Christmas Past – A time when Christmas was not so commercialized.
When churches were full, when gifts would be posted wrapped in recycled crumpled brown paper & tied with string and Amazon was but a word in the book title – ‘Swallows and Amazons’.
And so many Christmas cards were exchanged – does anyone remember the Red Cross art union Christmas cards?
When keeping in touch with distant friends & relatives at Christmas time was not so easy – long distance telephone calls, especially overseas, on Christmas Day had to be pre-booked and there was the dreaded interruption (seemingly far too soon) ‘Three minutes are you extending?’
A time when Ambulance Superintendent Sid Adams was very much to the fore in Grey Street, with a Chocolate Wheel raising essential money to keep the local ambulance service operating.
Nearby would be the six – or seven-foot huge Christmas stocking being raffled, I think, by the men of the Lions Club.
Automated little Santa Claus in Mackenzies near Haberdashery, beside the stairs, hands moving back and forth, ‘playing’ Christmas carols on an organ.
The forerunner to online shopping would have been those eagerly awaited Farmers and David Jones Christmas catalogues.
All those little country schools held celebrations – fancy dress evenings, plays, Christmas trees & Prize nights, Christmas picnics.
Strenuous Boxing Day Sports and stirring Highland Gathering were held at the Showground until late 1950s.
Christmas is still a time when families, friends, & neighbours come together; a time for reminiscing, for nostalgia trips to former homes, for taking new, and captioning old, photographs (use a 4B pencil never biro).
The Land of the Beardies Museum and Research Centre is a must to visit over the holidays.
Open Daily 10am to2pm (Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day)
Staff can help you with your genealogy, we have huge resources to assist in compiling family tree and putting stories to the bare facts of births, marriages and death dates – and yes there is small charge.
We have more than 53,000+ photos on a database.
The Glen Innes Examiner has been indexed for over 100 years and so much social history was reported there.
May the Glen Innes News continue for many years recording the life and times of Glen Innes – congratulations to those brave enough to develop it!
Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and fulfilling New Year.
