A Window Into How The 1950s Prepared For Christmas | Our History

[Music] to most of us this sort of thing is either a memory or something to look forward to but to thousands of people in Britain Christmas is an all the year job [Music] no sooner is one Christmas over then they're getting ready for the next foreign New Year is very old the cards you'll be sending next Christmas are already being printed getting on for 600 million of them tens of millions are produced by one firm the oldest and biggest in the industry who published their first Christmas card in 1871. [Music] thank you foreign [Music] and this was the first Christmas card ever it was printed in 1843 for a busy man who had left it too late to send his friends their usual Christmas letters Brighton on a bleak Winter's day people don't mind the weather here for a holiday they are trade buyers visiting the Toy Fair held each February to select their stocks of toys for next Christmas [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] toy buyers have come from all over the world to choose the playthings that 10 months later will Delight children of every race and cut and when you think of Christmas you just can't help talking turkey though turkeys are now sold all year round this buckinghamshire turkey farm is ready just before Christmas to send out more than 50 000 Birds by post [Music] from the egg to the end product takes them six to eight months depending on the size of the bird of course [Music] well before Easter the Christmas puddings are being turned out in thousands every week in going up ingredients for 681 Pounders and this firm alone makes 8 000 pounds of pudding each working day of the year from February to December you don't often see Christmas trees as small as these seedlings but one day though not this year they'll look like this but if you can't wait for them to grow you can always get them ready made [Music] shape when most people are thinking that the longer evenings will soon be here [Music] this firm specializes in Christmas military and they decide months ahead what's going to be the fashion in paper hats this year Christmas trumpets are sounding before the summer holidays [Music] and designers are producing the shape of faces to come foreign next season's paper chains and garlands are well away almost before last year's are off the walls this Essex factory makes nearly 50 000 miles of garlands every year enough to stretch almost twice around the world [Music] today millions of sheets of Christmas wrapping paper are sold used and thrown away in less than a form but it takes much longer to produce the stuff this kind starts transparent and is made in Lancashire nine months ahead though the pattern was designed by a husband and wife team in Chelsea well before Christmas last year foreign would you believe that despite all the electric light about the biggest and oldest Candle factory in Britain still makes about 250 million candles each year many of them for Christmas the finest are still made in the old way [Music] mechanical and human skill combine when the candles are decorated [Music] but when it comes to the two color effects there's no machine that can do this these Novelties were all ready to be lit for Christmas by February two little girls Christmas Means parties and new party frocks each year the children's wear manufacturers are ready in the early spring with a fresh crop of party dresses designed to make all the small boys take a second look at all the small girls [Music] and every year the Lord mirror of London himself gives a Christmas party but for this one you need fancy dress [Music] the Christmas workers who are furthest ahead are probably the toy makers Britain's largest soft toy factory looks like Santa's Workshop all the year round and there's even a production line for teddy bears for Teddy is still the most popular soft toy in the world and this Factory turns out more than a third of the quarter of a million teddies made in Britain every year [Music] it'll take a lot to knock the stuffing out of this chat [Music] and this ladder all set to ride into Christmas stockings [Music] well that's certainly a new way of putting your face on and it won't come off when you wash it either long before December toy factories all over Britain are turning out dolls Dressed to Kill for the Christmas tree there are dolls of all ages babies little girls and even teenagers [Music] and the latest in panties silk stockings and dresses foreign [Music] Christmas can't come too soon for them but when it does what will all the people who make the gaiety of Christmas be thinking why next Christmas of course [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Our History

Views: 23,900

Keywords: our history, documentary, world history documentary, documentary channel, award winning, life stories, best documentaries, daily life, real world, point of view, story, full documentary, history, historical, history documentary

Id: HDIPlLS6N8Q

Length: 9min 12sec (552 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 04 2022