a christmas party

I was reminded today that Christmas will soon be here and it brought back a really warm memory. I must have been about nine years old. Every year in our school, a small group of children were chosen to attend a party held by the young girl students at the local College of Housecraft. The college seems like a quaint concept nowadays. The students were taught the crafts of cooking, sewing and other domestic activities. I guess they would later progress to be teachers in what was called Domestic Science at school (a remarkably p.c. title considering it was the 1950s). That was another quaint concept whereby girls were basically taught how to be housewives. (This subject was dropped from the school curriculum many years ago but many believe it should be re-introduced now to address the problem of a generation living on junk food).

Back to the story – well I was part of the chosen group one year. As I remember, we were to give the students a carol service and they would provide us with some food that they had prepared. On the day, one of the teachers walked us out of the town and up the steep hill to the edge of the moors, where the college was situated. There was deep snow all around, which set the Yuletide theme nicely. The large Victorian building was very grand and we sat cross-legged on a highly polished floor in a large, dark and wood panelled room. Three or four young, women students looked after us very well. There was a grand piano which one of them played whilst we sang our carols. They plied us with sandwiches, cakes, buns and probably jelly and ice cream. I seem to think we played some games and the students helped us make some Christmas cards.

It was such a refreshing change for me, to be attended and cosseted by these lovely, gentle young women, instead of the usual rough treatment we got from our teachers at school. I recall it was dark when we walked back into town and a warm, happy glow filled me. One I can still feel faintly from time to time, when I remember that day.