Where has the time gone? It’s less than two weeks to Christmas, the decorations are up, children are counting down the days and in the pub we were recalling festive seasons past.

I’m older than most, so I remembered when you got traditional gifts like an orange and a new penny in your stocking, alongside a compendium of games, a football, Dandy, Beano and Rupert annuals and a selection box of liquorice novelties.

There wasn’t a lot of money about and the closest you got to high tech was a Meccano set which never set my pulses racing. I’d rather have a book than a spanner.

Ah yes, those toys of yesteryear: Troll dolls, Muffin the Mule and Sooty’s Xylophone in the 1950s, Twister, Barbie and the Corgi version of 007’s Aston Martin with ejector seat in the 60s, Space Hopper, Raleigh Chopper, Sindy, Lego, Subbuteo and Scalextric in the 70s. And then came technology and Star Wars.

Only Santa Claus remained constant and all children believed because he brought the toys.

My chum Ian fixed me with a look and said: “You remind me of Father Christmas. You don’t shave and only work one day a year.”

He has a point. I’ve never considered what I do to be proper work because I enjoy it. So journalism was not a bad career choice all those years ago when even my first newspaper, the Knutsford Guardian, entered the festive spirit.

Each Christmas each member of staff got a turkey. How Dickensian was that? I was eight and a half stone when I was 18 and the turkey was about the same and I had to take mine home on the train. I looked like Tiny Tim on a mission.

At the Evening Gazette in Blackpool in the 1960s, the family-owned firm gave everyone double wages, which was even better. Can you see that happening now?

Ian said: “It was traditional that we all had our hair cut on Christmas morning. Later, we had turkey with all the trimmings.”

Ah yes, those jokes of yesteryear. Once the floodgate had been breached, they all came out.

“I’m not saying my mother was a bad cook but she used to buy a little turkey and a big turkey and put them both in the oven. When the little turkey was burnt, the big turkey was ready. Her kitchen was not so much cordon bleu as cordoned off.”

“One year we were so poor, we couldn’t afford a turkey. We gave the budgie chest expanders instead.”

“My son wanted an ex-box for Christmas so I got him a flat piece of cardboard. Can’t imagine why he wanted that.”

“My lad got a set of batteries with a note saying: toys not included.”

“You say you were poor? We were so poor we didn’t exchange gifts, we could only afford to exchange glances.”

“Do you remember a few years ago when all the snow came at Christmas? All my wife did was stare through the window the whole weekend. Eventually, I had to let her in.”

Ah yes, memories and a laugh. Where would we be without them.