Nostalgia: Helping lift spirits at Christmas

THE Evening News has had a long tradition of spreading Christmas cheer.

While this year we have teamed up with Lothian Buses to raise money for the Sick Kids, Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em stars Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice were in town in 1974 to support our charity appeal. The pair distributed presents at the children’s shelter in Polwarth Terrace.

In 1967, it was Ronnie Corbett who got on board with the News by visiting children at the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital.

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That year seems to have been a particularly successful appeal if the host of toys donated by Triang Ltd and put on display in front of the former Scotsman office on North Bridge are anything to go by.

As well as helping out those less fortunate, the News always has always tried to capture the excitement of Christmas – and the latest toys.

We were invited into Hearts player Arthur Thomson’s home in Hermiston Court on Christmas Day in 1967 where, along with wife Sandra, we met children Pauline, two, and nine-month-old Keith with their new toys. The picture actually appeared in a Christmas Day edition of the Evening News.

A trip to the Jenners toy department is a Christmas must for many families and, in 1965, excited children were pictured playing on the impressive model of the Golden Arrow engine.

Meanwhile, in the same year, a mother and child were caught surveying the latest toys on offer at Patrick Thomsons on North Bridge. As well as intricate dolls’ houses, bikes and toy cars, the window display includes a cuddly panda – and it is likely more than a few of those will be sold in the Capital this year.

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