What did the Herts Advertiser focus on at Christmas during the 1950s? Of course far more than we can explore here, but below are half a dozen quirky items which involved children of the time; after all, what would Christmas time be without them?
Blizzard?
To start with there will have been just as much whoopy joy for the appearance of snow, far more frequent anyway in the fifties than today. Two reasons, it brought children out of doors onto the streets, in the parks and/or back gardens to handle and mould the white stuff and throw it around quite a lot. Some children were also lucky if their school was closed for the day, or even longer. Caps, hats, gloves, scarves, warm coats, and boots and gloves – except for the hardy types who returned home with red hands to re-warm in front of the fire or the kitchen boiler hot pipe. February 1958.
The School Play
Secondary (or in the early years, Senior Schools) school buildings began to be built with assembly halls with basic stages, tab curtains, beginner lighting rigs and nearby classrooms sometimes linked to a backstage area. St Albans Grammar School for Boys (now Verulam) opened in 1938 and their first few "annual" drama performances were Shakespeare presentations. By the end of the 1950s the period may have remained the same but the playwright had change as the school discovered Thomas Dekker.
The Shoemaker's Holiday, a light comedy of 16th century life with a moral interpretation. The Herts Advertiser's review wasn't overwhelmingly positive; in fact, s/he found the positives quite limited. But the end of term play, like fundraising "fayres", parties and film shows, were the traditional staple for the week before Christmas, and the timetable went light touch. Our bringing up, wherever and whenever it was remained memorable, and most of us can recall those special events. December 1959.
The works children's party
Many of our parents working at the larger firms in our east end during the 1950s, brought home from the directors one evening a "personal invitation" to attend the firm's children's party. Occasionally, this may include a x2 in the form of your best friend whose parent did not work at the factory. Ballito's Hatfield Road stocking factory (now replaced by Morrison's) was one of the larger events, employing so many hundred adults. But the children's party was the usual stuff of games involving plenty of running around, competitions which may have involved dressing up, film shows, Father Christmas (must have seen him at least twenty times during that Christmas period – and we shouldn't forget the magic show and lots of basic food. As with parties hosted by the mums of our best friends they were always unpretentious affairs and certainly did not include paid-for visits to the local skating rink or "an experience" of the Disney kind. January 1954.
More school plays
By the 1950s all secondary schools were getting on the school play bandwagon, with special performances for the local elderly groups, and the top classes of nearby primary schools, in the expectation that parents would want their children to move up to that school later in the year. Beaumont Boys' School's turn came round with Sweeney Todd. A splendid performance which I can attest to, because I was in the audience! Some of the pleasure must have been lost for my parents who wandered along to that evening's show, as I had spent most of the intervening period describing almost every little detail. But isn't that just what is supposed to happen, between the cringing and the muted applause, and the head teacher's wondrous thanks for everyone turning out to support the pupils (as they were invariably called). December 1955.
Presentations
Not sure whether this was specifically Christmas, but the Mayor turned up at Fleetville School one day to present a prize to Diane Farmer, and then scooted along the road to Garden Fields to make a further prize to Alan How. Both best at something, naturally. Like other memories of schooldays, on our frequent adult holiday sojourns to Jersey we acquainted ourselves with Alan; he owned and ran the Beach Barbecue venue at Gorey, and we got to know "Big Al" quite well over the years. I wonder whether Diane and Alan hung onto their certificates and were able to use them as prompts with their own families, October 1952.
Cribbing
Finally, how good were we all at making things at Christmas? It seems that in the second half-term classrooms were veritable factories, turning out decorations, cards, cribs, advent calendars, play programmes, seasonal pictures and so on. The boys of St Columba's College turned out their own personal crib scenes to be entered into a competition – rules deliberately vague – and of course judges to follow the rule: everyone's a winner, yet there is somehow only one prize! How does that work then? December 1956.
And the Herts Advertiser's own
Probably an agency pic but all the same, everyone would have joined in the spirit of Christmas with a photo such as this. December 1959.
All photos above courtesy the Herts Advertiser.
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