A special time for many, the festive period brings families and friends together, with a great sense of excitement leading up to the big day. But the festive season also brings a sense of nostalgia, where we look back at years gone by and recall Christmas memories from over the years.
For Edinburgh residents, the city centre evokes many memories, from the famous Jenners Christmas tree, frantic shopping in stores that are now no longer, and visiting venues which are luckily still here.
Here are nine Christmas memories shared by Evening News readers.
5. Santa’s Grotto at St Cuthbert's Co-op
Stewart Syme remembers going to visit Santa’s grotto in the basement of the St Cuthbert's Co-op (now Farmfoods) in Nicolson Street | Albert Jordan
6. Christmas shopping
Several residents remembered shopping in Edinburgh’s Princes Street during the festive period. One said they remember ‘walking along princes street doing shopping with my parents’ with another remembering ‘travelling to Edinburgh on the bus to look at the Christmas window displays’. | Submitted
7. Family Christmas dinner
One resident shared all their Christmas memoirs that made the festive period special for them. They said: “Having a family Christmas with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and having to put three kitchen tables together with a big white linen bed sheet as the tablecloth - we all lived very close by back then. Everyone wishing each other a Merry Christmas as they passed on the street and seeing children outside with their new bikes, scooters and baby dolls. Getting excited on Christmas Eve with my brother and younger sister as we all shared a bedroom and couldn't get to sleep for excitement. Our parents paying up a Christmas Club since January to pay for our Christmas and trying to choose dads biggest sock to hang from the mantlepiece. Christmas really was simpler back then and more focus on family getting together than how many presents you got. | rawpixel.com
8. Christmas TV
After all the presents have been opened and Christmas dinner has been eaten – there’s nothing better than lounging on the sofa in front of the box. Fred Legget shared one of his Christmas memories. He remembered: “A cauld walk in the rain or snow from my house in Restalrig Avenue to Restalrig Square and watching utter crap on television at home in the evening” | Yui Mok/PA Wire Photo: Yui Mok