I was reading the 1955 edition of the magazine 'Christmas Cheer'. Inside, were several adverts, the cheeriest being the one for E Dingle which advertised itself as the ideal place for Christmas shopping for everything 'from toys to televisions'. Dingles was in the same place then as it is today on Royal Parade although their store would have been relatively new with the rebuilding of the City Centre after the Second World War.
The second advert shows the ideal present to buy your wife in 1955 - a washing machine! Well, that's what the South West Electricity Board thought! I wonder how many wives who got a washing machine for Christmas eventually filed for divorce? I don't think it would go down too well today as a present for Christmas! Things have certainly changed. There was also an advert for a set of Christmas lights from Osram which then cost £1 a box. What's funny is that, almost 60 years later, you can still get them for the same price! The last advert shows 'the ideal Christmas gift' - a National Savings Gift Token which could be bought in multiples of 15 shillings (now 75p).
What fun it must have been on Christmas morning with mum unwrapping her new washing machine and the kids excitedly receiving their National Savings Gift Tokens. I wonder what dad got? There were no other Christmas adverts in the magazine but plenty of adverts for long forgotten companies such as Hatchards the book shop, Pophams, Charles Harding, the Magnet Restaurant , Beechwoods and Rediffusion. Also featured in the magazine were several quizzes. The Literary Quiz had a prize of a £10 book token, the Hilda Haddon Sporting Quiz had a first prize of a fireside chair and the Spot the Inn competition had a first prize of 3 bottles of Sherry, a bottle of Dimple Whisky, a bottle of Port and one dozen bottles of Golden Diamond. You would've needed to have been a very serious drinker to have been able to recognise all twelve of the pub interiors. The magazine also featured ghost stories, stories from the past and a joke featuring Santa and his reindeer covered in destination stickers. For one shilling, in a time when there were no Xboxes or Playstations, it seemed the ideal gift for dad!
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