CHRISTMAS | RETRO
5 Ways Christmas in the 1970s Ruled!
Christmas is a little different for each generation; you can always hear a crazy uncle with a scotch in his hand talking about how, “Christmas when I was growing up was yada, yada, yada.” I swore when I was growing up that I would never be like that.
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Well, I guess I’m bad at keeping promises because I’m going to compare my Christmases growing up in the 70s to today’s Christmases.
I was a child of the 70s and anyone who has grown up in the 70s, or anyone who just loves that era, knows it was unique in just about everything: music, clothing, speech, style, and even with protests. The 70s definitely had an impact on the rest of the 20th century.
Remember though, this was the 70s, a time before the digital age. This was a time before the internet and smartphones and iPads and most importantly a time before social media but it was the tip of the video game console indutry. The video game console industry was just a glimpse of what was to come in the not so near future
I thought I would take this opportunity to compile a list of how Christmases in the 70s were different, yet not so different.
1.A Life Before the VCR.
I grew up before the era of VCRs, YouTube, and Netflix. Because of this, the TV Guide was essential reading during the holiday season as it was used to schedule the family’s time together. If you missed a Christmas special (and there were many) then you just missed out.
There were no VCRs to record Christmas specials, if you were too busy to watch them the one or two times they were shown then you missed out. With the advent of cable television and satellite TV, these shows are now shown hundreds of times throughout the Christmas season. Nor was there Netflix or Amazon Prime, which shows the specials a 1,000 times (or so it seems).
