Ah the good old fashioned 80’s Christmas. You watched the top of the pops Christmas special after opening up your clunky action figures, you had family members you barely saw come over to eat the Christmas dinner that your mum had worked on all day, while downing glasses of babycham.


1. Foil Baubles

Source: Etsy

These were a lot of fun to mess with as a kid, poking your fingers in the holes and trying to peel the cones apart. They were usually kept higher on the tree for that very reason.

[rtk_adunit_top]

2. Christmas Cards

Source: Pinterest

While Christmas Cards are still a common thing they’re nowhere near as essential as they were back in the 80’s, when your mum would send you with a big stack to the nearest postbox.

[rtk_adunit_middle]

3. Satin Baubles

Source: Pinterest

A fun Christmas tradition. Take a satin bauble in your hand, run your thumbnail across its surface, getting a strange satisfaction from the texture. Get told to stop messing with the tree by your mum.

[rtk_adunit_bottom]

4. Silver Fake Christmas Tree

Source: Modern Charlotte

While technically a relic of the 1960’s, the reusable nature of these trees meant some families kept using theirs for years. I think my Granny still has the one she bought back in the 70’s.

[rtk_adunit_top]

5. Foil Garlands

Source: Pinterest

[rtk_adunit_middle]

6. Paper Chains

Source: All The Way 80s

I have one opinion on paper chains, and that’s if you buy them pre-made you’re cheating. They’re a great way to use up all those scraps of wrapping paper that are too small to really wrap anything with and if they’re too much effort, it’s easy to convince someone else to so it under the pretense of it being fun.

[rtk_adunit_bottom]

7. Fairy Lights

Source: Pinterest

Traditional incandescent bulb fairy lights are impossible to find now, they’ve all been replaced with LED bulbs. There’s a variety of reasons why, they’re cheaper to leave on, they last longer, they don’t do the thing where they all stop working if one bulb goes. Still, it’s a shame they haven’t made any with the little plastic flowers we remember from growing up.

[rtk_adunit_top]

8. Folding Paper Decorations

Source: Etsy

You can still find these, usually in the cheaper shops. Some people think they look tacky, but anything that spends most of its life in the attic really ought to be able to take up as little space as possible. I knew a woman who bought big metal bells to decorate her house with, then had to throw them away in the new year because she couldn’t find space for them. What a waste.

[rtk_adunit_middle]

9. Glass Baubles

Source: Pinterest

It’s really difficult to get glass baubles on the high street nowadays. Maybe it’s the risk of breakage, maybe it’s just more expensive to make than plastic. It’s a shame, it seems like everyone just wants the same flat colours on their trees now instead of the weird mishmash of decorations you had that your family had collected over the years.

[rtk_adunit_bottom]

It could even be a disposable culture thing, people making up “fashions” for what your Christmas decorations should look like this year, and it has to change every year, you need to buy all your decorations again, forget the ones in the attic. Just another way to convince people to waste more money.

10. Foil star Decorations

Source: Pinterest

These were cheap as hell and had hideously clashing colours, but you loved them anyway.

SHARE with a friend who also remembers these and give them a blast from the past!