Can you believe it’s the 1st of December today! How fast has this year gone?! However, the good news is that all through the month, we’ve got lots of Christmas goodies for you lined up, and we’re kicking it all off with a look at Christmas specials from the 70s.

Let’s start with the brilliant Frank Spencer – here’s a clip from the 1975 Christmas special episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em

One that I remember really well – because I was a kid in the 70s – are the Christmas specials from Sesame Street. I used to love Sesame Street and then the Muppets, so here’s Bert and Ernie singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas from 1978.

And here’s one with the late John Denver singing the same song with Rowlf on the Muppets Christmas special 1979.

Sitcoms used to be a staple diet of our three available channels and the Christmas specials were eagerly anticipated. Here’s one from the hugely popular Are You Being Served and look out for a very young Wendy Richard in this clip from Christmas Crackers in which the staff have to wear novelty costumes, something which none of them are too happy about…

Another very popular show was Nearest and Dearest with Nellie and her watch that she never did get a new little hand for! I guess you have to be over 40 to remember that she used to keep saying ‘ooo I must gerra little ‘and for this watch’

This is an excerpt from Cindernellie, which was aired on 21st December 1972 as a Christmas Special. In this episode Eli invests the Christmas Club money collected at the pickle factory in a local pantomime, but the original cast walk out so Nellie and Eli, together with a handful of others from the factory are left to perform it themselves.

And of course, it wasn’t Christmas without a Morecambe & Wise special. Here’s a clip from 1971 featuring Glenda Jackson and a very young looking Michael Parkinson.

This Christmas special from the Good Life still regularly crops up on various channels and it’s still every bit as enjoyable as it was then! Here’s Margo bemoaning the fact that Harrods didn’t deliver Christmas while Barbara and Tom make their own fun in Silly, But It’s Fun from 1977…

In the seventies, Crossroads was a very popular soap and here’s a clip from the 1979 Christmas special.

Doctor Who was as popular in those days as it is now, and here’s a clip not from the show itself but a rare BBC VT made Christmas tape. This one is from 1978 with the Doctor at the time, Tom Baker and his assistant, Romana played by Mary Tamm and K9 singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

Next is a clip from Top of the Pops, 1978 with a very young looking Noel Edmonds and an horrific hairdo… The worst of the shame though is that I got the Darts album that year for Christmas. Oh dear.

And another from 1974…

TV graphics weren’t quite what they are now back in the 70s and here’s one of the Christmas BBC idents

And this clip is of Mike Yarwood in one of his Christmas Specials with Abba

But of course, it just wasn’t Christmas without Blue Peter and the famous advent crown.

Then there were those tempting TV ads… for instance, I used to buy my dad a bottle of Old Spice every year without fail. Here’s why… teeheee

We’ll have lots more from Christmas past soon – as well as what’s on this year – all through December so check back often!