Christmas past and present – Interviews with parents and grandparents

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Before Christmas the children in St.Brigid’s interviewed their grown ups about Christmas when they were young.

They remembered. ‘Trying to be good. Asking for a surprise.  Letters to Santa being sent up the chimney (not advised nowadays) or by post to the North Pole. Shouting up the chimney to Santa.  Counting the days on the Advent calendar’.

‘Making a wish when stirring the Christmas cake mixture. Putting a few pennies in the plum pudding mix. The moving crib. Making paper chains. Midnight mass. It was great going out so late! Going to Mass in new clothes. Leaving Santa something to eat and drink. Spiced beef’.

‘Being excited and finding it hard to get to sleep. Trying to stay awake to see Santa! The wind whistling in the chimney made me afraid in case I would be awake and Santa wouldn’t leave presents. The excitement of waking up early to see what Santa had brought. Big thick colouring books and markers and spending the day happily colouring in. I wish I was a little girl again!’

‘A family time. Seeing all the family together in one place. A special dinner with turkey, roast potatoes, brussels sprouts and gravy. Christmas pudding for dessert. Selection boxes. We didn’t get sweets every day back then. We had no TV! Christmas simpler then. It’s very commercialised now. But it’s  better now because I have children!’

Children’s Work – Christmas in my grandparents’ time

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What Christmas was like in my grandparents childhood.

My story is about Christmas in the time of my mum’s parents, who were children during ‘The Emergency’ in Ireland (the 2nd World War 1939-45). My Dad’s parents were born during the First World War are not alive anymore so I couldn’t write about them. My Grandad was born in 1934 brought up on a farm in a rural village called Garryvoe in East Cork. My Granny was brought up in Blackrock in Cork City. She would have been three when World War 2 began and nine when it ended. My granddad would have been two years older.

At this time most of the world was at war and food was being rationed greatly to keep the armies going. And the other thing was Ireland was in an emergency because there was the threat of being invaded by the Allies if they joined the Axis power, or being invaded by the Axis powers if they joined the Allies. A lot of people had a grudge with the English over the War of Independence and wanted to join the Axis powers and others wanted to join the Allies to defeat the Axis powers and the rest want to stay neutral which they did. My other grandparents went and fought with the Royal Airforce.

The church played a big role in life and people washed and dressed in their best clothes to go to mass. Neither of my Grand parents had Christmas trees, it was not a tradition at the time. The crib was more important. My Grand mother remembers snow and the cold when walking to mass in Blackrock. My Grandad said he was an altar boy and had to walk from Garryvoe to Ballymacoda to serve the half eight Christmas morning mass. He said it was freezing. This walk would have taken about an hour so he would have had an early start. The rules for taking communion were different then, so he would not have eaten since the night before and would have gone to mass without a breakfast.

My Granddad’s family ate goose and my Granny’s ate turkey (My Granddad who lived on a farm reared his goose for Christmas). Goose is a very fatty meat so they  had potato stuffing. They also had bread sauce, brussel spouts and plum pudding. There wasn’t much because of the rationing due to the war. Sugar in particular was in short supply.

My grand dad didn’t write letters to ‘Santa’ but my Granny did and her Dad had a tradition to bring his children to go into Cork city to see ‘Santa’ who gave her and her siblings balloons as the present that you get when you go to see ‘Santa’. For both of my grand parents ‘Santa’ brought very little compared to what ‘Santa’ brings today. ‘Santa’ brought dolls, hats, scarves and gloves for the girls and he brought wooden toys like hurls for the boys. And for my Granny ‘Santa’ put oranges in the Christmas stockings. You might say ‘An orange, Why an orange?’ The reason she got oranges in her stocking was because at the time oranges were considered exotic.

On the day after Christmas, Stephen’s Day people would call round to each other to visit and a group called the Wren Boys called round to the houses singing carols. The Wren boys were thought as being the hard lads from around the town. My granddad used go with them. If he made a half a crown he’d be very happy. This is about 25 cent today. Christmas was very different when my grandparents were young.

Christmas Long Ago – Interviews with Parents and Grandparents

End of season - dark crystals
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Christmas past and present.

Some students interviewed parents and grandparents

about Christmas when they were young. They remembered.

 

‘Trying to be good.

Asking for a surprise.

Letters to Santa being sent up the chimney (not advised nowadays)

or by post to the North Pole.

Shouting up the chimney to Santa.

Counting the days on the Advent calendar’.

 

They also remembered

‘Making a wish when stirring the Christmas cake mixture.

Putting a few pennies in the plum pudding mix.

The moving crib.

Making paper chains.

Midnight mass.

It was great going out so late!

Going to Mass in new clothes.

Leaving Santa something to eat and drink.

Spiced beef.

 

Being excited and finding it hard to get to sleep.

Trying to stay awake to see Santa!

The wind whistling in the chimney made me afraid

in case I would be awake and Santa wouldn’t leave presents.

The excitement of waking up early to see what Santa had brought.

Big thick colouring books and markers

and spending the day happily colouring in.

 

A family time.

Seeing all the family together in one place.

A special dinner with turkey, roast potatoes, brussels sprouts and gravy.

Christmas pudding for dessert.

Selection boxes. We didn’t get sweets every day back then.

We had no TV!

 

They said:

Christmas simpler then. It’s very commercialised now.

I wish I was a little girl again!

It’s better now because I have children!”

 

Thank you to the parents and grandparents

who shared their memories with us.

An Orange in Your Stocking – Christmas Memories from a Grandmother

clementines
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It was just after the Second World War

in the early forties when Robyn’s granny

was about seven or eight. She said:

“Fruit that grew in hot countries

like bananas and oranges was scarce.

These could only be got if a cargo ship

made it through from Lisbon in Portugal.

These ships had to come through the Bay of Biscay

and many vessels were lost making the trip.

So it was a big treat when someone got…

an orange in their stocking.

Imagine!

This is not to say Christmas was not the most magical of times.

For weeks even months preparations were being made.

The Mammies were arranging with the butcher,

the baker and other shop keepers to keep stuff for them.

There were no supermarkets then

and very little money so people would go to these shops,

pick out what they wanted and pay a little for them every week,

so when Christmas week arrived everything was paid for.

The children had jobs to do too.

They would go to the woods

and gather holly and ivy to decorate the house.

We also collected for the neighbours

who had nobody to do it for them.

If they gave you a penny, it would be riches indeed,

but if they didn’t, it didn’t matter

as we had such fun gathering it.

To us they were wonderful times

and even if everything changes,

the message of Christmas remains the same.

Christ was born to us in a stable

bringing joy to the world and goodwill to man’.

Christmas Traditions in Ireland – A Grandmother’s Memories of Christmas Long Ago

Candles
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‘Christmas in Ireland was very much a family festival

when sons and daughters who were working away from home

returned home for Christmas.

 

Many families looked forward to a letter or parcel

from family members who had gone to America.

This was sure to contain not only good wishes

but also a present of money.

 

Shopkeepers gave a Christmas box to thank families

for shopping with them. This was often a box of biscuits or a bottle of port.

 

A candle was lit and placed in the window on Christmas Eve.

The eldest member of the family helped the youngest to do this.

This was done to show that Joseph and Mary,

who found no room at the inn in Bethlehem,

were welcome in the house.

 

It was believed that at midnight on Christmas Eve,

cows and donkeys knelt to honour the Baby Jesus

and that at that moment, they could talk.

The animals were given an extra feed on Christmas Eve.

 

Christmas Day was spent at home.

It was very much a family festival

and people didn’t visit unless specially invited to do so.

 

On Stephen’s Day the branch of a tree was decorated

and the ‘wren boys’ went from house to house

singing in the neighbourhood in return for treats.

 

These are my memories of Christmas

in Ireland in the 1940s and 50s.

In ways it seems so long ago

but in other ways it only seems like yesterday..’