Christmas 1973 - one I will never forget

Christmas 1973 was one of many firsts for me, most significantly my first overseas trip, and my first time of meeting my maternal grandmother and many aunts, uncles and cousins in England.

Earlier this year, I wrote about being given the collection of aerogrammes written by my parents and grandparents between 1952 and 1973. You can read the blog about my letter collection 

Just to recap, Mum was from a large family.  She had five sisters and two brothers. She left her loving siblings and parents in 1952, to immigrate to Australia and marry Dad. To this day I still marvel at her taking that huge step to cross to the other side of the planet, leaving all that was familiar to her, and the safe environment of her very loving family. It was at a time when air travel wasn't commonplace, and even overseas phonecalls were prohibitively expensive. So letters were the main means of communication.

By 1973, the year I finished school, Mum and Dad were both working, and they saved incredibly hard to be able to take my sister and myself to England to meet Mum's family.  Mum had only been back once, in 1970, but this was to be our first trip as a family.

What a welcome we received at Heathrow on 2nd December. Mum's brother had hired a mini-bus to drive from Essex to London, bringing our grandmother and as many of the family as would fit, leaving four spare seats for the family from Downunder. The love and affection we felt instantly as we entered the arrivals hall was overwhelming and amazing.

Mum's family had all been thoughtful and generous sending us birthday and Christmas cards and gifts over the years, but they were all just names to us. So to meet all these smiling, welcoming faces and get to know their personalities, and share family stories with them was fabulous.

We were driven back to Grays in Essex, where Nana lived with her son Fred and his wife and two children, in the same house that Mum and all her siblings had been born and raised.  Room was made for Mum and Dad to stay there, while my sister and I stayed with Mum's sister Jean and her husband and son, two kilometres away, on the other side of Grays.

We spent the next three weeks visiting family members (both sides, as Dad was English too), getting to know our Grandmother, cousins, aunts and uncles, sightseeing, visiting Christmas markets, and generally acclimatising to a northern hemisphere Christmas.

Sight-seeing in London

Although four of Mum's siblings still lived in Essex, one sister lived in Devon, one in Bedfordshire and one in Cambridge.  The plan for Christmas was that all Mum's siblings and their families would travel to their sister Daphne's home in Cambridge for four days, so that all thirty-two of us could be together for the festive season. The mini-bus that collected us from Heathrow was again hired for the trip to Cambridge.

Some of the family en route to Cambridge in the mini-bus

Three caravans were hired, and set up in Auntie Daphne's garden. I'm not sure how the sleeping arrangements were worked out, but we, as the guests of honour, and Nana, were accommodated in the house, while the other siblings and their families were relegated to the caravans. (Bear in mind we're talking Winter, in England! It was cold!)

Back view of Auntie Daphne's home showing 2 of the 3 caravans in the garden

I was oblivious to a lot of the logistics of feeding and accommodating such a large number, as I think I was still getting used to being part of such a big group.  My previous seventeen Christmases had been very small affairs, spent with my paternal grandparents, and Dad's brother, sister-in-law and their two children.

Back to Cambridge in December 1973, St Edmunds, the village church in Hauxton, where Auntie Daphne and Uncle Roy lived is very historic, having been built in the 12th century.  Although it is dedicated as a place of worship for the Church of England faith, it is also used by the local Catholic community. Mum had converted to Catholicism before she married Dad, so we four trooped down the road to attend Mass at 9am, while those of Mum's family who wished to attend Christmas service, were there for the 10am Anglican service.

After the church services, a number of us went to the local pub, for a game of darts (so English!!), while the final preparations for our Christmas Day lunch were made.

Auntie Daphne was an amazing cook and entertainer, but not even she could manage to feed thirty-two people by herself.  For Christmas Day lunch, she recruited the village baker to cook two turkeys in his ovens while she cooked the third! It was a veritable feast!

The fun, laughter, games, food, love, welcome and everything in between were just incredible, and made for a Christmas I will never forget.

Footnote - In preparing to write this blog, I went searching for the photo album of our trip to England in 1973, but failed to locate it, so have only been able to include a few shots that I came across, not in the album. Hopefully I will locate the album some time soon, and will update my blog with some more photos of our truly unforgettable 1973 Christmas.

All photos are from my collection.