Not really as an Australian-Italian we have a lasagna on Christmas with a full Italian meal for launch and then on Boxing Day (dec 26) when we would go to the Aussie side and go in a pool and throw some snags and pawns, we also have a Christmas ham and crisp songs
While the Sears and Roebuck catalog was big it isn't the same idea as Argos. You might remember Service Merchandise in America. That is more inline with what Argos is.
I think the Sears catalog solves America's space problem like how Argos solved Britain's. they have little space, we have too dang much space, to the point where it made sense to have a large mail-order catalog of everything you might want and have it brought to you.
@@NickTick I worked at Service Merchandise after it changed its name to Best Products, before going out of business several years later. It was a really nice store!
For me being a Brit, I was surprised when Tom said that in America they don’t have them. I just automatically assumed it was a universal thing that most western countries had.
@@Jake-rm4be I also assumed that. I'm from Ireland rather than Britain, but we have Christmas crackers too (basically identical), so I just assumed it was kind of a universal thing.
As a British 14 year old, my parents might get my Brother and I a tablet, or a phone or something expensive like that every few years. In other years we usually get things like books, clothes, games(board games / puzzles / lego) and such. However each member of the family buys or makes something for each other member of the family and that gift is normally personal and usually around £10 - £20. We never watch the Queen's speech, but we always gather around the telly for Doctor Who!
+Matt and Tom I asked this as well, but it seems like this was already answered. I also realized later that an extended middle finger may only be a rude gesture in certain countries (such as the USA).
Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is probably the most recently-composed piece of Christmas music that gets regular airplay here in the 'States.
There's something funny I recently learned about the Rage Against the Machine Christmas number 1 thing... Rage Against the Machine is signed to the record label Epic Records, which is owned by Sony Music. And Simon Cowell's record label Syco (the one all Xfactor winners sign with) is run by both Simon Cowell... and Sony Music! So while everyone was fighting their side of the battle to either get the Xfactor winner to Christmas number one, or to fight the man and get Rage Against the Machine to the top, Sony Music were sat in their offices and laughing as two of their songs fought it out for the top spot.
I've had 2 very different Christmas experiences: One with the very posh English side of my family, where we used to stay and my grandmothers huge country house with my 2 aunts and uncles and only 2 cousins, and have a 5 course Christmas dinner cooked by my uncle who's a chef, no electronics allowed on Christmas day and we always go on walks. And then the opposite with the Irish side of my family where we stay in my other grandmother's terrace in Dublin, have breakfast on xmas eve with up to 6 aunts, 6 uncles, and 12 cousins. We'd spend most of Christmas day in our pyjamas watching TV, help my mum make Christmas dinner and go to bed in the early hours of the next day.
"The Laminated book of dreams! You know why it's laminated don't you? to CATCH THE TEARS OF JOY... *sobs*There are so many beautiful things. I cannot possess them all...' " -Bill Bailey
We had to do that once. While living in the UK and going back home to the US for Christmas, we decided to take a package of Christmas crackers with us. Thankfully, we started at Heathrow and left the unpulled ones with family in the US, so our experience with airport security was fairly easy.
+harvey rice I'm 16 and I second this! We were born at a great time, familiar with technology but didn't miss out on pre-tech stuff like Argos catalogues.
I think the fact that everything is shut in the UK on the Christmas Day is among the biggest culture shocks for international students. Coming from overseas, having seen scenes and scenes of crowded streets on the Christmas Day from American TV series, and expecting the similar things in the UK, it's quite a big surprise.
The Argos Catalog is exactly the same as the Sears Catalog was here in the US. Also, if you were in a smaller town you likely had a Sears or JC Penney catalog store instead of a full store.
The whole thing regarding the Argos catalogue, and in particular the one Tom visited with a tiny shop and a dumbwaiter that just magically delivered the items, makes me think there could be a neat SciFi story or tv show developed around the concept. Imagine a scene where some kid goes exploring under the shop and find that the items really are being created on-the-fly by some aliens. Say, aliens who are making ends meet while waiting for the technology base to catch up to the point where they can repair their ship. :)
So you missed setting deserts on fire, explaining to young children why uncle Luke is not breaking health and safety law by setting the desert on fire, and at 7:00pm the Dr Who fans throwing out the non fans from the room with the best TV.
You mean "desserts" i really, really hope... And we set puddings on fire. You have a sweet pudding for the dessert course - a "dessert" in the UK usually means something with a lot of whipped cream.
+Matt and Tom, we used to have catalog shops in the US. There used to be a national chain called Service Merchandise with a shop area with 'big ticket items' on display behind glass and an ID number. They'd either have little cards with the ID numbers, which would be in a business card like holder attached to the glass, or they'd give you a piece of paper and a little 'golf pencil' and you'd jot down the numbers. Then the stores would have more mundane items in a catalog at a couple of points around the store. And there too, you'd write down the catalog ID number, and then hand that into a clerk at a counter and they'd type that into a terminal or just hand it off to someone to run into the back - and in nearly every store there would be a roller-conveyer belt and somewhere in the back, someone would put together your order and send it back out front on that conveyor. Ours were more derived from the idea of "convenience", like the food automats of the early 20th century, than a need for space. By the 1990's with the rise of stores massive warehouse stores, like K-Mart and Walmart, they had all disappeared. We did, in a parallel manner, sort of have our own version of the Argos Catalogue. Over here, we had the Sears Catalog - and more specifically the Sears "Wishbook Catalog". Which was a massive tomb (usually in the 300+ pages range) that Sears would mail out each year around November. That would be our equivalent, where kids would go through and circle items they wanted or just spend weeks browsing. Sears catalogs though, existed because of America abundance of space, not because of a lack of it. You could send in an order form, or call an 800-number (by the 70's) and order items from the Sears catalog and they'd ship it to your house or send it to a "catalog store" in your local town where you could pick-up your order, without having to drive hours to get to the nearest actual Sears department store. This too had disappeared by the 1990's, though Sears Catalog Stores are still around in some small towns here and there. They mainly deal with DIY tools and lawn and garden equipment anymore.
Late but... I worked at a motorway services on the petrol forecourt for about six years... we were open literally 24 hours for 365 days of the year (366 days in leap year) - they asked for volunteers to work Christmas Day and those people got paid double time! But the amenities building was closed on Christmas Day, though it was open on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. But that was *it* in my experience, even today.
Ah, Christmas tradition. My family's got some very strange ones. I've got a very large family, so usually one (sub?)family hosts a party of 15 or so people. Rather than have the hosting family prepare a traditional turkey dinner, every group of people brings their own dishes, and, as is tradition, my mother will bring these bastardized eggrolls filled with hamburger meat and various vegetables. They're absolutely delicious and are a hit every time! Other typical dishes are homemade mac-and-cheese, ribs, and other such classics. Nobody brings turkey or stuffing or anything like that, because I think we've all realized that we'd rather eat something else. The other major tradition is a silly string fight just before everyone goes home.
An interesting thing about Argos, my fiance & I call it the Argos Effect. Many years ago, say the 1980s or a bit later, it was pretty normal for Argos to be almost always the cheapest place for any particular item one wanted to buy, assuming they stocked it. This though is very rarely still the case today, but I guarantee you a lot of parents of my age group (I was born in 1970) will still default to going to Argos because they'll just assume it'll be the cheapest place, or at least close enough so as to not feel cheated. In reality, Amazon usually beats them now, or Richer Sounds, John Lewis, PC World, etc. Ask your parents, see if they agree. :D
In Canada in the 90's and early 00's we had the Sears catalog in Canada, a special version called "the wish list". earlier than that it was the Eaton's Catalog. I'm sure the states had the Sears catalog too.
Argos--sounds a bit like the Sears-Roebuck catalogue back in its heyday, with less stuff on display in the shop. Also, please, please tell me that you are fortunate enough never to have had inflicted on you the Chipmunks' song, "Barking Jingle Bells," and "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer."
BigBen Hebdomadarius Or Santa Baby. Or Suzy Snowflake. Or I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. Or All I Want For Christmas is my Two Front Teeth. They're all terrible. Even though this is from U.K., Mr Blobby is literally the stuff of nightmares. More terrifying than all the songs we have about flirting with Santa combined
As bad that ruddy chicken song though? Always played at the school xmas party. In the final year I couldn't stand the music so much, I didn't go at all. Stayed home and played computer games. 8)
I know christmas dinner varies between families here in the US, and isn't exactly a set meal (other then being quite large). Hell, the only tradition our family has for christmas dinner is a toffee pudding, and thats just because our aunt tried it out one year and it was amazing.
At one house we always go to we always get a prime rib and the other it is just a bunch of appetizers you eat through out the night. The 2nd house we spread the gifts opening out a lot, so i guess we get more time to throw wrapping paper at each othee
This Christmas we had a fry up followed by drinking, presents, went out for a drive and a walk in the highlands of Scotland, came home and played a D&D campaign. Heck yeah!
Our teenage British Christmases nowadays sounds a lot like yours, identical even ( We were the last true Argos catalogue generation, they don’t do it anymore), except yours were more snowy, even though I am from the northern extremities of British civilization
Every single year, The only thing I ask for is a giant chocolate penny you get from poundland. We wake up really early, we have a sillystring battle then open our stockings with mainly novelty items. We go downstairs. We all cook breakfast (full english) and open our presents and tidy up. We watch the queens speech and Doctor Who. We all cook christmas dinner, then eat it. Most people get EXTREAMLY drunk and pass out. EVERY SINGLE YEAR
Breakfast tradition in my family is a casserole of sausage crumbles, Wonder bread plucked in bits, soaked in scrambled egg mix (maybe whip in just a little bit of milk), topped with shredded cheddar cheese, refrigerated overnight, and cooked while we open presents. We use the same casserole for Easter, substituting the egg hunt for the present unwrapping. We might also have cinnamon rolls/buns on the other rack of the oven.
A christmas tradition in my family is that every year a few days before Christmas my dad says "christmas is cancelled and you're gonna have to go to school tommorow". He actually tricked me a few times
I'm 15 and live in Sweden, I have relatives in the UK though (grandfather,uncles, cousins) so I kinda do Swedish and British christmas every year. Swedish celebrating on the 24th, and British Christmas Pudding after dinner. I mostly ask for books (major history nerd) and electronics (a steamgame or two and other stuff or gadgets that I've found interesting throughout the year.
At my (UK) home, when I wake up I have a present at the end of my bed by either mum or santa. The purpose of this present is to satiate me and my brothers until they get up- so that we aren't begging for them to wake up and come downstairs so we can start opening presents.
Hey guys! Just one comment on the bit about the entire country shutting down for a day. I live in Chicago, and on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day all public transport is free to avoid drunk driving accidents. Is this the case in other places as well?
Rainbow Llamas in Devon, that backward hellhole, buses run on Sunday times in the bigger towns and not at all in villages, cabs cost exuberant amounts for the entire week before the 25th and after New Years, and road deaths skyrocket around Christmas. Nothing is ever free here, our council would literally rather their people die.😭😂 But pubs make a metric arseload because you can't get pre-drinks, because everywheres closed
They sometimes do stuff like this in DC. But its often times more for Halloween or St. Patrick's Day. (Moreoften they'll just have Metro open later.) If public transport isn't free, then you'll see various cab companies offering free ride, and special Sober Ride websites or apps to help you get home safe.
I'm in Edinburgh (Scotland), I think they have something like that for new year, but not so sure about xmas day. Probably just for new year. Edinburgh kinda needs it though, tens of thousands from across the planet flood to the city for Hogmanay. Afterwards, the streets are a veritable river of discarded takeaway wrappers, bottles, etc. (the burger stands are expensive, but ye gods a giant burger with fried onions tastes so damn good at half past midnight). What's amazing is the street cleaners show up and by morning rush hour all the trash has gone.
I'm 18 and I remember the argos catalogue! A small little memory I'd forgotten about until you mentioned it. And the song I know of that there's a game to avoid hearing it for as long as possible is Last Christmas by Wham
I’m a middle class lad from Derbyshire and I’ve always had the festivities and celebrations split between Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which I’m surprised wasn’t mentioned. For me, it was basically two Christmas days, one with my Mum’s side of the family and the other with my Dad’s. I also had an early Christmas celebration with the part of my family that went abroad to see the rest of their family over Christmas, but that is less of a British thing.
My mum was a good friend of the main singer from the poges and went to some of their after partys so I grew up with storys of him chugging vodka every Christmas
Hello there! I'm an ex-pat living in California. There used to be a catalogue shop in the United States called Service Merchandise that went out of business in the 90s I think. But it was a little bit of a cross between the Argos model and Ikea in that it had a full shop floor with examples of all the merchandise in the catalogue. What you'd do is walk around and find something that you love and then place your order from the catalogue. You'd then go to the warehouse part and it would be delivered on a conveyor belt. Something you also could also have covered as quintessentially British is mince pies - here people leave out cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer. They're so unusual in the United States that everyone believes they have meat in them and it's sometimes really hard to get people to try them. As far as I know, you generally can't buy them here at all, but luckily my local supermarket (here in California's Sierra Nevada mountains of all places) stocks Crosse & Blackwell mincemeat filling. So I make my own every year. Nom nom :)
Thanks for the great show. It's interesting to hear what other countries are like and you do such a good job. When I was a kid in the USA we had the Sears catalog and the wish book at Christmas. There were small stores that might have a few items, but it was chiefly mail order. An Amazon of its day. Local stores were small with small inventories so the Sears catalog was a big thing, especially in rural areas. Sears sold everything, and at one time modular homes. I confess that I don't remember much except the tree and record of "The Little Drummer Boy" that I heard until I couldn't stand it. In the sixties my town shut down on Sundays and holidays, especially Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and The Fourth of July. When Walmart came into town the small shops went out of business and now it is basically year round. If it's not too late, may you have a great New Year.
*What* *12-* *&* *13-Year-Olds* *Want* *for* *Christmas* I'm an American in the age range you mentioned (I'm 13), and if I had made a wishlist, it would only have said *"money"*. Maybe other young teens/preteens had more interesting wishlists. I mainly received a Kindle Paperwhite, which was a pleasant surprise, and some money. *What* Little* *Kids* *Leave* *Out* *for* *Santa* I'm American, and I've only heard of leaving milk and cookies out for Santa, rather than mints pines and cherry.
I'm from the U.S. and growing up, my grandparents always had me and my sister pick things we wanted from J.C. Penney catalog. I don't really remember ever getting anything from the catalog, but it was fun looking through it.
"Every act puts out a dodgy Christmas album." I have a theory that there is only one "they put out a Christmas pop album" song. It's a canned pop song with sleigh bells added to the mix, and the chorus is "Christmas!" One word. If they're nasty, they'll at the word "It's."
To all non-UK folk reading this: On the subject of The Pogues, Matt and Tom do not speak for the nation. Fairytale of New York is at least the third best Christmas song.
As someone who never really had all that much of a childhood, its really fascinating to hear about christmas for a kid who got to have christmas - it always looked so fun:))
I'm a teen and last christmas i asked for fuzzy blankets and ear buds.My family gave me both along with a metric ton of socks (I actually got exited by the socks).My christmas's are mostly big family get togethers with a big turkey dinner Christmas day with stockings as soon as you get up then the family waking up having a big breakfast then presents before or after church(wake up dependent because us kids would all most likely sleep till noon if you let us)(no presents till everyone is awake and at the tree).
In the US, the only places that are open/running on Christmas Day are, weirdly, cinemas and Chinese restaurants. Don't know why, but it's good for us Jews :P
About 5 years later, and the Argos catalog is no more. They have stop printing the catalog, but the shops are still around. You just have to go to to the shop or to their website, to see what they are selling.
Did "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" ever make it to the UK? PS: I was about to suggest that - your comments about the Pogues notwithstanding - the Little Drummer Boy has got to be the most irritating Christmas song ever. Having found the Pogues' song on RU-vid, however, I must concede that I am mistaken!
Merry Christmas everybody is definitely widely played in the Netherlands. But I feel we play a lot more of your Christmas music because we have a popular station that during Christmas turns 'the Christmas station' and tries to avoid repetition on a day, and because of that we now have developed a knack for rocky/poppy Christmas songs.
We had a Catalog too in Germany from "Otto Versand" which I remember loving as a kid. I'd always look in electronics section when a new version of it arrived.
22 yo Dutchie here, we didn't have Argos or anything like that (us Dutchies do like to visually (and sometimes manually....) inspect stuff, you know, frugal), but in the 2 weeks before my birthday is when the Intertoys catalogue came in. And I always circled what I wanted for myself as a form of entertainment and I only now realise it quite often disappeared a few days later...
One thing I love about British Christmas is, the next day you can fistfight all the people who gave you crappy presents... Or the people who didn't say "thank you" enough. Of course they are probably the ones YOU gave crappy presents too.
+Eric Taylor Thank God that queen Victoria invented Boxing Day all those years ago, or we'd not have those brilliant family punch-ups that we know and love.
I'm Canadian and we have Christmas Crackers. They were never huge in my family, but you can always find them at the dollar store and I've gotten them the odd time. Also, we used to have the Sears Catalogue. It sounds a lot like the Argos catalogue, but you called in your order and they mailed it. It wasn't as big a deal for us in a big city, but for rural areas, it was an absolute lifeline a few generations ago. Even if you lived on a farm far, far away from any major city, you could order stuff.
I'm 17 and I always used the Argos catalog as a kid edit: also, in 2013 Edward Snowden delivered the alternative Christmas speech on Channel 4, which was awesome. Bonus Snowden fact: he's also the rector of Glasgow University.
Xfactor is fixed, I used to work in a record store and one year we received stock of a single with the words "X factor winner" on the cover a whole week before the final had even taken place
When they mentioned the argos catalog I was hit with a wave of nostalgia - I remember circling things in byro and putting my name next to the things I wanted with my sister when we were little every year
We don't have crackers, but here in Czech Republic, we have a lot of weird traditions too 😄 For example, we throw a sandal over our shoulder, cut an apple in half to see if it has a star inside, we catch an apple floating in water with our mouth (think that this is done in some countries on Halloween) or we we pour molten lead into water, to see if it will create any shapes. And also, on 24th of December, we watch Czech fairytales on the TV, and after dinner, we open presents 😄. PS: Who else also opens presents on 24th?
Oh and like age 13 I used to get Ello (that funky Lego ish thing) books, PS2 and DS games, art supplies and DVDs - im 18 now. I think the biggest electronic thing I ever got for xmas was a Nintendo DS lite when I was about 7
The Argos catalogue sounds a lot like the Sears Wish Book we get here in Canada. Sears is a massive chain store that sells everything from kitchen appliances to clothing, and they send out a catalogue every three months or something like that; the Wish Book is their autumn/winter catalogue, and it's a good 4-5 times the size of other issues. It's a massive glossy-paper tome the weight of a science textbook, and half of it is just toys. You either phone your order in or place your order at the store (each item has a unique inventory ID code), and they'll mail it to a nearby storefront; when it arrives, they phone you up, and you have like a week or something to go pick it up.
+linkviii It's basically the Christmas songs that were predominate when the Baby Boomers were kids. When they start to die off, I think those songs will be played less.
Many years ago, when I was in Britain, I stumbled into an Argos shop by accident, not knowing what it was. I was very confused. We have nothing like it in Germany, and I found the whole concept rather unacceptable. Fast forward a decade and Screwfix (who operate with the same concept, but for tools and stuff only) began opening stores in Germany. I knew there was no way people would ever get used to this. Screwfix retreated from the German market within 5 years.
Before Argos there were department stores. Unlike Argos, department stores went to great efforts to promote Christmas sales, especially to kids. They would usually dedicate an entire floor to model railways, slot cars and whatever the must-have toys were that Christmas. Although I loved Christmas as a kid, and remember my children's Christmases with affection, I look back with curmudgeonly disdain at the rampant consumerism of it all. My fondest memories are of family and friends, playing games and staying up late, not the stuff I got.
Best things about Christmas: Chicken Run on Christmas Eve, Doctor Who after watching the Queen on Christmas Day, Boxing Day football and then nothing happens until NYE
I'm American, I love celebrating Christmas with my British friend. He has introduced me and mine to many great traditions! One of my favorites being Christmas pudding.
