Nostalgic for the 80s holidays

Posted by KimVG73@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 30 comments

Maybe it's the time of year. Or because I've lost a lot of my family and the holidays are bittersweet. But I find myself nostalgic for the 80s of my youth. Especially how we'd all go to the movies around Christmas and how nice the mall was decorated. There was a hopeful sense to the New Year, even though we worried about global issues, too, like nuclear war. The world just felt less dangerous, society less broken. Life a lot more fun. Guess I'm veering toward early onset curmudgeon. Might be time to rewatch Stranger Things. My favorite time machine.

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30 Comments

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RUGuitarded@reddit

I'm with you. As hard as I tried to keep traditions alive.... it's just a fight. I've recently figured out that quiet reflection and down-time is okay, too.

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KimVG73@reddit (OP)

What traditions have you given up on?

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Phantomtastic@reddit

The best parts of the 80s holidays for me were hanging out with friends freezing our asses off while getting drunk in a park or hotboxing a minivan, and taking heroic amounts of hallucinogens and wandering the town looking at Christmas decorations.

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Remarkable-Ad3689@reddit

I remember my poor Dad waiting in line with my brother and myself to see the movie "The Land Before Time." The mall was completely packed, it was nearer the Holiday season (If I remember correctly), and by the time we got to the pay window the show was sold out for that time. Ahhh Good Times!!!

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countesspetofi@reddit

They built a new mall in our area the year I started Kindergarten, and my class actually took a field trip to the mall. We saw some Santa Claus movie at the cinema and watched some of the school bands and choirs perform in the big gazebo in the middle of the food court. A few years later, my Grade 2 class came back to the mall when they opened an indoor mini golf course. Field trips were free back then; I feel bad for schoolkids today who have to pay for every little thing.

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KimVG73@reddit (OP)

But the anticipation of standing in a movie line was still kinda cool. Hope you got seats in the next show and burned some quarters at the arcade while you waited.

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Remarkable-Ad3689@reddit

I think we did. Funnily enough the Arcade was next to the movie theater. Imagine that!

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countesspetofi@reddit

I loved Christmas shopping at the mall and at Woolworth's. Mom, my sister, and I would go to Woolworth's in the morning, do our separate shopping, then meet at the lunch counter for hamburgers and syrupy Cokes in those heavy Coca-Cola glasses. Sometimes we'd share a banana split. All the big display windows would be full of those little animated holiday figures. While my parents were together, ever Christmas Eve we'd have an open house type thing, with a cocktail cart and platters of hors d'oeuvres. Nobody ever came. Ever. So it became our little cocktail party for ourselves. We kids would make ourselves elaborate mocktail out of all the mixers, and we'd snack on the appetizers all evening. There was always a crock pot full of cocktail weiners in a spicy/sweet sauce Mom made using her homemade plum preserves. Cream cheese and olive sandwiches on cocktail rye, egg salad mixed with potted meat and piped onto Ritz crackers, relish tray with homemade dips, seven-layer nachos... I'm making myself hungry.

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KimVG73@reddit (OP)

That all sounds what I remember, too. Woolworth's was the best. I love the cocktail cart. My grandparents had a rolling bar that I still use for holiday get togethers. Lol. Parties were pretty festive back then. The Greatest Generation still partied pretty hard in the 80s, like every holiday was VE Day again.

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zbornakssyndrome@reddit

I binge watch those YouTube 80s and 90s holiday commercials. The Halloween ones are great too! Never thought I would’ve actually like watching commercials when I was a kid, but I love seeing creative advertising of the past. So nice to see commercials for anything other than car insurance and prescription pills.

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Tepidopterist@reddit

Yesterday, I mentally reviewed all my xmas memories. Turns out there weren’t that many special ones after all: 1977 - STAR WARS!!! Got a cool light saber! 1981 - moving away from toys (though not entirely - Stomper 4x4!) and got some Beatles books, a clock radio (which I so wish I still had!) and, like, blank cassettes. 2011: a fun one with my wife while we were engaged; my late mom got me a Beach Boys record (the smile sessions) which I treasure even more now that she’s gone. Xmas is over for me, but if I can improve anyone else’s, that’s enough for me.

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Cloud_Disconnected@reddit

Same thing my parents said about the 50s, and now we're saying it about the 80s. It's not entirely untrue, the 80s truly were a simpler, slower time, as I'm sure the 50s were. We're well into the Information Age, things are more abstract now. We don't spend paper money or write physical checks, we use debit cards and apps. We don't go Christmas shopping at the mall, we order from Amazon based on a picture of our desire. We buy the idea of a tangible object that only becomes real a few days later, and we buy it with symbolic money. We drink simulated milk from almonds and oats. Many people don't leave the house to work, we have meetings in Zoom where we talk to pixels. I don't mean to get too philosophical or up my own ass, but there are real reasons we feel like this.

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RetseOydnA@reddit

"The Mall has it All" - David Addison from Moonlighting

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JackTrippin@reddit

I too am nostalgic for those times. Aside from all the reasons folks mentioned here, I think one major reason is nowadays families are both smaller and more nomadic. Those huge family holiday gatherings you see in the old photo albums are more rare now. Also, technology allows us to connect to anyone at any time in HD resolution so there's less specialness to the occasion.

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KimVG73@reddit (OP)

Agreed.

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Loveinchains78@reddit

70s were the best

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KimVG73@reddit (OP)

Very true. My youngest years were safely ensconced in the era of laid-back, wild colors, and everyone seemed happy (or high lol)

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ReadyOneTakeTwo@reddit

I miss Christmas Day late morning/early afternoon when we all go out of the house to show off what we got for Christmas with our friends. I don’t see kids do that anymore, and that’s pretty sad.

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RipEmUp510@reddit

If they are anything like our friends kids, they are doing it over Discord/XBox Live/whatever

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ReadyOneTakeTwo@reddit

Yep. There is still friendship, just not face to face anymore.

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RetroClubXYZ@reddit

Loved 80's holidays. I was a kid back then but Christmas still had magic in the 80's.

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GeeEhm@reddit

My parents owned stores in those beautifully decorated malls, so between Halloween and New Year's my nights and weekends were spent listening to horrible Muzak Christmas carols on loop, getting yelled at by stressed out women because we didn't have what they're looking for or everything was too expensive, and getting hit on by creepers. At least I got to eat Chik-fil-a and gummy bears every day.

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KimVG73@reddit (OP)

Yum. Chik-fil-a.

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Independent_Ad_5664@reddit

Mmmm gummy bears…

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MyriVerse2@reddit

Mall is still there... still decorated. And I'm always hopeful. Society does not feel broken. And I'm still having fun.

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newwriter365@reddit

I worked retail in the 1980s and respectfully disagree. As a young adult, the minute I realized I could order all gifts online that became my go to. I haven’t set foot in a mall in over 10 years. Don’t miss them. Would prefer to see them become part of the affordable housing solution.

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majorflojo@reddit

The Holidays were so much fun I used to get butterflies the last few days of school before Christmas (and in my years in college when I was able to come home). Our family was close but not smothering, we did our friends thing and our family thing (M & D managed to maintain that boundary which had its drawbacks but still a great idea). Both of those times were fun. Suburban kid so we had the mall which we rarely went to unless shopping but when we did for Xmas it was always packed. Also loud, like a low hum/roar of people moving up & down the corridor the way water does in a big river. We'd run into everyone and even the people you weren't fond of were happy to see you and you them. The place smelled like pine trees, cookies & corn dogs. When we walked through the Dillard's dept store, we'd have to walk through the cloud of perfume & cologne since those counters were always at the entrance. I get a whiff of any those smells now and it takes me back to those times.

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KathlnTurnrOverdrive@reddit

My favorite holiday memory with my friends was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We'd come home from college and a bunch of us would meet up at a local tavern for gin rummy and karaoke. But the deal was, lose a hand and your name goes in to sing. And everyone else gets to pick the song. And you didn't get to find out what it was until you got the microphone handed to you. It was hilarious.

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Bobmanbob1@reddit

80s holidays were really special. I think its because you were more hands on, from the SEARS catalog to going shopping at the mall. Now with the exception of maybe Xmas day, it all feels so impersonal.

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KimVG73@reddit (OP)

There was more connection somehow. Or to me it feels that way in retrospect. It certainly wasn't perfect or anything.