Christmas Memories - Isabelle and Audrey

Two ladies from Evington Home in Leicester, share Christmas memories

“During the war, we had some American soldiers camped near us and they invited us to their Christmas party – that was very exciting!”
– Isabelle, 89

“Well, I don’t know where to start and where to stop, it was all so lovely. My mum was left a widow with four children, the other three were all older than me but we all got on fine and Christmas was delightful. I never remember my mum making a big fuss of losing Daddy, she must have done it on the quiet, but she never made it difficult for us. So, when Christmas was coming it was a big occasion. We were always having visitors for a meal and played nice games, like charades.

“I remember waking up one Christmas morning and finding next to my bed was a little cot, decorated by my mother. Inside was this beautiful little brown baby. In those days it wasn’t so often that you came across a brown baby. My sisters, unbeknown to me, had knitted the clothes for it.

“The things we had were lovely, but we didn’t have huge amounts of presents. If aunties or anyone bought us anything it would be a jigsaw or something. Things changed a little when mum had to earn her living and she opened a baby linen shop and that was a beautiful time at Christmas because we decorated everything. I have happy memories of Christmas.

“I do have some sad memories. There was a lady in the church that we attended and her husband, very sadly, had committed suicide and she had just the one little boy so Mum invited them for Christmas and they used to come on Christmas Eve. Peter, the little boy, stayed in our bedroom. Because we were only little and to keep us good, I remember what we had was a coconut. We had to get into it, we had to get the milk out of it and crack it open to share it out.”
– Audrey, 93

If you enjoyed reading about Isabelle and Audrey's Christmas memories, you might like to read Peter and Rupert's Christmas memories too!