It seems fitting that after a year of many struggles and a year of living on WWII wartime rations, that we should end the year on a proper “1940s Wartime Christmas”…

While one cannot even comprehend the hardship faced by those living through this time period, Christmas was always a day to look forward to, a day for the children, a day of celebration, despite food shortages and loved ones far, far away.

Children decorating a christmas tree, on the underground, during an air raid

I feel in our modern age, young families, who can ill afford vast sums of money, are pressurized to provide gifts, to children and immediate family members, that place intolerable financial burdens and stresses in the post- Christmas period. Living in a consumer society, we can be deemed odd or our children pitied for parents NOT complying to what is perceived to be the 21st century NORM.

Where have those good old-fashioned Christmases gone where it was less about the gifts and more about being together as a family, having fun, showing our love, a time where our children left a note for Santa and asked for one simple toy, something they would hold on to and treasure?

Christmas on the underground in Great Britain

To me Christmas is about spending a day being happy, being grateful, feeling loved and wanted, warm and cosy and smiling.

So on Christmas Day 2012, my family and I are transporting ourselves back to Christmas Day 1940, the first Christmas on wartime rations, to enjoy an old-fashioned Christmas full of nostalgia, devoid of excess (ours are normally anyway)and full of hope and joy.

We’ll make our decorations, we’ll have a short tree, the children will have a small chicken and a slice of ham, we’ll make a wartime ration book christmas pudding and christmas cake, play 1940s music, lay the table with 1940s tableware, listen to Christmas speeches and open a bottle of Emva Cream Sherry and get rosy cheeked after playing some party games..

I’m rather excited by it all and I’m putting away some of my rations to ensure we have enough goodies to have a really nice day..

C xxxx