U3A Writing: A Wartime Christmas
"Has he been?'' little children shout excitedly on cold and frosty December 25. Sylvia Abele recalls the delights of Christmas.
“Has he been?” Most parents must have been wakened by their children shouting excitedly early on a cold and frosty Christmas morning.
Reply from parents: “Go back to sleep. It’s far too early yet. Just listen for his reindeer and sledge landing on the roof.”
My brother: “He HAS landed. I can hear his reindeer walking on the roof.”
Shouts of, “So can we!” from my sister and me.
We pestered my parents until we heard Dad going downstairs to light the fire, telling us to “stay cosy in bed until the room has heated up.”
The excitement was almost unbearable. Then, to make things worse, Mum insisted that we all ate a bowl of porridge before we could go and see if, in fact, Santa had been, and whether he had eaten the mince pie and drunk the milk we had left him.
Then into the living room.
Three small piles of presents.
Shouts of joy as we tore the wrapping paper from our presents. I was always very happy with a book, such as “Little Women,” “Anne of Green Gables,” or Enid Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’ books. A book and a small bag of chocolate pennies, and I was no trouble for the rest of the day!
I can remember my brother liked things to build, and he was always thrilled to bits with a set of Minibrix, small red rubber bricks which used to snap into each other and from which could be built little houses, etc., or even a replica of the Cenotaph. Minibrix, I suppose, must have been the forerunner of Lego.
My little sister, the baby of the family, loved her dolls, and my mother usually knitted her a doll for Christmas. The one she loved more than any other was a Dutch doll who was named Gretchen.
Christmas was wonderful. It always seemed to snow, or maybe that is my mind playing tricks. How easily pleased we were with two or three small presents, and as nice a Christmas dinner as wartime rationing would allow.
Leading up to Christmas was actually the best part of the season for me -- singing carols at school, marvelling at the birth of Jesus, although not quite understanding it, carol singers coming to the door and singing the Christmas songs from beginning to end. Most of them were happy with a sweet or a biscuit, and if Mum gave one of them a halfpenny, the big “Thank you” and beaming eyes were things to gladden the heart.
“CHRISTMAS TIME: Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” Charles Dickens.
