A Story of Christmas Past.

Once upon a time, many many miles away from here, in the North West of England, nestled somewhere between Manchester and Liverpool and not so far from the historical city of Chester, lies the town of Warrington. Once famous for its wire production and now well known for its mighty rugby team, who at one time took its name ‘The Wires’; after the town’s wire production, and are now known as Warrington Wolves. Live two little girls Allison and Andrea, and their mum and dad Ronnie and Lily. They lived in a cozy bungalow, in an avenue named after the famous poet William Wordsworth. Wordsworth Avenue was lined, both sides with semi-detached bungalows. In those bungalows lived special families, many, with children around the same ages as Allison and Andrea. Many of these children formed special bonds and friendships with each other, bonds that could never be broken. During the summer evenings, these children would play out in the avenue together. There was never a shortage of games they would play; hopscotch, Chinese skipping, paper chase, kick can en hop it, knocker door run, and skipping. The skipping rope would stretch from one side of the avenue to the other and there were a number of games and songs they would sing while two turned the rope and others skipped in.

The Wordsworth avenue children were very protective of their avenue and were careful about which children from around the estate would be allowed in. A couple of boys who were considered to be boys of bad words, like “Bloody Hell”, were strictly forbidden entry. If they dared set foot in ‘Our avenue’, they would be caught and tied to a lamppost with the skipping rope.

Some of the mothers would stand at their gate posts while their children played, chattering to each other.

In winter after it had snowed, the road became a skate run. The children would see who could slide the farthest. One of the two little girls, Allison was a bit of a daredevil who could give the boys a run for their money, whilst little Andie, as she was nicknamed was too timid to step onto the slippery road.

On bonfire night, they went door to door collecting money with their words ” Penny for the Guy” The guy was supposed to be a remake of the Famous Guy Faulks who was involved in the Gunpowder plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Most people made a Guy from clothes stuffed with paper, but not the Wordsworth crew, no, they had to have a real-life Guy, and it had to be someone small enough to fit into Tracy Highams doll’s pram, which was actually a real baby’s pram.  Little Andrea was nominated as the Guy, not sure if that was entirely fair because she was not much smaller than Tracy, who because she was small had the nickname ‘Shrimp’. Maybe due to the fact that she owned the pram, she did not have to be dressed up as Guy Fawkes.

As Christmas approached, some of the Wordsworth avenue crew would go Carol singing. They would go door to door and sing Christmas Carols, until the people who opened their doors to us, paid them a few pennies. Now and again one of the children would go alone. These were dark December evenings, streets litten only by lamp posts. In those days the world seemed to be a safer place for a small child alone, being out, knocking on people’s doors. 

On the nearest Sunday to the 14th of December, there would be such excitement in the Fletchers bungalow ( the two little girls Allison and Andrea), because this would be the day they would, with the help of Ronnie and Lily put up their Christmas tree. Shouts of excitement ” Dad, can we put the tree up today?” Ronnie Fletcher ( the dad) would get out his step ladder and open the trap door to the attic to bring down the tree and boxes of decorations. The first thing we always did was check if the multicolored fairy lights were still working. If when they were plugged in the lights lit up, there would be a loud family cheer! Quite often they did not light up first try, and they would all pitch in to check all the little lamp bulbs were tightly screwed in. Once the loose lamp was fixed, the lights lit up and so did their faces. In those days, fairy lights as they were commonly known, had screw-in bulbs and if one was loose, none of them would work. It was always a mystery how, when the lights were carefully packed away and in the attic, one of the bulbs became lose all by itself; maybe the fairies themselves. 

There were lots of decorations to hang, all quite unusual, as they along with the Christmas tree itself had been brought back from either Aden ( Yemen) or Bahrain. 

I don’t know if the girls were aware at that time, that the tree was made up of feathers dyed green. The tree had its special wooden block painted red to stand-in.

Every year the tree stood high on the G-Plan wooden secretaire, which was a piece of furniture that fitted into the corner of a room. The tree always seemed so huge to the children, and they would stare in awe at it in all its glory. 

It was usual that Lilly would make them all hot milk coffee and buttered toast.

This practice went on for years and continued even when the family moved to Chester road. Eventually, Andrea left home and then Allison, or vice versa, but Ronnie and Lilly still made the effort to put up the tree for a few years. Until it did not go up anymore.

Andrea moved to Holland, and on one of her trips over to Warrington, she was asked if she wanted the tree and decorations, otherwise, it would be thrown out. She had at her disposal a car ( she with her little family had made the trip from Holland to England with Northsea Ferries. Andrea, being a very sentimental soul took the tree and its decorations with her to Holland, where it took up residence in the cellar. Andrea and her family had their own tree, which was renewed every so often. She thought about putting up the old tree but could not find it’s red wooden box to stand it in. 

A few months ago, the red wooden box resurfaced and was put in a safe place to await its time to be on display. This year, 2022 it is the first appearance the tree will stand again, maybe the first time in more than 25 years.

Yesterday, I, one of the little girls in the story put the Christmas tree up. Partly because ‘our’ tree is one with all loose branches and is big and I find it such a chore to put up and take down. The tree is so much smaller than I remembered. I decided not to use the old decorations for fear of them getting damaged. Most of my regular decorations are a little too big for this wee little tree, and there is also a small top piece missing. The small hole where that top piece should go is currently occupied by a wee kitty. I can not be sure if the tree was from Bahrain or Aden, so not 100% of its age, but it is at least 58 years old. I wonder how many others still have a tree they use, that is this old.