Until recently, I was a columnist for the In-depth Genealogist Magazine and also wrote for their blog. Now the magazine is sadly no more, contributors have been invited to re-post their blog material elsewhere, so that it is preserved. This is another post that I wrote for the magazine, which I have edited to bring it up to date.

This four years ago I was taking delivery of my latest creation; a whole pallet full of poorly wrapped books were deposited near my driveway in the rain. I say my creation but that wasn’t really true. Eighty ladies had spent the preceding eighteen months writing their memories of various aspects of their lives in the decades following the second world war. I then wove these together into what was to become the book Remember Then: women’s memories of 1946-1969 and how to write your own. These ladies wanted copies of the book to give as seasonal gifts and I had very few days in which to package and post numerous copies. So that is a memory of 2015 but what about earlier December memories?

The previous year, my ladies had been writing the section of the book that related to celebrations. We wrote about food, gifts, gatherings, religious ceremonies, decorations and family rituals and traditions. Along with them, I too recorded what I remembered of this special time of year. These memories appeared on a blog post at the time. Many of the traditions of my childhood have been perpetuated by my descendants, other have been lost over the decades, making it important for me to preserve them for posterity. Are your descendants aware of how the holiday season was spent in your youth? Do you have older relatives who you could question about the customs of past decades? These memories are part of your family’s history and should be recorded.

To give you a flavour, what follows are just a few of the memories that my ladies shared. I would encourage you to preserve similar recollections for your own family.

“There was one year when the roast potatoes found themselves on the floor. I don’t think the five second rule had been heard of then but the potatoes were eaten, we survived and none the wiser. Then there was catering for Uncle Percy, who emphatically didn’t eat turkey – except of course when we convinced him that it was chicken! Christmas mornings meant cheeselets and ginger ale, later replaced by Benedictine or Southern Comfort.”

“When we were young, we always tried to give my parents a hand-made gift, made and wrapped in great secrecy. I remember string pot cloths, drawn-thread tray cloths, embroidered hankies, frilled aprons, home produced bath salts in decorated bottles, knitted tea cosies, gloves and ties.”

“Many of our decorations were hand-made and we spent hours cutting coloured paper into strips and gluing them into chains. We also bought home Chinese paper lanterns made at school and made crepe paper streamers to decorate the ceilings. In later years, I made Christmas bells out of Teacher’s whisky bottle tops, painting them white and dipping the bottom edges in silver or gold glitter, then drilling a hole in the top to hang a bead clapper and a loop to put them on the tree.”

““We always went to the pantomime shortly after Christmas. We usually had good seats at the front on the left as you faced the stage. I have no idea how early mum had to book, or how much she had to pay, to get these premium seats. Being at the front was very important as, at some point, children would be invited to go up on stage and it was whoever could get there quickest. I don’t remember being disappointed. The lucky children would then help with the audience participation song and I think, were given a small gift.”

Glimpses then of past celebrations. Now is the time to grasp your own memories and commit them to paper before they fade into oblivion. By the way should you want a copy of the book, please contact me for details (still on a mission to reduce the book stock 🙂 )