So much for restraint!
I think that it is because I have not yet put up the Christmas tree that I have felt totally justified in opening anything that I have been given for the festive season. And I have.
The opening of Christmas presents is an activity whose every gesture has a meaning. And one for me which has changed over time.
I take every opportunity to praise and recommend the book, “Age of Austerity” by Philip French, Michael Sissons which takes as its subject matter the history of post war Britain from 1945 to 1954. The end year is not an arbitrary one as it was only in 1954 that meat rationing ended in Britain! Therefore my early years were lived in a period in which shortages were more normal than plenty. It is also obvious that 1954 did not mean that the country was suddenly flowing with milk and honey!
Presents in my youth were not as lavish in content or number as they are today, though I would not like to give an impression that I had a deprived childhood: I was trained early in Delayed Gratification which meant that if I asked for something I did not get it at once, but it often appeared at a later date when I could “appreciate it more!”
It was still possible for parents to give their offspring presents which were second hand in my early years and I felt nothing but amazed delight at the (bulky) tape recorder that I had one Christmas. It might have been (in that irritating weasel phrase) ‘pre owned’ but it was accepted with grateful alacrity and cherished for years afterwards.
Wrapping paper was always seen as an extravagance and, according to the information in one of the cottages in St Fagan’s Welsh Folk Museum, wrapping presents was only common after the 1920s otherwise presents were left unwrapped under the Christmas tree.
I think that it is because I have not yet put up the Christmas tree that I have felt totally justified in opening anything that I have been given for the festive season. And I have.
The opening of Christmas presents is an activity whose every gesture has a meaning. And one for me which has changed over time.
I take every opportunity to praise and recommend the book, “Age of Austerity” by Philip French, Michael Sissons which takes as its subject matter the history of post war Britain from 1945 to 1954. The end year is not an arbitrary one as it was only in 1954 that meat rationing ended in Britain! Therefore my early years were lived in a period in which shortages were more normal than plenty. It is also obvious that 1954 did not mean that the country was suddenly flowing with milk and honey!
Presents in my youth were not as lavish in content or number as they are today, though I would not like to give an impression that I had a deprived childhood: I was trained early in Delayed Gratification which meant that if I asked for something I did not get it at once, but it often appeared at a later date when I could “appreciate it more!”
It was still possible for parents to give their offspring presents which were second hand in my early years and I felt nothing but amazed delight at the (bulky) tape recorder that I had one Christmas. It might have been (in that irritating weasel phrase) ‘pre owned’ but it was accepted with grateful alacrity and cherished for years afterwards.
Wrapping paper was always seen as an extravagance and, according to the information in one of the cottages in St Fagan’s Welsh Folk Museum, wrapping presents was only common after the 1920s otherwise presents were left unwrapped under the Christmas tree.
Wrapping paper I was told should always be unwrapped carefully so that it could be reused. I always attempted to do this as a child; but it is a form of mental cruelty to extend the principle of Delayed Gratification to the painstaking unwrapping of the present itself, forcing the child into an attitude of unnatural care when it all it wants to do is rip, rend and tear! And the sellotape always made un-ripped wrapping impossible for me!
Packaging was always something of a problem for me. If something was presented in a fitted box then removing and using the object which was the present was always a slightly irresponsible action for me.
There was also the “that will keep nicely” approach. This was yet another variation on the theme of Delayed Gratification which also utilized the “don’t use it all at once” method. This is best explained by example: Reeves coloured pencils.
One birthday I was given a blue cardboard flip top box of 24 coloured pencils made by Messrs Reeves. When you flipped the top there, in all their sharp pointedness in a dizzying array of colours were the pencils. I can still re-texture my delight (I always had a weakness bordering on penchant for stationery in all its forms) of that first sight.
Packaging was always something of a problem for me. If something was presented in a fitted box then removing and using the object which was the present was always a slightly irresponsible action for me.
There was also the “that will keep nicely” approach. This was yet another variation on the theme of Delayed Gratification which also utilized the “don’t use it all at once” method. This is best explained by example: Reeves coloured pencils.
One birthday I was given a blue cardboard flip top box of 24 coloured pencils made by Messrs Reeves. When you flipped the top there, in all their sharp pointedness in a dizzying array of colours were the pencils. I can still re-texture my delight (I always had a weakness bordering on penchant for stationery in all its forms) of that first sight.
It was quite permissible to take the pencils out of their box and read their exotic names printed in gold on the side of each pencil. What was not permissible or possible was to use them. To use them would be to blunt them. To sharpen one of them would diminish its size and therefore the regimented array of pristine points would be lost. What could I possible hope to draw or colour which could justify the destruction of newness and happy possibility?
The result was that they were kept for gloating rather than use and their particular penciloid function was lost in neurotic hoarding.
The same thing occurred with little notebooks or the section headed ‘Notes’ in a book. How could one write in these places when one didn’t know if something in the future would outrank what one was about to write in the present. Better by far to “keep it nicely.” The result was, of course, that I gradually accumulated various items whose use (when questioned about it by generous relatives) had to be elided into the nicely ambiguous phrase, “I liked it very much,” which implied use without stating it directly.
The result was that they were kept for gloating rather than use and their particular penciloid function was lost in neurotic hoarding.
The same thing occurred with little notebooks or the section headed ‘Notes’ in a book. How could one write in these places when one didn’t know if something in the future would outrank what one was about to write in the present. Better by far to “keep it nicely.” The result was, of course, that I gradually accumulated various items whose use (when questioned about it by generous relatives) had to be elided into the nicely ambiguous phrase, “I liked it very much,” which implied use without stating it directly.
It has taken me half a century to open things at once and start using them. It has taken me even longer to dispose of boxes (even if they are plush and “something can be made of them”) so that there is no hiding place in its original home for any gift.
Which is why I am typing this while listening to Radio 4 on wireless headphones from a machine in the kitchen
Which is why I am typing this while listening to Radio 4 on wireless headphones from a machine in the kitchen
while smelling faintly of Cerruti 1881‘Black’ for men.
Thank you Ceri and Dianne and Paul and Paul!
And Merry Christmas!
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