We always had our main Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve, so Christmas Day was always a low key affair.
My parents would sleep in. I would get up and play with my doll's house until they surfaced. Then we would have Stollen (German Christmas cake) for breakfast and have a relaxing morning. Often the neighbours would drop in and we would exchange gifts, have a cup of tea, a bit of a chat but they would be off to their own flats to prepare the Christmas dinner, usually turkey or chicken (which was very expensive in those days and considered a real treat).
My mother always cooked a turkey for Christmas lunch which we ate with dumplings, red cabbage and lashings of delicious gravy.
We would set the table at the end of the lounge room with a white starched damask tablecloth and it's matching napkins. The good china and silverware would be used and my parents and I would wear something special. My father even wore a tie.
Every year my mother worried about the turkey - was it a bit dry? My father, such a gorgeous man, would say that it was the best ever and ask for second helpings. We always enjoyed the meal. After cleaning up we would have a snooze followed by a gentle walk.
Later my doll's house would get another good workout.
My doll's house was popular with all my friends and we must have spent hundreds of hours playing with it. When I now tell friends that I received it every Christmas for years they are astonished - didn't I feel cheated? The same present? Every year!
Compared to modern flash doll's houses the actual house was pretty basic. There were three rooms - large and rectangular, one room above the other. The kitchen was at the bottom, the bedroom was above and the lounge room, another rectangular room was balanced on top. There was a set of stairs at the side that had a toilet at the top. There weren't any stairs to the lounge room but the dolls had no trouble jumping between floors. The whole house sat on top of an old metal trunk that had come with us from India.
All the furniture had been sent from Germany and it was lovely - all the drawers opened. The dresser in the kitchen held little china plates, jugs and a beautiful cheese bell. Many of the pieces had belonged to my grandmother. There was even a tiny blue and white Delft vase into which I put Cecil Brunner rose buds from Mrs Hummerston's garden.
Hanging from a hook in the kitchen was a variety of tiny brooms and mops and underneath a little stool was a miniature dustpan and brush. The stove in the kitchen was metal and I was able to take it out of the kitchen, open the oven door and put in a candle so I could cook something in one of the tiny pans.
Every year there was some sort of addition to the doll's house, a new piece of furniture, electric lights one year, a new carpet, so exciting.
The neighbours also gave me things for the doll's house. One year Aunty Helen gave me a tiny toaster and telephone. Aunty South, Uncle Don and Uncle Mac gave me the most beautiful wicker pram which the teeny baby doll spent most of her time in. Someone also gave me a pink and blue plastic high chair, which didn't really match anything, but it stayed in a corner of the kitchen. Mrs Brose gave me a whole set of pot plants which I put on the balcony that was outside the bedroom. Mrs Hummerston gave me a tiny china tea set.
As I grew older I would make things for the dolls house, a new bedspread or curtains. I made little books to put on the bookshelves in the lounge room Also I made a set of coloured pencils using matches with the end sharpened off and coloured. They lived in the sideboard.
The neighbourhood children all played with my doll's house but I was most definitely 'the boss' because I was afraid that people would be too rough. I had a little motorbike which one of my playing companions broke. It was only plastic but I remember being furious and banning people from playing with the doll's house for a while.
I spent many happy hours playing alone, making up little stories, having conversations amongst the dolls, putting tiny meals on the plates. It was good fun. Eventually, however, the novelty would wear off and days would pass when I didn't play with the doll's house at all. This usually happened by about Easter time. Then, one day, I'd get up and the doll's house would be gone. I'd briefly mourn the loss but know I'd see it again and looked forward to the reappearance.
My girls had the doll's house when they were little and enjoyed playing with it too. They had many more things though - Barbie cars, Barbie beauty salon, Barbie horses and campervan etc. They also had each other and television. Things are different these days so I don't think that the doll's house will ever be as passionately loved as it was by me. I'm planning on keeping it and if I ever have grandchildren it will be set up and they can play with it at my house.
Getting back to Christmas Day......it was always a peaceful, enjoyable day. The neighbourhood children used to get up at obscenely early hours to dive on their presents, play vigorously and be a mass of tears because they were overtired, by mid afternoon. Everyone enjoys their own traditions. My girls have partners who always celebrated on Christmas Day so they are now enjoying both traditions. If they ever have children though, I bet they will keep Christmas Eve as their main celebration, as they both love sleeping in!
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