A Penny And A Sugar Mouse

Kath Reynolds recalls the excitement of Christmases past.

OH, the delights of waking up on Christmas morning when I was a child. We wouldn’t have been allowed to get up at four a.m., as many children do now. Christmas morning would always be exciting, even if your mum and dad didn’t have two ha’pennies to rub together! They’d have made sure that you had treats on that special day.

The Christmas stocking

Did you have a stocking, pillowcase or a sack? Chances are it was a stocking . . . you would have been dreaming big if you thought Santa might fill a whole sack for you!

The traditional Christmas stocking would have contained some essential items:

An apple – polished to a shine where you could almost see your face smiling back at you.

An orange – or was it a clementine or satsuma? You would be hoping that your orange would have a little bit of greenery still attached or possibly even be wrapped in blue tissue paper.