[jamesicus]

I am fifteen years older than you, West Ender, and so I have Christmas remembrances from the 1930s and the WW2 years. However, my memories are similar to yours and you have captured the essence of the Christmasses of those days very well -- congratultions!

In the Depression years of the early 1930s, when money was really tight, I usually got one toy from my parents (in 1936 a tin plate airplane with red and green light bulbs on the wing tips that lit up!), a boys adventure book from my combined grandparents, usually a new sixpence from my close aunties and uncles and an orange.

You are right on about the goodwill and conviviality -- we had some great family parties at our house -- and at my grandparents and uncles/aunties.

I sang in the Choir at Burnley St. Matthew's Church and my family always went to Christmas Eve service -- it was the only time of the year my father went to Church (except for Weddings and funerals).

Remember when Woolworth's used to have a Father Christmas? You got a little cheap wrapped toy from him -- "pink for girls, blue for boys".

James