Christmas: A glimpse of Christmas from ‘our time of life’

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Seven years ago, Derby City Council set up the Our Time of Life group aimed at bringing together elderly people, who lived alone, one morning a week. It started as a mixed group but eventually became all-women, who enjoyed tackling a variety of projects from learning to use computers to recording their own memories for posterity. Ivy Ryalls, of Alvaston, was one of the founding members. Here, she recounts some of the women’s memories of their own childhood Christmases.

JOAN: My sister Audrey was six years younger than me. The fairly big gap in our ages was due to our baby sister Beryl dying of bronchitis in the time between us being born.

Before Christmas Audrey and I used to go searching on top of the wardrobes and in all the cupboards to see if we could find our presents. I stopped believing in Santa Claus a long time before Audrey did, but I used to continue the myth for her sake.

We shared a bedroom and we’d put our pillowcases at the foot of the bed on Christmas Eve. When we woke up they were full of presents and I’d say: “Audrey, Santa’s been, Santa’s been!”

I remember getting sugar mice in my pillowcase. One year I was given a dulcimer – a small metal xylophone. We’d have one big present and some little ones, including some from Woolworth’s, where everything was under sixpence at that time.

I used to love Christmas. Audrey and I made our own garlands to decorate the house and we had good presents to say we weren’t what you would call well off.

One year I had a pram for my doll with covers made by Mum. It was beautiful. It cost £1 from the Universal Club.

My doll was made in Germany, and it had “Germany” written on the back of its neck. I called her Maureen.

In those days the dolls had pot heads and, although she lasted a long time, eventually she got smashed. When I was seven I had a new bike, costing three guineas from the bike shop near Normanton barracks. I was thrilled. It was brand new.

Joyce: Christmas starts a lot earlier now than it did then. When my children were young, I took them to the Whitehouse on Babington Lane. I wanted them to have things that I never did. They chose their own presents.

There was no such thing as “pester power” in those days. You never said to your parents: “Can I have this or that?” because you knew they couldn’t afford it.

Frances: Our family weren’t very well off. My dad was only on 10/6d per week war pension, which wasn’t a lot of money. He’d been poisoned in the First World War – not on the Western Front but by some German prisoners bidding for escape in the hospital where he was a nurse.

The poison affected his stomach. He could only do certain sorts of work and he had to go on a fish diet for the rest of his life.

One year, when I was about eight, he made me a beautiful cradle for my doll. That same year my mum, who was a good seamstress, was making a wedding frock for a neighbour. She made me a pillow and quilt for the cradle out of the material she had left over.

I also had toys from Woolworth’s, including a shop with miniature jars of sweets. When they wore out, I replaced them with some I made myself.

I had a posh Aunt, who used to give me half-a-crown (12.5p) when I saw her. I was thrilled. When you consider it was about a quarter of Dad’s weekly pension you can see how much money it was.

We kept fowls in the garden and Mum would boil the Christmas chicken before roasting it. It makes you wonder why she had to do that! There was no frozen food in those days, of course.

Betty: My brother Tom was four years older than me and I must say we never argued. My dad worked for the Corporation and, although the wages weren’t fantastic, we never had a short week through lack of work.

Mum used to take washing in and she also went out cleaning, so she topped up the family income. I helped her with the clean washing delivery and would get a penny for my trouble.

Mum was a dressmaker- cum-tailoress and she always made nice things for my dolls. One Christmas, my dad made me a doll’s house from an orange box turned upside down. He put some paper on it that looked like brick.

He was an electrician and he put a battery on the back to give it lights.

I was so proud of my orange box doll’s house.

Christmases were great, Mum used to bake lots of nice things such as lemon cheese tarts and mince pies, and we always had the chimney swept so Santa could get down it. My brother and I went with Mum to Ranby’s department store to look at the toys, while Dad went to Sammy Rooms, the poulterers on the corner of Queen Street, to fetch two chickens for Christmas dinner.

We made paper chains to decorate the house and I always hated it when the trimmings had to come down.

We lived next door to a joiner, and one year he made us some stilts! They were great.

Mum’s sister was very poor. She had 10 children. At Christmas we made things for them because they couldn’t afford expensive presents. We knit clothes for their dolls, Mum would bake them a Christmas cake and put 10 Woodbines in her sister’s husband’s stocking.

The only regret I have is never having a bubble pipe – a clay pipe that blew bubbles. There was a craze on them when I was young and all the children had them.

Connie: There were 12 children in my family. I was the youngest. My dad was a joiner and he made us toys at Christmas.

One Christmas Eve, he’d made us all presents and he came upstairs to put them on our beds, ready for the morning.

I woke up because there were so many of us in the bedroom, he had to climb over our beds and, as he did so, he was standing on the presents and breaking them! I think he must have been on the sherry.

I never let on I was awake. I just lay there listening to the sound of the Christmas presents cracking, hoping they weren’t mine! In the morning, I realised my presents were all right, but some of my brothers and sisters got broken ones.

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