Christmas back in the day was dripping with decorations in my parents' house.
For my Mum, more meant more and she loved to have more decs than anyone else. This extended to the biggest tree on the street too!
Basic table decorations were often strange things I'd made at primary school, mostly with used toilet rolls! They included smarty filled snowmen covered in cotton will and paper lanterns that had slits all the way round, which allowed them to be pushed down and out. So many toilet rolls on the dining table!
These were joined around the house with a thousand festive nic-nacs, which I imagine all came from my Dad's cash 'n' carry warehouse, where he was the gaffer.
I so remember small white Greek urns with a snowman sat in them, nestling in holly. All plastic fantastic.
Similarly plastic were fake red candles in gold holders and Santas of every size and shape.
Paper garlands were strung across every ceiling along with tinsel arcing on each wall and around picture frames. I remember the garlands had rectangular paper lanterns every few inches.
Being Catholic we had a crib. It was in the hall next to the phone on a piece of furniture called the monks bench. It was a lovely crib with ceramic figures and animals housed in a sort of crinkly paper manger. I think baby Jesus liked our crib. I enjoyed peering at it as a nipper.
All this stuff, was though, a mere pre-amble to the main event, a Yuletide starter to Mum's big enchilada: our Christmas tree in the front bay window for all to see and enjoy, both inside and out on the wintry street.
First of all, it had to be real. I've no idea where it came from. Probably the North Pole via Preston Docks, it had to smell of Lappland and reindeer
Next up, it had to be huge, bigger than anyone's else's and certainly bigger than Ormerods up the road. When I say huge I mean from floor to ceiling. Clamped in its big water-filled base, the fairy at the top had to lower her little head to fit!
Finally, it had to be filled from top to bottom with seasonal stuff (we'd probably call it tat nowadays!): baubles, crackers, tinsel and in-between branches, balloons, lots of them. This fir tree would have levitated if it wasn't for the base. The whole shabang was encircled with two strings of fairy lights plugged into a lamp, which in turn was plugged into the socket. I've no idea why the lights just didn't have normal plugs!
And that was that. The decs were up, the tree was in and a good supply of sherry was handy for when Mum's friends bobbed round or the local priest, Father Smith, who always enjoyed a Christmas tipple or two.
Did you have decorations at Xmas readers?
