The ghost of Christmas Past

My memories of Christmas as a kid seem quite different to the Christmas's experienced by our kids today. My presents consisted of two or three major presents from mum & dad, and a pillowcase of goodies from Santa.

Typically, I remember having a plastic Action Man type figure, in the guise of a Knight. I had the Black Knight, and Martin, my brother, had the Silver knight. these came complete with a horse, and fully detachable armour. we had hours of fun jousting, suiting up, and having mock battles. Other major presents would be a "Lego" set, Meccanno, or Action Man. One Christmas, I had a multi-weaponed gun, and was distraught that it was not a genuine "johnny seven", like on the TV. Martin remembers a second hand bike, with different colour tyres on the front and the back.

The pillowcase would typically contain a "selection box" of chocolates, a pack of pencils with my name embossed on one face, a pack of playing cards, a "Giles" cartoon annual, a Beezer or Topper annual, a jigsaw, a pack of chocolate money, some satsumas, a colouring book and perhaps paints, a torch, a tennis ball, a "power ball", some smarties or jelly tots in a long tube, maybe a box of soldiers or an "airfix" model, some socks, handkerchiefs with my initial on, a "slinky", some dice, and maybe a board game.


We would then have presents from our Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, when we had Christmas Dinner. ( Swansea Dinner, that is, at 1:00 pm.) My Grandfather, Hadyn, bought me a plastic rugby ball one time, which was ruined by being placed next to the coal fire, and swelling on one side. I had a lopsided ball to play with all that year.

I think I enjoyed these gifts more than the snowstorm of presents our kids get these days. I realise that we are more affluent than our parents were, but the very sparseness of the presents made them seem more valued in those days.