Stars tell – Most Memorable Christmas (1990)

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Flashback to Variety Today 1990

Kerri-Anne Kennerley

Kerri-Anne Kennerley loved Christmas with her in-laws in England.

GOODMORNING Australia host Kerri-Anne Kennerley goes back just two years to her most memorable Christmas.

"Celebrating with my husband John's family at The Bear Pub at Woodstock, England, would have to be the most memorable," she said.

"After enjoying a traditional hot Christmas dinner, we all sat in front of a log fire and sang Christmas Carols with my sister-in-law Emmy Lou Harris (married to John's brother Paul). "We are off to England to do the same thing again this year."

John Williamson

John Williamson remembers the Christmas Santa gave him a Malvern Star bike.

JOHN Williamson, the boy from the Mallee bush, thought long and hard about his most memorable Christmas. "I'd go back to when I was a kid growing up in Quambatook in Victoria's Mallee District," he said.

"Santa used to visit all the kids in the back of an old ute and we would hide because we were scared of him. I suppose I would have been about five at the time.

"Christmas was a real family thing in those days. We would celebrate with an `extended' family on a farm about 12 miles out of town. There would be about 30 of us and we'd have the traditional hot Christmas dinner and pudding with threepences and sixpences.

"We'd all sing Christmas carols and afterwards everyone would head down to the creek for a dip. That was the Christmas I received my first pushbike - a Malvern Star."

Barry Crocker

Barry Crocker's most memorable Christmas was in his childhood.

BARRY Crocker, a regular performer and this year host of the annual Carols by Candlelight in the Domain, Sydney, says his childhood memories are the strongest. "In all honesty, the Christmas I remember most was as a child, about 10, in my hometown of Geelong."

"My father worked for the Ford Motor Company but they were hard times and we couldn't afford to spend much at all. My father earned 4 1/2 pounds a week and I can remember him saying `If only we could get another 10 shillings we would be in clover'. I laugh about it now but in those days 10 shillings was a lot of money," said Barry.

"My father used to make most of our Christmas presents. I watched him carve a doll's head out of hardwood for my sister who was five years younger than me. Mum made the body out of rags but the head was so heavy it would never sit up right.

"I desperately wanted a bike for Christmas so Dad went sifting through the Geelong scrap yards and assembled quite a strange looking bike with odd wheels, one bigger than the other, and lots of different knick knacks he found as well. He worked on it down in the garage every night and then, when I woke up (about 4am on Christmas morning) it was at the end of my bed next to my pillowcase which we hung each year.

"Santa had taken the fruit cake and I had a brand new bike. There was great excitement."

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