My Most Memorable Christmas (some of this is a duplication of another post about Christmas !)
I've always enjoyed celebrating Christmas but the most thrilling was the time that my mother, brother, Richard, and I went to the local "dime" store, Woolworths, on Christmas Eve. I must have been about 6 years old at the time. My father was not supporting us so we were poor, sometimes hungry, and cold in the winter. I believe a check must have arrived from my grandparents, who lived overseas, and late that afternoon we set off, taking the bus about 3 miles to the nearest town. That must have been a desperate wait for my mother, with "Father Christmas" arriving that night and no gifts at all.
It was a crisp winter evening with a slight smell of smoke in the air, from various coal fires, and we arrived as it was getting dusk. We were seldom out after dark, so that in itself was exciting, and especially with all the lights and colorful Christmas displays. The shops were open late and we went into Woolworths. My mother gave Richard and I some money, so we could all buy gifts for each other. Woolworths was an American store that had opened branches in the UK. The one in our town, Worthing, was quite large. We seemed to be in there for ages, making sure no-one saw what the others were buying.
One of the things I bought my mother was a pink plastic bowl with a lid, for her jewelry. Now I realize it was rather ugly ! I don't remember what else, most likely a toy car for my brother and perhaps farm animals or toy soldiers, made of lead. In those days these were all rather beautiful as they were hand painted in realistic colors and well made. The only drawback was that if you trod on them they broke. I remember one I lost that way - a miniature horse and cart which I particularly loved: a brown horse with a red harness pulling a tiny cart painted green with tiny yellow wheels.
We returned home on the bus to wrap our gifts and place them under our small tree. This was on the table in the living room and wasn't real. It was about 3 feet high and had little red berries as decoration. It wasn't until some years later that we had a real tree and even that was quite small as my brother had to carry it home. Every year my mother would bemoan how few presents there were, but I never understood her complaint as I wasn't used to anything else. I thought we got quite a lot. The living room was always decorated with colorful paper chains and paper bells and some of the chains we made ourselves. At first those had to be stuck with glue, which we made from flour and a little water, but later they came with the glue on.
Our stockings, which were made of raffia, were laid at the end of our beds and I was usually awake most of the night, trying to make sure I got a glimpse of Father Christmas. I never was able to but in the morning, on waking, would be aware of a heavy lump next to my feet and a slight crackling noise from the raffia. Other than toys, our stockings always contained noise makers, chocolate and at the very bottom an apple and orange. Once one reached in to find those it was disappointing as you knew the excitement was at an end !
Christmas breakfast was usually, bacon, eggs, toast and as a special treat, grapefruit. That Christmas my mother was in tears as there was little food in the house and nothing for lunch except potatoes. Given the choice of toys or food, she had chosen toys ! Fortunately the next door neighbor, Mrs. Willoughby, heard her weeping and came over to see what was wrong. When she found out, she kindly baked us a rabbit pie. I did not like rabbit in those days and refused to eat it !!
