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EVERYONE CAN APPRECIATE an ideal Christmas. Dinner cooked to perfection, carols sung in harmony, the right presents received by everyone.
But what stands out in our memory are the odd moments: the awful gift, the burnt turkey, the silly and authentic images that you’ll never find on anyone’s “Season’s Greetings” card.
So take a break from pursuing the perfect Christmas, and enjoy these weird and wonderful gems that got lost at the bottom of the stocking.
Members of The Ministry of Fun’s Santa School work out to get ‘chimney-ready’ as they attend a special Santa Boot Camp in Newbury, Berkshire, 2015.
Thai nightclub dancers dressed as Santa’s helpers take a smoke break during the night’s celebration in a downtown Bangkok bar on Christmas Eve, 1995.
A woman haggles over turkeys sold from a car on the streets of Dublin at Christmas, 1984.
Then First Lady Nancy Reagan kisses Mr T, dressed as Santa Claus, as he presents her with Mr T action figures in the White House, 1983.
There’s a fantastic story behind this one. In 1940, at the height of World War II, children at Point Pleasant secondary school in West Virginia denied themselves Christmas presents.
Instead, they sent $50 to King George VI, asking for it to be given to British boys and girls, who were enduring the strains of rationing at the time.
So George VI asked the mayor of Windsor in Berkshire to pick six children who had been evacuated to the town, and take them shopping and fit them out with clothes or anything else they needed.
This photo, taken a month later, shows one of the little evacuees being fitted with boots on the shopping tour, while the mayor of Windsor supervises the purchase and the other children look on.
Airplane trails form a perfect star in the sky, just above the Christmas tree on O’Connell Street, Dublin, in 2010.
Carol Valentine, 10, gazes longingly at some of the most-wanted Christmas presents of 1964 in New York – a set of Beatles dolls.
The Remco figurines now sell online for hundreds of dollars.
Farmer Gerry McEvoy, from Sallins, Co Kildare, brandishes one of his prize Christmas turkeys, in 2012.
This is an odd one. On 23 December 1972, 16 of this group were rescued from the infamous Andes plane disaster.
Stranded for more than two months, they had lost 29 of their friends in the crash, and to starvation and frostbite. Some had famously survived by eating the bodies of their fellow passengers, which were preserved in the snow.
Here they are enjoying a Christmas meal with friends and family at a hotel in Chile, two days after their rescue.
Some things never change. A little boy gets scared while meeting Father Christmas at a toy shop in Liege, Belgium, in 1944. An American soldier holds him while a woman wipes away his tears. And Santa wonders if it was something he said.
Lebanese soldiers travel through Christian East Beirut in a tank, handing out toys and tending to decorations on Christmas Eve, 1989.
Too good to leave out. Paul Gascoigne fends off the attentions of a Christmas streaker during Middlesborough’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle Utd, at the Riverside Stadium in December 1998.
Dublin shoppers burst through the doors of Switzer’s to take advantage of the sales.
Four-year-old Robin Levy, from the Bronx, inspects a few dozen Santas on 48th Street and Eighth Avenue, Manhattan, in 1962.
The men in red were graduates of the Volunteers of America charity, and collected donations on the streets of New York that Christmas.
At the Clyde Muirshel park in Scotland, druid Chris Turner stares towards the setting winter sun, in celebration of the pagan festival of yule, December 1999.
On Christmas Eve 1972, festive lights and decorations hang over the battered streets of Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, the day after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake.
The disaster killed around 6,000 people throughout the country, and left a quarter of a million homeless.
Mary, Joseph and the wise men appear to worship the Spire, reflected in the window of the nativity scene on O’Connell Street, in 2012.
Sidney Smart and her daughters Sandra (4) and Barbara (15), watch from their London home as Queen Elizabeth II delivers her first televised Christmas Day message to the British people, in 1957.
An American soldier reads a Christmas card from home as he sits on a bunker in Vietnam, 22 December 1966.
Joe Cole, who arrived to Britain from Nigeria in 1949, acts as Santa Claus for the children of Oxford, in 1969.
Here he is handing out a present to seven-year-old Nigel Baker outside a shop on Little Clarendon Street.
Shoppers camp outside Clerys on O’Connell Street at 1 am on 27 December 2007, waiting for the winter sales to begin that morning.
The first 100 people in the door were to be offered a free full Irish breakfast, along with exclusive bargains.
Clerys was liquidated and ceased trading this summer, having been a Dublin landmark since the 1920s.
Armed with a shotgun and with a dog to help him keep watch, a farmer guards his Christmas turkeys from foxes in Somerset, in 1953.
Celia Wall from Donnybrook gets her Christmas cards taken care of at the GPO in Dublin, December 2011.
Indian children, dressed in festive outfits, sing their hearts out during a Christmas party at a play school in New Delhi, 23 December 2011.
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He deffo needs to set himself aside from the torys on this or he will be sent to the waste bin also
@JG: he’s appealing to the uk public. They don’t like strikes or union leaders and politicians on picket lines waving copies of socialist worker about. Its why Corbyn lost in a landslide.
@Tom Quin: Every poll on the rail workers strikes had the public in support of them.
I take it back a YouGov poll didn’t. Savanta Comes poll of 2,300 58% of the people questioned said the strikes are justified, with 34% deeming them unjustified.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: No it doesn’t.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: The only ones showing support I can find are the ones carried by or for the RMT. No suprises there.
@Tom Quin: The Savanta ComRes poll wasn’t Carrie out for the RMT. Its funny how we only see what we want to see isn’t it Tom?
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: It must be the only one then, an outlier. An online one rigged by activists probably.
@Tom Quin: The IPSOS one was equal support at 35% to opposition at 35%. Doesn’t show the British public detesting unions. The only reason the Tories do so well is because the Brits use FPTP elections. It’s well established UK Labour would come out on top with PR voting. So no the British people don’t hate the left.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness:
Keeping in mind that, despite the name, YouGov is a private polling company founded by a conservative party member who is now a conservative party MP.
@David Bourke: Absolutely, good point that!
They sabotaged their party from within with their revolt on Corbyn. It’s no wonder they’re a bit lost for direction these days when they promoted a fence sitter to party leader.
@Rochelle: With FPTP electoral system and a very hostile media, Corbyn was never going to get in.
@Rochelle: Corbyn handed the Conservatives their biggest majority in donkeys years. He let Boris off the hook when he was suffocating to death through the pressure of brexit and a minority government. Corbyn showed the worst judgement of any leader in modern history when he agreed to that election. He then bombed out un the election campaign. He will be remembered as one of the worst Labour leaders in history. His decisions, scandals and his unprecedented unnecessary election defeat will ensure that.
@Rochelle: Corbyn lost to a Tory landslide, the uk public do not want left wingers. Starmer is trying to win an election in the real world.
@Tim Dawson: Corbyn was utterly railroaded by the media.. Even the BBC photoshopped a Russian style hat onto him on their backgrounds. He was absolutely hounded out of his position. The recent report shows how much the New Labour (Blairite) side of the party and the NEC completely shoehorned him. 100′s of thousands of people joined the Labour Party because Corbyn was the leader and the NEC screwed that membership over.
@Tom Quin: The UK public are too easily led by their right wing media barons.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: the british public have only ever once voted for a socialist government that was after ww2. The media did not give Boris that huge landslide.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: that’s very, very weak. you thinking the uk public are so thick because they did not vote for the guy you wanted them too is the sort of arrogance that switches people off the left.
@Tim Dawson: To be fair he didn’t get the support of the higher up’s in the labour party,the papers were all against him,his own wanted him to fail,he was elected by the people on the ground in the labour party,not saying he was perfect but he never had a chance,look at the head of labour now.
@Tom Quin: They voted for to leave the EU,yes they have a huge amount of badly informed people that believe lies and think the empire is still alive.
@Daniel Roche: No they just voted the way you didn’t like. It’s not a crime to leave the EU.
@Tom Quin: Who said it was a crime? Clearly you’re just a troll.
@Tim Dawson:
I’d love to hear about the Corbyn scandals. Please provide the details
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: So people who disagree with you are not just thick and gullible but also trolls?
Forgetting that working conditions would still be in the dark ages if it wasn’t for Unions. This isn’t simply a matter of one mp not abiding by party protocols, starmer has been on the fence all along. His fear of the electorate and the right wing press could be considered cautious and prudent but not at the cost of handing everything to the Tories on a plate. Surely it is easy enough for him to highlight that transport issues are created initially by the govt and not by the unions?
@alan: the brit public do not support unions and lefties like Corbyn. Starmer needs to win them over to get the Tories out and going full on Corbyn will give tories another landslide.
Starmer must’ve thought, the Tories are ripping themselves apart with this leadership contest, we can do better than them!
Labour party for the working class there’s a joke
If I understand it correctly, he wasn’t sacked for supporting the strikers, but rather because he said it was Labour policy to advocate for a pay rise in line with inflation. Which would a) would make no economic sense – increasing wages in line with inflation will only lead to further inflation, and b) clearly would be a major policy proposal, and as such if someone just says it is the party position when it isn’t, that person should be sacked. Such a proposal is ludicrous, and would just give the Torries the chance to portray Labour as some kind of looney left part that would end up bankrupting Britain, hurting small business owners, etc. etc. Right now, Labour just need to sit back and quiet while the Torries destroy themselves.
Always the same with Labour, when the Tories are on the ropes they proceed to shoot themselves in both feet. Fairly much unelectable as they’re perceived as differing factions all adopting opposing views. Should just split into three different parties and be done with it.
Starmer did the correct thing to sack him. What are all these whingers going on about?
Shouldn’t Labour ya know, be on the side of workers. I’m guessing that day has long since past since Tony Blair and ‘new Labour’. Moderate Tories in disguise
Unable to govern themselves anymore over there…Maybe we should tie in with India and jointly go in to save(colonise) them and restore good governance … ;)
Bye bye Keir
Like our own labour party. Labour supposed to be pro worker.
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