Carluke Christmas Memories

Some of you will remember the really long, cold, snowy winter of 1962-63. At the time I was in Primary 3 at The Wee School in School Lane.

We were in an old classroom with tiers of seating like a lecture theatre with steps up to the back of the class. As part of the preparations for Christmas, we learned all the Christmas Carols, including one called ‘Once a Golden Star Was Shining Clear and Bright’. Is that carol known elsewhere? Other places don’t seem to sing it? Was it perhaps written in Carluke?

One day as we were singing this carol, we looked out of the big windows and saw that snow had started to fall outside. There were thick clouds of big snowflakes drifting down and we all thought it was wonderful! That was the start of the long, snowy winter.

At that time all the houses were heated by coal fires. My Dad always had a warm blaze going in the grate and it was so lovely and warm and welcoming to come home to. As houses had no central heating, if the temperature outside fell below freezing, in the morning there would be beautiful frosty patterns on the windows.

Also, in those days we made most of our own decorations as there was a lot less available to buy than there is now. My Mum always made a table decoration in the form of a snow scene. She used a mirror to suggest a frozen lake and put wee figures skating on it. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photograph of it but the attached photo below shows something of the idea.

Thinking of all that now, I find it amazing that we had so much joy and fun with these simple things.