So to my little piece about Christmas- don't worry, I can't access the old photo of me sat on Santa's knee (I was only 5 years old :-) ).
But that did get me thinking about Christmas in the 60's compared to Christmas now.
In fact there was one special day every Christmas when I was little that told me Christmas was on its way. We lived an hour from London (by train) and the adventure started the moment we came out of Charring Cross Station.
Across in Trafalgar Square the big tree would be covered in lights- not on during the daylight of course.
We take for granted that the streets will be decorated with coloured lights in fantastic designs, but when I was little that was a rarity outside of the big cities. But I did get to see the Christmas lights in Regents Street every year.
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| Christmas Lights |
There would always be a visit to look around Hamley's. We couldn't afford to buy anything, but it was a joy to see the toys out
and to my imagination at six I thought that this must be what Santa's workshop looked like...
Our next stop would be to look at the different window displays at Selfridges. The big windows were filled with Christmas montages...
As the daylight faded we would walk back along the streets now lit up to full effect in the darkness.
The day would finish off with a trip to the Panto at the London Palladium. I remember seeing Tommy Steele as Dick Whittington, and I've vague recollections of Jack and the Beanstalk too.
One year it was Cilla Black playing Aladdin...
Having found a link about the pantomimes held at the Palladium, I've just realised how many 'names' I saw as a child...This makes interesting reading.
When the panto was over we'd wander back to Trafalgar Square, look at the Christmas tree lights one last time, then go across to the station to get our train home. I certainly slept at the end of the day, dreaming of all the wonderful things I'd seen...
Snowman design courtesy of Feelart/freedigitalphotos.net
