The older that I get, the more nostalgic I get about the Christmas seasons of my childhood. I am blessed to have positive and happy memories of Christmas seasons past, and as an adult, I appreciate the effort my parents and family put in to make that happen.
Every generation thinks their era was the best. The best music, the best movies, the best toys, etc. And I’m here to declare that those of us that grew up in the 80s really had the best Christmas seasons. Here’s a few reasons why I think those of us born in the late 70s or early 80s really had the best Christmas seasons.
We had awesome toys and we were informed consumers.
Every Saturday morning, we watched cartoons. There were three major networks and all three showed cartoons from the wee hours until noon. And during those cartoons these things were advertised: breakfast cereal, bubble gum, McDonald’s Happy Meals, and toys. I can still hear that commercial voice over telling me that a super sugary cereal could be part of a healthy balanced breakfast-along with a quick picture of a bowl of cereal beside some juice and toast-who was eating that? For toys, we were warned that each part of the toy sets were sold separately. And a small quick subtitle to caution that batteries were not included which of course, we did not care about at all. Not our problem! We saw it all: Barbie and her many accessories, GI Joe, He Man and She Ra, Pound Puppies, CARE BEARS, Hot Wheels, Easy Bake Ovens. The toys were awesome and we wanted them all.
We also had a magical guidebook known as the Sears Wish Book. It was like the internet in paper form, Amazon if it were a book. There was no greater joy than settling down a fresh Wish Book to make your list for Santa.
Christmas TV Specials Were An Event
Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Frosty, the Grinch…we didn’t have a lot of Christmas shows to choose from but we watched them all. And you only got one shot at it: the networks aired them once and if you missed them, you missed them. Sometimes a popular character of the time would enter the fray, a Garfield Christmas special stands out in my memory in particular but only the classics survived over time. There was no streaming and no DVDs and honestly most people didn’t own a ton of VHS tapes. You rented them. You had to make an effort to get entertained back then, kids. Every household with a tv bought TV Guide and that was your ticket to making sure you didn’t miss the Christmas specials.
Christmas Music Was Sparse
In a pre-Mariah Carey world, not every singer recorded a Christmas album. Radio stations were local and they sure as heck were not going to replace their normal playlists with exclusive Christmas music. They might stick a Christmas song in now and then but unless you had a Christmas album or cassette, you weren’t hearing a lot of festive tunes.
Ugly Sweaters Were Stylish
Christmas clothing was not really a thing save for holiday sweaters that your mom or grandma wore and they certainly didn’t think they were ugly. I don’t remember Christmas tee shirts or pajamas or crazy socks.
School Parties Were Unorganized Unhygienic Unhealthy Free For Alls
In today’s world, when my son has a school party there’s a sign up sheet and a recommended list of things to send: string cheese, fruit cups, yogurt pouches, etc. Everything must be individually wrapped and nothing can be homemade.
I get this. I appreciate it as a parent. I’d especially appreciate it if my kid had an allergy.
But that’s not how our parties rolled in the 80s. You were instructed to bring “something to share” and a can of pop. Yes, pop. As Cindy Crawford opined in the Netflix documentary “We didn’t know we could drink water. We thought we had two choices: Coke or Pepsi.” We took our pop up to the teacher one by one and she’d slap a piece of masking tape on it and write our name. Then all the pop went to the cafeteria in a milk crate to be kept cool until party time.
When it was time to party, everyone got a festive paper plate and napkins that someone brought. PSYCH! No one had that stuff. Everyone got a paper towel square. Then you passed around whatever you brought to share. Potato chips were popular and by chips, I mean you’d take a big bag and just give everyone a handful. (Seating was important here because if you were in the back of the room, you were getting crumbs). As a parent, I’d be freaked out by this. As a kid, I was like “Put those Funyuns right here, Amy H!” There were always be one or two homemade things but it was a lot of chips, packaged cookies and candy. Washed down with super cold pop.
We also drew names and exchanged small gifts, gathered as grade to watch a Christmas movie in the library, and generally had a visit from Santa. I recognize now the error in assuming that everyone celebrated Christmas and I’m glad my kid is learning other holidays and traditions as school. But there’s no mistake that the Christmas takeover at school was real and put us in a 24/7 glitter covered Christmas stupor.
For all of the reasons mentioned above, I believe that those of us of a certain age hold a special nostalgia for Christmas. We wear the ALL the Christmas shirts because we didn’t have that opportunity. We still watch Charlie Brown. We’ll turn our radio to the Holly channel on Sirius. We’ll watch Hallmark and bake cookies even if no one wants them. Because just like our parents remembered a simple time of getting an orange in their stocking, we remember those relatively simple days of the 1980s. We still believe in the magic of Christmas.
And now, I offer you a glimpse of my 80s Christmas childhood. This is me holding my Barbie Corvette circa 1983.
What was your favorite Christmas memories as a child? Let me know!
From the heart and from the holler,
Merry Christmas!
I remember getting oranges and pecans in my stocking, and we actually used the nutcrackers for their intended purpose!! Low maintenance, low cost, high quality fun! Those were the days!
Our nutcracker was a pair of pliers from the toolbox! We had bags of walnuts or mixed nuts.