Wartime Christmas
Dilys
I got a fountain pen once and I was so over the moon with it
Valerie
I got a skipping rope and I thought that was wonderful.
Jeff
My father made me a rifle out of wood and a Tommy gun but there were no toys about. I had a teddy bear, which I simply loved and my sister had a doll, but the people along the way couldn't get any toys so we were asked to give up our teddy and doll so that the children along the way could have something. I loved that teddy bear - it was hard.
Dilys
My teddy is almost as old as I am so I have made him some medals because he was in the war. He sits in the rocking chair and I've made some specs for him and he has a newspaper.
Carole
My teddy is very threadbare but he's going nowhere he lives with me.
Jan
I can't remember presents but I can remember the decorations which came out year after year and they were just paper chains. We had 4 bells which opened up and I can see my mother now with a darning needle sewing them together because the hole for the metal clip had worn too big, first time she used cotton, then she used thicker thread and eventually it got to a bit of wool as the hole grew.
Dilys
We had Chinese lanterns made of paper and they had a candle inside them, Health & Safety wouldn't allow them now.
Jean
I can't remember any special toys. We always went to church and opened our presents when we got back. A cousin of my mother's was keen on knitting and she knitted lots of doll's clothes for us.
Valerie
We always had a stocking and it always had an orange in at the bottom and some small toys, puzzles, nuts and anything that hadn't been imported.
Christmas Dinner
Jan
We were lucky because we had a quarter of a pig. We used to have to feed this pig for the Ministry of Food. We didn't own the pig but we had a share of it, my mother kept chickens so we could have roast chicken. We were allowed some grain for the chickens and they and the pig had the potato peelings. We had a big allotment so we did quite well.
Jan
We had Christmas pudding but there wasn't much fruit in them but they did have silver three penny bits in and we used to love getting those. Sultanas, raisins and currants were scarce but we had cherries.
Valerie
We had reindeer when we went on a cruise to Norway and I said to my husband "You will get nothing for Christmas because you've eaten Rudolf and there's no-one to pull the sleigh".