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| Tea and Christmas cake anyone? |
I have had a very exciting couple of weeks at work (well, more exciting than normal!) which I wanted to share with you.
I am involved with the WW2 programme at work where we run an
evacuee camp and get groups of school children to try out lots of different
period activities whilst learning what life was like on the Home Front. I love
running these days – dressing up and indulging in my love of this period of
history. So, I decided to approach Mr Bossman and see if I could run a couple
of weeks of Christmas on the Home Front as a special offer. He happily agreed
to let me give it a try and I am proud to say it was a huge success.
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| Some of our props. |
We decorated our WW2 building and shop with period
decorations. I spent hours creating paper chains from facsimile WW2 newspapers
and sourcing paper decorations and streamers of crepe paper. We found the
tiniest tree in the world and added some red, white and blue bunting too. I
even found a supply of old Christmas cards to stretch above the mirror. Some
fresh greenery from around the site completed the decor.
I spent hours researching facts and figures. Being a bit
nerdy I wanted everything to be perfectly accurate but in truth we could just
give an flavour of the time. Hence we had some American supplies in the shop
alongside ration guidance from earlier in the War. Petrol rationing facts
didn’t quite match with the dates on the magazines – but overall it gave a good
impression of life in that era. And I just had to get over it!
The children got the chance to look at some toys and to
think about what they might find in their stockings. They cooked and tasted
authentic WW2 recipes and learned about rations in the shop. They got to weigh
out a weeks’ worth of sweet ration to take home with them although I suspect
none of them managed to make them last a whole week! Hopefully alongside the
fun we managed to get the children to appreciate some of the hardships suffered
by people, we certainly had several very thoughtful comments from the children.
A visit to our authentic Anderson Shelter (also decorated
for the season) and an exciting Beetle Drive game with an onion prize were also
on the agenda.
To top off the fun for me, I got to spend some time away
from my Land Girl dungarees and look a little more dressed up. Curled and
pinned hair, a nice party dress and even some lippy (apparently those Americans
down in the town have a little to spare!!)
