but I can't come just the now.I've a drink in ma' hand and I canna drive."As most Newfoundlanders still used a wood stove for cooking we could get away with it for the day as they weren't without heat.But we would also get the call where they would tell how Granny was visiting from the Old Folks Home .The bottle would be put aside and he'd be of like a shot.Many times missing his Christmas dinner.One of the best presents we bought our parents was a microwave oven.No more long waits to reheat his dinner when he came in from the cold.
HK

[DavidWW]

Haw Annette !

The tears of laughter are rolling down my cheeks !!

Thanks !!

Davie

[DavidWW]

Heather

I can strongly recommend that, despite non-ideal experiences in youth, you give Glayva a try (on ice neat, or combined with a malt whisky, - one version of a "Rusty Nail", altho' some would argue that the other component should be a decent brandy), or, possibly difficult to get in Nova Stotia - Lochan Ora, - 'sno that easy tae get in Auld Scotia !

Davie

[Guest]

If you can stand me yammering on again my last post made me remember a Christmas Eve like no other.My sister Janet had come back from Scotland and joined the family business.We had each had a turn as soon as we could lift the big tool box.(Except Billie who had asthma and learned the bookkeeping side of the business)Dad had been gone all day on calls and was doing his best to keep Janet home with her new family(The 1st grandchild)My brother Angus was home on leave and got called into service as well.But a call came in from away down the Cape Shore.Over an hour away with no paved roads,and snow all day.Mum said for Janet not to go but Janet said if Dad had to go back out again later we might not have him even in on Christmas morning.So I was pulled into service so she wouldn't be alone on the derserted roads.With her little one tucked up safe at home with her father we headed out.Although the roads were not plowed we made it to the Club(a pub) .A party was in full swing.We had to wait for the owner to be found so we could find out the problem.The fire wouldn't start and he had tried the reset.This always sends bells and whistles off in our heads as most people don't press the switch just once,they press it over and over causing the furnace to flood with oil.Very dangerous.We asked for the fire extinguishers and he brought 3.Then Janet got to business.We were in a little crawl space filled with paint supplies and gas cans.I had to step out in the hall so Janet could lay down and look in the firepot when she switched on the furnace.(This was the only thing that saved me.)When the furnace started with a bang a flash of flame came right out the front where I had been standing just moments before.I crouched down under the flame to let Janet know not to stand up.She turned her head ,hit the shut of and we crawled out to get the fire extinguishers.The first one gave a short hiss and spit some foam on my boot.The next 2 couldn't even do that.We told the owner to get the fire service over.The fire was contained and would eventually burn itself out but we wouldn't take the chance.We had about 45 cents between us but were short a nickle for a bottle of pop.You would think that on Christmas eve after coming all that way and knowing we would have to come back on the next day he could have let us off with it.Not our Host.So we went out back to sit on the wood pile and wait for the fire chief to come and make sure it was safe to leave.We watched the sparks shoot out the chiminey into the night sky.Would have been a right pretty picture but the snow had started again with a vengence and we still had to get home.(Santa hadn't put all the presents under the tree yet and most were stored at Mum's)After getting the go ahead we were off.The roads were full of snow and it had now turned to sleet.No street lights and the head lights kept getting covered in ice till we were in the dark.Janet would stop the car and I would get out and chip it of.At one point we realized we had left the road and were in a farmers field.We backed out and were of again.Either it was too cold or the heater went.All I know was we could not get warm and the wiper blade on the drivers side wasn't working right so now I had to get out twice as often and scrape the window and the headlights.We were hopeing the old blade was in the trunk but if it was we couldn't find it.(Just 2 spare tires.One for our car and one just back from the shop for Dad's.I guess they didn't have time to switch it over yet.) So we tied a rag to the blade to keep it from gouging the window.(No luck)We only saw one person the whole trip home and he was off the road.We slowed to see if he needed help but he waved us off.(There were no cell phones so all we could really do was head for home and send the Highway men out to him.We got home and Mum was very relieved.We had been gone over 6 hours and should have been long back.Mum wanted to know if we had seen Dad on the road as she had gotten another call and caught him at his last one .He had ended up going down the Shore also."No "we said,"Just the gent on the side of the road,would she call the highway man and have someone check on him."Well Mum never used harsh language but what she said wasn't pretty.The end of it was."Angus ,you've got to go back out.Your Dad's on the Shore Road with a flat and the spare is in Janet's car."How were we to know.We were sure he was waving us off.Thought he was a lovely gent didn't want us hanging about waiting for the highway man to come dig him out.Janet headed home to play Santa, Angus headed out to change a flat and I went to bed before that lovely Gent came home.
HK

[Guest]

Hello Wullie,I've had Glavya also.It must be an aquired taste."Go on "Dad would say "Have a wee nip"And I would,barely touching my tongue to the liquid.(You have to realize my Dad had a wicked and often dry as a martini sence of humor)"That's not the way to do it.It's just a wee sip there.Go ahead."And you would.He was Dad,and he loved us and would never led us wrong.Nasty!
HK

[AnnetteR]

Haw Annette !

The tears of laughter are rolling down my cheeks !!

Thanks !!

Davie

Ma pleasure Davie, ma pleasure. Efter aw, it's laughter that makes the world go roon innit

Take care

Annette

[Moonwatcher]

Christmas always started for my brother and I - in a queue! A long winding queue that snaked from a lane off Argyll St in Glasgow along the pavement, in a side door and up 3/4 flights of stairs to the huge toy department of Lewiss's Store. That's where Santa hung out in his Grotto, surrounded by a winter wonderland of bambi type deer, polar bears, snow, twinkly lights and helpful smiling elves. After a couple of hours wait (literally), clutching our carefully written out wish lists, our first glimpse of this magical world confirmed that Christmas was indeed just around the corner.

Christmas morning was an adrenalin rush. Santa always played tricks on us. Apart from our stockings and 'main present', all our other pressies were hidden around the room – behind and under furniture, beneath cushions, behind curtains etc. Before we started the treasure hunt we emptied our stockings. We used the same ones every year. They were special Christmas ones that were packed away dutifully every year with the decorations and tree. They were made of a white mesh with a red border and expanded to an incredible size. We would find them stuffed with little games, sweets, TANGERINE, and plastic toys. Once the stocking was empty we scoured the room for hidden parcels. When we found one with the other's name on it we would quietly replace it where we found it. Board Games, cowboy and indian outfits, spud guns, colouring books, paints, model soldiers and forts, toys of all sorts spring to mind all these years later. Santa also had an annoying habit of leaving stuff that wasn't on our lists – like clothes!

When all the parcels had been found and we were buried in a heap of torn and crumpled Christmas paper, it was time to approach the main present. It may be a scooter or bike. Whatever it was – we were never disappointed. Last year, when my mother passed on, I discovered her old 'Provident' books dating back to our very first Christmases. They gave insight into how hard my parents worked to ensure we never experienced disappointment on those magical, exciting, innocent mornings.

Bob.