• Make a contribution
  • Get the Print Edition
  • Sign up for our daily newsletter
Friday, July 18, 2025
  • Login
Reading Today Online
  • HOME
  • YOUR AREA
    • All
    • Caversham
    • Central Reading
    • East Reading
    • Katesgrove
    • Reading
    • Southcote & Coley
    • Tilehurst & Norcot
    • Whitley

    Reading conference showcases waste and recycling best practice

    Fire Service taking applications for new cadets for new academic year

    Reading Festival 2025: Indie artists worth catching when the festival returns this summer

    Only The Poets herald a new era with free show in Reading

    Thames Hospice announces Katherine Horler OBE as new chair of the board of trustees

    South East ranks second best region for proximity to public toilets

    Sue Ryder Starlight Hike returns this October

    Sue Ryder Starlight Hike returns this October

    Masked men armed with weapons rob store in Reading

    Reading ranks 12th best in dropping carbon emissions after 57% reduction in nearly twenty years

  • COMMUNITY
  • READING FC
  • SPORT
    • All
    • Basketball
    • Football
    • Rugby

    Reading FC in advanced talks to sign Nottingham Forest winger Josh Bowler

    Reading FC will find it tough to replicate ‘sensational’ season according to EFL pundit

    ‘We have a special season upon us’: Reading FC fans enjoy open day at Bearwood Park

    Yakou Meite teases fans over possible Reading FC return with latest social media post

    Racing star Bobby extends his championship lead with another race win

    Trialists revealed, including Wales international, as potential signings feature in Reading FC pre-season friendly

    Former Reading FC favourite to sign for Championship team

    Reading FC forward given ultimatum over future at the club

    Former Reading FC striker Andy Carroll joins new club in England after leaving France

  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • ARTS
    • READING FESTIVAL
    • READING PRIDE
    • WOKINGHAM FESTIVAL
  • PRIDE OF READING
  • OBITUARIES
  • JOBS
  • ADVERTISE
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Reading Today Online
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

SPACEPHILLER: Why I miss honeycomb balls

Phil Creighton by Phil Creighton
Monday, November 22, 2021 10:59 am
in Featured, Opinion
A A
The Box of Delights

The Box of Delights

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

CHRISTMAS 1983 was a watershed moment in our household. It was the last time that some of my favourite Christmas decorations were used.

Goodness knows how old they were. Probably not much older than early 1970s, but they were magical to junior me.

It’s hard to explain as they are not widely sold any more, probably because they’re a fire risk, but they started off folded flat and, as you unfurled them, they turned into multi-coloured balls.

A quick Google reveals that they are honeycomb balls and, if you don’t mind going online, there are plenty of sites that flog them.

What I don’t recommend is combining them with candles for the Christmas tree, which we also used to do.

When the decorations came down on Thursday, January 5, 1984, they were consigned to the great festive celebrations in the sky. The reason I remember this date so clearly is – quelle surprise – it is the date that the first episode of the new Doctor Who season began. Let’s not go there, it’s one of the worst stories ever made and stars the guys who did the pantomime horse in Rentaghost as the big baddie.

Related posts

Reading FC in advanced talks to sign Nottingham Forest winger Josh Bowler

Police and Crime Commissioner launches new education strategy

Lola Young no longer appearing at Reading Festival

Reading FC will find it tough to replicate ‘sensational’ season according to EFL pundit

Anyway, that Christmas my parents decided it was time to redecorate our lounge, taking away the naff 70s wallpaper that looked like someone had rolled a dirty cigar all over the walls, and replace it with 1980s chic. Well, chipped wallpaper – cracked ice in the vernacular.

When the walls were transformed, it would be the end of the gaudy decorations, the balloons and streamers, and, well, an era to be precise.

Nearly 40 years on (how did that happen?) it still hurts, and I miss those honeycomb balls.

It wasn’t just the décor – the excitement of Christmas coming, the anticipation of visits from Father Christmas, the joy of parties and even a bottle of pop made this time of year incredibly special.

Even now, in my head, I can still smell the decorations, and I’m instantly transported back to happier times and places.

Every home has its own Christmas traditions. Mine is very much not to have any as everything from post-Remembrance Sunday onwards is about helping you celebrate yours, be it the Winter Carnival, the light switch-ons, the pantomimes or the wonderlands. By the time I get to December 24, I’m already on to Valentine’s Day. Not that anyone sends me any, but that’s another story.

A few years ago, I did try and create a magical, wonderful, exciting festive tradition based around the other end of 1984.

Over six weeks, from November 21, 1984, through to Christmas Eve, Children’s BBC broadcast an adaptation of John Masefield’s classic children’s novel The Box of Delights.

It’s a magical tale of a boy who returns home from public school for the Christmas holidays only to end up being chased by a vicar and a rat for a box. He also loses his shadow, sees flying cars, eats muffins and ends up the size of a matchbox.

It was, at the time, one of the most technologically advanced programmes Auntie had ever made. As a child, it entranced me, as a grown-up it is a comfort blanket amid all the winter woe.

So, just as I did back in the 80s, I persuaded the family to watch it with me one episode a week in the run-up to Christmas.

We managed two years of this, but there was a rebellion in year three.

“The Box of Delights? We call it the box of boringness,” they said.

I tried, reader I tried. But what makes Christmas magical for me isn’t what it will be for you.

I mention all this now as this weekend is the one to start watching The Box of Delights. I can’t be the only one who remembers this glimpse of Christmas past with so much fondness can I?

Keep up to date by signing up for our daily newsletter

We don’t spam we only send our newsletter to people who have requested it.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Previous Post

New managing director for David Wilson Homes

Next Post

Reading’s new mayor installed at special ceremony

FOLLOW US

POPULAR STORIES

  • 47-year-old woman arrested after two pedestrians die in road traffic collision in Caversham

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Former Reading FC striker Andy Carroll joins new club in England after leaving France

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Reading FC forward given ultimatum over future at the club

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Championship club close in on signing Reading FC defender Amadou Mbengue

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Masked men armed with weapons rob store in Reading

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

RDG.Today – which is a Social Enterprise – provides Reading Borough with free, independent news coverage.

If you are able, please support our work

Click Here to Support RDG.Today

ABOUT US

Reading Today is dedicated to providing news online across the whole of the Borough of Reading. It is a Social Enterprise, existing to support the various communities in Reading Borough.

CONTACT US

news@wokinghampaper.co.uk

Reading Today Logo

Keep up to date with our daily newsletter

We don’t spam we only send our newsletter to people that have subscribed

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

The Wokingham Paper Ltd publications are regulated by IPSO – the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
If you have a complaint about a  The Wokingham Paper Ltd  publication in print or online, you should, in the first instance, contact the publication concerned, email: editor@wokingham.today, or telephone: 0118 327 2662. If it is not resolved to your satisfaction, you should contact IPSO by telephone: 0300 123 2220, or visit its website: www.ipso.co.uk. Members of the public are welcome to contact IPSO at any time if they are not sure how to proceed, or need advice on how to frame a complaint.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • MY AREA
    • Central Reading
    • East Reading
    • Bracknell
    • Calcot
    • Caversham
    • Crowthorne
    • Earley
  • COMMUNITY
  • SPORT
    • Reading FC
    • Football
    • Rugby
    • Basketball
  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • ARTS
    • READING FESTIVAL
    • READING PRIDE
    • WOKINGHAM FESTIVAL
  • PRIDE OF READING
  • OBITUARIES
  • JOBS
  • ADVERTISE
  • CONTACT US
  • SUPPORT US
  • SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
  • WHERE TO GET THE PRINT EDITION

© 2021 - The Wokingham Paper Ltd - All Right Reserved.