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TessA
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19-12-2019, 04:38 PM
11

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

Sorry Sweetie, I was Mary!

When one of my brood was at primary school, my best friend volunteered to help make the navity costumes for the whole class ofabout 25 kids. She was a dressmaker and upholsterer. She asked me to help.
Suddenly, she had a settee to re-cover.
I ended up doing the whole lot with a couple of Mums who couldn't sew.
That included a choir of about 12, red gowns and ruffs as well as the nativy lot!
We had very little fabric, shepherds had old sheets with painted stripes and Gabriel had wings made from a silver table cloth.

It turned out really wonderful, just as well as it was performed in Wells Cathedral!

Yes, I did shed a tear!
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19-12-2019, 04:56 PM
12

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

Originally Posted by Meg ->
I have disliked Christmas as long as I can remember, from 16 months of age when my Mother died it was always spent in someone else's house and my main memory was of feeling I must be grateful and 'beholden' to family members who had taken me in.
Other memories..
..my great aunt killed one of my beloved chickens to eat for Chrismas lunch .
..walking in the snow to a school Chrismas party and a neighbours dog called Sooty getting run over, I cried all the way to and through the party .
..chilblains

Adulthood and no improvement to tales of woe, I won't continue with my depressing stories...

I'm not surprised that Christmas has always been a horrible time for you Meg. What a terrible start you had. I bet there are many others with similar sad stories too.

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19-12-2019, 04:59 PM
13

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

Originally Posted by TessA ->
Sorry Sweetie, I was Mary!

So was I.
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susan m
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19-12-2019, 06:03 PM
14

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

Now I'm remembering some funny Christmas times when my kids were little .


It was nativity and M had been chosen to be a donkey . I made a very large donkey head out of cardboard with sticky up ears . The donkey face was painted and I stuck on false eyelashes to the bright large eyes . Teacher thought it was clever .

Nativity night comes I'm in the audience. On come the kings and jesus and Mary and Joseph, the angels all in their finery. Then on comes my little girl wrapped in a large brown/ grey blanket and wearing her donkey head . Overnight the head had been lying on a shelf on its side and one sticky up ear had pressed flat to the side of its face its beautiful large eyes complete with false eyelashes looking straight at me . I could not stop giggling my shoulders bouncing as I stared back at the donkey one ear sticky up the other stuck flat.

It was hilarious . Sadly in those days I couldn't afford a camera so I only have a memory
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19-12-2019, 06:46 PM
15

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

Remember some of the adult beverages, Sandeman Port, Harvey's Bristol Cream and Watney's Pale Ale. Dad playing the piano, and Uncles playing spoons and wash boards.
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19-12-2019, 09:47 PM
16

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

Originally Posted by Longdogs ->
So was I.
Before your transition?
keezoy
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20-12-2019, 03:34 AM
17

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

For us it was always the weird combination of northern hemisphere tradition and southern hemisphere reality. For a long time my mother insisted we attend church for the Christmas eve service. So we did. Then it was Christmas presents around a pine tree decorated with fake snow and baubles. Bing Crosby, Perry Como and other crooners singing christmas schmaltz from the radiogram. That's what it was called back then. Relatives sitting around the living room dressed in shorts and Tshirts. An old air conditioning clunker banging away making the house nice and cool from the scorching heat outside. Then after presents and a few ice cold beers it would be outside in the shaded area to the BBQ. Most food cold apart from the BBQ chicken or steak. After deserts and a good yak parents would laze and maybe have a sleep and kids would go surfing until parents woke up and come ordering us home. I spent a few Christmases in my teenage years on the West Coast in Perth and I will never forget sitting around on the beach over Christmas and watching the sun sink into the ocean. After the sea breeze came in it would get quite chilly. We used to sit around a fire and eat Chrissy left overs using a surfboard as a table. Those memories are pure treasure for me. Ones that nobody can take away.
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20-12-2019, 12:04 PM
18

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

I can remember going to my friends children's Nativity plays, when my children were virtually grown up & getting quite tearful with emotion at their acting. Yet both boys were really little sh&ts.
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23-12-2019, 09:52 PM
19

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

Thanks for your stories, both sad and fond memories.

Hope you all enjoy the festive period.

This vid made me think about how I was.

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Tedc
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25-12-2019, 11:10 AM
20

Re: Thoughts of Christmas past

I remember Christmas back in the days when I spent a lot of them on Merchant Ships.

The food would be superb.

The booze minimal (if you were at sea).

But the things which stick out were (a) the sadness, of everyone, that they not only could not be with their families, but couldn't communicate with them either (no mobiles back then).

(b) As Radio Man, one of my most important tasks was to get the Queen's Speech using the ship's Radio System. Not an easy task if you were in the middle of an ocean, somewhere.

Woe betide the Radio Man who didn't manage it however!

Ringing eight bells twice, on New Year's Eve, was a great memory too.

 
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