We loved Christmas time and had so much fun in the winter in the snow. We made deep tracks across the snow and created long ice slides.

We made our own Christmas decorations, threaded paper chains, hung balloons and decorated the Christmas tree, all on Christmas Eve. Grandfather and Jack sang traditional folk songs and we played games. Miss Macqueen is dead, pass the parcel and many others. Long before Christmas, we hunted out our presents, unbeknown to our parents, so on Christmas morning there were very few surprises. One year we took Peter up into the attic where we had located a red pedal car. We put him in it. You should have heard him cry when he had to leave it.

Mother’s parents and Jack, her brother, came to stay every Christmas. I can remember making mince pies and sausage rolls by the dozens. We spent many hours churning butter but worst of all was cleaning the separator, which had to be scalded in boiling water.

Many domestic tasks took a long time to undertake and were physically tiring. Cakes and pastries were hand-mixed as we had no mixers. We even made our own flaky pastry. Cream horns were a speciality. One day near Christmas Grandma said to me, you should have this, handing me a large glass of sherry “to give me energy!”