Geneabloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

When I was a small child our Christmas trees were always real. The smell in the house was wonderfully warming.

In the 1970s when artificial Christmas trees became the rage we got one.

Whether the tree was real or artificial the ornaments were the same. We had some lovely ones that my parents had bought for their first tree in 1959. I have the few that survived on my tree.

Putting up the tree each year was a ritual. It went up the second weekend of December and my father would put on the lights. Then it was our turn to put on the decorations. The final items on the tree were the candy canes and small hollow chocolates in the shape of Santa, pine cones, angels and Christmas trees. The presents were not put under the tree until Christmas Eve.

The tree was always taken down by the 6th of January.

This was originally published in December 2010

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël

Nollaig Shona

Nollaig Chridheil

Christmas Eve is our Christmas celebration day. We all meet at my parent’s house for the present exchange, conversation and cheer. The tree is now in the living room near the fireplace and I have passed on my present distribution duties to my niece. Mum, as always, will put on a lovely spread. There are hors d’oeuvres of shrimp, cheese and pate. Then it is the roast beef dinner that we look forward to all year. Dessert is my job and I have a hard time finding something new every year. Then while the coffee is being served so are my homemade cookies and truffles.
©2010 – Blair Archival Research