Pages

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Christmas Past


An English Robin
 A look into Christmas past, starting with my parents first tree in 1954. They lived in 'married quarters' in Portsmouth England. Dad was in Her Majesty's Royal Navy.




 Then I came along in 1956 and here I am about two years old at a Christmas party in 1958.  My parents later moved to Canada in 1960. They brought all their English traditions with them.    Such as Christmas crackers, Christmas plum pudding, and an orange and a lump of coal in the stocking.

Here we all are in 1962 living in the middle of the Canadian prairies with a 'real winter'.  The Santa at the base of the tree was on every Christmas tree right up to 1995.



Now its 1965 or so  and I have a new brother and another sister or two....  I'm wearing my new pyjamas that I opened on Christmas eve.



We moved to New Zealand in 1970 and lived there for close on five years. Christmas became this weirdly strange time where we'd go to the beach with a cold roast chicken and have a picnic.  No snow, but hot sun instead....and people exchanged cards with snow scenes on them!


We spent a New Year's Eve at a friend of my parents who owed this beach house right over the water. The tide is out in the picture but when the tide was in, it came right up under the house and you could slip straight into the water via a trapdoor in the deck.  I was close to being fifteen at the time so its a brand new 1971.


Here's the picnic and then a walk in dunes and along the beach....
Dad went through a black and white film phase but let me assure you, the beach is beautiful!


I found a colour version!


Many years later, my strangest Christmas was in 1984 when I spent two weeks on the railroad with Bruce.  He was placed as senior engineer on the Via Passenger train and his run was between Vancouver and Boston Bar.   Of the seven round trips in a two week period, I was on five of them.  Christmas dinner in the beanery,  New Years party by accident and breakfast on New Years morning in a dining car going through the Fraser Canyon in a snow storm, with Bruce running the train back to Vancouver.  It was a fun memory!


Speaking of Bruce, I found this old picture of one of his early Christmases in northern Ontario.  Cute little nipper...  He's only two or three here, so roughly 1948 to 1949.

Bruce with his train set.... an early start at his future career!

So where ever you are in the world and what ever your holiday tradition is, I hope you are in the company of good friends and family!    

Wishing you and yours all the very best, and a healthy 2020!



4 comments:

  1. I loved looking at the wonderful pictures you posted of Christmas past, thank you for sharing.

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you both.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Martha! Its Boxing Day now and so its almost alll behind us for another year. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that the coming new year... new decade is a very special one for you! Susan

    ReplyDelete
  3. All the very best for a healthy and happy 2020 to you both.
    I can't help wondering if the house on the beach with trap door in deck is still there. A bit close to mother nature for me in todays climate activity.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Dianne.... I somehow don't think that existing house is still there but perhaps something newer? Hopefully further back too!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting... I love to hear from you! Sorry about the comment moderation but I will post them quickly. This is necessary to screen out some nasty spam. If you can't read the numbers in the little box, then click on the "circle with an arrow" and it will give you another. Keep trying until you get one you can read okay? If you wish a reply back from me then either check back here, or leave someway for me to contact you. My email address is available in my profile. Thanks for reading my blog, Susan