No turkey. No fruit to make a decent pudding. No money for presents.
Your children away from home to keep them safe from bombing; your
husband, father and brothers off fighting goodness knows where. How in
the world does one celebrate Christmas?
That was the situation facing the people of Britain for six long years
during the Second World War. For some of them, Christmas was an ordinary
day: they couldn't afford merrymaking - and had little to be merry
about. Others, particularly those with children, did what little they
could.
These first-hand reminiscences tell of making crackers with no crack in
them and shouting 'Bang!' when they were pulled; of carol-singing in
the blackout, torches carefully covered so that no passing bombers could
see the light, and of the excitement of receiving a comic, a few nuts
and an apple in your Christmas stocking. They recount the
resourcefulness that went into makeshift dinners and hand-made presents,
and the generosity of spirit that made having a happy Christmas possible
in appalling conditions.
From the family whose dog ate the entire Christmas roast, leaving them
to enjoy 'Spam with all the trimmings', to the exhibition of hand-made
toys for children in a Singapore prison camp, the stories are by turns
tragic, poignant and funny. Between them, they paint an intriguing
picture of a world that was in many ways kinder, less self-centered,
more stoical than ours. Even if - or perhaps because - there was a war
on.
