It was 1972 or '73, getting on towards Christmas. I'd just acquired two different Santa 'cake toppers' from a shop called W. & R. HOLMES, which was one of the absolute best shops in my local town centre. One of the Santas was on skis and was identical to one once given to me by a neighbour (ROBERT BAIRD) two or three years before when I lived in a different house in another area.
The second Santa was smaller and, unlike the other, was more of a 'cartoon'-type figure. I had them both for a relatively short time before they vanished into the limbo that inevitably claims most items from our youth. In 1977, a mere 4 or 5 years later, but seeming like a lifetime (after all, I'd gone from schoolboy to working man in that time), I obtained a replacement for that second Santa in a local shop (R. S. McCOLL's) across from where I worked.
When I was in Portsmouth in 1978 to be best man at a then-friend's wedding, I saw the same Santa in a newsagent's and bought it for my pal. Why? Because he'd been with me when I got the two Santas from W. & R. Holmes on that Saturday morning back in the early 1970s so it somehow seemed fitting (even though he probably didn't remember it). Whether he kept it or not I have no idea, but I still have my 1977 replacement and it's been part of the Christmas decorations every year since then. (That's 40 Christmases in case you're counting.)
So, in yet another self-indulgent fit of sentimental reminiscing, I decided to give you the backstory just so I'd have an excuse to show a photograph of that little Santa. As you'll have guessed by now, that's him at the top of this post. It takes me right back to that crisp Saturday morning in the early 1970s just looking at him. Long may it be so.
Have you got an old Christmas decoration that you'd never part with? Go on - tell us all about it.
Not exactly a Christmas decoration but I mentioned recently that I have an unusual-looking, round tea-light holder - I bought it in October 2008 and took it with me when I went to stay with my mother at Christmas. My mother died in 2009 so 2008 was her final Christmas and also my final Christmas in the house I'd grown up in from the age of two. So my tealight holder is now a link to that Christmas of 2008 which I'd never part with - I only burn tealights in the period from Guy Fawkes night to New Year's Eve so it's kind of a Christmas decoration as I don't have any other kind of festive lights or a tree.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a sad story, CJ, but it's nice to know that the tea-light holder is a link to your mother and the house you grew up in. Having a link to earlier times can often be a comfort as we get older and frailer. When I look at my Christmas tree, I think back to previous Christmases in every house I've ever lived in, as it's been in all of them.
ReplyDeleteCJ's comment about tea lights resonates with me as I light a tea light for my long dead parents whenever I am in a church, which is not very often. Whenever I am though, I light one, pop my ten pence in the slot and say hello to the two people who gave me life and hope for 16 years.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame, Woodsy. So your parents died when you were 16? I'm sure you remember them every Christmas - every day in fact. At least you have happy childhood memories of them to keep you warm in the cold of December.
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