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CHRISTMAS 2020

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rosie said:
I've got one of those doorbells that plays tunes, everyone hates them but I love it as we can hear it beter than a single ring. I've just changed it to play Jingle bells, nobody will be ringing it anyway though!!
Best wishes for however you spend Christmas.
rosie.
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In the bad sad old days at work, one of our nasty bosses there were many, bought with company money of course a life sized Father Christmas, next to my desk in a big office, he sang all day, and ho ho ho etc. My colleague and I were thinking if we just hacked the cable we might blow ourselves up, but, some nice person unwired it and took the special plug away. Trouble is they thought it was us!
 
Richarddye said:
Rob, now that is a REAL Christmas Card!
Thank you......
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There is a lovely partially animated card on 123 Greetings if someone can put it on. It's free. It's called The Little Drummer Boy and starts with a stag in a snowy forest, with The Little Drummer Boy original choir singing. Dad bought us that 45 record when I was little. We always put it on at Christmas. Them he got an Andy Williams, then a Nat King Cole all Christmas songs. I eventually was given Christmas in Motown,. If someone cleaver can put it on it will be for all of us.
 
Smudger said:
Hi there pop pickers, This one is especially for Nico, his favourite Christmas jingle.
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We danced to this on the front counter at work, the office had shut, for the Christmas period, in the afternoon and we all pinched some decorations off the tree and some of the girls made tinsel halos. It was like who could do the stupidist dance to it and we had an audience and people hammering on the glass wanting to put a late advert in and we just ignored them. And to make it worse for them, the security man came and let some journalists out and the security chap refused to take adverts, rightly so.. The punters were livid and were trying to push them under the door, and there was a massive brass letterbox in the wall emblazoned with post on it. I danced with my mate Paul, like 2 elephants!
 
Another magical eerie funny memory. I was walking through thick fog after work, very dark, singing Merry Cristmas, War Is Over, I had trudged over the railway foot bridge which echoed then in to deep untrodden snow walking diagonally across Spencer Park. It was not lit at all. I saw some shapes I was very wary then I realised it was a ring of snowmen, with proper arms and faces. The Art students must have made it. The only light came from the distant shopping centre the other side of the railway line which used to be the station goods yard. And the moon reflecting on the snow. There was only me there and I just stood and marvelled at it. Then I had to laugh. In the centre of the circle was a sculpture of two naked amorous men (in snow) but it was art.
 
Nico said:
Another magical eerie funny memory. I was walking through thick fog after work, very dark, singing Merry Cristmas, War Is Over, I had trudged over the railway foot bridge which echoed then in to deep untrodden snow walking diagonally across Spencer Park. It was not lit at all. I saw some shapes I was very wary then I realised it was a ring of snowmen, with proper arms and faces. The Art students must have made it. The only light came from the distant shopping centre the other side of the railway line which used to be the station goods yard. And the moon reflecting on the snow. There was only me there and I just stood and marvelled at it. Then I had to laugh. In the centre of the circle was a sculpture of two naked amorous men (in snow) but it was art.
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What a photo that would have been Nico!!!
 
The first Christmas I remember was when I was 3. We lived in Balsall Heath but we'd had some awful neighbours move in. They'd made my Mom and Dad's lives a misery so for a time with lived with my lovely Gran. She lived in Baker Street, Sparkbrook (I've never seen any photos of this street anywhere) in a very small house but I loved it there. We slept in a tiny room with a sloping roof and I remember waking up Christmas morning there. Although I was an only one, Dad was a lorry driver (who loved the pub, bless him!) and there wasn't too much money to splash about. Apparently there was a second hand shop somewhere near Mary Street that had beautiful toys come in, and Mom got most of my presents from there. This Christmas I wanted a boy doll...had to be a boy. I think all dolls were girl dolls then but Mom had knitted a lovely blue romper suit to turn one into a boy! I was overjoyed when I opened him, and duly christened him Philip!!! Although my treasures had been other children's gifts at one point they were none the less wonderful to me...especially my baby boy.
Lynn.
 
lmr3103 said:
The first Christmas I remember was when I was 3. We lived in Balsall Heath but we'd had some awful neighbours move in. They'd made my Mom and Dad's lives a misery so for a time with lived with my lovely Gran. She lived in Baker Street, Sparkbrook (I've never seen any photos of this street anywhere) in a very small house but I loved it there. We slept in a tiny room with a sloping roof and I remember waking up Christmas morning there. Although I was an only one, Dad was a lorry driver (who loved the pub, bless him!) and there wasn't too much money to splash about. Apparently there was a second hand shop somewhere near Mary Street that had beautiful toys come in, and Mom got most of my presents from there. This Christmas I wanted a boy doll...had to be a boy. I think all dolls were girl dolls then but Mom had knitted a lovely blue romper suit to turn one into a boy! I was overjoyed when I opened him, and duly christened him Philip!!! Although my treasures had been other children's gifts at one point they were none the less wonderful to me...especially my baby boy.
Lynn.
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beautiful. story lynn thanks.
 
we lived in a small back to back in nechells. you had to turn sideways to pass each other,, i collected toy cowboys. one christmas.i got a big cavery fort made from match sticks. it was grand. must have took dad months to make bless him.
never did find out were he hid it while he made it
 
mw0njm. said:
we lived in a small back to back in nechells. you had to turn sideways to pass each other,, i collected toy cowboys. one christmas.i got a big cavery fort made from match sticks. it was grand. must have took dad months to make bless him.
never did find out were he hid it while he made it
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How wondeful Pete, I bet you were thrilled with that. Imagine the work your Dad put into that! :heart_eyes:
 
Made with love. You can't beat that. My Nan was given peg dolls her mum made, she made corking slippers for her mum. My mum embroidered doylies and handkerchieves for her mum and dad. My grandad made me a stable for my model farm. He used to take me to the butchers after he finished work Saturday lunch time. Then a pork batch, and he would buy me a little farm animal each week. My parents did the same so I associated the animals with who gave me them. My partner's dad made the Christmas wooden crib and figures. Special because her parents parted but the crib remained. She associated it with him. I was pretty hard up when we met but I splashed out on a crib when she told me the story. Which we still have and I made a wicker sleigh I got in a charity shop it was for holding a plant, which gets embellished each year.
 
Nico said:
Made with love. You can't beat that. My Nan was given peg dolls her mum made, she made corking slippers for her mum. My mum embroidered doylies and handkerchieves for her mum and dad. My grandad made me a stable for my model farm. He used to take me to the butchers after he finished work Saturday lunch time. Then a pork batch, and he would buy me a little farm animal each week. My parents did the same so I associated the animals with who gave me them. My partner's dad made the Christmas wooden crib and figures. Special because her parents parted but the crib remained. She associated it with him.
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true nico. i had a corking beenie. it was all colors. i felt like a king wearing that hat.
 
I am on full ramble now, see what you have done. One of mum and dad's friends gave me a flock santa boot with dolly mixtures in, I couldn't understand where the other boot was. Their long standing friends who sent little gifts to me which would fill up my stocking. It must have helped. Like a tiny blue bakelite coffee set. I loved the cardboard sweet shops and post office sets. And painting and colouring books and stencils. And the feel of the stockings with chocolate in, white mesh with a red top, scrunchy crinkly. It slowly dawned mum and dad never gave each other anything. Not till I was in my teens and I asked what dad was getting mum and he said "note,". Mum said "don't I do enough already? " But I think that started them.
 
Christmas came for a week then I think, or two for school holidays. And for some 2 days or if it fell on a weekend, that was it. Now it's a long time. Sorry I am a bit off topic. I did like Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me, by the Goodies. Mum used to sing, No One Loves a Fairy When She's 40. What are your favourite Carols?
 
Nico said:
In the bad sad old days at work, one of our nasty bosses there were many, bought with company money of course a life sized Father Christmas, next to my desk in a big office, he sang all day, and ho ho ho etc. My colleague and I were thinking if we just hacked the cable we might blow ourselves up, but, some nice person unwired it and took the special plug away. Trouble is they thought it was us!
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Nico, that's what you call guilty by association! Been there too many times
 
mw0njm. said:
as i have posted i am never with out my beanie on :grinning: as for song a child is born
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I like that too and A Spaceman Came Travelling. And Mistletoe and Wine. Winter Wonderland and Sleigh Ride, I heard the Coventry Cathedral orchestra play that with two pieces of wood to play the whip noise. I used to wander up in my lunch break especially closer to Christmas. Each orchestra member would arrive, some children, when they could and just sit down and join in. Another uplifter. Love The Goodies visual, The 12 Days Of Christmas which I love anyway as a song. They squirted their version of Seven Swans a Swimming, Six Geese a Laying, Three French Hens etc. Eight maids a milking got the milk pails thrown in too, at them. But I enjoyed a proper version at The College Theatre Am Dram, where we all got a Song sheet and different rows of us sang a day each, or the men only sang one.
 
Nico said:
I like that too and A Spaceman Came Travelling. And Mistletoe and Wine. Winter Wonderland and Sleigh Ride, I heard the Coventry Cathedral orchestra play that with two pieces of wood to play the whip noise. I used to wander up in my lunch break especially closer to Christmas. Each orchestra member would arrive, some children, when they could and just sit down and join in. Another uplifter.
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nico.
I just love christmas time.
 
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