Did You Know… There Was a Time When All Fizzy Pop Drinks Came in Glass Bottles with Deposits?

Pop bottle returns and the excitement of reclaiming a few pennies.

Long before plastic bottles, ring-pull cans and multipack deals, fizzy drinks in Britain came in solid glass bottles. In the 1960s and 70s, every bottle of pop carried a small return deposit, usually a penny or two, which you could reclaim by returning the empty to the shop. For a young boy (or girl), those bottles were far too valuable to throw away.

It was a simple system, but one that shaped a childhood routine. It could make a difference to pocket money economics. There was also the thrill of walking into a shop clutching a bag of empties, which would soon turn into a pocketful of pennies.

A Local Shop For Local People

“Where did you get them from?” The shopkeeper might ask.

I would try not to look guilty. Sometimes, I would take them back for neighbours, having agreed that I could keep the pennies. Often, I would find them. To the shopkeeper it looked like we drank a lot of pop, little of which had been bought from him.

The shopkeeper would inspect the bottles, count them, and either hand over coins or deduct the amount from whatever you were buying. A big haul could go towards sweets, crisps, or, maybe, another bottle of pop to start the cycle all over again. A few bottles might buy a comic.

The local shop was central to this system. Many had wooden crates stacked by the door, out the back, or behind the counter. The shopkeeper knew exactly which bottles belonged to which company and which were acceptable for return. Some were stricter than others. A bottle from the “wrong” brand might be rejected with a shrug. Others took them all. It depended on the shop, the supplier, and if your parents were a regular customer.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas - Day Twelve: A Brief History of the Twelve Days of Christmas

 

For many, Christmas ends on 25 December, or the day after Boxing Day. The decorations come down, television schedules return to normal, and attention turns to the celebrations for the New Year.

Yet traditionally, Christmas is not a single day at all — it is a season. At the heart is the Twelve Days of Christmas, a period with its own history, symbolism and tradition.

In mediaeval and early modern Europe, this twelve-day period was a time for celebration, feasting, music and social gatherings. Work was often suspended, and each day held its own significance within the Christian calendar.

Twelfth Night: The Final Celebration

It begins on Christmas Day (25 December) and ends on Twelfth Night (5 January), which just happens to be today.

The beginning of the Twelve Days of Christmas can be misunderstood. It is often assumed they lead up to Christmas Day rather than beginning on it. It’s hard to imagine that there was a time when the celebrations of Christmas carried on into the new year.

In earlier centuries, however, Christmas Day was the start of the celebrations, not the finale. Decorations traditionally remained in place until Twelfth Night, after which it was considered unlucky to keep them up.

Twelfth Night, on 5 January, was historically one of the most important nights of the Christmas season. It marked the end of festivities and was often celebrated with parties, plays, music and the sharing of a special Twelfth Night cake. The cake sometimes contained a hidden bean or coin. Whoever found it would be crowned “King” or “Queen” of the festivities for the evening. The tradition of role reversal — servants becoming masters, rules being relaxed.

Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night takes its name from this tradition of misrule and celebration.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas - Day Eleven: New Year's Day - A Day Of Superstition.

 

It was New Year’s Day, sometime back in the late 1960s, and my school football shirt was dirty and needed cleaning. I had a big game coming up, and I only had one decent football shirt. In my schoolboy mind, it was a matter of urgency.

I asked my mother if she could put it in the washing, as I needed it as soon as possible. I expected that it would soon be washed and ready again.

“No, not today,” she replied.

“Why?” I asked, surprised.

It seemed to me to be a reasonable question, as she always seemed to be doing some washing. There was a never-ending supply of laundry that needed to be washed. Why not today, I wondered? 

“I’ll tell you why,” she replied. “It’s New Year’s Day, and you don’t do any laundry today, as it will bring bad luck.”

“What bad luck?” I wanted to know.

“If I do it today, it will bring bad luck. That’s what they say. Have you not heard of washing a loved one away? You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

Now, I didn't want that to happen, but surely washing my football shirt was not going to cause a death in the family?

The superstition that doing the laundry on New Year’s Day could result in the death of a family member is one that is widely held. Many seem to believe it, or at least observe it, and for some it is extended to not doing any house cleaning on New Year’s Day.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas — Day Ten: Christmas and the Sanity Clause

 

The Marx Brothers used to be on television over Christmas all the time when I was growing up. Their films, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Duck Soup, were just some of the best known - the first two becoming names of Queen albums in the 1970s.

My favourite Marx Brother was Groucho, false mustache and funny walk. 

This is genius.

 Nothing more needs to be said.

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

The Twelve Posts of Christmas — Day Nine: Did You Know… A Christmas Carol Is the Most Remade Movie of All Time?

 

The many faces of Ebenezer Scrooge and a timeless tale of redemption.

It’s that time of year. Christmas television in the UK would hardly feel complete without at least one version of A Christmas Carol appearing on our screens. For many, it has become as much a part of the festive season as mince pies, tinsel, and repeats of The Great Escape.

Every Christmas, A Christmas Carol will make an appearance.

Written by Charles Dickens in 1843, the story began life as a short novella. Set around Christmastime, it tells the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly and bitter miser whose only true love is money. Scrooge is rude, dismissive, and, regardless of whether it is Christmas, joyless. He treats everyone around him with contempt, especially those that he employs, his long-suffering clerk Bob Cratchit. 

Any stranger who dares to wish him a Merry Christmas is greeted with “bah humbug”, while those seeking charity donations are shown the door.

Over time, Scrooge has driven away friends and family alike, and he appears not to care. That is, until one Christmas Eve, when he is visited by three spirits: the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

Each ghost shows him different aspects of his life, his past, and who he once was, and the man he has become. The final vision is the most chilling of all. The spirit tells him that if he refuses to change, he will face a lonely death, unmourned. No one will miss him when he is gone, and many will cheer. Faced with the consequences of his past choices, he decides to change. The story, at its heart, is about redemption, compassion, and the possibility of change.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas - Day Eight: The Christmas Selection Boxes That Never Lasted Till Boxing Day

 

 

There are certain Christmas traditions that almost everyone who grew up in Britain during the 1960s, 70s or even 80s would experience. 

Let’s start with the once-a-year treat of turkey for Christmas dinner and turkey sandwiches for a week afterwards. Then there was watching the big film on Christmas Day, only ever seen at the cinema before. And once a year, the Radio Times double issue would be bought, and planning for Christmas viewing would begin.

Then there was something that every kid expected — at least one chocolate selection box that would never make it past Boxing Day. 

In many homes, it didn’t even survive Christmas afternoon.

Selection boxes were bright, shiny, and exciting. For adults, they were an easy gift. For children, they were a chocolate-filled treasure.

And for most of us, they were gone within hours.

Although, I have to say, the selection boxes did seem to be a lot bigger back then. Maybe being a child had something to do with that — after all, everything looks bigger when you are a kid. 

But shrinkflation hadn’t been thought of yet. 

The boxes were big and were full of the chocolates everyone loved. A Mars bar, Aero, Kit-Kat, the Crunchie, the Flake, a packet of Buttons, a tube of Smarties and Rolos, to name a few. You would get ten or twelve to a box, and they were all full size — none of this miniature-size, two-bites-and-they-are-gone nonsense.

You can only imagine the sugar high.

I was always convinced that I could pace myself. Every year I’d unwrap the selection boxes and list them from favourites to potential swaps. Inside, the sweets were laid out like jewels: the Flake you could never eat neatly, the Caramel bar that stuck your teeth together, and I was always disappointed if I got a Bounty, because they were difficult to trade. Adults seemed to like them, but they had nothing to swap.

And then there were the negotiations — somehow, I had to offload that Bounty.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas 2025 - Day Seven: When Snow Was Proper Snow

 

Will we have a White Christmas? Where I live, it looks like rain. 

There was a time when I remembered snow at Christmas.

There’s a saying you hear from a certain age group — “We had proper winters back then.” 

It’s usually said after a light dusting of snow causes the entire country to come to a standstill, or the occasional road hasn’t been gritted by the council de-icing trucks. And the telly weather forecaster on 24-hour news gets overexcited about “the possibility of flurries on higher ground”.

Whatever Happened To Snow?

But if you grew up in the 1960s or 70s, you’ll remember that we didn’t need to be warned about flurries. Snow arrived with confidence, and it was expected — the possibility of a white Christmas was high — years before Bing Crosby had told us so. 

Christmas snow was a given. It didn’t tiptoe in overnight like it does now. It marched in, dumped itself in great heaps across every road, garden and playground, and hung around for weeks. It was nice until after a few days it turned to ice, and you spent a week or two looking like a candidate for Britain’s ice skating Winter Olympics team.

Of course, back then, we didn’t have the 24-hour weather news or apps sending red alerts to our phones on the hour. We had the local milkman. I think his name was Stan, whose arrival at the doorstep was the first sign of how serious things were. 

“Cold today, I’ve had to put my gloves on. You won’t need to put these in the fridge.” He said, as the snow fell, covering the top of his hat.

Which was good, because I can’t remember whether we had a fridge back in the 1960s. Many of those mod cons didn’t arrive for us until the 1970s onwards.

Proper Snow

For us, when it snowed, it changed the whole rhythm of life, especially if you were a kid. We wanted snow, as it meant building snowmen and snowball fighting. It was the usual romantic thinking: waking up to a world made soft and silent, other than the crunch of boots on fresh white powder and the breath clouds forming in front of your face. 

The Twelve Posts of Christmas 2025 - Day Six: The Year Parliament Cancelled the Festive Season

 

Christmas Was Once Banned in Britain

It’s strange to imagine, in an age where Christmas seems to start in October, as the shops gear up for a winter spending spree, that there was a time when the festive season wasn’t just discouraged — it was actually illegal in Britain.

Yes, Christmas was cancelled.

In 1647, right in the aftermath of the English Civil War, Parliament cancelled Christmas. And not just for a year or two. For thirteen years, Christmas Day, decorations, feasting, and merriment were all banned by law.

England in Turmoil

By 1647, the first English Civil War had ended. Parliament’s forces had defeated the Royalists after seven years of conflict. But the fighting didn’t immediately stop. There was a brief and bloody second war, and eventually King Charles I was taken prisoner.

Negotiations failed, and compromise was impossible. In early 1649, England executed its king. Power now rested firmly with Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians. The country was declared a republic. In the aftermath, the Church of England was abolished and replaced with a strict Presbyterian system.

And the Puritans were now in charge.

The Ban on Christmas

To the Puritan mind, Christmas had drifted away from its religious roots. They saw it as a day of excess, idleness, drinking, feasting, dancing, and wastefulness. In general, people are having too much fun. It was everything they disapproved of.

So Parliament abolished it.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas 2025 - Day Five: Shopping like It's The 1970s

It’s Christmas, 2025, but yesterday out shopping, I was reminded of the 1970s. No, it wasn’t the sound of Slade or Wizard singing about Christmas over the tannoy; it was too early for that. I was looking at the prices on the shelf. 

It has become a holiday tradition for certain supermarkets, on this day, Aldi and Lidl, to reduce prices on a number of staple Christmas food items — usually, Christmas dinner.

The prices were at 1970s level.

Potatoes, carrots, sprouts, shallots, parsnips, and turnip were all priced at eight pence. At Lidl, I bought one of each: potatoes, carrots, sprouts and shallots, for thirty-two pence. The receipt told me what the discount was — £3.87.

You would need a time machine to see prices like that.

The UK has been going through a cost of living crisis for some time, and inflation is always there. The longer you live, the more of it you see and remember. Growing up as a young boy in the 1960s and 70s, I saw plenty of inflation. My pocket money, and earnings from the paper round, did not go far. Little changes in that regard, although I gave up delivering newspapers long ago.

So, if you live in the UK and have an Aldi or Lidl nearby, go and get a bargain, and party like it’s 1970!

** An update: I went to my local Lidl this morning (19th Dec), and they have dropped their price to five pence. It's more like shopping in the 1960s now.

And as I left the store, over the tannoy, Noddy Holder and Slade were singing Merry Xmas...

More can be found here: The Twelve Posts of Christmas

 

Image by CrimsonMystique from Pixabay

The Twelve Posts of Christmas 2025 - Day Four: Brussels Sprouts and the Mysterious Christmas Pong

 

 

The Twelve Posts of Christmas 2025 is my festive wander through memories, traditions, mishaps, and moments — from childhood Christmases of the 60s and 70s to the quirks of celebrating today. Think nostalgia sprinkled with humour, a pinch of honesty, and the occasional whiff of Brussels sprouts. 

Let’s unwrap the season, one story at a time.

 

It’s the mid-1970s, the day before Christmas Eve. It’s a typical British winter scene, as I’m trudging through a thin mist that we hope will deliver snow, but more likely it will rain. I’m on my way to the house of the family who was looking after my dog Lisa—a mischievous animal, with a temperament that suggested she was a law unto herself.

As soon as I stepped inside the front room, I was hit by it.

A smell.

Not a strong one, but the kind that creeps up on you — a sort of lingering, unidentifiable pong that is noticeable and doesn’t go away.

Naturally, my first thought was Lisa.

She was sitting in the corner, looking vaguely guilty in that classic canine way. Her ears were slightly down, as was her head, her eyes avoiding mine. If she were a human, her posture would say, “I’d like to speak to my solicitor.”

It wouldn’t have been the first time she’d left an aromatic surprise, but she had been trained to go outside.

Something felt… off.