Christmas Memories by Anna Kingston

When I was a child, my dad worked away from home and probably missed half of my childhood Christmases (he was in the Merchant Navy and spent his Christmases in many far-flung places).  Money was always very tight, but especially at this time of year, and my mum was used to making it stretch - dad used to joke that mum could make the Family Allowance (now Child Benefit) stretch indefinitely!

One year, things were even tighter than usual, but we children were never aware just how poor we were, thanks to mum’s fantastic creativity with everything she touched.  This particular year, mum not only cooked everything from scratch as usual, but made every single part of our Christmas - no mean feat when you have three little girls!

She sewed dressing up clothes for us from old sheets and fabric she already had, even making a scaled-down version for our favourite dolls. Mum created a peg doll for each of us, drilling holes to poke pipe cleaners through for arms, and raiding her scraps basket to create Edwardian ladies for us.  She painted and printed ferns onto thick paper to make cards for us, and even got some unprinted newspaper from the chippy to print designs on with potatoes to make wrapping paper.

Prior to Christmas, we celebrated St Nicholas’ Day on 6th December and there was always a mysterious delivery of chocolate coins to be found in our shoes that morning.  We never believed in Father Christmas or Santa Claus, but for years she kept up the mystery about St Nicholas, without any outright lying!

In the run-up to Christmas, we’d put up decorations around the room, but the tree itself was bare, but always mysteriously twinkly and dripping with decorations, with beautifully wrapped gifts underneath, by the time we got up in the morning.  We girls would leave out mince pies and sherry for St Nicholas and carrots for the reindeer, and they were all half eaten by the morning - mum always said, quite truthfully, that it was a real mystery how they’d been eaten, and we fell for it!!

I still have my peg doll, and part of my dressing up outfit, and every time I make my mince pies I’m transported straight back to those 1970s Christmases, which were the richest I’ve ever known.